Taking Crime More Seriously 

Email the Editor - AM 1220

28 March 2007

 Re: The 12-year-old kid charged with assault causing bodily harm on Saturday (a basketball was the weapon]. Apparently the police are getting serious about violent crime. Perhaps the ball was loaded with dynamite or anthrax. About a dozen years ago, I went with a victim to the police station at 340 Pitt Street. He had a 9 page hand written statement detailing some of the sexual abuse he had suffered as a 12-year-old alter boy by a local priest. It was signed by him and witnessed by me. The acting sergeant refused to take the complaint despite our very adamant pleas. When we finally turned to leave, I noticed the Chief (who we were told was not in the bulding) and a couple of other officers had been witnessing our attempts from a distance of perhaps 30 ft. I addressed them all on the way out and it wasn't pretty because I was so incensed and exasperated by their actions and indifference. Can you see how far we've come? 

Carson Chisholm
St. Andrew's West