Thursday, March 05, 2009

Further Descent

I've been wondering when word of Canadian troops marching on Canadian streets would start filtering through the press. Turns out the time is now. It seems that City police in Barrie, ON, and a nearby military base are looking at joint patrols in Barrie. Supposedly these troops would only be dealing with off-duty military personnel however considering that the Barrie Police Chief has said that off-duty soldiers from the base do not create that big a problem, one might wonder how the idea of troop patrols even came up.

To me it just looks like a nice step towards acclimating Canadians to troop patrols on our streets. I will be the first to agree that something needs to be done about the growing gang violence in Vancouver, for example, but haven't we yet learned that Drug Wars don't actually accomplish anything other than increasing criminal profit and overall violence? Many of us may have, but for those in control a War on Drugs obviously remains too profitable for both sides, both in terms of money and in terms of control.

I say it again, we HAVE to start waking up and helping to wake up our neighbors. We HAVE to start accepting active, responsible, considerate lives. We have to start rebuilding our local communities, getting to know each other...not to pry and spy on each other but to foster a balance between individualism and community. Only this balance will save us and our world.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that is horrible news! We have our troops stationed here in the U.S as well. It isn't a secret but people still don't believe it. We are told that they are stationed here in case of a disaster (not the war on drugs). Some whispering of seeing the presence on the streets of some cities....you made an excellent point. Acclimation. That is the last thing any country needs of its citizens.

Jerry said...

Yeah, horrible and scary.

I wrote about the US troop deployment when it came into effect back in October. When I saw it there, I knew it would be coming in Canada pretty quick.