Prime Time Crime
(Published in the Similkameen Spotlight week of Dec. 21, 2004)
By
John Martin
While there is much commentary that young people are disengaged from politics and social policy, my experience suggests otherwise.
I recently graded a stack of papers from an introductory course in criminal justice. The students’ assignment was to imagine they were part of an underground society known as “Crime Starters Inc.” And the mandate of this society is to keep crime rates as high as possible in order to maintain jobs, careers and bureaucracies within the fields of criminal justice.
As such, they were required to identify programs and initiatives within the criminal justice system and public policy that either, presently or potentially, may work to maintain or increase crime.
In terms of the actual criminal justice system, they came up with numerous trends and practices that are good for boosting crime. Burden the police with Charter rulings and human rights legislation that prevent them from doing their job. Maintain minimal or non-existent penalties for those convicted of participating in the lucrative marijuana grow industry. Encourage addiction through the establishment of “safe injection sites”. And continue to cuddle and pamper inmates so they don’t have the slightest concern about ever returning to prison.
But it was in the area of social policy where students noted the greatest opportunities to boost crime rates. And the most commonly identified culprit was the establishment of a national day care program.
Just as Canada’s federal government is proposing, many of my students thought the surest way to guarantee long-term criminality and increased job security for criminal justice professionals (and several noted that I should include myself as one of the beneficiaries) was to separate children from their parents at as young an age as possible.
And what better way to discourage the teaching of right and wrong, morality, good behaviour and being the best person you can be, than having kids almost exclusively raised by government employees?
Some papers astutely noted that rather than reduce the tax burden so families could spend more time with their children instead of both parents working long hours, the tax system must in fact, continue to penalize families in which one parent stays home. And rather than give families tax credits so they could afford a private day care facility of their choosing, it would be preferable to establish a national, government-run day care that is funded through already high taxes but costs little or nothing on a daily basis for those who use it.
This system would seem to serve everyone’s needs. The government can ensure that children, even toddlers, are being sold the state’s position on a variety of issues such as abortion (good), same-sex marriage (good), socialism (very good), the military (bad), America (bad), Christianity (very bad) and all other things consistent with the CBC and “Canadian values”. After all, why wait until kids get into the public school system before you start indoctrinating them? Or as NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association is fond of saying, “eight is too late”.
So national day care is a valuable tool with which to ensure future generations of Liberal voters.
But such a day care system is also priceless to those interested in maintaining high crime rates. A couple students correctly pointed out that crime and chaos have always reigned in totalitarian, communist countries where the state took over the role of parenting. Others observed that strong, loving families have always been the key to instilling pro-social values.
Some might suggest that a few of the students were getting a bit carried away and going overboard. I don’t think so. Recall that quite recently the chair of the Liberal social policy committee, Maria Minna, argued that stay-at-home parents who raise their own kids may be capable of baby-sitting them, but are unable to actually "care" for them. Only government, she maintains, is up to the task.
The establishment of a national day care system is as socially threatening and dangerous as anything the government has ever conceived. Those interested in further exploring the dangers associated with day care are encouraged to pick up a copy of Mary Eberstadt’s new book, “Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs and other Parent Substitutes”. It is truly frightening.
National Day Care? Good for the governing liberals. A gold mine for the public sector unions. And a dream come true for those hoping to increase crime.
John Martin is a Criminologist at the University College of the Fraser Valley and can be contacted at John.Martin@ucfv.ca