h 8,- Sunday, October 6, 1985 - North Shore News BRUCE NORTHROP has been in North Van beating the drum for capital pun! :hment, the lords of Wimpland not being willing to put the Clifford : , Olsons and Andy Bruces out of the way even though the peasants would applaud such an advance. The Wimpland press, other- wise known as the Globe & Mail, even calls mass murderers ‘‘Mr.''. So we get a mental picture of prison guards saying, ‘This way, Mr. Olson, sir,’’ as such jerks are shown into their nice comfor- table cells. Prime Minister Brian Baloney, meanwhile, is too busy making speeches about fish to carry out his promise of an early free vote on the death penalty. But we are not here today to go over old arguments. We are “here to see Northrop make mincemeat of the arguments of academics and parsons who say. that since the official abolition of capital punish- ment in 1976, the murder rate has declined a bit, and that we should therefore be kind to killers. Jt is not civilized to put such rotters to sleep, they say. Northrop, a retired RCMP . superintendent, is seen “by “reformers’’ as just. another dumb cop. But he’s had more to do with murderers than any upstart academic or do-good clergyman will ever have. And he argues, factually, not emotionally. oT Example: it is wrong to base murder statistics on what has’ happened since 1976, because capital punishment ‘didn’t cease then. It ceased in 1962, that being ‘the last year in which’ an ‘execution’ took place. :In.1962 the homicide rate was only 1.43 per 100,000 © °: of pspulation. By 1976 it was greatly inflated,'standing ‘at. 2.91, an increase of over 100 per cent. It is only fractional- ly less now. cho It took criminals no time at all to savvy that Santa Claus had given them a nice present. So .for.14 years the murder rate went up nearly every year — thanks in large part to the HOME FURNISHINGS - Warehouse/Showroom OPEN TO THE PUBLIC _ _ (2 dis. behind the Avalon) at 1075 Roosevelt Cres., N.Van. | 828,985-8738 penalty was in fashion, these were always lower than the murder figures themselves. In 1962, for example, the attemp- ted murder rate was 71 per cent lower than the actual get this straight by Doug Collins ‘reformers’. But that in- crease is something they love to ignore. Northrop reminds us, too, that in 1967 Ottawa changed the law so that only cop killers and the slayers of prison guards could be executed. But not one of thei ever was, even though 32 police officers and four pen guards were murdered from 1968 to 1975 inclusive. (loday, of course, cop killing is routine.) He also telle uz *9 take a look at the figures on arene ted murder. When the death murder rate. That began to change when, in effect, there was no death penalty. By 198? the attempted murder rate was 30 per cent higher than the murder rate itself. Even more startling is that the attempted murder rate for 1983 was 900 per cent higher than it had been in 1962. Opponents of capital punishment stress two things: One, an innocent person may suffer; two, there is no proof that the death penalty is a deterrent. f know of only one proven he B.C. Pavilion’s Regional Events Program is an exciting opportunity for each region to showease its unique character through special events and performances on sire at Expo 86. Theatre groups, musicians, dancers, com- munity performers, athletes— hundreds of British Columbians will be promoting their regions while entertaining audiences from around the world. Beating the drum for capital punishment instance of an innocent person having been executed in a Western country. That was Timothy Evans in the U.K. But the chances of such a thing happening are about a million to one. That’s small comfort for the one, admittedly. But against that it is certain that some would have been deterred when the death penalty existed. Let us remember, toc, that in 1984 it was reported that 72 people had been wiped out in this country in a five-year period by violent scumbags let out of jail through the efforts of the very ‘'r :formers” who did away w.th the noose. (Some of which killers murdered twice.) The acade- mics, parsons and most politi- cians, however, do not mourn for the victims. They save their sympathy for the criminals. Northrop says the deterrent argument is irrelevant. What matters is whether the death penalty is a just penalty for cold-blooded, premeditated murder. He says it is. So do I. Drum on, drummer. | z Ers TIME To SHOWCASE WE HAVE-Q Wooden boats a Fibreglass aluminuny # Steel mL ~~, ~ __7 Restoration —~._+ Painting top $i _- Painting bott munities throughoue the Province to create - regional themes and audition performers. More than 3,500 British Columbians are expected to be involved in this exciting program. The B.C. Pavilion is proud to be the show- case for these events. It will be our time to share with the world the special characrer of British Columbia. Our time to shine. The Honourable Don Philips, Minister Respoasthle.