Canadian Police Hire Researchers to Attack Harm Reduction
The battle over harm reduction in Vancouver just gets uglier all the time:
VANCOUVER - The Pivot Legal Society has asked federal Auditor-General Sheila Fraser to examine whether the RCMP exceeded its law-enforcement mandate by commissioning studies into Vancouver's supervised injection site.Pivot lawyer and spokesman Doug King on Wednesday revealed RCMP e-mails indicating the national police force commissioned reports researching Insite.
"The RCMP Act gave the RCMP a mandate to act as peace officers for the citizens of Canada. Using public funds entrusted to them to fund a cynical critique of health-based research clearly does not fall within this mandate," King said. [Vancouver Sun]
Indeed, police are responsible for enforcing the law, not shaping social policy. Law enforcement’s backhanded attempt at inserting itself into the academic debate over harm reduction is completely inappropriate and disturbing. Does anyone believe that police-sponsored research will ever reach conclusions other than the need for more police power?
RCMP now claims that it conducts research all the time, which may be true, but misses the point. Police research should focus on measuring the effectiveness of their own programs, not producing political ammunition against non-police programs that police don’t like.
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redditResearch?
Comment posted by Giordano on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 3:02amThe professional standards for the ‘research’ used to produce the RCMP’s commissioned reports is reflected by their payment of $10,000 to ‘anti-harm reduction activist Colin Mangham’ for his report.
It’s also noted in the Vancouver Sun that ‘RCMP E Division spokeswoman Annie Linteau confirmed the RCMP paid for... four studies’ with one of the studies costing an additional $5000.
There’s no business like prohib business. The scientific geniuses in the RCMP must think research is something you buy on sale in some discount store in New Jersey.
Did someone in the RMCP get a kickback from any of the researchers they funded to fabricate drug warrior propaganda? A thorough investigation is the only way to know for certain.
Giordano
Kudos to the Canadian press...
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 4:32amFor listening to activists who have been pointing out to them for several years the nexus between prohibitionist groups and police.
We simply had to give them examples from the United States. :(
The Mounties putting their jobs first over Vancouver citizens
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 1:43pmIf the RCMP can't take credit for reducing drug deaths and crime, the City of Vancouver might just want to save taxpayers some serious dough and lay off a few Mounties.
wait and see
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:01pmit is a great idea for some reason... we will just hope this will work out good and effective.
Depressed Teen