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BLACK-SHEEP COMMENTARIES THIS JUDGE IS NO MOLLYCODDLERVictims of Youth Crime Forgotten by Justice SystemSeptember 13, 2006
“THIS video clearly demonstrates that all of the rehabilitative efforts and supports provided to Mr. Campbell through the Youth Criminal Justice System had failed utterly and had no effect whatsoever upon his conduct. Once released on his Intensive Supervision and Support Order he immediately embraced a lifestyle of substance abuse and crime.” This matter-of-fact statement by Judge Joanne Challenger is one of many grounds she spelled out in written reasons delivered Aug.14, 2006, in justification of a jail sentence of four years and four months meted out to 19-year old Ian James William Campbell for possession of a stolen vehicle, using that vehicle to assault police officers and dangerous driving. The actual sentence was six years less the time he was in custody between arrest and sentencing. It was Campbell’s first conviction as an adult.
On Aug. 23, 2005, Campbell was driving a
stolen GMC Yukon accompanied by three passengers. On encountering a
roadblock being operated by New Westminster police, Campbell sped off and
drove in a murderously dangerous manner for six minutes until he was
cornered. With frenzied fury Campbell began ramming one of the police
cars, endangering the life of an officer who was unable free himself. In
that instant a fellow officer fired his pistol at Campbell, causing him
only minor injury. Regrettably, a bullet missed its mark and a 16-year old
passenger was killed. Judge Challenger stated that “the videotape consists of various images of several males and one female engaged in acting out for the camera and their addled ramblings and inane braggadocio related to the abuse of substances, auto theft as an occupation, membership and dedication to the CKV (Cop Killing Villains) crew and sex. Three images show Campbell attempting to break into three different automobiles.” The following brief excerpt is most troubling: “Male voice 1: I steal cars for a living son. (Editor’s note: This voice calls the police whores, uses the F-word indiscriminately and tells the police and “the district attorney” what they can do when they see the tape.)
Male voice 2: and the prosecutor.
Campbell: Not the judge though, the judge is alright.
Male voice 1: Not the judge man, the judge is G you know, they, they always lets me out you know.."
“G” and “Gangsta” are used throughout the videotape to signify acceptance and that you are OK.
Consider, if you will, the anatomy of Campbell as a deviant young offender, and how judges in the youth justice system, by consistently imposing therapeutic sentences, may have fostered his deepening incorrigibility.
Between ages 14 and 18, Campbell was arrested, charged and convicted of the following offences:
July 5, 2002, Twelve months probation for possession of a stolen motor vehicle and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while being pursued by police;
May 21, 2003, a further 18 months probation for a break and enter, trafficking in a controlled substance, breach of undertaking and failure to comply with probation;
Oct. 22, 2003, another year of probation for failure to comply with probation;
May 5, 2004, 10 days secure custody and five days community supervision for failing to comply with probation;
May 26, 2004, 10 days open custody and five days community supervision for failing to comply with probation;
Oct. 6, 2004, 30 days open custody and 15 days community supervision in addition to 138 days already served, as well as a further year of probation for theft and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while being pursued by police, failure to stop, breach of an undertaking and two counts of failure to comply with probation;
Feb. 23, 2005, six months deferred custody and a supervision order for being a passenger in a stolen motor vehicle, theft of a motor vehicle and failure to comply with probation;
July 11, 2005, 60 days in custody, 30 days community supervision, and a one-year “intensive supervision and support order” for: dangerous driving and two counts of possession of stolen motor vehicles.
Campbell is living proof that this Land-of-Oz-like “order” is a legislative wimp-out. Surely a record of convictions is merely the tip of the iceberg. Common sense, together with the stark fact that only a small percentage of crimes result in arrest and conviction, establishes that Campbell was a very active criminal, contemptuous of the youth criminal justice system and emboldened by it.
Nine days after being released from custody, while bound by a youth court “intensive supervision and support order,” and having just begun his adult life, Campbell embarked on a maniacal act of dangerous driving, similar to the crimes he had committed as a young offender. His high speed malicious driving put innocent motorists and pedestrians at life-threatening risk. Finally, when cornered, he attempted to injure or kill a police officer by ramming into a police car. And worst of all, his actions led to the death of his 16-year old accomplice.
It’s clear that Campbell’s comeuppance would come, sooner or later, in adult court. It came right off the bat as Judge Challenger, in her 29-page judgement, put an end to the pointless youth-court farce of mollycoddling Campbell. Challenger imposed punishment in the high end of our court of appeal’s ordained two- to seven-year range of sentences. And she supported her departure from reformative/restorative/rehabilitative soft-sentences with findings of fact and case law that should make her decision appeal-proof.
Here are some telling excerpts from her judgment.
“I have carefully reviewed all of the materials before me relating to the issue of the potential for rehabilitation of this accused. In my view this offender is, at this stage of his life, incapable of controlling his addiction or his anti-social conduct in the community.
“The risk this offender presents as a result of his penchant for car theft and his history of engaging in high-risk driving to avoid apprehension once detected, is such that I find I cannot “take a chance” and craft a rehabilitative sentence. To the contrary, I find this offender’s rehabilitation can, and more likely than not, only be effected within an environment in which external controls are present.
“The sentence I impose must be one which will serve to protect innocent members of the public from the carnage and destruction of lives Mr. Campbell invites by his conduct in the operation of stolen motor vehicles. It must also serve to specifically deter this offender and others of like mind from engaging in such conduct in the future. It must be one which will express our society’s condemnation of the offender’s conduct and appropriately reflect the offender’s moral culpability.”
The Campbell case is another instance of the prescience of Anthony Burgess. In his 1962 novel, A Clockwork Orange, Burgess envisioned society plagued by psychopathic young people. It is today’s reality: our safety at home and in public is under attack by too many footloose and highly anti-social adolescents and young men who go beyond youthful rebellion to an almost inconceivable concept of entertainment through the commission of outrageous acts of violence and property crime.
In the realm of youth justice, victims are reduced to the status of dispensable commodities – judicial fodder: munched away and forgotten. Wallace G Craig – wallace-gilby-craig@realjustice.ca – NS News – Sept 13, 06 |
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