Letters: Next Saskatoon police chief should shift focus to crime
Readers offer their opinion on the search for a new Saskatoon police chief and the context of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
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Our police Chief Troy Cooper recently submitted his resignation after six years on the job and will now retire.
History and research shows the 2018 Saskatoon board of police commissioners was excessively focussed on hiring a police chief that would build relationships with persons and organizations in our city and its communities as a core part of the job.
Mayor Charlie Clark stressed a “focus on preventing crime rather than spending all the force’s energy on enforcement.”
Well all the fuzzy talk and feel good requirements by our police board created nothing other than further crime regression in our city and its communities. Talk to anyone in our city and crime is one of their top concerns.
Can our current police board please stay focused on crime enforcement first and community liaison and relationship building as a No. 2 priority?
Our police board should now focus on recruiting a police chief with extensive proven ground-up experience from a much larger city than Saskatoon with specific knowledge and success related to gangs, weapons and drugs.
Enough of the relationship building, as the past six years of this approach by our mayor and board of police commissioners has done absolutely nothing for our city and the safety of its citizens. The numbers speak for themselves.
Darrell Zakreski, Saskatoon
Justice best cure for Middle East violence
Too many people are ignorant about the Palestinians. There are about 2.1 million people in Gaza in a land area of 360 square kilometres or about 5,800 per square kilometre, according to the CIA’s The World Factbook. Israel has nine million and 21,500 square kilometres or 420 per square kilometre.
Yet Israel is unwilling to give up some land for justice and peace. The median age in Gaza is 18 and 30 in Israel. Forty per cent of the Gaza population is under 15. By attacking Gaza on the ground, many thousands of young kids will be killed and injured. Hundreds already have been.
Real GDP per person in Gaza in $5,600 versus $42,100 in Israel. Thirty per cent of the Gaza population lives below the poverty line. Youth unemployment (male) is 34 per cent in Gaza and eight per cent in Israel.
There are around 20,000 to 25,000 Hamas fighters in Gaza, or about one per 84 people and about 1 per 25 children.
If you want to radicalize a young population, make them live in crowded conditions, ensure that a substantial number are poor, have a much more powerful and wealthy neighbour treat them poorly, then add a history of humiliation and neglect. Yes, the Hamas attack was awful, but must be seen in a proper context.
If Israel sends ground troops into Gaza and Hamas chooses to fight, it will be a slaughter. Alternately, if the Hamas fighters hide their weapons, they are just part of a large and crowded population. The Israeli government cannot eliminate Hamas. The best way to eliminate violent radicalism is through justice.
Lee Fuller, Saskatoon
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