‘We don’t want you here and we don’t want your dirty money.”
That is the message Surrey RCMP’s officer in charge is asking local businesses to deliver to gangsters, following last week’s execution-style murder of Craig Widdifield in a Morgan Crossing parking lot.
It sounds authoritative, but what police are asking of private citizens poses some disturbing questions about civil liberties and the principle of assuming innocence until guilt is proven, long held to be a cornerstone of our system of justice.
But far more than that, it suggests a veritable downhill run of good intentions, towards a panicky chaos of suspicion, profiling and downright dangerous confrontation.
This is not the first time that gang-related murder has intruded on our reputedly peaceful Semiahmoo Peninsula community. These things have come to us, not by accident, but because those who have chosen to live by unlawful means have also chosen to live here, raise children here and patronize businesses here.
So, too, have thousands of other people innocent of any crime or criminal association.
Precisely how are we to differentiate between them?
Surrey RCMP and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit have both pledged backup for businesses that make gangsters unwelcome on their premises – but what that will translate to, in reality, is open to conjecture.
It’s one thing when members of the RCMP and CFSEU hassle known criminals and their associates – it’s their business to know who the bad guys are, after all, and gather the proof to back up their suspicions.
What are the rest of us to do – rely on appearances and hearsay? What’s next – circulating how-to-spot-a-potential gangster diagrams to business owners?
Forget, for a moment, that most business people scraping a living in a doldrums economy need just about every dollar that walks in the door to keep afloat. Do police suggest bar and restaurant owners – not to mention front-line serving staff – be placed in a position of refusing service to a customer merely on the basis of unverified suspicion?
Even more frighteningly, when a known gangster enters a bar or restaurant or gym, do you want your loved one at the door to be the one to tell him to leave.
It’s in times like these that we need better – and more responsible – leadership from our appointed protectors of the peace.