Earlier this month police officers raised a concern about a little known practice of the NDP justice system. Under the NDP government, some criminals who have outstanding arrest warrants and who manage to avoid the law successfully have had their warrants wiped right off the books.
Arrest warrants are issued against individuals who are suspected of crimes or who have failed to show up for court or failed to adhere to court orders levied against them. Warrants need to be taken seriously.
The NDP Minister of Justice acknowledged that in fact he had permitted warrants of criminals who had been able to avoid the law to be erased. He refused however to say just how many warrants had been deleted or the specific kind of crimes the warrants were related to.
The police officers who exposed this practice were right in expressing their disgust about giving criminals a free pass and the horrible message that it sends. It is a clear signal to those who have committed crimes or who are contemplating a crime that if they ignore an arrest warrant against them long enough and are successful in avoiding the law the NDP government might give them a reward by erasing the warrant from the books all together. In essence they receive a get out of jail card free by the NDP. It’s a terrible message to send to both law abiding Manitobans and to those involved in criminal activity.
It also sends a horrible message to victims of crime. For individuals who have had their property stolen or damaged, the NDP government is sending the message that those crimes mean so little that they will erase the warrants of those who committed the crimes if they evade the law for long enough. It says to the victims of these crimes that the crime committed against them doesn’t mean much and it says to the criminals that crime pays.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that the NDP have made a mockery of the importance of warrants. Last year Manitobans learned that many individuals with outstanding warrants were collecting taxpayer funds through programs like welfare while they were ignoring their warrants. Not only were individuals breaking the law and not dealing with their warrants, the NDP government was sending them taxpayer funds at the same time they were ignoring the law.
Warrants are issued by the court because individuals pose a risk to the community. The police understand the importance of them. Simply erasing those warrants sends the wrong message to criminals and to their victims. It`s a lesson the NDP government simply doesn`t seem to understand.
