Tom Says: “What a sentence…”
Constable Don Ranni of the Halifax Regional Police must think of himself as being the luckiest police officer in Canada over the past seven days. Back in November 2007, in the early morning, an off duty Ranni took a breathalyzer which produced readings of 0.15 and 0.14, well above the legal limit 0.08. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to driving above the legal alcohol limit and was sentenced last Thursday.
It was a “conditional sentence,” which means if he follows the terms and conditions, his conviction will eventually be discharged and he’ll have no criminal record. The judge in this case has ordered him to take part in substance abuse treatment and counselling as directed by his probation officer while making his best effort to not consume alcohol.
This entire episode causes me to wonder how many average Canadians under the same set of circumstances would have had the same sentence imposed upon them. Oh, and did I mention that Ranni can’t drive for a year?
It occurs to me that police officers who come in contact on an almost daily basis with the death and destruction caused by drunk drivers must be held to a higher standard and not to this kind of sentence.
On an average day in Canada, four people are killed and 187 others are injured by drivers who have consumed too much booze.
On Monday’s show, not one caller agreed with the disposition of the courts and all of them called for a tougher sentence. Some callers stated that they too have had a previous impaired driving conviction and not one of them got the same treatment out of the courts as constable Ranni did.
This entire episode is an outrage.
I’m Tom Young.