B.C.'s Liveliest Voices

Chalk one up for beat cop

I wanted to write and congratulate Mark Tonner for his whiniest column to date!

Both he and our legislators should heed more the truism "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

It should come as no surprise to Tonner that impoverished people — targets of a class war, with police being the infantry on the front line — when armed with a piece of chalk might write, "F… the pigs." It took me by surprise, though, to read Tonner's attempt to characterize the police — a workforce well paid ($55,000 for a first-class constable) to carry guns and batons and chase hookers from stroll to stroll — as "an identifiable minority" worthy of protection from hate crimes.

Andy Sorfleet
Sex Workers Alliance of Vancouver