(~ahem~)

Before we all get our snit in a fit, a few thoughts from the guy who has lived and worked in the Edmonton area all his life ...

First, note the trash tabloid source of the link posted above. Long on editorial blather (supporting the sale of advertising with both hands) and a wee bit short of hard information. I'm not sure if this concerns the bikini-girl-of-the-day in the sports section, but perhaps it should. 'Nuff said.

A slightly more informative article from the Edmonton Journal, with a little more raw detail: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Edmonton+police+after+concealed+knives/5243698/story.html

Note this salient point from the news conference: "He cautioned that the renewed focus on knives won’t impinge on the right of law-abiding citizens to carry knives or other tools for a legitimate purpose."

If you have a look at the photos in the Ed. Journal story, you'll see that the items confiscated are mostly garbage Chinese-made knives. They are useless for mostly anything other than icepick duty.

This is the focus of police efforts, I think: being a bit more proactive (and pushing the fuzzy definition in the Criminal Code) in order to keep the peace. Seriously, if the local beat cop meets up with a known bad actor, and the guy is walking funny because he has a $3 machete down his leg, it's reasonable to assume he's not off to prune his tomato plants.

There are some legitimate concerns around here. There are some local areas where troublemakers, gangbangers, and a very tiny minority of immigrants who haven't left the past behind, find reasons to beat on each other. Honest citizens are sometimes blindsided. There is room for some more proactive law enforcement in this regard.

(That said, the murder rate per capita is maybe a tenth of an equivalent U.S. city. Perhaps we just have a lower cultural tolerance for this? I dunno. None of my business. No political commentary intended.)

Cheers,
-Doug