Carding: The Struggle Is Not Yet Over

By Romain Pitt
PRIDE Guest Writer

Making one`s job easier is not always best for everyone else.
The police claim they can protect us better, both in the areas of crime prevention and of prosecution, if they were at liberty to have a “chat” with young black men and “card” those men whenever the opportunity arises.
No doubt that would make the police`s  jobs easier as black youth are unwilling to take  the police into their confidence. The reasons for this unwillingness are not the subject of this note.
What if prosecutors and defence counsel at a trial could put into evidence whatever material they could find to advance their respective positions without regard to the laws of evidence?
What if judges who had acquired some information in the supermarket or wherever that they thought would be useful in the determination of guilt or innocence, could simply make that information part of the trial record, or better, if the judges could simply take over the examination of witnesses if they thought that the lawyers were taking too much time or for that matter they were just not doing as good a job as the judges would have liked? The trial process would be much easier for lawyers and for judges alike. There are limits on the rights of each actor in the criminal justice system.
The examples can extend beyond the law. Doctors could call their patients on the phone, make a diagnosis, write a prescription which is emailed to the patient; teachers with  students having difficulty memorising literary passages or formulas in chemistry, can call on the psychologist who specialises in hypnosis, who will  take those students  to the ante-room and get them to learn the stuff by way of hypnosis.
These are just a few examples of how the workload can be lightened by avoiding those troublesome , long-established rules.
Most right-thinking people would be wary of these  practices, and the professionals themselves would not be comfortable with them knowing from years of study and of reflection that they are likely to cause serious harm to the society as a whole.
Getting back to law enforcement, we have learnt over the centuries that there is immense value both to the individual and to the society as a whole in the right of individuals to be left alone.
We are now even much more careful than we were even thirty years ago, about interfering with those who may appear to have mental challenges. Many people choose to live in large urban areas, notwithstanding the cost, because of the expanded opportunity for privacy.
For centuries people have been struggling for the simple right, if they are not breaking the law, or offending their neighbour, to do what they “damn” well please. It is one of our most cherished rights. The police want to take it away from black youth because it would make their job easier.
This is everybody`s fight. The police have enough power.

Romain Pitt is a former Ontario Superior Court Justice.