Latest weak sentence given to a very dangerous offender
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
179.61296
Summary
Bobby Crane, 25, was released from prison last week after serving less than a year of his sentence for the attempted murder of a 65-year-old man who was waiting for a ride to work in Edmonton, Alberta.
Transcript
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So last May at 621 in the morning on a weekday, 65-year-old Leonard Smith, he stood on an LRT
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platform waiting for a train to take him to work. Now Smith has to take the train because he's
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visually impaired. He's almost blind. Now suddenly Smith was attacked by a man who cut his throat
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from ear to ear with a utility knife. He made a 24-centimeter gash. Doctors told Crane the knife
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missed his carotid artery by a mere four millimeters. And had that artery been cut,
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Crane surely would have been killed for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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Now the man who randomly cut Smith's throat is a violent chronic offender named Bobby Crane. Crane
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had been sentenced to six and a half years of jail time over multiple crimes since 2019.
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That math doesn't add up well, does it though? Clearly he didn't serve that time as he was free
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to attempt to murder an elderly visually impaired man last May. Now last week in an Alberta court,
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Judge Harry Van Harten sentenced Crane to two years less a day to ensure Crane doesn't have
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to go to a federal prison. With time served and remand, Crane's going to be on the streets
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in a little more than a year. I wonder if he'll succeed in killing somebody during his next period
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of freedom. Van Harten noted that treatment for FASD would serve Crane better than doing prison time.
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This may indeed be true. Prison does have a way of making dangerous offenders even worse
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if they aren't treated for whatever their underlying issues are. We should be looking
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at ways to reform offenders and avoiding prison when possible, and we need to expand our treatment
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options. But that said, public safety has to come first, and Judge Harry Van Harten has not done so.
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With an offender as dangerous as Crane, we need to seek treatment options while he is secured.
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Letting him out is just inviting another random crime against an innocent citizen.
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And then this is where it gets worse. Justin Van Harten went further than just pointing out
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how Crane needed FASD treatment. He said that generational trauma from European society
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is caused to...generational trauma, European society is caused to indigenous communities
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has to be addressed. Really? And we address that by freeing dangerous criminals?
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If indeed this generational trauma is going on, where is the judge going with this?
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And he also said, the history of colonialism has to be taken into account.
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What a load of what crap. Crane is 25 years old. He never attended a residential school,
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and he likely can't even define colonialism. I no doubt he's had a hard life, and our messed up
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reserve system has doubtless contributed to that. This doesn't, though, negate the risk that Crane
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presents to society. We need to examine our entire First Nations system. Absolutely. The reserve system
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is failing by every measure, and the outdated Racist Indian Act should be repealed.
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That giant ball of wax, though, is not Justin Van Harten's responsibility. Van Harten should have
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been considering what risk Crane would present if released, rather than dwelling on the broader
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issues of European influence on modern history. I do hope to be wrong, but I fear I won't be.
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Crane is going to re-offend violently and soon after being released. They don't just get better
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after a little while there. He randomly picked out an elderly handicapped man and tried to murder him
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for cutting his throat. He's a cowardly, violent man, and he won't be any less so in a year and
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change from now. I know we need better ways to treat offenders, but until those means of treatment
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are developed and available, the best way to protect the public from violent people like Bobby Crane
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remains incarceration. The system's failing to protect us, and woke judges like Van Harten should be
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held accountable if we're harmed by their refusal to incarcerate dangerous offenders.
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