MP Blake Richard's rioting bill is unnecessary

Re: “Riot bill gets backing from federal govern,” May 16.

Dear Editor,

Why are our politicians crafting laws out of emotion instead of intellect?

It’s very clear that (Wild Rose MP Blake) Richards fails to comprehend why riots happen. Deterrent? Ha! This is an unnecessary law that will be used to clamp down on anyone the government disagrees with.

Just look at the protests in Montreal. They are peaceful protests and yet the media - when they decide to give coverage - portrays them as being riots. The only group of people behaving violently is the police.

A real riot is what happened in Vancouver and we all remember that. That could have easily been prevented. The officials should have been punished equally with those who did damage.

Finally, there was the mix of riots and protests in Toronto during the G20. Those were provoked by Toronto being turned into a prison planet. Had Toronto not been turned into a fortress, those protests would have easily been peaceful with perhaps a few rare and isolated incidences.

It’s these foolish officials that use force first, which should be punished for creating atmospheres that induce rioting.

Nicole Limacher, Airdrie