What's the answer to juvenile crime? Pi debasing influences, wrifes MONA MORGAN «ADD another man to the juvenile detail” appears to be the answer of Vancouver city ‘authorities to rapidly in- creasing juvenile crime. Assaults, molestings, bur- glaries, thefts, drinking bouts and drug trafficking — all in- volving juveniles—were report- ed by police during the past - two weeks. Now, added to all this, is the murder of a police- man answering a routine call. During the past year this has been the pattern for Van- couver and people are becom- ing extremely worried, par- ticularly about what .is hap- pening to our young people. It is not that today’s young people. are “worse than a generation ago. » But, now they are subjected to degrading in- fluences that were not present then, And one of the serious contributing factors to increas- ing crime is “comics.” At .one time comics were ‘funny... Today, the pulp distrib- uted as comics is not in the. least funny; it is not even fit for adults to read, let alone easily-influenced children. The keynote of crime comics is violence and sadism. After poring through a few issues youngsters begin to ° accept crime and violence as normal and even attractive. They want to be “tough” like the other “guys.” Many of the recent editions. have war themes. One, called G. I. Combat (approved by the Comics Code Authority) is a good example. On the cover, amongst mushrooming atomic blasts and exploding shells are these’ headlines: “War Front Fury”; “Battlefield Adventure”; “Atomic Rocket Assault.” Every Page is filled with scenes of violence — visual aid instruc- tion in the use of guns, punch- ing, beating. Even scalping is Suggested. A sample of what is Inside: “Let’s show these mon- keys how the army engineers beautify the landscape by re- moving trash !” _. The impact of such “comics” 1s known to the enforcement authorities. Testifying at a United States Senate inquiry into juvenile delinquency last year, E. D. Fulton, MP, for Kamloops, said that in two kill- mgs, one in the Yukon Terri- tory and the other in Nova Scotia, the courts had _specific- ally found that the minds of ‘teenaged killers had been af- ected by crime comics. In October city police con- Sead a knife with a four- ag blade found on a 16-year- Vancouver high school Youth, who was also in. pos- See us in action.” ‘ themselves The government spends $1,336,826 on juvenile crime, $86,999 on sports ted.. Under this caption are such favorites as Tom Sawyer, session of a small black note _ book, listing the titles of 39 comic books. Police said every one of the books listed was, a “war comic.” ’ Movies and TV also are very often unfit for children to view. Two weeks ago a policeman was reported as saying, “Go watch the shows they are see- ing. » One of the children’s favorite TV shows is Dragnet. A little five-year-old who had been watching a “children’s program” was heard to re- mark: “I like Roy Rogers best. He never kills animals, just people.” \ Some comic books advertise their TV programs, like Captain Gallant, with “Hi! kids... Continuous fast action seems to be one of the attractions — on every page of a comic, on each TV show. Then we wonder why young- sters must have dramatic, fast and violent action to keep “amused.” One of the weapons used widely by young offenders is. ‘air rifles. Police are harried constantly over broken win- dows, windshields, injured eyes, and so on. Yet on the pages of » comic after comic are found such ads as “Air Rifle — Get your own ‘Man-Size’ Daisy Air _ Rifle, and get in with the crowd !” ‘Isn’t it the “gangs” that have been responsible for such crimes as the recent shocking invasion of a South Vancouver home where young and old were manhandled ? * Surely there are enough harmful influences in every day living without thinking up the most attractive ways to encour- age children to follow a life of violence and crime, as de- picted in these so-called comic books. Last year the publishers with- drew 45 of these books from the stands following vigorous pub- lic protest. Now, they are flood- ing the stores and stands again; not under the same titles of course, but ‘very similar: and the contents are nearly the same. Among titles for December, January and» February are Unusual, Kid Colt Outlaw, Love Confessions, Impact, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion. On one stand, right beside those mentioned; was also Crime Illus- trated — Adult Suspense Stories. Very handy for youngsters to pick up. Then, to complete the col- lection, though the above are just samples of hun- dreds, are the Classi¢s Ilustra- Ivanhoe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Rip Van Winkle and thé Head- less Horseman, and scores of others. All of these are hor- ribly illustrated and to apoli- gise for the distortions, we find, “because of space limitations, we regretfully omitted some of ‘the original characters and sub- plots of this sec isueuse ds: written novel,” etc. What a way to introduce the ‘classics to children! No won- some children find ‘the. der original versiorfS§ dry —. no biazing headlines and_ thril- ling, fast-action pictures. Parents who try to interest young boys and girls in good books, are hindered and sometimes fail be-' cause of these flashy pulp magazines. Most of these have the stamp, “Approved by the Comic Code Authority.” * i Many blame parents for juvenile delinquency. For ex- ample, Sir Michael Bruce, in the Vancouyer Herald, recently, stated: lawlessness} among = juveniles lies .in the Parent-Teacher Associations ... with the proviso that far more blame lies on the parents than on the teachers . I believe that the answer to juvenile delinquency among boys is conscription.” Here, indeed, is a far-sighted Continued on Next Page - counter - violence, “T thoroughly agree... It’s not the lash or paddle says TOM McEWEN it a crime to be young ? The question is absurd, but the screaming press headlines of recent weeks calling for a. violent “crackdown,” the edi- torial invective against youth, the prominent display of “ex~- pert” opinion on how yoyth should be “disciplined” and brought to heel — all indicate the number of people whose thinking runs in that direction! The current crime wave in Vancouver, in which a _ tiny handful of youthful hooligans have added their quota in “gang” fights and near riots, climaxed by the cold-blooded murder of Constable Gordon’ Sinclair, is a matter of grave and immediate concern to every citizen, but one which cannot be solved by hysteria and nor by berating all youth because of the anti-social character of a tiny minority. Those who pose as “experts” on how to deal. with youthful offenders would do well to re- member the sordid mess their “expert” administration has created in the Vancouver police force. Crime and a politics- ridden police force are twin- brothers ! The editorial moralizers ad- vocated the paddle as the one and only sure-fire cure for all the social ills of our young people. Wallowing in this theme the Vancouver Province of December 12 really outdid itself in descriptive name-calling in one short editorial: “young roughs”, “young baboons,,’~ “young neanderthals”,’ “these louts”, “immature brutes”, “10- cent badmen”, “these touglhis” “these hooligans.” Such lan- guage may have given the editor, a real “he-man”. adult glow, but it solved nothing | of either. the cause or effect in youth problems. The Vancouver Herald, cau- tioning against those “who will set up a vast bleating. noise of sympathetic for poor misguided youth” also urged its lay-on- MacDuff “cure”—the paddle! .In.a lengthy treatise in. the Vancouver Sun, Magistrate Gordon Scott, featured as an “expert” on juvenile delin- quency, outlines a five-point “cure”; a formula containing 99 percent repression and one percent rejuvenation. \The magistrate’s points include more police, more jails, higher pay. for youth probation : officers, more courts, and more publicity on the identity of young offen- ders. : Nowhere in these edinoeaal spiels or in Magistrate Scott’s “expert” opinion is there. a word about government re- sponsibility at all levels for the failure to provide healthy recreational, educational, artistic. or vocational outlets for youth-— ful energy and creativeness. That, as the Herald says, is only the “bleating ... of amateur psychiatrists” who refuse to accept the idea that punitive violence is a substitute for our failure to provide ‘adequate youth opportunities. aS * ‘ One has only to glance at the picayune amounts spent by the © governments of the day for the promotion of . youth’ sports, © recreation, education and so on, and compare it with the stag- gering. sums spent to police, imprison, or train and equip youth towards becoming mass killers, to appreciate the true worth of our “experts” on the Continued on Next Page PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 23, 1955 — PAGE 9