It would appear that the Braidwood inquiry into the taser death of Robert Dziekanski has made the RCMP appear a little less than heroic.
Anyone who’s been following this sorry spectacle is either hanging their head in shame or laughing (see links below) at our boys in crimson – sorry, and girls (mustn’t neglect the ladies this soon after International Women’s Day!).
So four strapping mounties cannot subdue a man with a stapler. Is it just me or are there other Canadians whose chests won’t be swelling with pride the next time they see a Mountie in his/her dress uniform? A guy with a stapler?
I am a staunch supporter of our cops, and our military, and I can’t stand anyone who bashes cops as a hobby; however, what has got me fuming (and my friend "John" as well) is the fact that these cops appeared to try to cover the incident up. Only when a private citizen’s video became public did the event receive public airing; then they tried to claim they were in danger! So not only do they appear to be dishonest, but they appear to be cowards as well.
I’d love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but in this case it’s nigh on impossible.
The upside: Ontario’s police are on the hunt for smoking parents in cars while violence in our city streets just keeps getting better.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/RCMP+attempts+deflect+blame+hurt+officers/1360708/story.html
http://www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/letters/story.html?id=5295151d-c13c-4089-8f87-26f552ad23a8
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1363164
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Any time a law enforcement officer is required to use force against a member of the public means that the officer is in danger. Unfortunately, the public has no concept in the area of "use of force". A good example of what I'm talking about can be found at http://www.forcescience.org/articles/study%20shoot-or-not.pdf
ReplyDeleteGadget, I checked out your link. I agree that one can only guess at what a police officer goes through when confronted with a dangerous situation. My point is that I think we were all prepared to give the police the benefit of the doubt, and I always will default to defending the police. It's just that in this unique case, they appeared to be overdoing it, then the "system" appeared to be trying to hide what happened. Then when it was revealed that the excuse for force was the sighting of a stapler held by one man, facing four armed police officers, I think one could be forgiven for seeing it a little differently. I will still be a staunch supporter of the police despite my feelings about this one incident.
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