R.C.M.P. STUPIDITY BITES THEM IN THE ASS AGAIN

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this Opinion article by Marco Navarro-Genie titled "Firearms seizure increases mistrust of RCMP". High River Alberta was evacuated due to the terrible flooding which recently hit Calgary and numerous other communities in Alberta. The RCMP however are learning a lesson which should be shared with the rest of Canada. This has to do with "...the purpose of justice is not the blind application of the law but the promotion of fairness and goodness." Our western Mounties ordered homes evacuated and then went door to door allegedly checking to see if people had complied. They then proceeded to enter homes, according to this article, even locked ones. Once inside they purloined/stole/confiscated firearms that had been left behind due to the emergency evacuation order. Nice Eh! Who the hell are you afraid of, a couple of outlaw motorcyclists or the world's largest street gang, namely the police?

Again this article suggests that "in plain view" might actually have included firearms in people's closets. If so then this goes beyond stupidity and enters the realm of extraordinarily bad legislation. The article asks the question "Are the Mounties more interested in boosting their incident report statisitics than in protecting the rights of vulnerable citizens?". I believe that this is a big driver for police enforcement everywhere. Afterall continually dropping criminal activity literally costs the top cops big money at budget time. Our national police force seem hell bent on destroying their own credibility and trust across Canada. Job poorly done Mounties.

MORE ON WATERLOO REGION'S FAMILY & CHILDRENS' SERVICES

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record has an Opinion piece by Luisa D'Amato titled "Child protection gets short shrift from province". Pretty clearly Luisa's title says it all as to whom she believes are doing things properly. In no uncertain terms Luisa would rather err on the side of potentially overprotecting (& overspending) when it comes to child welfare. Her first sentence is "Show me a family where the father beats up the mother, and I'll show you their emotionally abused child.".

Maybe there's some semantics involved here. I would suggest that show me a father who's been accused of assaulting his wife and I'll show you a very bad family situation where probably everybody, adults and children, are sufferring emotionally, whether there was an assault or not.

In principle I agree with Luisa. In practice, human institutions and bureaucracies routinely run out of control. Their behaviour while espousing motherhood and apple pie is only constrained by legitimate accountability and transparency. FCS are currently under attack in Ontario for overstepping their authority and overeaching in some cases.

REGIONAL POLICE ARE THE SUBJECT OF K-W RECORD'S EDITORIAL

Well I am pleased and proud of our Waterloo Region Record. Today's Editorial is titled "Lay down the law for our police". In no uncertain terms the Record make it plain that the behaviour of numerous officers over a long period of time is not only unacceptable but that Police Chief Matt Torrigan needs to do more and say more to resolve these stains upon the force. "Yes, a few bad apples-10 in total-do not mean the entire department, with more than 700 officers, is rotten.". Agreed and that is a very valid point. However the Record also rightly point out the following "But the public needs to know the department treats its reputation as something that must be held sacred by its officers. And the public needs to know the department is doing its best to discipline or dismiss every bad apple.".

For a start sweeping transgressions under the rug via settling civil suits with taxpayers money is not O.K. It is especially not O.K. when these same civil suits have gag clauses in them. In other words when the police are at fault, paying off complainants firstly with taxpayers money and then uping the payout by insisting on confidentiality (gag) clauses is beyond the pale. The Regional Police do their reputation more damage with that kind of coverup than if they released the judge's decision or the settlement agreement itself.

FURTHER ON WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE MISBEHAVIOUR & LAWSUIT

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys a story titled "Man felt humiliated after police shared nude photos of him". This of course deals with the same issue as yesterday's posting here regarding former Officer Knox. I was a little skeptical as to the motivation behind the lawsuit and suggested that as the officer had both been convicted and fired from his job for his behaviour that the lawsuit was "piling on". Well I've reconsidered after today's story in the Record. One I believe that the victim involved has been seriously hurt by this incident and more should be done to help him whether it's a lawsuit or something else. Secondly I must admit that I am moved by the comments of Police Chief Matt Torrigan. The victim's lawyer, Davin Charney, suggests that this incident as well as other recent ones point to a "...troubling police culture that goes beyond one bad apple.". I believe that Mr. Charney has hit the nail on the head and while Chief Torrigan is strongly denying any systemic problem, nevertheless he and others are saying the words "systemic problem". Perhaps this lawsuit is needed as the final impetus towards reform of our current police culture. I'm referring to issues such as the blue wall as well as macho issues whereby officers don't ever admit to psychological problems including stress.

CIVIL LAW IS A CUDGEL; SOMETIMES JUSTICE; SOMETIMES VENGEANCE

Civil law can be and often times is nothing more than a petty, financially well off individual getting payback with full legal impunity from the courts and the police. It is a disgustingly contemptible set of rules allowing one piece of shit individual to harass and eventually steal money from another. Why do you think that moral and ethical groups such as Mennonites avoid the courts ? The expression voting with your feet comes into play as they stay away from our judicial system like the plague. Generally speaking if you've been victimized and you haven't got bottomless pockets, then feel free to go to court and get victimized all over again.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Lawsuit over nude photos seeks $900,000 from regional police". This story was in the Record last year in conjunction with criminal charges of Breach of Trust and Obstruction of Justice against Officer Knox of our Waterloo Regional Police. Now don't get me wrong but Officer Knox is a real piece of work. While on a call he took photos of a man sleeping in the nude in his own home and then shared them with a few select fellow officers. For his disgusting behaviour Officer Knox has been punished including losing his job and I believe being convicted on the two mentioned criminal charges. Two other officers were also implicated including one whose only sin was trying to get his brother officer off the hook.

So using civil law terminology yes you have a cause of action. Officer Knox took photos in a private residence of an individual sleeping in the nude and distributed them with other officers. My question is what difference does money now make in this case? The officer was charged, convicted and fired. Is this civil suit anything more than piling on? Is this civil suit just a legal method of harassing an already severely punished human being for their bad behaviour?

CHILDRENS' AID ie. FAMILY & CHILDRENS' SERVICES

Our local FCS has come under appropriate criticism for their part in things like the Jesse Sansone case. In this instance a young father was arrested and charged because one idiot teacher and one idiot FCS overeacted to a crayon drawing by a young child showing her father protecting her from a "bad guy". The father in the drawing had a gun. Similarily the Julian Ichim website often has major criticism of the FCS for allegedly overeacting and stepping in and seizing children unecessarily. Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Child welfare agency too quick to intervene: audit".One interesting quote from the provincial audit is there are "more admissions per 1,000 children than other child-welfare agencies in similar-sized communities...".

I see some conflict between the provincial agency and our local one. I truly don't have all the facts and am hesitant to suggest as to how significant these findings in the audit are. That being said I am sure that there are local families who have had their children seized perhaps prematurely or inappropriately. I still think there needs to be more accountability of our local FCS but don't know if this audit will be helpful or not.

INCH BY INCH IT APPEARS AS IF THE CREAM (S...) DOES RISE TO THE TOP

Late last week the Waterloo Region Record published this story by Colin Perkel about Ashley Smith namely "Prison reports altered, inquest hears". Launa Smith a senior manager testified that she was ordered by the warden of the Grand Valley Institute in Kitchener to alter use of force reports. The warden at the time was Brinda Wilson-Demuth and allegedly she did not want "...the reports flagged by regional or national headquarters as indicative of a problem at the prison.". Apparently this strategy worked for Wilson-Demuth, career wise, as she received a major promotion in the spring of 2007. It obviously didn't work quite so well for Ashley Smith who later died.

We are still waiting to see if the regional or national headquarters were ultimately responsible for the directives at the ground level which ultimately killed Ashley Smith.