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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

CONST. ANDREW ROBSON APPEALS CONVICTION



Interesting when you compare today's posting with yesterday's. Yesterday dealt with an O.P.P. officer who came within an inch of killing a citizen due to the officer's careless driving. Today's post about Constable Robson deals with marijuana theft and use. Officer Robson now has a criminal conviction and his employers the Waterloo Regional Police Service appear hell bent on firing him. The victim in the first case is pretty clear but not so much in Officer Robson's case. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Police Act charges against Robson delayed".

The separate Police Act charges will be delayed until after the disposition of Officer Robson's appeal. He is appealing both his conviction and sentence. A major issue for Robson is the recognition of post traumatic stress disorder by the Police Service. I do know that just recently I read statistics that more O.P.P. officers die by suicide than die by on the job violence including auto accidents. That is a truly scary and eye opening statistic.
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4 comments:

  1. JohnApril 7, 2013 at 12:07 PM

    Alan, it sounds like you read the Ontario Ombudsman's scathing report of the OPP's failure to recognize PTSD in it's officers. Over the past 2 years, an OPP officer has taken his/her's life every 4 months. A WRPS officer hung himself just a couple of years ago. He played in a police slo-pitch tournament every year in Toronto. Every year he shared a hotel room with Andrew Robson who had no idea the man was suffering.
    Unfortunately, the report was big news for a week but has basically been discarded. The OPP claimed that the costs involved were too significant to implement the Ombudsman's recommendations. They currently have 1 pshychologist for 10,000 officers. The 2 new armored vehicles, they bought last year, were more important because they potentially "save lives".

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  2. AlanApril 7, 2013 at 2:44 PM

    Sad isn't it? Hardware versus investing more in officer's mental and emotional health. Where is the union in all of this?

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  3. LisaMay 4, 2013 at 10:16 PM

    I am not a police officer, but as someone diagnosed with PTSD, I know for a fact that substance abuse is most often one of the significant markers of PTSD. I have gotten to know a few police officers in South Western Ontario as a result of our common illness, and the story is the same as Andrew's for every one of them. PTSD is "heresy" in policing and once an officer is diagnosed, he/she is marginalized, alienated, judged, shamed, stripped of all dignity, and bullied into leaving the force by the very "police family" who use to have his/her back. Even close friends on the force know not to associate with the officer with PTSD because that same judgement, humiliation, and shame will become part of that officer's life as well. Guilty by association. Who wouldn't want to kill him/herself with that kind of isolation? In my opinion, this is not about an officer being charged with a criminal offense as much as it is about an institution where government sanctioned discrimination against officers with disabilities such as mental illness, mental illness caused by their very jobs I might add, is not only allowed but encouraged! Police departments are violating the human rights of their own officers! Trauma is an occupational hazard of policing, but if the trauma is addressed within 72 hours after its occurrence, the chances of developing full blown PTSD symptoms is reduced significantly, and for "the brass" to ignore that fact is not only inhumane and ignorant, but puts EVERY officer at risk for they will never admit their "dirty little secret". How is any police officer to know if his/her partner has PTSD if it's kept a secret? I encourage members of society to show their support for all officers and emergency support workers suffering in silence or otherwise by supporting Andrew. Let the powers that be know that you want them to "suck it up" when it comes to the stigma of mental health because mental illness is here to stay. Tell them you want a healthy police force "to serve and protect", because you might need them one day. In a dire situation, would you want the assistance of a police officer with undiagnosed and untreated PTSD?

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    1. LisaMay 5, 2013 at 8:03 AM

      Just for clarification, people with mental illness are fully functioning, reliable, trustworthy, and independent individuals providing they get the support and treatment they need. Some of the most brilliant minds throughout history had mental illness. The stigma that exists across the board, however, is that we can't admit our illness or receive treatment for fear of discrimination. The very fact that 72 percent of individuals suffering from cancer will discuss their illness openly while only 45 percent of individuals with mental illness will do the same sends a clear message. The suicide rate alone among police officers is a cry for help and support, and management responds by telling them to "suck it up"??? Where is the justice in that?

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