Last week an RCMP officer was involved in a drunk driving crash that took the life of a 21 year old man. Now come reports of a female officer from the New Westminster BC department was involved in a drinking and driving accident resulting in charges. The accident occurred October 16th.
Is there something going on with the police services that we should know as motorists?
It can't be Christmas parties yet, so what is going on in the lower mainland of BC?
It does make one wonder - someone who hears the preaching every day of the dangers of drunk driving, someone who sees and knows the carnage and devastating results - why? What causes them to do it? I'm not sure anyone really knows. But I do know this....you and I, Joe Q motorist - if we get caught, we are not getting a break. The officer who allegedly killed the 21 year old - he's been suspended with pay. I suspect the female officer will get the same treatment.
I am not quite sure why the tax payer is made to pay the wages of someone who can't or isn't allowed to do his/her job because of his/her conduct. They have been caught - red handed. One it appears took a life needlessly (actually 2 if you count the taser incident he was involved in) and the other wiped out a sign in a police van.
When you choose a career to Serve and Protect - you know going in, that you are to be held to a higher standard. That's the reality of becoming a cop. Yet every day I see, from this unique chair I sit in, many police officers being charged with crimes ranging from drunk driving to theft, rape, assault...there are many who become as bad as the bad guys/gals they are supposed to be protecting the rest of us from.
I know they are human, I know they will make mistakes and missteps. I try to look past the clothing to the person. But answer me this....does it appear to you that the caliber of people the police services are attracting these days is less than stellar? It appears to me that just like many businesses that are finding it hard to attract quality people so too do the police services or perhaps there is something wrong in the screening process.
Whatever the cause for the conduct of these people, their conduct makes it hard for kids to learn about respect and responsibility, it makes it hard for people to trust the police services as a whole. I have never envied anyone who chose to be a police officer. I think out of all of the jobs there are in the world that it has got to be the toughest.
Having 2 uncles who have served in the RCMP, I know how hard the job is and how hard it can be to walk the tight rope of humanity. They see the worst of humanity everyday, they live on adrenaline - tight and tense much of the time.
Still - the officers involved in the 2 separate drunk driving incidents knew going in that they would be held to a higher standard because of the uniform they chose to wear.
I am conflicted - on one hand I want to see them have the book thrown at them - on the other hand - they too are human - and therefore fallible. When we make mistakes we want compassion. Do these officers deserve compassion? I don't know.
I only know that there is a family who is grieving the loss of their son. Someone young and full of promise. There is another family that officer Montgomery Robinson touched in a devastating way as he was one of the four officers involved in the tasering incident of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.
The other thing I know about officer Robinson is that by all accounts - he had his children in the Jeep with him and he fled the scene of an accident to shield his kids from the grossness of the scene.
Put all of that together and I am having a hard time mustering up any sympathy for the man.
The female officer, well she got off lucky in that her crime did not involve her children and no innocent person lost their life - no family is grieving over her actions save her own....the crime is the same as that of officer Robinson - only the consequences are different.
In other news we had a setting in our new forums that was causing about 170 of our members to inundated with emails from the forum. The problem has been rectified and I apologize for the inconvenience that caused.
Our friend Sean O from New Brunswick wrote me that his blog will be back up and running today - he had computer challenges that had him out of commission for a few days.
Speaking of which - I still have blogs and news feeds to finish going through before I can get on with the rest of the work day so...
Please, if you are still riding - STAY SAFE.
Ride like they are out to get you.
Belt Drive Betty
Is there something going on with the police services that we should know as motorists?
It can't be Christmas parties yet, so what is going on in the lower mainland of BC?
It does make one wonder - someone who hears the preaching every day of the dangers of drunk driving, someone who sees and knows the carnage and devastating results - why? What causes them to do it? I'm not sure anyone really knows. But I do know this....you and I, Joe Q motorist - if we get caught, we are not getting a break. The officer who allegedly killed the 21 year old - he's been suspended with pay. I suspect the female officer will get the same treatment.
I am not quite sure why the tax payer is made to pay the wages of someone who can't or isn't allowed to do his/her job because of his/her conduct. They have been caught - red handed. One it appears took a life needlessly (actually 2 if you count the taser incident he was involved in) and the other wiped out a sign in a police van.
When you choose a career to Serve and Protect - you know going in, that you are to be held to a higher standard. That's the reality of becoming a cop. Yet every day I see, from this unique chair I sit in, many police officers being charged with crimes ranging from drunk driving to theft, rape, assault...there are many who become as bad as the bad guys/gals they are supposed to be protecting the rest of us from.
I know they are human, I know they will make mistakes and missteps. I try to look past the clothing to the person. But answer me this....does it appear to you that the caliber of people the police services are attracting these days is less than stellar? It appears to me that just like many businesses that are finding it hard to attract quality people so too do the police services or perhaps there is something wrong in the screening process.
Whatever the cause for the conduct of these people, their conduct makes it hard for kids to learn about respect and responsibility, it makes it hard for people to trust the police services as a whole. I have never envied anyone who chose to be a police officer. I think out of all of the jobs there are in the world that it has got to be the toughest.
Having 2 uncles who have served in the RCMP, I know how hard the job is and how hard it can be to walk the tight rope of humanity. They see the worst of humanity everyday, they live on adrenaline - tight and tense much of the time.
Still - the officers involved in the 2 separate drunk driving incidents knew going in that they would be held to a higher standard because of the uniform they chose to wear.
I am conflicted - on one hand I want to see them have the book thrown at them - on the other hand - they too are human - and therefore fallible. When we make mistakes we want compassion. Do these officers deserve compassion? I don't know.
I only know that there is a family who is grieving the loss of their son. Someone young and full of promise. There is another family that officer Montgomery Robinson touched in a devastating way as he was one of the four officers involved in the tasering incident of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.
The other thing I know about officer Robinson is that by all accounts - he had his children in the Jeep with him and he fled the scene of an accident to shield his kids from the grossness of the scene.
Put all of that together and I am having a hard time mustering up any sympathy for the man.
The female officer, well she got off lucky in that her crime did not involve her children and no innocent person lost their life - no family is grieving over her actions save her own....the crime is the same as that of officer Robinson - only the consequences are different.
In other news we had a setting in our new forums that was causing about 170 of our members to inundated with emails from the forum. The problem has been rectified and I apologize for the inconvenience that caused.
Our friend Sean O from New Brunswick wrote me that his blog will be back up and running today - he had computer challenges that had him out of commission for a few days.
Speaking of which - I still have blogs and news feeds to finish going through before I can get on with the rest of the work day so...
Please, if you are still riding - STAY SAFE.
Ride like they are out to get you.
Belt Drive Betty
Hey BDB,
ReplyDeleteI have to say I agree with what you're saying on this topic but you might be leaving yourself open to an accusation of slander by using the word "kill". Might be wise to throw in an 'alleged to have killed' phrase just to cover yourself. (just my opinion ...)
Thank you - you are right. I appreciate you having my back. Sometimes, even though I will take two or three hours and longer to write, leave it and review it before publishing I still make a mistake.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard situation to be in - I can't imagine the agony on both sides of the equation....and then there's how we, the taxpayers, the citizens feel...