"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 13 December 2010

A Memory Re-visited

I weighed in last week on Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair's contradictory statements.

When the story of a brutal assault by police at the G20 Summit, first surfaced, Chief Blair stated the victim was armed and violent.

When a video surfaced. The Chief dismissed it and said it had been tampered.

When that proved not to be accurate, he declared he would be accountable for the conduct of the police. He asked the public to reserve judgment until the three investigative agencies had completed their investigations.

He had not himself waited for investigations to be complete before dismissing the
allegations and making accusations.

Still, when I saw an on-line invitation to Star readers to vote on whether or not the Chief should resign, I felt a chill in my heart.

There is so much to know about police politics.

About the relationship between politicians and police chiefs.

About the authority of the Police Chief versus the power of the Police Association.

About provincial jurisdiction and municipal authority.

About the authority of a constable.

About our culture.

About the community's need to believe all is well.

About time and money spent to assure the community that all is well.

About the need of the police for community support to do their job.

About the nature of the job.

I remembered a conclusion I arrived at in the late nineties.

Bryan Cousinea was Chief of York Region Police. It was a relatively young force. He may have only been third Police Chief. I was a member of the Police Services Board when he was appointed.

At forty-three years, he was Deputy-Chief and had been a police officer in York since the age of eighteen on leaving high school.

His commitment to create a completely professional police service, his respect for the community he served, his understanding of the need to stay on top of the job. his thoroughly decent personality,loyalty to his officers and respect for the Board. convinced me, Bryan Cousinea was the best and most promising Police Chief the Region of York had had or was likely to have.

At his age, he had time to make a lasting difference.

Bryan Cousinea was not allowed to complete his mission. He barely got started.

York Region Police Association made sure of that.

When it was over,I wept. I remember thinking,no Police Chief in Ontario or even in Canada can ever again know security in the role of Chief of Police.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chief Blair should be fired. End of story.

No community can countenance the arrogant stupidity of the man. What sort of example does he set, not just for the men and women who proudly wear the uniform, but for those who seek the assistance and protection of these people.

Politics be damned!

I don't know the story of Bryan Cousinea so can't comment with specifics.

It might have been appropriate to fire the entire York Regional Police Association, whoever they might have been.

Ronald Reagan has never been my favourite world figure, but his firing of all American air traffic controllers when this essential service went on strike sent a strong message. And the disruption was minimized by the response of management to fill in the gaps while a new hiring process was carried out.

If the members of an association or a union see their responsibility as greater to themselves than to the public they service it's time to say goodbye.

Our society needs to respect those who serve us. We in turn must expect, and rightly so, their commitment to the public when they swear an oath or put on a uniform.

Anonymous said...

My what a simplistic view .fire this one... fire that one... fire the whole world !!!
Wow, sounds like you missed your calling as a world problem solver.

Speaking of sending strong messages , not likely there will be many protesters burning police cars in the down town core any time soon. I think this too will be minimized next time round, Thanks to Metro Police

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, what fairy-tale world do you live in? It is SOOO easy to frame things in the normative when you don't have to live in the real world inhabited by our police, fire dept., military, international intelligence, etc. Whether or not Chief Blair acted perfectly or not, I am prepared to cut him and the police a lot of slack (and I DON'T mean giveing them an entire carte blanche) in order to get their job done. In 99.99999% of the cases, innocent people do not get mishandled by our police.

Darryl Moore said...

Any police officers who removed their badge numbers demonstrated intent to behave outside the law. For that reason alone those officers should be fired. There must not be any tolerance for this behaviour from people which such enormous responsibility and power.

The chief refusing to cooperate with the Ontario ombudsman, and refusing to allow his officers to do the same is inexcusable.

The chief asking for martial law powers from the province was bad enough, but then misrepresenting those powers and telling his officers they can stop and search anyone even well outside the restricted areas is also inexcusable.

I am not prepared to cut slack to people whom hold my civil rights in their hands, and have demonstrated that they do not sufficiently value them. I am willing to wait until the SIU and other investigations are all complete, but given what I have seen so far, including the Ombudsman's report I am strongly inclined to think Chief Blair should go.