I have something else I need to say without further ado. It's been pending for a while.It could never be an easy subject so it was not easy to start.
An 18 year old,mentally disturbed, unarmed man was shot on an empty TTC bus by a Toronto Police officer. The event was caught on cell phone video by a man returning from having dinner out with his family.
Police Chief Blair ordered an inquiry and a retired Chief Justice was retained.
Media headlines from completion of the inquiry stated more training was needed for police officers.
Of course the emphasis was by choice of an editor. It's the way it is.
My reaction was .....another surface treatment of a serious matter.
Average awareness tells of city streets populated with society's cast-offs:
the mentally ill who do not use shelters out of fear.
Children thrown out by parents or having left home of immature accord.
Addicts unable to make decisions in their own interests.
The weak, the ill, the young, the derelict, the hopeless, the abused children,battered wives, inadequate spouses and others filled with despair and too far gone to lift themselves out of the
morass.
Society's first line of defense from the underbelly is the city police department.
Their job is to deal with situations that very rarely have good outcomes.
They work with whatever volunteer agencies are available to provide whatever assistance there is to stem the flow and hold back the tide.
Thousands of acts of kindness and good judgement are never recorded. Nor can they be.
Except among themselves, the police do not speak of the nature of their work or it's impact on their lives or their families.
Bad judgement happens among officers. It can not be excused.
It is not the norm .
A police department should be judged less by aberration than any other segment of society.
The nature of the job should be publicly acknowledged and understood.
There is no parity with fire departments.
It should not be dressed it up to look like something it is not.
We should also stop pretending the military is not trained to be a killing machine.
Tuesday, 9 December 2014
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12 comments:
It isn't the norm and to a certain extent we have social media to thank. All those cell phones are just waiting to go into action. That was a perfect example of a cop who went off the rails. Having it on film should make a difference. But maybe not.
Shot & tasered
From the Toronto Star:
"Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey set to slash pay at first council meeting
Brampton’s newly-minted mayor will likely take a pay cut at the first meeting. She placed a motion on the agenda to reduce her pay to $165,850 — a level equivalent to what provincial cabinet ministers are paid."
Now, what were you saying about her quitting to run for a better-paying job (with no guarantee of success, by the way)?
Who pretends that the military is not trained to be a killing machine?
That is their entire reason to be. When I was in the militia we all joked that we were "trained killers".
You could by t-shirts that read, "Join the Army, travel to far away lands, meet interesting people, and kill them".
They learn to shoot semi-automatic rifles, shoot .50 cal machine guns, the proper way to throw a grenade, shoot RPGs, use a bayonet, etc.
All the while wearing a poppy in November to remember those that were at the receiving end of the same thing.
There are just do many people that policing has completely altered.
16:10
When Ms Jeffrey decided to go after the Mayor's job, she thought her other job might be lost in the election. All the pundits predicted the liberal would be beaten. Hudak shot the conservatives.
You said what had to be said and did a good job of saying it. There is no parity between police officers and fire fighters.
I am neither a police officer nor a fire fighter but do have respect for both professions.
I think there are a lot of people that need to understand the differences.
May I suggest you limit your topics. Sometimes it feels like I am trying to unscramble eggs when the subjects go onto the weird side.
The Star
Smart meters have few benefits for big costs: AG
"Ontario's $2 billion smart meter program for hydro utilities has delivered few benefits for the hefty cost, says Ontario auditor-general Bonnie Lysyk.
In fact, one in six of the 4.8 million meters have not yet transmitted any readings, she found.
Lysyk took a special jab at Hydro One, which she said incurred about 50 percent of the cost of the smart meter program - but installed only 25 percent of the meters.
Smart meters were supposed to cost $ 1 billion. In fact, the total cost will be double that amount.
The cost of smart meters varied widely among Ontario's 73 local utilities, which paid from a low of $88 per meter to a high of $544.
Energy bureaucrats have bamboozled consumers for years by hiding the true costs of energy in a catch-all fee called the "global adjustment" that now makes up the majority of the cost of energy.
When peak demand is reduced, there's less need to build expensive generating stations that operate for only a few hours a day, and stand idle the rest of the time.
Consumers wil pay $ 50 billion in global adjustment fees for the period 2006 to 2015, Lysyk estimates.
How much is that? t would cover the 2014 provincial deficit five times."
Possibly the premier should have her own smart meter installed on her person so that she could chart her performance efficiency. But she might be afraid of the result.
This is an abysmal story. Fantino is chump change in comparison but unfortunately it's the veterans who end up as the long suffering chumps thanks to him.
What? The liberals in another multi $billion scandal? Surprise, surprise! Gee, I wonder who's going to get another golden $ handshake for this one.
In good news, two weeks from now we will already be past the shortest day of the year.
Highland's ratepayers have a web-site
ratepayers.inaurora.ca
and Town Hall meeting Dec 15
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