"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

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Why Did The Sergeant Die?

I watched part of Steve Paikin's program “The Agenda” .last night. The topic was the funeral of Police Sergeant Russel of the Toronto Dept. The question “ was the funeral excessive.”?

I listened for a bit. Not because the question was relevant. I wanted to see if they would discuss why a young man of thirty-two years of age, with a wife and a two year-old son was dead. How did it happen?

Didn't sound like they were going to touch on it so I turned to something else.

It's been more than a week now. I still haven't heard anyone, not the Mayor,,not the Police Chief, not the media talk about why?

They had the usual things to say about the hazards and heroism of a being a policeman, how much
society owes them . Seventeen thousand people turned out to pay their respects, Probably very impressive in their uniformed strength.

Every media outlet on the boob tube had something to say about the tragedy.

But nobody asked why.

We know something about the individual charged with first degree murder because the sergeant was a police officer.

We are told he is a homeless man. Had been staying in a shelter. He was out on the street in his bare feet in a deep freeze in the middle of the night and came across an unattended snow plow idling in a parking lot.

He apparently jumped into it and careened down the street smashing into parked vehicles
like a crazed individual.

We know he was unemployed . Had lost a wife and family. Had taken a government sponsored
training course to drive heavy trucks and equipment like snow plows We know he failed
the driving course. He did not have the ability.

Now he is in hospital in critical condition with bullet wounds. Seems he was shot at by several officers. . But not Sergeant Russell . Sergeant Russell was dead.

They say the Sergeant was run over by the snow plow. They say he was running after the snow plow. They say the snow plow was stopped by being hemmed in by more than one police car
Then the bullets started to fly..

They don't say how Sergeant Russell was run over by a snow plow he was chasing..

It seems no-one saw it happen. And nobody talks about why a young man of thirty-two years old had to die, leaving a young wife and a two year old son and a heart-broken family.

A pitiful crazed individual ,out in the middle of the night. from a men's homeless shelter,in his bare feet in sub zero temperatures jumped into an idling snow plow and careened down the street smashing into parked vehicles.

He is charged with first degree murder because the person he is said to have killed is a police officer.

If he dies at the hands of the police ,there will be a Special Investigative Unit inquiry to determine how that happened...

Maybe then we will discover how Sergeant Russel came to be run over by a snow plow he was chasing.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another question might be

Why a person holding a sign "Police State" was arrested during the funeral.As officers were marching by he held up the sign.He was arrested here in Canada.Home of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Oh...but as a York Regional Police Officer is alleged to have said during the G20 "this is not Canada"

Anonymous said...

Two comments....

1. While I understand the need to have the public funeral, I have never understood the need to have the large affair that they turn into. As a tax payer, I wonder who pays for the expense of these things. Does the City of Calgary pay to send their contingent to it? How do Calgary residents feel about that?

People die everyday doing their jobs. How is the life of a police officer more important than the window washer who falls, or the construction worker that has an accident?

I also have an issue with the over-used word "hero" when describing someone who dies doing police work or in the Armed Forces. It may not be the politically correct thing to say, but hero is not a word that I would use. Since 9/11 it seems that the word HERO has become over-used.

2. Why do the G20 protester folks feel the need to protest anytime a police thing is going on. I never understood why they were even allowed to protest. They should have all been locked up before they started. Most them were imported protesters.

Something Fishy in Aurora said...

To Anonymous @ Jan 26 10:51am

Give your head a shake..Once you have done that go walk in the shoes of any Emergency Service or armed forces personnel for a day.

Give them a thought tonight when you curl up in your nice warm comfy bed. Think about what they give up for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4-tGNZifGM&feature=fvw

Anonymous said...

SOMETHING FISHY....

I have been in the CAF - for longer than a day too.

A guy who gets run over by an APC in Petawawa during a normal training exercise never gets the national attention that anyone serving in the sand box gets.

It's all optics.

Anonymous said...

I believe that the whole tragedy is a very powerfull statement about the condition of services and support for those with mental health conditions. As someone who has struggled with severe depression and has had to access mental health services, they are disgracefully underfunded and under-resourced.
I think it is a statement about how little we care about those who suffer from metal health conditions and how the stigma associated with them is still overwhelming.