Complaints Commission critical of mishandling young man making threats and initiating conflict near Parkwood Mall. Takes four RCMP officers a long struggle to subdue. Young man wildly aggressive, has abundance of cocaine in body. Treatment in custody deemed inappropriate. What are the statements of officers implicated in commission review? Why is only the perpetrator side presented?
"Head hit the floor," is what the article states. How willing was Willey as he was being escorted in custody? What if he was still behaving in a hostile aggressive manner?
Police are always called in when there is trouble. They see first-hand accident victims, murder victims, assault victims, rape victims. They have to make the investigations.
If there is a "freaked out" violent individual assaulting public, it is police who are called in to apprehend such individuals. The arrest/apprehension can be a fluid, volatile situation if the perpetrator resists arrest. Who assists the police so that excessive force is not required? Not the lawyers. Not the Complaints commission.
Not media, although they carefully scrutinize the actions of the RCMP.
It is no wonder that people are reluctant to go into the RCMP. It is a thankless, often dangerous job that appears to be constantly under siege by the media.
When a person assaults you or a member of your family, let us say it is your wife and kids or grandchildren do you first advise the police not to use excessive force while your little ones are being brutalized? I doubt it. If two of my nephews and their mother were assaulted during a B&E, my first concern will not be that rights of the perpetrator, or that the police do not use excessive force: it is the rescue and protection of my loved ones.
I can see the day peacekeepers do not get involved during a crime scene. It is too much risk of excessive force. Who will victims call then?
Will journalists who criticize excessive force come to the rescue? I highly doubt it.
Police are put into higher standards of behaviour. Maybe rightly so.
Yet no one but the police impose any standards of behaviour on violent perpetrators.
And what about the victims? Why are there no publications of the victim's side? Why must we continually hear only about police conduct?
In 1994 my autistic son, age 14 at the time, ran away 13 times. Each time the RCMP and Search and Rescue were called in. In each case the RCMP stood by, assisting with the search and supporting the family while my son was missing.
In time Search and Rescue quit responding to our calls because my son would hide from them. Not the RCMP. They continued to respond to our pleas for help, even once when the Queen was in Prince George at the time. The RCMP are not flawless. No one is flawless.
But the role the RCMP serves in society is invaluable. Without police a mother would not be safe to go downtown with her children; elderly would be under constant of assault and robbery. Is that how you want to live? I don't.
Fred Berekoff
Prince George
