RCMP boss needs power to rid house of rogue officers
I’ve got to say that I was sickened by the video of Paul Boyd being shot by Vancouver police Const. Lee Chipperfield in the video.
I can speak from seven years of experience as a member of the Vancouver Police Department’s original special-weapons unit back in the 1970s.
I know that this is ancient history to most, but during that time, our unit was involved in zero fatal incidents. When the decision was made to change the criteria and form the Emergency Response Team, we all took a look and saw problems, to no avail. I had no authority, being a street constable, but chose not to apply for the new group.
Lately, the numbers of incidents seems to be on the rise, although they are not all fatal. They involve a very small portion of the policing community, who are by a very large percentage good men and women who are willing to stand and be counted.
The very fact that RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson is unable to remove Sgt. Donald Ray from the RCMP is, in and of itself, a destructive situation for the Mounties. The officers involved in the airport incident should, all of them, be removed from duty.
To the citizens of Canada: do not put all officers in the same barrel of apples as these others.
To the politicians: do something now to enable the new commissioner to clean his house.
To the Canadian officers who do the job: remember that you cannot enable the likes of the bad ones unless you do nothing.