Should Vancouver Police, or any Police officers for that matter, be held to a higher standard?
Damn rights they should be.
It pisses me off when I hear about how people defend police officers and say that they made a mistake, or that they’re only human, or it could have happened to anyone. Because, yes, it could have, but they are Police Officers – it should NOT happen to them. And if it does, it should certainly not happen often. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the accidently killings of innocent people which seem to keep plaguing the VPD. Its true that with all the gangland shootings that many Police Officers are likely more on edge than they were before, but in my opinion, Police Officers need to be better than that.
There have been two accidental police kills in Vancouver in recent years, here they are summarized:
1. Michael Vann Hubbard – March 2009 – A 58yr old man accidently shot to death when he was brandishing an exacto knife and allegedly walking towards officers. A couple witnesses have different stories, and there is a supposed video from a cell phone that was allegedly deleted from the phone of Adam Smolcic by a third Police Officer who is not identified.
2. Robert Dziekanski – October 2007 – 42 Year old man was tasered to death as Officers claim that he threatened them and then reached for what looked to be a gun. All four officers had stories that coincided until a video surfaced, which showed each man to be lying, or mistaken. After the video was shown, their stories fell apart. The video shows that Dziekanski held the stapler for a long time and even talked with the police while he was holding it before he was tasered. He never made a move to attack police with the stapler either.
Reading various forums online, I see people discuss the issues, and invariably, a Police Officer or Police Officer sympathizer chimes in with some sort of response defending the Police and how we should be grateful that they are there to protect us. Sure we are grateful, but hell, we pay for them! Their salary comes from our Taxpayers money. They work for us! So should be be grateful that the waitress at the restaurant served me? Sure I appreciate it, but I am paying here to do her job, and I expect it to be done right.
Anyway… I am not a Police Officer, nor would I ever want to be one. I do not have the craving for respect and authority, I do not have the personality or the balls, and I do not have the height! And also, quite frankly I do not have good enough morals to be a Police Officer I don’t think. I’ve pirated software and movies and music in the past, and I never really felt bad about it. I’ve done some wrong things in my life, and to be quite honest, I don’t think I’m good enough to be a Police Officer, but there are people out there that are. And in my opinion, Police Officers should be held to a higher standard, because they have to represent what is right in this world. The first line of defense. They need to be better, and more morally sound than everyone else.
I think Police are necessary, and the apparent growing annimosity towards police in Vancouver is unfortunate, but can you blame people? They have made some serious mistakes which costed two innocent people their lives.
