Kelowna RCMP Wearing Video Cameras

[Trunk-Monkey]

I think what people are trying to say is that there is as much, if not more of a cause for the cameras to keep an eye on you cops, rather than just gather evidence. If you are going to have them anyway and considering the current RCMP track record, it would be in the best interest of the public to have them used to the fullest extent possible! Obviously a washroom, or courtroom, would not be a place for the cameras. Dont blame us for wanting protection from the biggest gang in the world! Again, especially considering the RCMP track record. We will call it piece of mind.....

You mention the RCMP's track record...interesting subject considering for every "bad thing" that has hit the media there are hunderds if not thousands of "good things" members and the RCMP have done and accomplished while executing their duties...but they don't make the news because after all its our job....and why should it? What I am saying is the media concentrates on the negative becuase it sells news papers and gets web site hits. That's what really is happening here and most people jump on a story sensationalized by the media and never let it go because after all one bad cop or member that did something stupid means we are all like that....right??? NO WE ARE NOT, NORE IS THE RCMP CORRUPT AS MOST THINKL
As an old media person used to say..."if it bleeds it leads"...
So people take a step back and really see what is happening here.
To paint all cops as corrupt is like painting all people who frequent down town Kelowna at night as "crack heads" and we all know this is simply not the case. Or better yet...Tiger Woods did what he did so all pro golfers must be just like him right???NO!!!! Again this is just not the case.
Cops are easy pickins for the media and or the gen pub to criticize because who likes to be arrested or get a speeding ticket??? Not many, but thats part of our job. Cops have proceedures and SOP for a reason...most of these reasons are for officer safety reasons and many of the gen pub do not understand that....
Wake up people and support the men and women sworn to serve and protect you. One bad apple or a few in an outfit this large does not mean the rest of them are rotten as well.
Ok Im done now...

[bipdl]

I believe the RCMP would look a WHOLE LOT better and more respectable if they did a better job of weeding out the bad apples and doing it a hell of a lot faster.

I think most level headed people know that the vast majority of RCMP are good and decent men and women trying to do the best job they can in the service of the community. The problem is that all the good ones must work under the shadows cast by the bad ones, and there exist enough of these bad ones to taint the image of the entire lot of you.

I know of a couple of RCMP "members" for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration, both as professionals doing their jobs and as fair-minded, honourable and fine fellow human beings.

Sadly, I have also encountered some genuine pigs on duty... power tripping ego-weasels who are simply bullys or bigots operating under the colour of authority. It is beyond my reasoning abilities to fathom how in-the-world these a$$wholes ever got into, let alone through, depot without being detected. Are there no psyche or attitude evaluations as part of the recruitment process? Then, to turn these reprobates loose on some poor unsuspecting community and then simply transfer them to another detachment when (not if) they become too much of a problem... well, it's beyond me.

I don't understand why all of us out here in the real world (we're not "members" of any sort of elitist group) can and would indeed lose our jobs in a heartbeat if we behaved like bad RCMP behave, yet these mutants receive all sorts of protections, special considerations, benefits-of-the-doubts, get-out-of-jail-free cards, and all sorts of backing by the RCMP organization which keeps them within the fold of "members".

Want respect for the image? Clean out the dirt as soon as you identify it! This will provide less fodder for the muck-raking media. It will also begin to restore public faith in the organization as a whole. Your best people (and there ARE a lot of you) deserve it !!!!!

[Trunk-Monkey]

I believe the RCMP would look a WHOLE LOT better and more respectable if they did a better job of weeding out the bad apples and doing it a hell of a lot faster.

I think most level headed people know that the vast majority of RCMP are good and decent men and women trying to do the best job they can in the service of the community. The problem is that all the good ones must work under the shadows cast by the bad ones, and there exist enough of these bad ones to taint the image of the entire lot of you.

I know of a couple of RCMP "members" for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration, both as professionals doing their jobs and as fair-minded, honourable and fine fellow human beings.

Sadly, I have also encountered some genuine pigs on duty... power tripping ego-weasels who are simply bullys or bigots operating under the colour of authority. It is beyond my reasoning abilities to fathom how in-the-world these a$$wholes ever got into, let alone through, depot without being detected. Are there no psyche or attitude evaluations as part of the recruitment process? Then, to turn these reprobates loose on some poor unsuspecting community and then simply transfer them to another detachment when (not if) they become too much of a problem... well, it's beyond me.

I don't understand why all of us out here in the real world (we're not "members" of any sort of elitist group) can and would indeed lose our jobs in a heartbeat if we behaved like bad RCMP behave, yet these mutants receive all sorts of protections, special considerations, benefits-of-the-doubts, get-out-of-jail-free cards, and all sorts of backing by the RCMP organization which keeps them within the fold of "members".

Want respect for the image? Clean out the dirt as soon as you identify it! This will provide less fodder for the muck-raking media. It will also begin to restore public faith in the organization as a whole. Your best people (and there ARE a lot of you) deserve it !!!!!

Very true...all I can say is the tides are changing...quicker than you think.

[Captain Awesome]

Cameras + idiots committing a crime = idiots hopefully learning their lesson

[Ken7]

Simply amazing!!

That's all I can say pointing a laser at that chopper.

They need 50 cal. aboard to send a message!

[Graphite]

I believe the RCMP would look a WHOLE LOT better and more respectable if they did a better job of weeding out the bad apples and doing it a hell of a lot faster.

Oh, please, list all the bad apples in Kelowna in the last ten years and tell met that is A WHOLE LOT of them.

Then, tell me how many bad apples are in the general public.

If everyone would just be realistic and get of their finger pointing high horses then everyone else wouldn't have to hear much of the drivel that conspiratorially floats around.

The term "pig" is not really a word you should be using when referencing the RCMP. Regardless of your own opinion.

[bipdl]

Try reposting w/o the personal attack. Trip

[60-YEARS-in-Ktown]

The force has huge baggage, for example the way. A lot of the women members were treated. Will take a long time to fix that mess. The good men, what did they do about it while it went on? I realize they probably could not do much without affecting their own job.
It's a problem that has really tarnished their image...imo.

[MAPearce]

Nevertheless, I take heart in Trunk-Monkey's post (2 above yours), the part which states "the tides are changing, faster than you think" (referring to getting rid of the bad apples).

I'd like to hope so too , however,since the new commisioner took charge a large number of female member have come forward with allegations of sexual harrassment and those claims have been met with the usual "good old boy's" attitude.

Not to mention the blacklisting of the RCMP physcologist...One only needs to keep up with currnet affairs thruogh news media to see that "changes " aren't really coming all that fast.

I welcome the use of cameras on the RCMP.

[Graphite]

Are you drunk Graphite?

Kindly read what I wrote before going off half-cocked again!!

You have an amazing capacity for taking things and twisting them WAY out of shape and context!

Don't be a copsucker. Regardless of whether or not you choose to acknowledge it, there IS rot in the force. That means there ARE a few RCMP members, past and present, who lend an entirely new meaning to the word "pig". (Maybe even you were once one of them, judging from your attitude well recorded in these threads.)

Nevertheless, I take heart in Trunk-Monkey's post (2 above yours), the part which states "the tides are changing, faster than you think" (referring to getting rid of the bad apples).

I truly hope he is right, as do many other Canadians who are fed up with seeing our once-proud Mounties blemished by the attitudes and behaviour of those "members" who indeed dishonour the uniform and that for which it stands.

You know, just because I don't share the opinion of cop bashers on this thread doesn't mean that I think the police are holy angels. I have never said that there were no bad apples. Clearly the media shows there are issues. It is no secret that the RCMP are human beings and subject to human behaviors. However, I refuse to share the opinion that detachments are hiding an evil agenda. And to satisfy your curiosity about my personal life, I am not nor have I ever been an RCMP officer. Not that it has any relation to the discussion. Why is it that when people run out of educated things to say they turn the conversation to a personal mud slinging level. You, asking if I am drunk is clearly an emotional response. Perhaps you may wish to take a few breaths and relax before you post publicly online in a forum.

And feel free to answer the questions I posted for you:

I believe the RCMP would look a WHOLE LOT better and more respectable if they did a better job of weeding out the bad apples and doing it a hell of a lot faster.

Oh, please, list all the bad apples in Kelowna in the last ten years and tell met that is A WHOLE LOT of them.

Then, tell me how many bad apples are in the general public.

If everyone would just be realistic and get of their finger pointing high horses then everyone else wouldn't have to hear much of the drivel that conspiratorially floats around.

The term "pig" is not really a word you should be using when referencing the RCMP. Regardless of your own opinion.

[goatboy]

...One only needs to keep up with currnet affairs thruogh news media to see that "changes " aren't really coming all that fast.

And there lies the rub. Everything you "keep up with through news media" is played through a certain dramatic lens. I'm not sure if you were here during the fires in 2003, but if you watched how they reported it on TV, you literally would have thought that Kelowna was going to burn to the ground. While it was bad, it was no where near as bad as the media made it out to be. I had to assure people outside of here that, while we lost a lot of homes, there was still going to be a Kelowna at the end of the day. Sensationalism sells. I'm not saying there aren't problems, but the truth usually lies in the middle of most arguments,

[MAPearce]

It works both for and against the RCMP,the government et al...Right? The truth does lie somewhere in the middle of most arguments but sadly the RCMP can't seem to keep out of them

[bipdl]

And feel free to answer the questions I posted for you.

If you bothered to read my post, you'll see I'm NOT bashing the RCMP! In fact, as I very clearly said, some of whom I've had dealings with are among the finest, most honourable people I've met! PLEASE READ MY POST AGAIN!

I assumed you must have been intoxicated to have mixed up so badly what I had written about how the RCMP "would look a whole lot better" if they did a better job of weeding out the bad apples sooner. Somehow, and for whatever reason I don't know, you turned my words around to wrongly suggest I was attempting to convey (as you put it) that there are "a whole lot of them" (bad apples in the RCMP). Kindly get it straight! I did not say, or suggest any such thing!!! Neither do I see evidence of any sort of "conspiracy" as you state.

Furthermore, I stand behind my opinion that there does indeed exist some (but not very many) truly hard-hearted, nasty, unbalanced, unethical, self-righteous people wearing the RCMP uniform. I've met a few... and to me, they personify what have been, in the common vernacular of the last three generations, derogatorily referred to as pigs.

Finally, you have no business admonishing me, or anyone else for that matter, about our considered opinions. Everyone is entitled to their own... even you!

I hope that answers your misunderstanding.

Now, maybe it would be best to get back on topic, if you don't mind.

[Symbonite]

here is a stop to this thread...

are you gonna do something stupid? then you dont have to worry about police wearing cameras.

the end

[bipdl]

Agreed!

I think cameras are a great idea. Keeps everybody honest!