Senior Mounties acknowledge culture of alienation

[Winston_Smith]

Senior Mounties have acknowledged in an internal disciplinary ruling that a young female Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable was so “alienated” by her fellow officers after coming forward about being sexually harassed by another constable that she was compelled to transfer to another province.

An internal disciplinary board ruling, dated in Ottawa and released this week, said the formerly Saskatchewan-based victim’s transfer “was a cure, but it must have been a bitter pill to swallow, as none of this was her fault.”

And the victim told a May 2012 disciplinary board that the internal process by which members of the national police force bring forward harassment complaints is broken.

“My entire experience of bringing allegations of harassment/sexual harassment forward leaves me disappointed and disillusioned, but I am determined that for change to come in the force, it must come from within,” she wrote in a moving victim-impact statement.

“My experience has been that the process protects those causing the conflict and dishonour to the force, in that it allows victims to continue being harassed by those individuals. There is also a tendency, as was my case, for management to pass judgment that the persons who come forward with such complaints, are troublemakers,” she said.

She noted in her submission to the RCMP disciplinary board that she felt compelled to take a transfer out of Saskatchewan to “advance in this culture of harassment (sexual and workplace).

“As I reflect back on my time at (two RCMP detachments), I remain unconvinced that the root causes of the problems have been dealt with,” she said in a victim-impact statement filed in June.

The trouble began in 2009 when the female constable was participating in an out-of-town training course on forensic child interviewing.

She was in her hotel room in Yorkton, Sask. — in the province’s southeast near the Manitoba border — when Cst. Jack T. McLean texted her around 9:30 p.m. from the Pockets Billiards and Sports Lounge, a bar within walking distance.

Cst. McLean, who according to the RCMP disciplinary board was supposed to be a role model for more junior officers, invited the female constable to join a group of other Mounties at the bar.

She arrived at Pockets about 30 minutes later. About 15 fellow RCMP officers, all on the training course, were seated at a long table.

Cst. McLean grabbed a chair for her to sit near him. The female constable and McLean knew one another because they worked together, along with McLean’s wife, also a Mountie.

When the victim approached her seat, McLean smacked and grabbed her buttocks, then laughed and announced loudly: “See, this is what I have to put up with in (the detachment).”

The young female constable was “deeply shocked and offended by this unprovoked and unwanted contact of a sexual nature by Cst. McLean and gave him a stern look of disapproval and disgust,” according to the internal disciplinary board.

But the female constable stayed with the group for another two hours because she didn’t want to be seen as “anti-social or a prude,” according to RCMP documents.

When she left for her hotel room, Cst. McLean again slapped the female officer on the buttocks.

The disciplinary board said the female constable felt “objectified, deeply offended and humiliated.” The disciplinary board accepted that she did not immediately report the sex harassment because she feared genuine reprisal.

For the rest of the training course, the female constable chose not to socialize at night with fellow RCMP officers.

McLean, who apologized in a Cree ceremony at the hearing, admitted to the sexual harassment and disgraceful conduct.

The female constable has since taken a new posting in another province. Cst. McLean has been docked seven days’ pay for his conduct.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Senior+Mounties+acknowledge+culture+alienation+that+sexually+harassed+constable+transfer/8257196/story.html

A quote online in reaction to this story sums it up well:

She was assaulted and complained. Now she has to leave the province. She will never be the same in relation to trust. She may be ostracized, vilified, and denied opportunities including future promotions

Oh yes; she is expected to now go out and do a good job for the RCMP.

[kibbs]

how can we trust police when they cant even trust each other?

[diggerdick]

What can be said, that hasn't already been said before.

At least,Our resident authority and his cheerleading squad has enough sense not to comment.

[james-d]

A n awfull lot has changed with regard to the RCMP over the last 60 years, They used to, and I mean USED to command a great deal of respect around the world. And not because they always got their man, But because for the most part they were above reproach, As an example, I know personaly of a 6 year member who was disgraced out of the force in the late 40s ,Simply because he got a woman pregnant,but did not marry her until the day before the babys birth. Unacceptable as an the RCMP officer.Back those olden days you had to be above reproach. And today with their whole code of conduct being arroded, well go to India and tell them you want to wear a coonskin cap, or better yet a beaver hat in their police force, let's see how that would fly. I believe we should go back to the olden days, when the RCMP were respected and could hold their heads high because they WERE, the elite.Here is real arguement starter, I don't think women should be out on patrol as RCMP officers,That ought to start a good fight. Like the lady RCMP officer who harsassed the youngsters,At their late night parking spot.Near Red Deer And for her troubles she was left naked and handcuffed to her steering wheel thru the cruiser window with the siren on, How embarrassing that must have been for the poor girl.I remember when the cops used to harrass us in our nite parking spot, We never once tried to do this to and 6'4" cop that weighed 230 lbs and would slap your *bleep* off in a heart beat LOL Sask. had some pretty ugly girl cops back then, NOT.So when they changed the rules so RCMP could be girls and the height restriction dropped to 5'2'' ,at least thats what it seems like today, You bet they use their tasers and travel in groups, LOL I remember when they used to send two out to stop a barfight, No problem. they could leave their guns in the car,So someone could not grab it as they were havin the crap beat out of them. But now they have more rights then the cops do.Do some of you retired cops remember the good old days, (ALL were not good, but the way things were handled were different)My Opinion

[CorkSoaker]

Here is real arguement starter, I don't think women should be out on patrol as RCMP officers

Through all of your exuberance and flashes of brilliance I am having a hard time figuring out exactly why you think that is

Is it because you think that women are not capable of handling themselves?

Like the lady RCMP officer who harsassed the youngsters,At their late night parking spot.Near Red Deer And for her troubles she was left naked and handcuffed to her steering wheel thru the cruiser window with the siren on, How embarrassing that must have been for the poor girl.I remember when the cops used to harrass us in our nite parking spot, We never once tried to do this to and 6'4" cop that weighed 230 lbs and would slap your *bleep* off in a heart beat LOL

Or because they are too good looking?..

Or...What?..

Sask. had some pretty ugly girl cops back then,

And what does all this crap have to do with cases of harassment and sexual assault within the force?

NOT.So when they changed the rules so RCMP could be girls and the height restriction dropped to 5'2'' ,at least thats what it seems like today, You bet they use their tasers and travel in groups, LOL I remember when they used to send two out to stop a barfight, No problem. they could leave their guns in the car,So someone could not grab it as they were havin the crap beat out of them. But now they have more rights then the cops do.Do some of you retired cops remember the good old days, (ALL were not good, but the way things were handled were different)My Opinion

[james-d]

Cork Soaker go back to school and learn how to read.

[WhatThe]

Cork Soaker go back to school and learn how to read.

Now that's funny! Cork soaker makes his points coherently and eloquently while yours look like a pothead high school dropout wrote it that watched too much Wayne and Garth with your incessant use of NOT.

You're assessment, what I can discern anyway, is really strange. Somehow people were so much better back in the "glory days", you're living in the past and I can't give any credence to the stories of an officer was fired because he married his wife or officers were beyond reproach. Sheer ridiculousness at best.

[CorkSoaker]

Ah yes, I expected nothing less than the sort of detraction that has come to define your contributions to the boards. Thank you for clearing that up for me.

You were the one who said this:

Here is real arguement starter, I don't think women should be out on patrol as RCMP officers,That ought to start a good fight.

So what did you expect to get?

[james-d]

It is very difficult to try and explain things to people who live in a dream world ,such as What the and cork soaker, They have all these great ideas ,But haven't got enough knowledge to make any of it work. They refuse to look at the past, so they will make the same stupid mistakes over and over again, If these people do not believe me and the way the RCMP were respected in the not to distant past, Then I would suggest they sit down with their. parents or some other older person and ask them.Most of the people I have met that hate cops, have an axe to grind because the cops messed up their fun. My typing skills and spelling may be questionable at times, And if these two university grads can't figure out what I am saying, Well I guess thats why you have the goofy comments . Like a lot of people ,You spent too much time in that brainwashing institution and not nearly enough in the real world to find out what it is, not what you think it should be.Thats nice that you both are so well edumacated . But don't know squat.

[WhatThe]

That's the thing James, if one is going to call someone stupid, then one better not appear stupid in the process. I'm in fact not university educated but I care enough how I present myself and have pride in the language I use to communicate to make the effort to further educate myself. There are fantastic free websites that teach proper usage. I am the first to admit however, that I am not perfect.

Never before in the history of human kind have we ever had such a body of knowledge, with each new discovery built off the last though at times contradicting what we previously thought. Human behaviour is but one example. People haven't changed but our perceptions and society have and even though history is a benchmark it is only part of the story. It's interesting that you bring history up and used the adage "doomed to repeat it" yet outright dismiss any other way of dealing with an issue except with fear and intimidation despite what people that have studied the history and compiled data to corroborate the findings with other disciplines have to say. That is ignoring best evidence in favour nostalgia.

Officers may well have been respected in years past, indeed my parents would and do agree with that sentiment, but there's two things- these so called brainwashing institutions have taught people to think for themselves and because of that, juxtaposed against history, we have learned human beings have changed little, and when we have its generally for the better. Police officers are not exempt. For example, your story of the officer "run out of town" for not marrying the pregnant girl, if true, wouldnt be because of the integrity of the members but because that's how society viewed pregnancy out of wedlock. Surely you're not suggesting that we sequester, hide or shame young woman as they did mere decades ago. Is that the history you think we should learn from or repeat?

[james-d]

Again, you did not understand what I was trying to explain. That was just one example of what was expected and not expected of an RCMP officer in the day,

[james-d]

And if you knew how to read and understand a post WHAT the. You would Know that I did not say he was 'Run out of town" He was kicked out of the RCMP.And I have no problem with unwed mothers, Nowadays we have 100 fold of unwed mothers than we did back then, And it bothers no one any more including me, As a matter of fact we have many young women choosing to have children out of wedlock And many of these think they can raise kids without a father figure. I wonder how many of these kids would have voted for that ,if they could have had a choice. We meet an awful lot of them, As they are really very obvious.

[CorkSoaker]

So, what does having children out of wedlock and the fact the RCMP used to be respected "back-in-the-day" have to do with cases of harassment and sexual assault in the force again? I must have missed that.

[WhatThe]

And if you knew how to read and understand a post WHAT the. You would Know that I did not say he was 'Run out of town" He was kicked out of the RCMP.And I have no problem with unwed mothers, Nowadays we have 100 fold of unwed mothers than we did back then, And it bothers no one any more including me, As a matter of fact we have many young women choosing to have children out of wedlock And many of these think they can raise kids without a father figure. I wonder how many of these kids would have voted for that ,if they could have had a choice. We meet an awful lot of them, As they are really very obvious.

Okay wait, really? If I knew how to read a post? You're joking right?

[diggerdick]

Even when the Mounties try to admit to alienation.

People on this forum will deny it.

The moral backbone of the RCMP has certainly been broken. and people will deny that to.
Stealing money and cocaine,posing on porno sites wearing police uniforms ,drunkenness and sexual-harassment the list goes on and on.

And all we hear over and over again is the one bad apple theme.
There was a time a moral backbone was a prerequisite now it's a hindrance.