I’d like to start off today by thanking both Artur Pawlowski and the Calgary Sun’s Licia Corbella for their help in putting this post together; I couldn’t have done it without ’em. I managed to speak briefly with Mr. Pawlowski from his home in Calgary and I have to tell you, he’s one of the nicest folks I’ve talked to in quite a while.

You might recall from two of my previous posts that Art is the guy who was arrested and jailed in Calgary back in August of last year for reading the Bible and praying in a public park.

Let me say that again: Arrested. And jailed. For praying. In Canada.

I Am Not Making This Upâ„¢.

I said yesterday that I was going to try to find the video footage of Art’s arrest, so I figured “who better to ask than… well, Art?” So, after getting ahold of a number for him, I gave him a call. While he didn’t have the footage in a digital format himself, he was able to direct me to the page for Paul Arthur’s show, Insight, at www.miraclechannel.ca (which you can check out yourself here) where I was able to download one of the shows that features a clip from the footage that Art’s brother shot the day he got busted. It’s a fairly long vid (about an hour) and the footage from the arrest only runs from 8:38 to 9:32 but on the whole, the whole vid is worth watching (you can download it to your hard drive here, if you like)…
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Some of you might remember that I’ve grouched about this before but you’ve got to admit that this makes for one hell of a twist. It’s one of those peculiar things that makes me laugh and pisses me off at the same time.

It pisses me off because it’s just one more indication of the erosion of the character of our nation’s youth that they would have such contempt for those that provide them with the very protection that spoiled brats like them cannot exist without. Let’s face it: none of these little bastards would have even considered trashing a house like that if they thought that the owner would hunt them down and horse-whip their little hides off. What prevents that? Why, that would be the law, of course.

What gives me a chuckle about all this is thinking about something from when I was a kid myself. Like most others my age that grew up in a small town, I had a dad that seemed to have a saying for just about every occasion (and some of those sayings could be a lot more colourful than others). One of those sayings, that I really didn’t bother to ponder too much at the time, was “don’t poke the bear.” Well, that just might be what these little house-trashing smartasses have gone and done (emphasis added by yours truly, of course)…

The Lakeshore Road home, owned by a husband-and-wife pair of Lambton OPP officers, was heavily damaged on March 2 when, in their absence, their 15-year-old daughter held a party that spun wildly out of control, drawing about 150 teenagers.

Oops. Anyone care to make odds on the chances that, the next time one of these little hooligans finds themselves in need of help, the nearest officer just might be very, very far away or perhaps inextricably occupied with an extremely important doughnut? On the other hand, if one of these little pricks happens to jaywalk, they could find that cops get around a lot more than one might think.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Quick: what’s black and white with a cherry on top? Any dieas? Aw, come on now, at least one of you out there must have some idea what I’m babbling about. Some of you must have heard the question before. If you know the answer to that one, you’re probably at least as old as me and you’re also going to find this picture to be, shall we say, vaguely familiar:

Yes, that really is just what it looks like: the OPP are back in black… and white. It seems that the OPP have decided to do away with the white cruisers that they’ve been puttering around in since the late 80s or so and get back to the good ol’ black-and-white. And no, it’s got nothing to do with going retro. 🙄 One of the main reasons for the return to the old school paint job is visibility, plain and simple:

“We welcome the return of the traditional black and white cruisers,” said Minister Kwinter. “Their enhanced visibility on Ontario’s major highways will add significantly to the safe driving message we want to reinforce with the motoring public. We support the OPP and the important work police officers are doing to keep our communities safe,” added Minister Kwinter.

The black and white cruisers will provide a distinctive presence to OPP stepped-up efforts to make Ontario highways safer and to bring traffic safety issues in line with other important public safety issues and concerns.

“Officer and public safety are the primary concerns,” said Commissioner Fantino. “The black and white patrol vehicle will be instantly recognizable as an OPP patrol car and, with the new LED high visibility roof lights and vehicle markings, will have a greater impact on the visibility of OPP vehicles patrolling our communities and our roadways,” added Commissioner Fantino.

Yeah, you can spot those things about a mile away, as near as I can remember. And yeah, most of slow down when we see a cop car. All we need now is for some loopy lefty to start hooting about “turning back the clock” that the story can be complete… 😆

This doesn’t happen to me much. Usually, my first impression of a thing, whatever it may be, is pretty accurate and changing my mind isn’t something that I find myself having to do very often. Some people (okay, okay; most people…) will call that stubbornness but I prefer to think of it as just paying attention to what the hell’s going on in the first place. It usually works out quite well for me. Not always, mind you; but usually.

Sometimes though, I end up doing an about-face. Like today, when I started reading the Freeps this morning and found this:

Police say kin shares fault

Thu, January 11, 2007
By KELLY PEDRO, FREE PRESS REPORTER

The parents of a woman violently gunned down by her former boyfriend are partly responsible for her death, London police contend.

In just-filed court documents, a lawyer representing the force alleges Tom and Kim Bol didn’t report contact between their daughter Vanessa and her ex-boyfriend, Emerson Dominguez, when the parents knew he was not supposed to contact her.

The “WHAT THE F***?!?!?” that came flying unbidden out of my piehole was probably heard in Lambeth. The first instinct was, as you’ve likely guessed, pretty obvious and something that I think just about any parent in the world will be able to relate to…

What the hell is wrong with the cops? Have they lost their God damned minds? Just who the hell was the shithead that came up with this lamebrained idea in the first place? Even if it’s true and the parents were somewhat at fault, these people lost a daughter, for Christ’s sakes; they’ve suffered enough. LEAVE THEM ALONE!

Pretty standard stuff, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. But then I kept reading and lo and behold, there was a little detail about the whole affair that, with all the time that has passed, I had managed to forget all about: following Vanessa Bol’s tragic death at the hands of Emerson Dominguez in November of 2003, it didn’t take long for the lawyers to start circling the carcass. After all, it isn’t for nothing that so many in this world consider lawyers to be one step down the food chain from plankton. Dominguez is currently serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, with no chance of parole for 20 years (theoretically, at least; with our revolving-door justice system, you can never tell… but that’s another rant). Vanessa died on the third of November and the Bol family decided to sue the London cops a little over six months later:

In July 2004, the Bol family filed a civil suit against London police for nearly $1.4 million, claiming officers failed to protect their 17-year-old daughter.

[…]

The civil suit names London’s police services board, retired chief Brian Collins and two London police officers.

An amended statement of defence says the Bols “did not report Dominguez’s contact with Vanessa Bol to other persons or agencies of authority who might have intervened to protect Vanessa Bol.”

[…]

The statement says the Bols did not report threats or assaults by Dominguez against Bol.

So there you have it. Puts the issue in a slightly different perspective, doesn’t it? No doubt about it, there’s a turd in this punchbowl someplace. The questions is: which side is right and which side are being utter assholes and pulling some pretty lowdown crap?

On the one hand, if the allegations are true, it takes some kind of God damned gall to try to and cash in — to the tune of over a million bucks — on your own misdeeds by pinning the blame on someone else. We rely on police to serve and protect the public from scum like Dominguez but it’s a two way street; cops rely on us to tell them when we know that bad people are doing bad things. These folks ain’t psychics, ya know. If the Bols really did know about Dominguez stalking and even assaulting their daughter and they did nothing at all about it… then I say lower the boom on ’em. Bring the hammer down and make an example out of them for others that would try and grab for such a loathesome Munchausen lottery jackpot. On the other hand, though…

If these allegations are false, this represents stooping about as low as you can get. This would be the ultimate in kicking someone when they’re down, the cheapest of cheap shots, and something that we should damn well expect — indeed, demand — that those who are trusted to hold authority in our society place themselves far above. If this is some bullshit stunt, heads should roll for it.

The problem is that we don’t know which story is the truth and which is bullshit. So there it is, big as life and twice as problematic. And here I am, in territory about as unfamilliar as it gets for me… on the fence.

And I don’t like it.

When I see stuff like this, my nature practically demands that I take one side or the other and be quick about it. But make sure it’s the right side. I wish I knew enough to make that decision but I don’t. So here I sit, in the mushy middle, wanting to speak up for somebody but not sure who, and haunted by the words of Mark Twain:

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

Easier said than done.

Well, this is… different. Not really sure what to make of it, to be honest with you. Could be good, could be bad; I really haven’t made up my mind yet.

As most of you have probably heard by now, the cops from Hamilton, Ontario have put up a vid on YouTube that shows footage from security cameras that police are hoping will help them in finding the killer or killers of 22-year-old Ryan Milner. Milner was stabbed to death at the corner of King William and Catharine Streets after attending a Sean Price concert at Club Seventy Seven on Nov. 16th.

I’m not sure if this is going to work or not. And to be completely honest with you, while I do support just about anything that gets murdering scumbags off the streets, I just can’t shake this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that keeps turning my thoughts to the topic of Big Brother… Gonna have to spend some more time thinking about this one, I guess.

The YouTube blurb is as follows:

Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying two men seen attending the Sean Price concert at Club 77, Hamilton Ontario on Nov. 17th, 2006. This video shows the two males arriving at 11:14p.m. and are described as 1) male white, wearing a white horizontal striped shirt and a black/white baseball hat with the word “JOKER” on the front and 2) male white, short hair, wearing a shirt with the word “ROCAWEAR” on the front and “99” on the back. Anyone with information please call Detective Sergeant Jorge Lasso at 905-546-2458 or Call Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Now THIS is my kind of cop. The more I read about him, the more I like him. Everybody and their dog knows that the so-called “criminal justice system” in this country is nothing more than a criminal-coddling crock of… well, you know. But Calgary Const. Shaun Horne went and did what damn near every cop in the land — not to mention more than a few just plain decent, law-abiding folks — have been itching to do for years: After idiot JP Kristine Robidoux gave career criminal Albert Walter Brazill — a lifelong scumbag with over 65 criminal convictions — a free pass out of the county bucket, Const. Horne stood up in the courtroom and ripped Her Bullshitness a new one.

You can read more about it here, here, here and here. As Rick Bell put it best in today’s Calgary Sun:

What happens when a city cop tells the truth about our justice system? In PC Calgary, he gets yanked off the street and hit with a suspension

Guilty of speaking what everybody knows to be true.

Our so-called justice system IS a mockery and a joke.

Ask any cop.

Ask any criminal.

Ask any victim of crime.

But Const. Shaun Horne, with 25 years of fighting bad guys under his belt, just doesn’t think the fact. He actually says the words.

And the butt-covering city police bigwigs, anxious not to offend the sensibilities of judges, mete out the discipline at the public school board meeting room.

With the clock ticking off toward his last day, a police hearing suspends the constable for a week without pay.

There is not much more they can do. Horne is out the door early in the new year. But the message is clear.

If the officer had years to go before the finish line they’d be getting the nails and the wood out.

“It would be suicidal,” says Rambo Al Koenig, the mince-no-words police association prez.

“Out of fear of reprisals anyone speaking out would have to swallow their pride and their principles.”

But Horne could speak up and did speak up when one Albert Walter Brazill appeared in court for not paying his bar tab.

Brazill is a piece of work, a career criminal with 65 convictions — everything from extortion, kidnapping, forcible confinement to thefts, multiple break and enters, vehicle theft, armed robbery, frauds, forgeries, assaults, many impaired driving and drug beefs and more than once failing to show up to court.

Brazill has nothing to say but tells justice of the peace Kristine Robidoux he needs an alcohol program.

He says he is in Calgary looking for work as a painter but nobody will get him painter pants. Then he gives some sob story about not being able to score work of any kind because he was hit over the head in Regina and his ID was stolen.

“I can’t win,” he says. But he does win, 65 convictions and all.

Robidoux says: “I am just not satisfied the ends of justice are met by having this person detained for the better part of a week.”

Brazill asks if that’s it, realizes it is, thanks Robidoux and smirks at Horne the cop, who’s seen the revolving door so many times before.

Horne calls him a piece of … you know.

Horne then asks the JP if she is “going to release everybody” and calls Brazill’s walk “a joke” and “a mockery.”

By the way, the released Brazill doesn’t show up for his next court date.

Yesterday, it is Horne on the hot seat, three counts of discreditable conduct. Insp. Paul Manuel, representing the police brass, sounds off like a paragon of virtue.

Horne brought “discredit on the reputation of the service” and there must be a strong message to the ranks that “this type of behaviour will not be condoned and must be dealt with severely.”

Manuel waxes on about Horne’s “barrage” of “insulting and condescending language” stating “the seriousness of the matter cannot be overstated.”

“The public interest must be considered,” says the inspector. Right. Since when was the public interest ever considered.

Besides, the constable won’t say sorry and Robidoux the JP is reportedly shocked and gets angry calls at home from the public.

Manuel asks for Horne to get two weeks without pay. He is given one. It is the sad end for a good cop.

Rambo Al says the badges on the street will now know the drill. “No matter what injustice you see, keep your mouth shut,” says Koenig.

Horne has no regrets. He’d do the same but maybe be a little choosier about the words.

He is still frustrated but gets some small comfort from the support of fellow- officers who every day deal with the cushiness of the courts and the public relations blather from their politically correct superiors.

Horne is not surprised by the outcome.

“In my mind, this was over before it started,” he says.

He retires knowing the system is “nowhere near fair” and it isn’t changing any time soon. But the police officer does not shy away from the consequences. Horne says he was offered a reprimand and wouldn’t take it. He will not bend the knee.

When it is over, Manuel shamelessly offers a handshake and the obligatory happy retirement wish to Horne.

The constable just turns away.