My Frustration with Canadian Police

It’s no secret that the public’s trust in police officers is at an all time low. This isn’t because Canadian police are dirty, in fact I will fight that allegation until I’m blue in the face. The problem is the American media’s portrayal of police in the United States. Things are different down there, especially when it comes to policing. Canadians have a sense of all being in this together. In the States, they are indoctrinated into a militaristic capitalist society. This means they glorify violence and strive to compete against each other, rather than cooperate. While related, that’s an entirely different essay. My point is policing competitive violent people is much different than policing cooperative people. They have to play by a different set of rules than we see in Canada, so it’s a lot rougher and the media has a heyday selling newspapers and web hits based on the violence, which is often necessary down south.

In Canada, we don’t have nearly as much violence, and our police get to be nice guys more often. However, our brainwashing by the American media is changing our attitudes towards police so that we’re afraid of them. When we fear them we will lash out at them. When we start to lash out at them, they will fear us. When the police fear us, they’re more likely to hurt us. Let’s stop this downward spiral of hate and fear. Fear is the path to the Dark Side.

Now, we’re getting close to where my frustration with police happens. Policing standards and professionalism dictates that police agencies do not engage the irritated public on social media. This makes sense. I’ve attended several training sessions on how to handle online reviews, and they all say “don’t feed the trolls.” If you engage the morons that just want to be heard, the noise will far outweigh any useful information. Where this differs in policing and public relations is, the morons that just want to be heard are being heard, and nobody is hearing any useful information.

In a very recent case in Edmonton Alberta, a man protected his mother from two hijackers. He tackled and subdued the first one, and then he tracked down and dragged the second one three blocks back to his place to wait for police. Police arrested and charged the carjackers, but they also arrested and charged the man who defended his mother. Link to the Edmonton Sun's Story

Naturally, people are jumping all over this. There’s comments about dirty police, stupid police, corrupt systems, corrupt police, and evil police. I don’t believe this is the case. There are several sections of the Criminal Code at play here, plus some of what I think is fine police work.

Any person in Canada may use reasonable force to stop an offense. Beating the tar out of possibly armed men while they are threatening your mother, without getting into too many detailed variables, is fine. Morally, I think you have a responsibility to do so. Also, any person may arrest without warrant any person they find committing a criminal offense, and deliver him forthwith to a peace officer. This means that tackling and holding the first one while you wait for police is just fine. In fact, I believe this was the morally responsible thing to do again. Assuming he didn’t go overboard and continue beating the guy’s face into hamburger after he was subdued, the police would not have a problem with this.

He caught up to the other guy 3 blocks away. This is where the law starts working against our hero. After he subdued the first guy and go looking for the second, he was no longer using force to stop an offense. At the same time, the “finds committing” clause in Section 494 of the Criminal Code also no longer applied. He found someone who he believed had committed an offense and assaulted him. This is assault, black and white. Citizens can’t do that. There are other factors involved the media doesn’t report on, like the level of force used, but since it wasn’t reported, I won’t elaborate on those laws.

Now with this knowledge, do you still believe the police are out of line? I hope not. They are enforcing the law as it is written, and what more can we possibly ask of them? That’s their job. You don’t get to pick and choose what parts of your job you’re going to do, and neither do they. Was this guy in the wrong to go get the second guy and bring him back for police to deal with? I don’t think so, but the Criminal Code says he is. I think this is fine police work, but a flawed Criminal Code. It is up to the Federal Government to change that statute in relation to defense of self, others, and property. Possibly also a change to the citizen arrest section.

If you still think the police are out of line, you’re either not paying attention, or you’re just not very smart.

Now this is where I get frustrated with Canadian Police. I should not be explaining to anybody how self defense and citizen arrest law works in Canada. A Deputy Chief of the Edmonton Police Service should be holding a public press conference, and posting it on their Facebook page.

The public’s distrust of the police comes from a lack of understanding. Since we started watching cartoons as a child, we’ve become familiar with the phrase, “People fear what they don’t understand.” For fuck sakes, because of liability concerns, most police services don’t even do ridealongs anymore!

It is the moral responsibility of Canadian Police Services to inform and educate the public. Rather than allowing a watered down, just-the-facts press release let the media tell part of the story and then let everyone else’s imagination run wild with the rest, tell the whole story. Explain why charges were laid. This isn’t pandering, and this isn’t just good public relations.  This is officer safety and long-term survival of Canadian police officers.

I hope that important people within policing read this. I hope that politicians read this. And for goodness sake, if you’re a member of the media, ask why once in a while.