The RCMP Excuses Are Getting Really Bad

Monday, June 22, 2009 03:45 AM

The excuses being given to the Braidwood inquiry as to why an e-mail from RCMP Chief Sup. Dick Bent to Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre hadn't surfaced until Friday, are laughable.

The emial suggests the four RCMP officers had talked about tazering Robert Dziekanski before they arrived at the airport. The excuse is, that the content of the email is just a misunderstanding of a conversation that was held with Supt Wayne Rideout. That excuse is about as plausible as the time I suggested maybe my dog was driving the car when we got a speeding ticket.

If you had sent an email to your boss (as a matter of fact the man second in command to all of the RCMP in Canada) and had made a mistake, wouldn't you send along a clarification?

There were about 1,000 e-mails sent dealing with the Tazering of the Polish immigrant. The RCMP knew Dziekanski hadn't been tazered twice, they knew it was five times. If they didn’t know that it had been discussed heading into the airport, the next question should be, how come on the video the four cops are talking about tazering him when they arrive at the holding area?

RCMP Lawyer Helen Roberts (who also represented the RCMP in the Kevin St. Arnaud shooting, the shooting of Ian Bush and now the Dziekanski death) should be handed some sort of an award for her performance at the hearing. The crying was becoming. The people who have dealt with her and her hard line of questioning at the Bush and St Arnaud inquests would tell you quite different. A leading role in a major play in which the leading lady does a crying jag would be in order.

The RCMP never did try to correct the "wrong information" about what actually happened suggesting that it might taint the evidence. So now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that if you check, my dog’s paw prints were on the steering wheel when I got stopped for that ticket.

The story about the Dziekanski case only became much clearer when the Pritchard video was released. If that video had not been taken, if it had not become public, what would the RCMP's story have been?

The credibility of the RCMP is in the toilet. It might be argued that there are always a few bad apples in the barrel. In this case from the bottom to the top I wouldn’t want to eat them.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Monday, June 22, 2009 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: heidi1555 on June 22 2009 9:36 AM

She cried? Wow, never knew stone cold people knew how to cry! Is her heart cracking finally? The pressure put on her must be overwhelming. Not worth it.

Posted by: billposer on June 22 2009 11:21 AM

A cynical person might think that the reason she cried is that she knows that if she is found responsible for concealing that email, she is likely to be disbarred.

Posted by: Resident on June 22 2009 11:40 AM

Too bad this didn't happen south of the border. Letterman and Leno would have had a ball.
Definetly RCMP equates to Keystone Cops.

Posted by: Windigo on June 22 2009 2:31 PM

"The credibility of the RCMP is in the toilet. It might be argued that there are always a few bad apples in the barrel. In this case from the bottom to the top I wouldn�t want to eat them."

Well put Mr. Meisner...there is however no good use for rotten apples, you can't even use them for fertilizer for fear that they may contaminate the original tree from which they fell. It's a shame that perfectly good skin was wasted on these people. Lets remove these people and rebuild a new police force that can be trusted.

Posted by: polar7018 on June 22 2009 5:51 PM

now it's a misunderstanding of a conversation.hmmm.just like the expert said about the video,what you see is not what happened.
lets get our own b.c. provincial police as soon as possible.

Posted by: lmorge on June 22 2009 6:32 PM

Mr. Meisner very nice try. Leave it up to a commission with no statutory authority on deciding this issue that Crown Counsel has already done. Yours and the media's attempts at cognitive dissonance are very good indeed.
It'll never happen Windigo. And there are a myriad of reasons why.
Why the members did NOT attempt any kind of first aid on the prone man IS problematic.
Another problem is that senior management of the RCMP have adopted "corporate" thinking in that their decisions are designed to be best for the orgaization in a way as to protect it, rather than being the truth.
A police force should never have a corporate mentality....unfortunately those holding the reins of power there are awash in its mentality.

Posted by: justanotherday on June 23 2009 8:32 AM

These cops need to be hung out to dry the same kinda way they made an example of Todd Bertuzzi in the Steve Moore incident. Cops need to get a reality check that they are not above the law.

Posted by: BCRacer on June 24 2009 2:33 PM

RCMP activities aside...
In my opinion they are trying to make Robert Dziekanski into a saint. And from what I hear he is anything but that. He was trouble in Poland and he was trouble here, and from what I remember he had a criminal record longer than you could read in one sitting.

And in no way am I saying the RCMP did the right thing,,,,

I know that if I was going into a country that I didn't speak the language I would put together a cheat sheet of at least the basics.....
I wouldn't be tearing the waiting are at the airport appart...
Had Robert Dziekanski tried that in Poland I have no doubt the end result would be pretty much the same, the method may have been different.

NO he didn't deserve to die....