Duty and Honour: One Man's Opinion

Friday, August 11, 2006 03:45 AM

If a person is on duty, and is killed in the line of duty, should their inclusion on the National Police Memorial be denied because they were a member of an auxiliary police?

Glen Evely dies in Vernon on November 13, 2004 when his police car was hit by a stolen vehicle.

Twice, Evely’s name was presented to the Board with hopes it would be added to the Memorial. Twice the request was denied because "He was not a sworn police officer doing his job”

That single line smacks of an old boys club in the highest degree.

Of course he was doing his job; remember he was hit by a stolen car which resulted in his death. Sworn, rubbish, was he working for the RCMP as an auxiliary at the time of his death?

That in itself should be more than sufficient grounds to have him on the plaque, but then we have an old boys club existing at the Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial in that a precedent was established some years ago when two other auxiliary officers were killed in the line of their duty.

Evely’s regular day job was working for the forestry service which would not have put him in the line of fire that night unless of course he was trying to perform his duties as an auxiliary.

Conversely lets look at one of the officers who died in Northern Alberta. He went to the farm because he was concerned about his buddies, should his name appear on the memorial? Technically, he was "off duty". Please don’t lay the old chestnut on me about "always being on duty."

Evely was doing his job as a police officer when he died in the line of duty, pure and simple, he deserves the basic respect.

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

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Posted on Friday, August 11, 2006 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: QuasiMe on August 11 2006 10:11 AM

Well, since we now have Sports Hall Of Famers with an asterisk beside their name, it wouldn�t seem unreasonable to perhaps compromise to that form of notation for auxiliary police... should the "sworn police" contingent find the need to distinguish them further.

Posted by: kimbo on August 11 2006 10:13 AM

This whole business of honour is getting out of hand. The recent pole taken on this web site wants us to fly our flag at half mast for our soldiers that are killed in our present wars. Sixty thousand Canadians died in world warI and another 40,000 in World War II. All the next of kin got was a telegram.

The young men that died in the world wars did what they tought was right in defence of our country. Actualy today the roll is reversed from that of our world wars. We are trying to force our arrogance on someone else be cause we think we are right.

So a cop dies in a car crash and he is supposed to be honoured. What about the people that die each year in industrial accidents will we honour them as well? And there are hundreds of them does that make it OK not to be honoured?

Thats my opinion.

Posted by: kimbo on August 11 2006 10:20 AM

Sorry I forgot the Korean War 527 died in it.

Posted by: Palopu on August 11 2006 12:17 PM

Kimbo's right. For some reason when a policemen gets killed in the line of duty, he is honoured more than any other member of our society. Funerals held for police sometime have thousands of police in attendence from all across Canada, with all the pomp and circumstance. They certainly get more honour and attention than the Soldiers who are dying in Afganistan. This type of Honour is not restriced to Canadians, it seems to be prevalent in the US and some European Citys. Why is this? I can understand a ceremony at the local and maybe Provincial level to some degree, but certainly not at the National Level.

Auxiliary police had their guns taken away some time ago, and for a number of years their numbers were down. It now seems they are back up again, but it appears that their function is to direct traffic, and assist Constables, etc., and being auxiliary,are by definition not Policemen Per Se.

I am sure that all the rights and priviledges for Auxiliary Policemen are explained to them when they volunteer for this type of duty, and therefore do not see why this should be an issue.

Posted by: Dirtyrottenresearcher on August 11 2006 4:52 PM

Actually auxiliary officers ARE peace officers and have full powers of arrest granted in the Criminal Code (see section 494). It is an abomination to me that a clear case of an auxiliary being killed while in uniform serving as a volunteer peace officer is not recognized at the national police memorial in the same way as any other peace officer. RCMP Cst. Gordon Molendyke, formerly of Prince George, has been trying to get this auxiliary appropriately recognized for some time now. Good luck to him.

Police and other emergency services personnel hold the funeral services they do because the nature of their job is not one where they are expecting to be killed at work, even though the possibility exists. Soldiers, on the other hand, have the role of closing with and destroying the enemy - they aren't there to make arrests, and the risks of the profession of arms are well known. Soldiers are further recognized by an annual national ceremony, there is no other day quite like Remembrance Day for that specific purpose.

As for those killed at work and in industrial accidents, most unions recognize those losses and have memorials and services for those folks. Labour Day is part of the commemoration of the efforts of workers to improve their conditions.

Each organization recognizes sacrifice (or should) in a way appropriate to that group.

Posted by: QuasiMe on August 11 2006 5:46 PM

Sounds to me like Palopu and Kimbo have issues they need to resolve.

I once worked with someone who won a major raffle. Boy, was I surprised when the common response around the work place was one of various envious responses... I couldn't understand it, but I'm sure Palopu and Kimbo could explain it to me.

Posted by: Chester on August 11 2006 9:58 PM

Let's hear from the Auxiliary Police Officers, the Volunteer Firefighters and all of those who serve in the Armed Forces Reserve?

I am sure they value their lives right alongside of the folks they are with. They are just as important and necessary, or we wouldn't have them.

Any loss of life in the line of duty in any occupation should be honoured by fellow workers as well as in their local communities.

I'm not so sure about singling out any particular profession for National Recognition though. Everyone should be honoured, but maybe not raised higher than anyone else. ??? Chester

Posted by: Palopu on August 11 2006 10:01 PM

I doubt if I could explain it to you QuasiMe, as I think as usual you would miss the point. However lets give it a try.

(a) An auxiliarly policeman by definition is there to assist Police Officers in carrying out their duties.

(b) Auxiliary police are volunteers and do not receive, pay, pension, or other, benefits received by regular officers.

(c) Auxiliary police are not allowed to carry guns, as regular police are.

(d) Auxiliary police do not receive the same training as regular police.

I think that we can agree that there are some significant differences between regular police and auxiliary police, however having said that, the auxiliary police do provide a needed function, and certainly provide a service to the Province and People> To have these aux police replaced with full time regular police would cost millions of dollars, however in the end that might be the answer, rather than trying to supplement the police force with volunteers.

It was the NDP Government in 1998 that basically took away the guns of the auxillary police which resulted in a large number of them resigning. Maybe this was the intention of the Government of the day. Have the volunteers resign and have the jobs filled with full time, fully paid, and fully benefited police officers. Who knows.

In any event you seem to have a higher interest level in this discussion than I do, so you can carry on and try to get the situation changed.

Posted by: owl on August 12 2006 10:55 PM

I think that soldiers who die in the line of duty typically die for more than just their country. They die for the beliefs of a whole alliance of nations.

The soldiers who die in Afghanistan these days die for that country as well as a large contingent of western nations.

So, I think that flags in all countries who are allied with that cause should be flying at half mast whenever anyone from any of those countries is killed.

;-)

Posted by: QuasiMe on August 15 2006 1:41 PM

You're right Palopu, you can't explain it... regardless, I do understand there is a component of society who only know how to bolster themself by belittling others or, as in your case, needing to mitigate other's contribution.

By the way, did anything you posted have anything to do with why you think auxiliary officer's who sacrifice there lives in the line of duty, shouldn't have their sacrifice equally acknowledged?

Posted by: Palopu on August 15 2006 10:16 PM

It seems to me Quasi that those people who make the decisions on who will and who will not be shown on the National Police Memorial have made a decision that this does not. Repeat does not, apply to Auxiliary Police. Presumably they are the people you should be talking to if you do not agree.

My opionion is that we do not need volunteer police to supplement our Police Force. If a volunteer force is such a great idea, maybe they should all be volunteers, including the Firemen, and then we could save all kinds of money. I do not have a problem paying a little more tax to support a fully professional paid police force.

After taking their guns in 1998 a large number of volunteer police resigned, how did we manage???? How would we manage in the future if for some reason they thought they should resign again????

Posted by: Winged1 on August 16 2006 11:52 PM

Hey there Chester,

You will not hear from Auxiliaries or RCMP Officers because it is against the RCMP policy to speak out on behalf of the RCMP. They are not supposed to even identify them selves as anything but private citizens.

They use media relations officers for that job.