Having served as a street crime officer with the Metro Toronto Police from the 1960,s - late 70,s I can say that it was a challenging job but the tools we had in that day allowed us to serve the community well. A little known fact is that 10% of the force does 90% of the criminal work at the street level
Those like me spent their time following stopping and constantly keeping tabs on the criminal element in the city 24-7. The mayor & the Police Board as a result of pressure from BLM and others removed the right to do this tying the hands of those dedicated officers to work effectively.
My son continues to do the same job today as a Detective with another force in Ontario he keeps me updated as to the job those officers on the street face which is nearly impossible due to many factors that have changed the entire policing concept since my day.
There is far too much political interference with Police everywhere in Canada today when there should be none. The hiring practices are biased by color, sex, & other ridiculous ideas when only the best people should be hired based on merit and lets not forget promotion of officers also.
Self defense i.e. defendo & judo should be taught & relied on more than taser or guns. Stop immediately with SWAT & dressing police in camo they are not soldiers and should not be employed on the streets of cities that is the American way of dealing with people and it simply does not work.
New recruits should be mentored longer on the streets by older and experienced officers only my experience tells me that 6 months would be a bare minimum a full year would be much better.
We need better search & seizure rules and changes to the laws that govern this.
Back in the seventies, I was a member of the Communist Party.
We became expert at inventing Astro-Turf (fake grass roots) organizations that boasted promising sounding popular justice names that we would use when communicating particularly to the media people, who always needed to talk to someone with a title; you know, 'spokesperson' for People/Communities for/against so and so and such and such popular cause/resistance/justice coalition. 'Coalitions' were a favorite as that implied a much broader sweep of multifarious popular 'movement' concern.
It was all smoke and mirrors, but no one ever questioned this unrepresentative swill of self-appointed activists, who were 'leading' the working class/communities/environmentalists etc in 'the struggle' to 'empower' themselves to and defend themselves against, some perceived opportunity and/or threat to the self-evident public good for which these front organizations were the guiding stewards.
Not all popular movements are fakes. Some can start as fakes, but catch on if the conditions are right, which leaves the activists in charge of real political movements that have to be reckoned with. Unionization and civil rights campaigns have fallen into that category.
But on the whole, 'grass roots' activism is an opportunistic form of political parasitism that is much better at creating color and movement than delivering anything of substance to its supposed beneficiaries. It can so easily just leverage populist rabble rousers whose only real interest is to empower themselves, often at the expense of the people they are supposed to be advocating for, like the indigenous 'industry'.
Thank you for this excellent piece. Take a look at Portland, Oregon in the US if you want to see the chaos that ensues when you discredit, demoralize and defund police. The formerly beautiful "City of Roses" is now struggling with street crime and murder rates unheard of before the riots of 2020. Police need to be held accountable of course, but the move to abolish is classic Marxism and a blatant step towards abolition of private property. We can and must address homelessness and poverty but not with the destructive tactics of a failed ideology.
Having served as a street crime officer with the Metro Toronto Police from the 1960,s - late 70,s I can say that it was a challenging job but the tools we had in that day allowed us to serve the community well. A little known fact is that 10% of the force does 90% of the criminal work at the street level
Those like me spent their time following stopping and constantly keeping tabs on the criminal element in the city 24-7. The mayor & the Police Board as a result of pressure from BLM and others removed the right to do this tying the hands of those dedicated officers to work effectively.
My son continues to do the same job today as a Detective with another force in Ontario he keeps me updated as to the job those officers on the street face which is nearly impossible due to many factors that have changed the entire policing concept since my day.
There is far too much political interference with Police everywhere in Canada today when there should be none. The hiring practices are biased by color, sex, & other ridiculous ideas when only the best people should be hired based on merit and lets not forget promotion of officers also.
Self defense i.e. defendo & judo should be taught & relied on more than taser or guns. Stop immediately with SWAT & dressing police in camo they are not soldiers and should not be employed on the streets of cities that is the American way of dealing with people and it simply does not work.
New recruits should be mentored longer on the streets by older and experienced officers only my experience tells me that 6 months would be a bare minimum a full year would be much better.
We need better search & seizure rules and changes to the laws that govern this.
Back in the seventies, I was a member of the Communist Party.
We became expert at inventing Astro-Turf (fake grass roots) organizations that boasted promising sounding popular justice names that we would use when communicating particularly to the media people, who always needed to talk to someone with a title; you know, 'spokesperson' for People/Communities for/against so and so and such and such popular cause/resistance/justice coalition. 'Coalitions' were a favorite as that implied a much broader sweep of multifarious popular 'movement' concern.
It was all smoke and mirrors, but no one ever questioned this unrepresentative swill of self-appointed activists, who were 'leading' the working class/communities/environmentalists etc in 'the struggle' to 'empower' themselves to and defend themselves against, some perceived opportunity and/or threat to the self-evident public good for which these front organizations were the guiding stewards.
Not all popular movements are fakes. Some can start as fakes, but catch on if the conditions are right, which leaves the activists in charge of real political movements that have to be reckoned with. Unionization and civil rights campaigns have fallen into that category.
But on the whole, 'grass roots' activism is an opportunistic form of political parasitism that is much better at creating color and movement than delivering anything of substance to its supposed beneficiaries. It can so easily just leverage populist rabble rousers whose only real interest is to empower themselves, often at the expense of the people they are supposed to be advocating for, like the indigenous 'industry'.
Thank you for this excellent piece. Take a look at Portland, Oregon in the US if you want to see the chaos that ensues when you discredit, demoralize and defund police. The formerly beautiful "City of Roses" is now struggling with street crime and murder rates unheard of before the riots of 2020. Police need to be held accountable of course, but the move to abolish is classic Marxism and a blatant step towards abolition of private property. We can and must address homelessness and poverty but not with the destructive tactics of a failed ideology.
The anti-police proposals are recipes for disaster.