Article of the Day
From Beyond Robson. Pretty much sums up the feelings of most people in this city right now.
Usually when I wake up in the morning it goes like this: yawn, coffee, feed cat, read paper, coffee, and go out to greet the day. But lately there has been a thorn in my morning routine. A thorn causing outbursts of swearing and erratic movement. If anyone were to walk by on the street they would see me gesturing wildly to my cat, or the houseplant, or the next nearest object, hands flailing, spittle flying from my lips.
That thorn is the Robert Dziekanski taser inquiry. I have been following the trial for a while now, and each time I read something new it prompts involuntary foot stomping. My blood pressure rises, and I'm sure my downstairs neighbours are wondering what's up. Can't they see what they're doing to me? At this rate I'll be evicted and treated for a heart condition within the month.
The thing about it is that it's all so ridiculous. So now we learn that one of the officers involved was given an award for bravery after he helped arrest a man wielding an ax and a bat. This is the same guy who felt threatened by a stapler. Given an award. For bravery. Did I mention he said he was afraid of a stapler? One time in elementary school, I accidentally stapled my finger and you know what I did? I pulled it out. I put a Spider-man band-aid over it and went outside to play tag. Even CSI and Law & Order don't get this ridiculous, and they have episodes with grown men dressing up like babies and taking acid.
But alas, the tragedy of errors continues to roll forward and each day it seems we are greeted with new reasons to be angry and outraged that our tax dollars are going to fund an RCMP force that uses tasers as if they were a light tap on the shoulder and not potentially deadly weapons, and then openly lie about what happened in court. It's just that gosh-darn annoying video evidence. It keeps refuting everything they say. Don't you hate when that happens?
And now we have the recent case of a police officer in Vancouver deleting the video a man took on his cell phone of the officers shooting a homeless man. I thought it was illegal to delete evidence. Wait, can cops be illegal? If they enforce the law, does it apply to them also? I forget.
In more talk of video recording, it seems like Vancouver wants CCTV cameras in place to monitor everyone during the Olympics. So let me see if I got this straight. The police want to record our actions on cameras to catch us doing something wrong, but when a citizen records a police officer the video is deleted. Just making sure I was following correctly.
All of this brings to mind the phrase used in the graphic novel Watchmen: Who watches the watchmen? Apparently, the watchmen watch the watchmen but when someone else watches the watchmen the watchmen get nervous. It's enough to make you yell at your houseplant in the morning and stomp the floor.
Usually when I wake up in the morning it goes like this: yawn, coffee, feed cat, read paper, coffee, and go out to greet the day. But lately there has been a thorn in my morning routine. A thorn causing outbursts of swearing and erratic movement. If anyone were to walk by on the street they would see me gesturing wildly to my cat, or the houseplant, or the next nearest object, hands flailing, spittle flying from my lips.
That thorn is the Robert Dziekanski taser inquiry. I have been following the trial for a while now, and each time I read something new it prompts involuntary foot stomping. My blood pressure rises, and I'm sure my downstairs neighbours are wondering what's up. Can't they see what they're doing to me? At this rate I'll be evicted and treated for a heart condition within the month.
The thing about it is that it's all so ridiculous. So now we learn that one of the officers involved was given an award for bravery after he helped arrest a man wielding an ax and a bat. This is the same guy who felt threatened by a stapler. Given an award. For bravery. Did I mention he said he was afraid of a stapler? One time in elementary school, I accidentally stapled my finger and you know what I did? I pulled it out. I put a Spider-man band-aid over it and went outside to play tag. Even CSI and Law & Order don't get this ridiculous, and they have episodes with grown men dressing up like babies and taking acid.
But alas, the tragedy of errors continues to roll forward and each day it seems we are greeted with new reasons to be angry and outraged that our tax dollars are going to fund an RCMP force that uses tasers as if they were a light tap on the shoulder and not potentially deadly weapons, and then openly lie about what happened in court. It's just that gosh-darn annoying video evidence. It keeps refuting everything they say. Don't you hate when that happens?
And now we have the recent case of a police officer in Vancouver deleting the video a man took on his cell phone of the officers shooting a homeless man. I thought it was illegal to delete evidence. Wait, can cops be illegal? If they enforce the law, does it apply to them also? I forget.
In more talk of video recording, it seems like Vancouver wants CCTV cameras in place to monitor everyone during the Olympics. So let me see if I got this straight. The police want to record our actions on cameras to catch us doing something wrong, but when a citizen records a police officer the video is deleted. Just making sure I was following correctly.
All of this brings to mind the phrase used in the graphic novel Watchmen: Who watches the watchmen? Apparently, the watchmen watch the watchmen but when someone else watches the watchmen the watchmen get nervous. It's enough to make you yell at your houseplant in the morning and stomp the floor.
posted by Bellybutton at
11:47 AM
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