Yesterday’s story in The Vancouver Sun (Dismissed in 2004, 2 Mounties keep jobs) should be the final chapter in the determined effort by the RCMP to get rid of two North Vancouver members for “trash talking” in text messages to each other using their on-board police computers.
That Constables Sat Dhaliwal and Deri Kinsey used inappropriate and offensive language is not in issue. There is no doubt they should not have said some of the things they did. But the knee jerk reaction to fire them was wrong. So said the Federal Court of Canada in 2007 and has now been upheld by an RCMP adjudication board.
I can’t imagine how many cops would be left standing if everyone was to lose their job for making an inappropriate comment or using a sexist or racist reference at some point in their career. Does that make all cops sexist or racist? Not in the least. Hands up anyone who has never repeated or listened to a sexist or racist joke. Ever tell a blonde joke? That is sexist. An Irish joke? That is racist. But it doesn’t make you sexist or racist. It makes you capable of laughing at ourselves.
Policing is a tough, emotional job. You deal with the worst society has to offer on a day to day basis. The only regular folks police typically deal with are victims. Everyone else is either a criminal, thug, addict, gangster or smart ass punk. You learn early on in the game that your original concepts about helping and making a difference are little more than ideals that have little basis with reality.
Cops see the most horrible things and deal with the emotional impact that inevitably results by using so-called ‘locker room humour.’ They joke about things that would reduce the average person to a blubbering basket-case. It is a survival method and is critical for their emotional health.
Are the jokes appropriate and politically correct? Hardly ever. Cops, in their humour, disparage dumb crooks gangsters, bikers, the brass, minorities, white people, females, males, traffic cops, internal affairs, paper pushers, journalists, politicians, government, bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, pretty much anyone who isn’t a street cop and some who are if it is felt they don’t carry their load or are cowards.
Do I condone the actions of Kinsey and Dhaliwal? No, but I won’t condemn them to the unemployment line as the Mountie brass tried to do. They should have received a punishment that fit and counselled as to their future behaviour. And that ultimately, is what the adjudication board decided.
At the end of the day, despite some of the criticisms of the police haters, members of the RCMP are simply human and fallible. Just like you and me. When they do something wrong, it is right that they be corrected. But, let the punishment be commensurate with the seriousness of the offence.
In Kinsey and Dhaliwal’s case, many of the comments they made were about a female co-worker who, uh, let’s just say, got around a bit. They used the sort of language that would make many folks blush. But they did so in what they believed were private conversations between themselves.
They didn’t deserve the public ‘execution’ they received.
Leo Knight
primetimecrime@gmail.com
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Well said Leo! Something that most people choose to overlook, is that when something in their lives is too much for THEM, who do they call to COPE with it? The Police………………
Cheers
Sure, I’ve said lots of sexist things in my life, and had lots of bad thoughts I’ve kept to myself, but I’ve never written them down, I’ve never used my employer’s internal messaging service or email account to do it, and I’ve certainly never said I want to punch a female co-worker in the throat or any co-worker for that matter. And I’ve never said certain racial or ethnic groups are more fun to beat up than others, or even thought it, not to mention actually being so stupid as to you use my employer’s computer and messaging system to write such a thing. Honestly I don’t believe most guys write these kinds either, have you?
I don’t disagree with you and hence my point. The stupid part was to write things down and transmit them on company networks where things live on in perpetuity. But, as I say, let the punishment fit the crime.
If you’re saying they were fired for writing the comments down as opposed to actually saying them, then I see your point. I suppose times are changing, but the things they were saying were so over the top, I have trouble accepting that respectable members of society would say those things, never mind police officers, who need to keep an open mind about everybody they deal with. I guess I miss the Mounties of my youth who’s only vices seemed to be hockey, beer and sometimes a pack a day smoking habit. Each individual they dealt with got the treatment he or she deserved, and almost without fail, you could put absolute trust in an RCMP officer to make the right decision.
I too long for days past when things were simpler. But, as the saying goes, it is what it is.
-Leo Knight