This site receives 20,000 visitors a month, yet few chose to participate in the discussion. Not everyone is comfortable commenting publicly on topics as contentious as those presented on this site. But they may still want to participate.
So to help make this site more interactive, we have added a “Like or Dislike” link at the bottom of every comment. With a simple click of the mouse, this will allow increased interactivity and let commenters know if others agree with their point of view.
And to make it easier for visitors to share or save posts, we have also added the AddToAny “Share/Save” button at the bottom of each post.
And while we were at it, we opened a Twitter account (@RCMPWatch) and installed a button to our Twitter page.
What is happening to our National Police Force? Why does it seem like so many of them are making bad decisions?
Under the right circumstances, being a police officer means getting to help people on a daily basis, doing work that really matters. At the same time, being a police officer means taking a fair amount of abuse on a day-to-day basis from citizens, receiving little respect, and being put in harm’s way regularly.
Police Officers are humans first, and their job is that of someone who will protect us, defend us and ensure our safety. Police Officers are held to a much higher standard of conduct and accountability, ethics, values and morals than is the rest of the general populace. Our expectation is that they are here to uphold the laws, not to break them.
A Code of Conduct governs the RCMP. They are expected to remain professional under adverse conditions, yet are not designated by a professional Degree, many members of the RCMP in fact do hold degrees. Regardless of a designation they are very highly trained individuals.
It seems that more and more we are bombarded by media reports of the “bad cop”. Citizens are expressing their dislike for police officers and the media is more than happy to jump on the “cop bashing bandwagon” gathering more ill informed citizens along the parade route.
Their intelligence is questioned, they are called “Red-Bull-chugging, UFC-watching, racist, sexist, homophobic, jock lunk heads”. Yet they are the first choice to call when we are being threatened. They must arrive at these calls knowing that the public harbors these feelings towards them, but they must put that aside. Any interaction with a member of the public, whether socially or officially, involves a non-trivial risk of verbal abuse or physical harm. Treating a person with common respect or normal social graces requires the officer to be off guard and unprepared for an attack. Being on guard for an attack and treating every interpersonal situation with safety procedures and affirmative commands makes the police officer appear cynical, brutal, and detached. He’s not.
Police work is not balanced. Most occupations involve a combination of good and bad results. In police work, almost everything is bad, and everybody they deal with is perceived either inherently bad or at least foolish for the most part. Police officers encounter exposure to neglect, battered, or dead children, domestic disputes, drug crazed junkies and drunk drivers to name a few. They encounter critical incidents on the job that take some processing in the off hours to deal with. The officer is either in shock or dealing with some stage of grief. Remember he is human too. His own perception may be to keep a stiff upper lip and deal with these stressors on his own.
Under these adverse circumstances, they make human error mistakes, they may post remarks on a public blog, and they may react in panic mode, and leave the scene of an accident. Police officers are humans just like everyone else. They make mistakes. Unfortunately, the difference between police officers and regular citizens is that people expect them to be perfect and immune from the stresses of what can be an extremely taxing and frustrating job. When they prove themselves to be human, their imperfections are often times held in the spotlight and criticized by many, who apparently forget their own faults and weaknesses. The media plays a significant role in criticizing this behavior and are unfairly stereotyping all police officers. The media creates a mob mentality towards all police officers because of the wrong doings of some. They drag from the archives every gone bad cop story they can splash right along side the present story, such as an officers remarks on a social networking site, the media then drags the story of the officer involved in a Taser death and subsequently a fatal motorcycle accident and this receives more press than Robert Pickton.
A crime is an action prohibited by law, or a failure to act as required by law that is intentional. A mistake is an incorrect, unwise, or unfortunate act or decision caused by bad judgment or a lack of information or care. Have some police offers committed crimes, yes they have and they are charged accordingly. Do they make mistakes? Yes they do.
They’re not robots. They are humans. When they make mistakes, let’s make sure we deliver the appropriate corrective action. But let’s also make sure we don’t unfairly stereotype a profession and a group of people because of the inappropriate actions of a few.
Hot debate. What do you think?
7 
7
You make it sound as if making a post is objective black and white, instead of a subjective many shades of grey.
Actually there are instances where I have been responsible and civil, and still not have had it posted. The last one was regarding when I asked someone here if there name was Blair Francis Gorman? If that is so offensive they don’t have to answer. Was this the reason it wasn’t posted?
Apart from this all I did was question EXCOP on the credibility of his argument regarding the missing gasoline. I also asked him about the incident at Walmart, in regards to how I could believe his story when there is a pattern here.
At NO time did I name call or accuse anyone of anything that was not already in question.
Save the civil human being rhetoric for someone else.
Hot debate. What do you think?
9 
14
If you conduct yourself like a reasonable, responsible and civil human your post will be approved, even if the moderators don’t like it.
What would make this site better, is when you receive a post that has content you don’t approve of.
Remove the part you won’t allow instead of the whole contribution. How is anyone supposed to know where the line is if they can’t see where it is.
Well-liked comment. Do you Like or Dislike:
12 
4