I don't normally like to comment on newspaper reports...correction, I would like to comment on them but I don't have much in the way of direct knowledge of how a story makes it into the newspaper. All I know is that I've been deeply suspicious for years of the honesty and integrity of the journalistic profession. I have noticed reporters have prejudices that go way beyond their political leanings and that they have few compunctions of hiding their biases behind a smokescreen of supposed objectivity. Consequently when one of those prejudices figures in a story I read it with a jaundiced eye.
Of all the prejudices journalists are prone to one against the police seems to be built into their DNA. A recent example in Victoria concerned a car chase in which the fugitive was shot to death by the police. In spite of the fact he had a string of convictions as long as your arm, in spite of the fact that he was driving like a maniac through residential streets, despite the fact that he tried to run down the officers who shot him, the newspaper account only seemed concerned with whether the police followed all the car-chase guidelines. Further along in the story his girlfriend tearfully told us all what a kind and gentle fellow he was. Nowhere did the reporter ask the question I would like to have answered: why the hell was this guy out on the street? Why wasn't he locked up in a cage where he couldn't do any more damage? But no, the assumption of the reporter was that it was the police who needed to be investigated.
It's pretty common to hear somebody say they hate cops, but I always wonder if anyone ever thinks about what they do for a living. I have and I wouldn't want their job if they paid me a million bucks. As a cab driver I have learned how to avoid trouble by being careful about who I pick up. I don't let anybody in without getting a good look at them. But every so often somebody gets in who gives me a problem and although I prefer to defuse a situation. But if I reach a certain tipping point I'm a big guy and I will give somebody the boot. However, if the bark doesn't work I won't bite. That's when I call the cops, and when they do show up I'm very glad to see them. My problem is now their problem.
That's what they do. They handle problems that are too dangerous for the rest of us. They are in a potential life and death situation every time they respond to a call. This is a very tough job. Of course I never see what they have to do afterward. I don't get to see the paperwork, I don't see how the courts treat them. But I get the impression they are treated with the same kind of contempt given to them by the media.
But to me they are guys who do their best to do a tough job as well as they can. I have a lot of respect for them.
That doesn't mean I don't get upset when I'm the one who gets pulled over. Yes, I can swear like a leftist if I want.
Today in the Vancouver Sun an article, a long, frontpage, special report with the headline, "He had a license to kill."