SHOOTING VIDEO ‘THE REALITY OF POLICE WORK’: UNION BOSS
It appears a vitriolic and very vocal minority of people think footage of this week’s public shooting of a police officer should remain private. Calgary police Sgt. Les Kaminski isn’t one of them.
Kaminski, president of the Calgary Police Association, which represents the city’s 2,100 police officers, says Postmedia video showing Const. Jordan Forget receiving first aid from fellow officers Tuesday while he lay unconscious after being shot in the 100 block of Abingdon Way N.E. is something adult Calgarians should watch and ponder.
“I can’t begin to put into words the amount of support we have received since this tragedy happened,” Kaminski said Thursday night from the police association offices. “Citizens are coming out of the woodwork saying really nice things,” he adds, which is appreciated by service members.
What’s less appreciated, continues Kaminski, is the anger about the dramatic video showing Forget, a five-year member of the Calgary Police Service, fighting for his life after he was shot by a gunman with a rifle.
“I have to mention, when the video was released there were a lot of people who said they were offended by it and I can understand their feelings,” said Kaminski, who spent more than a decade on the Calgary police tactical unit, where he got “pretty banged up,” and also headed up Calgary’s gang suppression unit.
“However, that video serves a huge purpose.”
Truth usually does. In this age of fake news, the truth should be embraced, not excoriated. Shootings should never be sugar-coated. Unlike video games, you can’t hit “start again.” Real-life shootings have real-life consequences with lasting effects. Forget has a collapsed lung, but colour is returning to his face and he looks better every day, according to Kaminski.
Despite what many critics say, it is not sensationalist to show what happened. It’s the opposite of that. The definition of sensationalism is to present stories in a way that is intended to spur public interest at the expense of accuracy. If you want the true facts of the risks police officers face, Calgary’s police union boss urges people to watch the video.
“That video was real life. That depicted what it looked like to be a police officer in the city of Calgary,” he said.
It’s been a long time since a Calgary officer has been shot by a bad guy in Calgary. You have to go all the way back to the shooting murder of Const. Rob Vanderwiel, 36, on Sept. 22, 1992, for the last one.
But while police officers getting shot in Calgary is unusual, Kaminski said the kind of call that led to the shooting is not.
“That wasn’t a video game,” said Kaminski. “That wasn’t Hollywood, that wasn’t TV, that was real.
“Those were our officers trying to save their friend’s life and I think it’s important for people to understand.”
And watch.
It’s our duty as citizens to fully comprehend our city and what our first responders deal with on a daily basis.
“That’s the reality of police work,” admits Kaminski. “It’s hard to watch. It’s hard for everybody to watch.”
But it’s even harder to live through — the sounds, the smells, the actual real danger. Our officers lived through that. To truly appreciate that, the least we can do is understand it.
“It’s delivering an important message,” he adds of the video, shot by award-winning Postmedia photographer and videographer Darren Makowichuk.
“We do put ourselves out every day for the citizens of Calgary and that’s a potential outcome of what we do,” said Kaminski. If Calgarians’ only exposure to police officers is when they get a speeding ticket, how can they ever comprehend the important work done every day to keep citizens safe?
“Understand that that call, that’s a high-frequency, highrisk call. That happens every day in the city of Calgary, it’s just the outcome was a little more unique. But we deal with carjackings and robberies multiple times a day. They don’t always turn this ugly but the reality is we deal with them on a daily basis.”
Crime is ugly. It shouldn’t be hidden. If it offends you, don’t look.