Police need to earn their respect

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Respect ouf police, they deserve it,” (Herald letters, Feb. 15).

Dave Smith suggests that the police should get more respect. Well, young man, may I remind you that respect is earned and does not come with the job regardless of who you are be it a copper, teacher, judge, politician, editor, mayor, doctor, nurse or your trusty bin man. You say the coppers put their lives on the line each day. Hmm. Don’t we all these days? Do you watch the news?

In terms of dangerous jobs, policing is way down the list in terms of danger.

Getting back to our police force, be it the RCMP or a city force, they all suffer from the same fault, a serious lack of being able to de-escalate. The bad bully cop regardless if he or she is first on scene will bully the back-up good cop. The good cop fearing the lunch room backlash will do as they told, it’s called “The Brotherhood” or the “Thin Blue Line.”

This, of course, comes down from the top, the old boys club so to speak. Headlines going back months and years do little to garner respect for the upper brass, lies, cover ups, timely resignations, cop outs, it’s all regular fodder these days.

I am an ex-Limey, one with more than a passing interest in law and order and policing, and avid cop watcher, not just the local Canadian lads and lasses but those in the UK and France and Germany plus the U.S. and Australia. I can assure you that the respect problem is not just in Canada, it is worldwide. Law and order is in free fall.

Many police agencies now having to resort to offering big signing bonuses to get new recruits. In the UK town where my current wife and I used to live shows older people now too scared to use public transport, preferring to stay in more and using a taxi when they need to go out. A police person not to be seen anywhere re shortage of members – members who have quit the force in favour of a more sincere occupation.

The police should know that it only takes one bad, unfair encounter with a police person to turn your feelings against them, be you a kid or a senior.

Don Smithyman Oliver