All are equal before the law
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary’s Joe Smyth has been charged under the Criminal Code of Canada with obstruction of justice.
It is encouraging to see that the system works and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) declined to use the kid gloves worn by the RCMP investigators in the hours and days after Smyth shot and killed the physically handicapped Donald Dunphy.
Cold, clear eyes and professionalism, rigorousness, and objectivity are always much better investigating tools than a sense of camaraderie and commiserating with a fellow officer of the thin blue line.
RNC Chief of Police Joe Boland said in a statement issued Wednesday, July 11, that Smyth has been suspended without pay until further notice.
At The Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Death of Donald Dunphy, Joe Smyth complained of receiving little help from the RNC brass and he felt abandoned by the RNC executive. Jeez, I bet Smyth could single-handedly and bare-handedly attack and destroy a municipal bus and several privately owned vehicles at the very idea of a suspension of his pay.
Little is known of the citizen who wouldn’t roll over for Const. Smyth. We know a motorist filed a complaint after he/she was issued a traffic violation ticket by Smyth for an alleged offence that allegedly did not occur.
The person might be Newfoundland’s Nelson Mandela or Rosa Parks or the stunndest (sic) and goofiest Newf ever born and dragged up here.
To use Smyth’s words on the road to Mitchell’s Brook, this recent complainant might be a loser or a lunatic. (Do you remember the hilarious episode from Justice Leo Barry’s court of inquiry when Smyth testified he often called his lawyer, Jerome Kennedy, a lunatic? And the soundtrack had only one lawyer from that large pitful of lawyers audibly laughing! No, dear reader, it was not Kennedy.)
It may be the motorist has a refined and more evolved notion of “the rule of law,” that is, all persons are equal before the law. No matter who you are, or what position you hold, if you break the law you must answer to the law.
The public will have more information of the particulars of the complainant and any allegations at provincial court in St. John’s on Aug. 23 at 9:30 a.m.
Whether goat, hero, or just an ordinary Joe (or Josephine?) caught up in the direct descendants of the fishing admirals’ finely grinding wheels, I will presume to give a fellow traveller on this bluegreen mudball a bit of advice: do not go into that courtroom without a lawyer to represent you and protect your rights.
You’ll be raw meat at feeding time at the zoo.
The crown attorney’s or prosecutor’s role is to find the truth wherever it may be lying. Criminal lawyer Kennedy will vigorously, most vigorously, sir or madam, defend his client.
And you may well wish you had taken up walking to where you were going when you look down and see the bloody stumps where your legs used to be.
Tom Careen Placentia