Retired R.C.M.P.
I joined the R.C.M.P., in the mid-60's when we still trained on horses. I was proud of the accomplishment of completeing training successfully, and proud of the history and competence of the Force. I saw many changes during my service, some made more graphic because of broken service, I left in 81 and remounted in 88. Some of the most significant changes surrounded political intervention in the Force. Mr. Trudeau being the main instigator in this erosion. I don't remember the exact order but I think admitting women was the first. There was no need or desire for this from within the Force, Trudeau just announced it was going to happen to have us reflect the diversity of society. Sounds good, but even though women make up roughtly 50% of society, they do not make up 50% of violent offenders, which is really our client base. Now I quite like women so do not hear me as anti-female at all, I just prefer that people be hired to do a job that are suited to accomplish that job. Of course women can perform very satisfactorily in many roles required to be performed by Police Personal. No dispute there at all. They are not however, suited to respond physically at any time to violence. Now once we are hiring women, the old size and physical capability requirements for men no longer make sense. So then we began to hire physically diminutive males, because apparently physical capabilty no longer matters since a significant portion of recruits are 5'1" females. Talk about unintended consequences making themselves known. Now to compensate for the lack of physical capability we needed to add equipment in place of the absence of physical size and strength. So add pepperspray(quite a good idea actually, inspite of the publicity), then expandible baton, tazer, and upgraded firearm. These additions all have a big plus, they also carry a big price, in terms of bad publicity, public sentiment, accidental deaths, and increased confusion in times of crisis about which tool to utilize. If you have been there, and most have, when you have to make a life or death decision in a milisecond, that everyone else has the luxury of examining under a microscope for months before deciding if you were right or wrong, you understand the pressures at work. If you add to that allready tension fraught decision the need to evaluate which tool to deploy based on a full page flow chart you can see that it won't speed things up.All of this of course is to protect the ranks above reason who have put it all in place to protect themselves from any responsibility. Which brings me to another point. Every rank and file member of the Force could see a staffing crisis looming at the turn of the millenium as a significant number of members approached retirement age. Yet the High priced help seemed caught by surprise when this occurred. Too busy passing the buck I suppose.
I just wonder if I am the only one that feels that a once proud and capable instituion (the RCMP) has been reduced by political correctness to a shadow of its former self?
Labels: destruction of the rcmp, fall of the rcmp, politicaly correct disaster, retired RCMP
posted by rewrite @ 9:39 AM
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