Wrong Answer!

Seems the pony soldiers and their current federal bosses have a bit of a problem with Braidwood's recommendations. Surprise, surprise. Comments mine.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Shields said it's too early to say whether the RCMP will comply with the Heed's directive to adopt Braidwood's recommendations immediately. "Although the RCMP is B.C.'s provincial police service, it's also Canada's national police service. Recommendations that are sweeping, involving training and policy, will also affect RCMP right across the country," Shields said. That non-committal approach was echoed by federal Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan in Ottawa.

"I am asking [You're ASKING?!?! You mean like giving them the option of refusing? Jesus.] the RCMP to review the findings and recommendations... with the objective of improving upon current RCMP policies and procedures with respect to Taser use," Van Loan said following the release of the first Braidwood report. B.C.'s contract with the RCMP is up in 2012, and Braidwood wants the province to require the federal force to comply with provincial guidelines before renewing the agreement.

Heed said it's premature to start talking about consequences if it doesn't. "We're operating from the position that we will get some kind of agreement with respect to that and we will try to enshrine it in the contract," Heed said.

Perhaps it's time BC fired the RCMP and got its own provincial force. Maybe the rest of the provinces too. Let the RCMP stick to something harmless like riding horses in circles. As for the Conservatives, can't they do anything without a court order? Useless, the lot of them.

UPDATE: Cathie coins a term: "Police Entitlement Syndrome" or PES. Known to afflict police, politicians and the general public, symptoms include but are not limited to victim blaming, uniform fetishism, machine fetishism, weapon fetishism, state sanctioned violence, lying, cover-up, and cognitive dissonance. Provisional treatments include radical institutional reform aimed at securing substantive civilian oversight and redress procedures, as well as internal police organisational culture change. These treatments, however, are in short supple due to a significant dearth of democracy resulting from socially and politically entrenched power inequalities and hegemonic ideologies.