Dear Lord, it's still going on.
For the last hour, CBC radio's been on about Sgt. Ryan Russell.
Wendy Drummond, the police chaplain, Bill Blair, Will McCormack ... non-stop hagiography. He was a family man and a hero, this reminds us all about the dangers we face when we put on the uniform, we have to know God is with us, officers from across the city traumatized, a tragedy that stunned the whole city ... We're not going to hear the end of it for weeks.
And of course, the funeral. Anyone want to bet we're not going to get a full-court press of pageantry, flags, parades, uniforms, solemn speechifying, and the display of tribal solidarity?
Is it unseemly to suggest that this sad event is going to be used for some big-time image repair? Anybody think the media's going to be paying any attention to anything else police-related? Such as ... oh, I don't know ... the brutal and sadistic cops who went wilding on us at the G20, and the fact that almost none of their fellow cops saw anything or heard anything or said anything? Anybody want to bet that that little storyline's not going to be buried, along with any efforts to rein in the police budget? What happened to Respect for Taxpayers?
Again, it's all about controlling the narrative. The spin machine's going to drown out everything else if we let it.
I'm not one to dwell on the death of a policeman at the best of times because I have been around long enough to know that for every police death there are countless civilians that have been tazered, beaten, run over, etc,." Live by the sword...". What really gets me is the circus atmosphere that follows. Are we to believe that cops are the only ones that are "Head over heels" in love with their wives and children? I bet the Polish guy tazered to death at the Vancouver airport loved his mother. I'm pretty sure that the 160+/- military personel loved their wifes,children, husbands, etc., but I don't see them getting a convention centre spectacular funeral. I for one will never forget the G20 fiasco and I say that we should never let the goons forget it either. The media is telling us everything they can about Sarge Ryan that will make him forever remain in our thoughts. What I want to know is where was he in June and was he wearing his badge?
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