I think it’s time to open the debate on policing. Last week, I was pulled over because I had hockey tickets in my hand and was resting my cheek against my fist while driving. A police officer who passed me going the opposite direction pulled a u-turn in busy traffic because he thought I was talking on a cell phone.
Then, I was stopped in roadblocks twice in one day by police who were checking drivers’ licenses. Finally, I had the police pounding on my door at 9 p.m. because someone was cold calling people in our neighbourhood about gutter cleaning and they wanted to know if they had called me. The latter I found not only frustrating because they woke up my grandchildren but also slightly terrifying, as I am a business person who often makes cold calls and am curious if I will be facing charges the next time I want to drum up some business?
None of these seems like a tremendously good use of police time. I am only left to assume the police are so under-worked it must be time to start thinking about laying some of them off.
Perhaps the police could at least be honest and admit they are less concerned with serving and protecting as they are with filling government coffers by criminalizing the majority of citizens.
John MacIntyre
Central Saanich