Goring Oxes

When someone's rights are being trampled on and corrective action is being undertaken as a result, it's inevitable that someone else, notably those doing the trampling to begin with, agonize that their rights are being trampled. Just can't please everyone.

But this is a matter that transcends pleasing everyone. It's a matter of supporting the security agencies that Canadians depend upon for our safety and security, while at the same time expecting that those engaged in the safety-and-security component of civil society recognize their obligations to respecting the safety and security of those whom they are tasked to protect.

Kind of circuitous reasoning, but reasonable nonetheless.

Police agencies are given certain powers of authority that are regulated by law to ensure that they uphold the very laws that they are tasked with enforcing. It's basic human nature that when people are empowered, given authority over others, they feel entitled and elevated and when a uniform is added to the equation, some of the representatives who have been inducted into safety and security have problems remembering their responsibilities to the public and to the laws that they uphold.

We can take comfort, as a general public, in believing, with good reason, that most police and security personnel know the functionality of acting within certain boundaries, both for themselves and for the purpose of acting in good faith for the wider protection of the public in recognition of lawful legislation and constitutional rights and freedoms.

The soft underbelly of society, those who are social misfits, the troublemakers, those engaged in illicit, in unethical or immoral behaviours try the patience of police and often are treated in a manner that ordinary law-abiding citizens are not. This is not supposed to happen, but it does and no one is under any illusions that it does not.

Racial profiling is also not really blessed by the authorities but it is inevitable, that it takes place when identifiable representatives of demographics that represent a disproportionate number of lawbreakers present themselves in suspicious circumstances. Or even in ordinary circumstances, which seems unfair and unjust, but it is difficult to work against human nature which through experience finds itself utilizing tried-and-true identification methods.

In the wake of a number of high-profile abusive arrests of citizens by police in Ottawa in Toronto and out West, where police have taken it upon themselves to be judge and executioner, not merely arresting agents, but also brutal oppressors, traumatizing and violently harming people, a pall of public censure has fallen over the police as the public is scandalized by videos clearly demonstrating police brutality.

And when the chiefs of police admit that they too are upset by these clear instances of police overstepping the boundaries of their office, the police unions join the fray.

The public is astute enough and appreciative enough of police and the service they offer to society, placing themselves in danger often enough in the pursuit of their activities to protect the public, to make distinctions between the majority and an unfortunate minority of malefactors in uniform.

Low morale among police forces when such instances of a small number of their members behaving badly is understandable. Investigations are launched and the police feel embattled and their efforts unappreciated. It is when police unions become involved and impugn the impressions left by judges as in the case of Stacy Bonds and Justice Richard Lajoie, that matters tend to get out of hand.

The unions may be less than pleased with Chief Vern White, but he has been a credit to the Ottawa Police Force and to the city at large. There are times when those in authority should be left to their devices, and the unions should sit back and wait matters out to their conclusion, and this is one of them.