I was in a small town in Saskatchewan. My head was itchy and since the land was flatter than North Dakota and there was no vegetation, I figured it would be a safe place to ride without a helmet.
But before I could fire up my motorcycle one of the locals came running out, yelling,
"What are you doing!!!???"
Confused I asked, "what am I doing???"
He then continued on to explain to me that you could NOT ride in Canada without a helmet otherwise you'd get pulled over.
I said, "Really?? boy that kind of sucks."
He said, "Yeah, I know. They'll confiscate your bike if you don't."
That seemed a little harsh. I dismissed him as a local yokel hick who just didn't like the cops. Probably had a run in with them where he was belligerent and got what he deserved. And so I said,
"No way! They're not going to confiscate my bike!"
He contested saying, "They sure as hell will!"
His adamancy was compelling to the point I didn't believe him, but didn't NOT believe him either.
For the rest of my travels I inquired about the RCMP with locals and to my surprise they all agreed the RCMP WOULD INDEED confiscate my bike if I was not wearing a helmet.
This made me a little weary of the local law enforcement of Canada. Unlike the US, they don't have local sheriffs or constables. The RCMP is basically the national police force. And given their sparseness on the road and the stiff penalties for speeding, I started developing a concept of their law enforcement model.
Fewer cops + stiffer penalties + badassery = low cost law enforcement that can cover a wide area.
I can appreciate that model. You don't have a ton of resources, you have a large unpopulated land, and so it may be of economic benefit to the tax payer to have stiffer penalties to compensate for the lack of manpower.
But then this happens.
And now the cops, who I normally side with, are frankly my enemy. And the reason why is that they are nothing more than nazis.
Understand I enjoy the benefits of free speech in America. I am not Canadian and therefore I can speak freely about matters in other countries with no retribution whereas local Canadians can't. So to all you RCMP "members" (that's what they call their officers) who think you have the right to violate the rights, let alone, property rights of law abiding Canadians, go to hell.
Normally conservatives and libertarians have a favorable view of law enforcement. Normally, we like the cops and have this implicit understanding that we abide by the law and you don't get an attitude or go on a power trip. But based on what I've seen, heard, and this scam going on in Calgary, I just want to let the RCMP know that they are not the "Dudley Doo Right" red coated Canadian mounties media portrays them as, but are rather goose stepping nazis. It needs to be pointed out and I think a little threat from people who are allowed to speak their minds without the Canadian Human Rights Commission coming down on them will do a lot of Canadians some good.
Now, again, I am pro-law enforcement. I for the most part have a favorable opinion of cops, sheriffs and law enforcement here in the US. But I get the distinct impression that the RCMP is getting a little strain of SS in it and a little too big for its britches. Of course, in all intellectual honesty, I am more than happy to post any response to this piece from members of the RCMP or Canadians who are pro-RCMP. But based on my experiences, conversations and recent confiscation of weapons by the RCMP, they need a little international attention from the media and maybe need to be bitch slapped down a bit.
Again, any time you want to legitimize/defend your actions, your comments are free to be published.
25 comments:
yup. no matter how bad we americans think we have it, everyone else has it worse in some way.
I'm from Canada and have family there, so I'm aware of what's going on. I can tell you my mother and brother have both been unlawfully harassed by the fucking cops in the past 6 months. In fact, they're looking for a lawyer that will know how to successfully sue these bastards and get them fired in the process. While that would be all good and well, what they really deserve is a major ass kicking from ME!! Something along the lines of having a permanent limp and the need for dentures would suffice!
You realize most law enforcement in the U.S. isn't much better, right? Go spend some time catching up on Radley Balko's work at The Agitator and see if you're still so 'pro law enforcement' after an hour or so of that. If you want to get really mad, go read the posts under "puppycide".
www.theagitator.com/?s=puppycide
It's pretty universal in our country that 'officer safety' trumps all of our rights. Hell, their desire to not get sweaty on a stakeout apparently trumps our rights as well in their eyes.
http://www.volokh.com/2013/07/04/a-real-live-third-amendment-case/
You have no idea, Captain. When I was a wee fella, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were as legendary law keepers as Scotland Yard or the Texas Rangers.
Today they are a multi-culti,LGBT social experiment that spends more time living under the rainbow than doing their jobs. That crap in High River was the last straw for many Canadians - including me. There was a time where if they knocked on the door at 2:00 am I would invite them in, put on the coffee and ask how I could help. After that gun grab in High River - screw them. I will no longer cooperate with them under any circumstances.
As for the helmet thing, they have always been mandatory in Canada, and for good reason - most Canadians, especially in cities - drive like animals. It's getting worse too and I have personally seen two bikers killed here in Edmonton this year.
Wear your lid Cap.
This is what happens when collective security supersedes personal liberty.
As a Canadian, I am not surprised that the police think it is within their rights to break into people's homes in the interest of public safety. I am saddened, but, not surprised.
This made me a little weary of the local law enforcement of Canada.
I'm weary of seeing people use weary where they mean wary; it makes me wary of reading any further.
Appropriately timed post by Vox Popoli
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-blue-rot_25.html
Go check out the Lawdog blog sometime. He's a rural police officer, and has spent a good deal of time in the past discussing the difference between the urban "law enforcement officer" and the rural "officer of the peace".
It's also worthwhile to watch a video called "Don't Talk to the Police" by Professor James Duane from the Regent University law school. It's on youtube and also on itunes.
Canadians have always been free to voice their criticizm of their governments and law enforcement agencies. Many of us have been more than willing to tell the RCMP to "go to hell" over the High River gun seizure, which has resulted in them having to deal with a considerable amount of unrelenting public outrage from across the country. It has been fun to watch them squirm over it all.
As for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, it recently had its teeth pulled when the federal government repealed Section 13 of the Human Rights Act, which made it an offence to "hurt peoples' feelings."
So, Captain, whether you are at home in the U.S. or here in Canada, don't be afraid to expose and criticize the RCMP for their sometimes egregious disregard for personal rights and freedoms.
Lee from Edmonton
The mess in High River is inexcusable. I really want to know who is responsible.
When I was a kid and young adult I had more than my share of run-ins with both Edmonton City Police and the RCMP.
Now I get the occasional speeding ticket but thats about it. To this day I have always found the RCMP far better trained and much more reasonable than the city police. On an individual level they are just better cops. I think this is a leadership issue.
Glen Filthie:
There is no justification for helmet or seatbelt laws for adults. None.
Just because some assholes in government have decided that medical service is a welfare benefit does not mean that they get a lean on anyone's body.
If helmetless riders are such a burden on nationalized medicine, then the proper solution is to get rid of nationalized medicine.
Canadian police are virulently anti-gun (not just the RCMP; all the municipal police are too) and anti-self-defence. Dare to stand up for yourself in this country and you'll find yourself on the wrong end of a slew of charges by self-righteous police, with the goal of putting you back in your place. Actual criminals are treated with kid gloves compared to what they do to law-abiding citizens.
i was astounded when i heard this, i had always thought the RCMP were better than this, i almost expect this kind of behaviour from local doughnut eating cops.it has changed the way i view the police and governments. on the bright side , their shirts are already the right colour.
Captain, I believe the Canadian provinces contract for the use of the RCMP. Some provinces, I believe, have their own Provincial police forces.
Perhaps one of the Canadians who reads your site can shed some light on this.
There is no doubt that Canada is a hard left country at least as far as the Establishment goes. The so-called 'Conservative' party is about at the same level as our Democrats, and it goes down from there.
Still, Canadians are great people and I appreciate them. We are lucky to have Canada to the North of us.
Robert Dziekański,Buddy Tavares, Ian Bush, Catherine Galliford.
To name a few.
Common thugs.
RCMP out of Alberta!
I wrote this piece recently - in response to an LA cop - forgiving police, somewhat, for their brutality. Without a magical belief in the badge - that is, a widespread support for Law and Order and the cops in general - peace officer transforms into peace keeper. http://www.staresattheworld.com/2013/07/the-power-of-the-shield/
However, this High River fiasco is utterly unforgiveable; these incidents happened in places where people were complying with the police, and treating them as officer friendly, only to later have the police break into their homes after entrusting their home-security to said cops.
Utter scum, thank God our newspapers are actually reporting on it.
The RCMP is the Canadian Police Force filled with criminals and unconvicted sex offenders. One violated my brother's charter and legal rights when he broke through a door without a warrant at the behest of a local lawyer who is now disbarred. We are not free in Canada and our police do have a strain of the gestapo in them as they have no accountability.
These two videos may change your positive view of the police. One is by a lawyer, the other by a cop.
http://southernmanblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/dont-talk-to-cops.html
My .02 - I've been the victim of three reportable crimes (because the insurance company needed the police reports). In two of the three, the cops were worse than the robbers.
My car was stolen, then found (somewhat stripped) a week later. The police towed it in and said they needed to keep it until they'd finished their investigation. They held on to it for a month - then charged me $600 in impound fees. The investigation was never conducted.
In the other, our home was burglarized and they got my fairly high-end stereo rig. The thieves were caught but the goods were never returned. I finally found the gear a couple of years later in a pawn shop - where they had just been sold by the detective's teenage son.
Do not trust the police. Don't speak to them, ever, for any reason. Don't befriend them. Cooperate with them only to the extent to which you are required to by law. Stand up for your rights. And have a good lawyer on speed dial.
I have a theory of motorcycle helmet law in 3 points:
1. A motorcycle owner does not have to wear or even own a helmet, if they so choose. It's their head & they take the consequences.
2. A motorcycle owner wants to give an adult a ride, a helmet MUST be available for that adult. That adult doesn't have to wear the helmet though. They probably have to provide themselves with a helmet if they want that ride too.
3. A motorcycle owner giving a child a ride MUST wear a helmet and the child MUST be wearing the appropriate size helmet themselves. The motorcycle owner is taking on responsibility for that child & must wear the helmet to insure their own survivability to care for the child after an accident.
Personnel freedom and responsibility then can reign.
Lorne and Cappy:
The RCMP is the main LEO force in rural Canada. There are three urban forces (if you count Camrose, AB, as urban..) in Alberta and most of Southern Ontario has detachments of their own and the OPP Provincials. Once you get outside of Ontario and urban centres in Canada, you run into more RCMP.
I used to be pro-LEO but no longer handle the stench of thuggery well. Inside every cop is a totalitarian thug just dying to be let out.
Sorry, Cap, but our cops take their cues from US law enforcement. And don't try to tell me that dealing with a state trooper is a better experience. Our guys might want you to wear a helmet, but they'll spot you more than 5 over the speed limit.
The RCMP in Alberta are responsible to the provincial Solicitor General, so the High River gun grab likely originated in that office, as our Prime Minister's office raised Hell about it.
Incidentally, the Calgary Police, despite evacuating over 100000 people from the downtown core, seized exactly zero firearms. The difference is that our Chief of
Police is pro-gun rights.
Rock
A Canadian trucker I met in Pennsylvania a few months back told me that his son was rejected from joining the RCMP---despite having exemplary marks in the academy---because he was a white male. The CBSA seems to operate under the same principle; something like close to half of their officers are women. Multiculti/feminist indoctrination and police brutality seem to go hand in hand.
Honestly surprised you didn't have any issues with the CBSA, given their predilection for harassing and interrogating people for the pettiest and dumbest reasons.
@I.M.
"Canadian police are virulently anti-gun (not just the RCMP; all the municipal police are too) and anti-self-defence. Dare to stand up for yourself in this country and you'll find yourself on the wrong end of a slew of charges by self-righteous police, with the goal of putting you back in your place."
This really needs to be experienced to truly understand. COPS anywhere in Canada, local, provincial or RCMP believe that they are the only ones authorized to provide defense. It's like self-defense is a misnomer. They almost treat you like a scab if you speak up for yourself. Meanwhile, they walk and drive around like thugs and bullies. The PR reps talk about "community policing" to the media but the thugs on the street intimidate lowly citizens into submission.
The Tan Man says:
This is an EEC Stasi data-collecting site.
The RCMP get their orders from Jean-Claude Juncker and his colleagues over at the Council on Foreign Relations.
All 'free' blog sites and 'services' are under the guidance of the EU, EEC, and CFR.
Blogger, Wordpress, Clip Converter, and hundreds others, are all designed to catalogue data.
The object of the data collection is to determine public opinion in certain demographics, to best utilize and implement 'laws' and 'legislation' to keep the debt-slaves misinformed and under heel. They have several hundreds of thousands of employees around the globe doing their bidding. The RCMP is just one 'police force' of many that are under their tutelage.
There is another objective as well: Not only is this data-collection necessary to extract wealth and power from complacent debt-slaves across the globe, but it is used to determine how to best orchestrate population control (via societal collapse, civil wars, famine, engineered pandemics, etc.).
As a soon-to-be retired Mountie, I can tell from the comments all over the internet that so many of you are grossly misinformed and perhaps even deliberately ignorant of how you've been indoctrinated and conditioned.
There is something very, very bad coming humanity's way, my friends.
There is nothing I can do about it, nor anyone else.
It is useless and pointless to warn people due to the relentless disinformation practices going on in the controlled media world-wide, and yes, the internet.
Because of this, MOST people are reluctant to heed sage advice, dismissing it as psychobabble or conspiracy theory. This was intentional. The seed of doubt was planted by virtue of sites such as this, and having a myriad of employees blog constantly for years, creating dissension, doubt, and conflicts of opinion.
Some of you deserve to live.
Most of you deserve to die.
That's life.
Best of luck.
All the folks here commenting have no idea how the world works.
I'm not even going to bother to explain.
It's almost amusing, if it weren't so depressing.
Keep paying those taxes and arguing over disinformation propaganda!
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