The word "demagogue" would fade
away if politicians stopped making pronouncements whenever something tragic
happens. Last week in Toronto, a tragedy so miserable and so ugly happened that
only an appointed public figure—Ontario's ombudsman
Andre Morin—had the intestinal fortitude to take advantage.
A boy stood alone in a streetcar,
holding a knife and exposing himself. He had allowed about 20 passengers to
get off—in a hell of a hurry, of course. Nevertheless, he didn’t react
instantly to instructions by a police officer to drop the knife. So the
officer—outside the car, with his buddies standing around him—proceeded to
shoot crazy-looking, eighteen-year-old Sammy Yatim to death.
After watching the drama
(thanks to eyewitness videos), Morin decided that Ontario’s police forces need
to be better trained in how to “de-escalate” dangerous, strange, and annoying
situations. He’s called for more training before—and, dammit, they just haven’t
listened!
Police representatives and
their champions complain that his suggestion was “premature.” That’s not my only
problem with him.
Surely, the first order of
business is not to look for a gap in a training manual but to determine whether
a lethal crime was committed by the police officer who shot Sammy Yatim nine
times.
Responsible People in Responsible Jobs naturally fear being accused of rushing to judge.
However, turning to policy wonks and educators before justice is done, before
we address what the police officer actually did, is creepy.
I’m a big fan of training and
helped set up Ontario’s first Ministry of Skills. However, in this
civilization, we don’t have to spell out in job manuals that good men and
women, including police officers, shouldn’t shoot people who make them nervous
or call them “pussies.”
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