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LETTERS: Major flaw in RCMP training

Editor: It is with alarm that I have been watching the news as it relates to the RCMP.

Editor:

It is with alarm that I have been watching the news as it relates to the RCMP.

On Oct. 14, 2007, four RCMP constables eliminated Robert Dziekanski. He was Tasered to death. While holding a stapler.

That case is still winding through the court system. Officers are charged with lying but not charged for Dziekanski’s death.

Now, on July 18, three or four constables shot and killed young Hudson Brooks.

The reports out of the RCMP office is that he was “suicidal.” Witness reports disagree with that.

But to shoot him? How does that save a suicidal boy?

Two days earlier, in Dawson Creek, the RCMP ran into a man in a mask. They report him with a knife. Again, witness reports do not agree with that. He was shot and killed.

As I see it, all the RCMP constables have been through school learning “to serve and protect.” Does that teach them to shoot unarmed boys? This looks to be a major flaw in the RCMP training.

It’s almost as if this is the Wild West where they shoot first and ask questions later. But in the Wild West people that shot unarmed people were charged with murder.

Maybe it’s time to have sober look at how we are protected.

Martin Friesen, White Rock