Editor:
I once again see the RCMP has erected a bus shelter poster in White Rock Centre – the one in which a criminal is attempting to pull the trigger of a very large pistol, while a citizen pushes back against the trigger.
(Editor’s note: The poster advertises Crime Stoppers, a non-profit society considered separate from RCMP.)
It’s a striking image, and quite obviously aimed towards the prevention of violent crime.
But wait, where is the violent crime in this community? When was the last time a citizen was shot or killed by a criminal in this community? I rightly can’t remember. Has it been decades?
I’ve been a victim of theft; my bike has been stolen, and if I happen to leave my car unlocked, someone will go through it periodically.
On the streets, I see the visible disaffected youth and some transients, but I don’t see the violent crime the poster suggests is here. Except from the RCMP.
I remember well a year-and-a-half ago, an RCMP officer shot and killed unarmed Hudson Brooks (Man killed in struggle with officers, July 22, 2015), four blocks from where this poster now stands. It’s a case that is far from closed, but where a suggestion of culpability of the RCMP has finally been voiced (Crown advised to consider charges, Oct. 26). We hope there will be justice for Hudson and his family, but that is far from certain.
So why the poster?
Is this propaganda, suggesting, as judgment inevitably nears, that although the said officer gunned down Hudson Brooks, this is truly a violent area, and so we should understand his actions?
Or is it just grossly insensitive?
Zi Paris, Surrey