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I've been brooding about a bunch of different stuff for a while now. I'll see if I can make some sense to you.
I recently had my truck stolen [Dec. 7/2010] from in front of my place and then found [Dec. 10/2010] in another city 1 1/2 hours away.When I first called to report the truck stolen I was told by the RCMP officer that he would be over to take my statement sometime that morning. He also wanted my license plate number so that it could be put out that my truck was stolen. That's where I ran into my first road block. I didn't have that info written down on any paperwork that I had access to so I phoned the registry office that I normally deal with. They couldn't give out that info to me over the phone because of privacy laws. OK, that kind of makes sense, I wouldn't want a criminal to be able to access my info. I phoned the cop and told him what I was planning; I phoned a friend and he drove me to the registry and then to my shop/storage where I had my b-II parked. I don't have room for it at home
I went to the cop shop and made a statement. One of the questions on a form he was filling out had this; how much is your truck worth? I told him " oh, it's worth $2000.00, maybe $2300.00." He looked at me as if expecting something more and I then said "$2500.00". He nodded his head as he wrote that number down. That gave me pause.
I received a call from the Edmonton Police service 3 days after reporting the truck stolen saying that my truck had been found in a Kal-Tire parking lot. The cop made arrangements with the manager to leave my truck there for the weekend. I picked it up that night. My thanks to both the cop and the manager of Kal-Tire as I don't know if insurance would have paid the tow and impound fees - I would hope so but who knows.
The next day I went through the truck, making a list of tools missing. I found some extras too, that didn't belong to me
edit; tools belonging to another innocent person So I called up the RCMP officer that took my original call to find out what I should do with these tools. I was expecting to hear him say to bring them in as evidence and if no one claimed them, then I could legally keep them for myself. NOT! He told me to throw them out or keep them, it didn't matter. WOW! I am flabbergasted! I really hope this is an isolated incident but I have a feeling that it's not. Approximately 30 years ago a friend was assaulted and I was a witness. We were put in a room together and told to write out our statements. As far as I knew [at the time and now] it is not allowed to have witness and assaulted together when making a statement. And while we didn't lie it was wrong on the cops part to put us in that situation. My feeling is that the cops thought the statement would look more convincing to the judge if they were both the "same" but not word for word. There are a few other instances where cops have done similar things with me involved.I'm not an innocent but I don't rip people off anymore since I grew up and learned how it feels to be ripped off. I did some things when I was 14-15 that I'm not proud of. Maybe if I had got caught I wouldn't have done as much. Who knows though, but I did grow out of it.
Now I don't know if my world view is skewed but I would like to see my policing to be above reproach, [even if that means that some criminals go free]. I almost hope that this is just cynicism on the RCMP officers' part due to the overwhelming pressures of the job, and maybe seeing his efforts not produce the results [convictions] that he wanted to see when he first joined the force. I also think that his superiors should take the majority of the blame, as they are responsible for attitude and morality of the people under them.
I found evidence of crack cocaine use in the garbage in my truck. This leads me to another thought I've been brooding about. The fight against drug use is failing. The increasingly harsher sentences have not lowered the rate of drug use in any country. IMO, it's lead to an increase. Any time that children are told not to do something, the majority will try to do it sooner or later. Illegal drugs cost more. Addicts will steal to acquire money for drugs. It's in the interest of the drug cartels to keep drugs illegal, as their product is worth more that way. Politicians are seen to be doing "the right thing" by making sure drugs stay illegal, and making laws for harsher punishment. If the money now being spent on incarceration was instead spent on treating addictions, I feel there would be a drastic cut in the number of addicts. And thus leading to lower theft rates, less gang activity and deaths because there would be no money in selling illegal drugs. This is a simplistic thought process but I'm sure there are people able to follow my logic. I just wish there were more of like mind in public office.
If police spent less time on enforcing speed limits, perhaps there would be more money to spend on apprehending thieves. If we are paying our police force with our tax dollars, shouldn't we be able to guide their efforts in policing? Rather than catching speeders to appease big business [insurance companies], our police should be catching thieves before the thieves get the idea that they won't get caught very often. If the insurance companies are truly worried about our safety, and not their bottom line [$], they could pay to put every new driver threw driving school - one that also teaches skid control and/or racing techniques as well as the rules of the road. A company in Calgary, Alberta charges $500.00 for a week-end course in Rally racing. I'm sure that could be cut in half with a group rate. If everybody took that course [or similar] there would be a drastic reduction in accidents. The insurance companies would recoup there initial losses within the first year and after that would be what I call "gravy". Maybe some executives with some initiative will see this post and be the first to implement such a plan. Just imagine, you CEO's, how many new customers you could lure to your company with a plan like that. If I was still young, I'd be banging on your door to sign up. Even if you had slightly higher insurance rates, which you shouldn't need because your insured would be causing/getting into less accidents. In fact, even as old as I am [48], I'll still bang on your door to sign up!
And as long as we're enforcing speed limits, perhaps the cops should also ticket the drivers going to slow... especially in the left lanes.
IMO, most speed limits outside of city limits [and some inside] are too slow by 20%
Rant over... for now.
Richard
edit; rally school:http://members.shaw.ca/jdascollas/school2.html
I recently had my truck stolen [Dec. 7/2010] from in front of my place and then found [Dec. 10/2010] in another city 1 1/2 hours away.When I first called to report the truck stolen I was told by the RCMP officer that he would be over to take my statement sometime that morning. He also wanted my license plate number so that it could be put out that my truck was stolen. That's where I ran into my first road block. I didn't have that info written down on any paperwork that I had access to so I phoned the registry office that I normally deal with. They couldn't give out that info to me over the phone because of privacy laws. OK, that kind of makes sense, I wouldn't want a criminal to be able to access my info. I phoned the cop and told him what I was planning; I phoned a friend and he drove me to the registry and then to my shop/storage where I had my b-II parked. I don't have room for it at home
I went to the cop shop and made a statement. One of the questions on a form he was filling out had this; how much is your truck worth? I told him " oh, it's worth $2000.00, maybe $2300.00." He looked at me as if expecting something more and I then said "$2500.00". He nodded his head as he wrote that number down. That gave me pause.I received a call from the Edmonton Police service 3 days after reporting the truck stolen saying that my truck had been found in a Kal-Tire parking lot. The cop made arrangements with the manager to leave my truck there for the weekend. I picked it up that night. My thanks to both the cop and the manager of Kal-Tire as I don't know if insurance would have paid the tow and impound fees - I would hope so but who knows.
The next day I went through the truck, making a list of tools missing. I found some extras too, that didn't belong to me
edit; tools belonging to another innocent person So I called up the RCMP officer that took my original call to find out what I should do with these tools. I was expecting to hear him say to bring them in as evidence and if no one claimed them, then I could legally keep them for myself. NOT! He told me to throw them out or keep them, it didn't matter. WOW! I am flabbergasted! I really hope this is an isolated incident but I have a feeling that it's not. Approximately 30 years ago a friend was assaulted and I was a witness. We were put in a room together and told to write out our statements. As far as I knew [at the time and now] it is not allowed to have witness and assaulted together when making a statement. And while we didn't lie it was wrong on the cops part to put us in that situation. My feeling is that the cops thought the statement would look more convincing to the judge if they were both the "same" but not word for word. There are a few other instances where cops have done similar things with me involved.I'm not an innocent but I don't rip people off anymore since I grew up and learned how it feels to be ripped off. I did some things when I was 14-15 that I'm not proud of. Maybe if I had got caught I wouldn't have done as much. Who knows though, but I did grow out of it.Now I don't know if my world view is skewed but I would like to see my policing to be above reproach, [even if that means that some criminals go free]. I almost hope that this is just cynicism on the RCMP officers' part due to the overwhelming pressures of the job, and maybe seeing his efforts not produce the results [convictions] that he wanted to see when he first joined the force. I also think that his superiors should take the majority of the blame, as they are responsible for attitude and morality of the people under them.
I found evidence of crack cocaine use in the garbage in my truck. This leads me to another thought I've been brooding about. The fight against drug use is failing. The increasingly harsher sentences have not lowered the rate of drug use in any country. IMO, it's lead to an increase. Any time that children are told not to do something, the majority will try to do it sooner or later. Illegal drugs cost more. Addicts will steal to acquire money for drugs. It's in the interest of the drug cartels to keep drugs illegal, as their product is worth more that way. Politicians are seen to be doing "the right thing" by making sure drugs stay illegal, and making laws for harsher punishment. If the money now being spent on incarceration was instead spent on treating addictions, I feel there would be a drastic cut in the number of addicts. And thus leading to lower theft rates, less gang activity and deaths because there would be no money in selling illegal drugs. This is a simplistic thought process but I'm sure there are people able to follow my logic. I just wish there were more of like mind in public office.
If police spent less time on enforcing speed limits, perhaps there would be more money to spend on apprehending thieves. If we are paying our police force with our tax dollars, shouldn't we be able to guide their efforts in policing? Rather than catching speeders to appease big business [insurance companies], our police should be catching thieves before the thieves get the idea that they won't get caught very often. If the insurance companies are truly worried about our safety, and not their bottom line [$], they could pay to put every new driver threw driving school - one that also teaches skid control and/or racing techniques as well as the rules of the road. A company in Calgary, Alberta charges $500.00 for a week-end course in Rally racing. I'm sure that could be cut in half with a group rate. If everybody took that course [or similar] there would be a drastic reduction in accidents. The insurance companies would recoup there initial losses within the first year and after that would be what I call "gravy". Maybe some executives with some initiative will see this post and be the first to implement such a plan. Just imagine, you CEO's, how many new customers you could lure to your company with a plan like that. If I was still young, I'd be banging on your door to sign up. Even if you had slightly higher insurance rates, which you shouldn't need because your insured would be causing/getting into less accidents. In fact, even as old as I am [48], I'll still bang on your door to sign up!
And as long as we're enforcing speed limits, perhaps the cops should also ticket the drivers going to slow... especially in the left lanes.
IMO, most speed limits outside of city limits [and some inside] are too slow by 20%
Rant over... for now.
Richard
edit; rally school:http://members.shaw.ca/jdascollas/school2.html
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