By David J. Climenhaga
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Let us consider the important proper distinction that the media, police and many of the rest of us nowadays fail to make between the terms "civilian" and … what exactly? Well, in civil society -- using that term in its technical sense -- the distinction is between "civilian" and "military."
This would have been obvious to any minimally educated person only a generation or two ago.
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This happened in North America -- first in the United States, of course -- when civilian police departments began to think of themselves as militarized occupation forces, there not to enforce the law but to exert the will of the powerful. Soon after, many police began to make a distinction in their jargon between themselves and "civilians."
This was quickly picked up by police reporters -- that most toadying class of journalist -- and now it has "officially" entered the language. At least, it is official enough to satisfy the editors of the Canadian Press, and worse, of the Oxford Canadian Dictionary. Thus, states the latter: "civilian … a person not in the armed forces or the police force. …" (Emphasis added.)
This is a corruption, and a corrupting corruption, since the simple fact is that municipal police are civilians, charged only with enforcing the law, subject themselves to the rule of law, and properly described as public servants.
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2010/12/corrupt-language-corrupts-minds-police-are-civilians-under-contrWake up: Arbitrary rule is all around usBy James Laxer
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In Ontario, the Special Investigations Unit that reviews complaints against police has released a report that concludes that in two specific cases during the G20 summit in Toronto last June, excessive force was used. But just when it appears that the system might work and deliver some semblance of justice, that hope is instantly dashed.
SIU director Ian Scott has concluded that the offending officers cannot be identified and, therefore, cannot be charged. In the case of one man who was arrested, and sustained a fracture below his right eye, the SIU determined that the police used excessive force. But the badge number on the man's arrest sheet did not correspond to the assigned badge number of any Toronto police officer. Even Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has acknowledged that up to 90 officers were not wearing their name-tags during the summit weekend. He says he will discipline the officers who chose to make themselves unidentifiable, but they are not being charged with an offence.
The only conclusion we can reasonably draw is that a large number of officers were out of control during the policing of the summit. Because the police won't come forward to testify against their fellow officers, the cover up works. Officers who assault people on the street, even when the assaults are videoed, get away with it because follow officers won't say a word against them. When the police act more like a gang of thugs than like professionals who uphold a set of standards, they become untrustworthy, a force that neither serves nor protects.
And what do those in charge do about this? Next to nothing.
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/james-laxer/2010/11/wake-arbitrary-rule-all-around-us
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