Western Standard - City of Calgary representative outrageously slanders police officers.

00:00:00.000 Over 865 police officers have died in the line of duty in Canada.

00:00:04.400 Countless others have been injured or suffered from PTSD due to pressures from their career.

00:00:09.360 The policing is a brutally difficult career both physically and emotionally. I mean police officers

00:00:13.760 put their health and mental well-being on the line every day for their job. They work

00:00:18.960 long hours and some terrible shifts and often experience family breakdowns due to their career

00:00:23.600 choice. It's far from one of the best paying jobs out there either. I mean with the time and training

00:00:28.640 required in order to become a police officer, a person could train for any number of careers that

00:00:32.720 pay better and come with a lot less personal risk and stress. So I mean police works a calling and

00:00:37.760 it isn't for everybody. I certainly wouldn't do it. Now the thin blue line patch, it's been worn by

00:00:43.600 police officers for years and Canadian ones and it's as a recognition for the role of their fellow

00:00:48.800 officers. It represents that fragile line between anarchy and law and order so that's why it's a

00:00:53.360 thin blue line. It's a symbol and it's over the Canadian flag as can be seen. It also serves as

00:00:58.000 a recognition honoring the sacrifices made by fellow officers including those who lost their lives in

00:01:03.600 the line of duty. Now the thin blue line is a symbol of solidarity and pride. It's benign and

00:01:09.120 it gives officers a passive means to express their support for each other. Now due to lobbying from

00:01:14.080 extreme anti-police elements, officers are being told that they must strip this symbol of memorial and

00:01:19.440 solidarity. A myth is being perpetuated that this patch represents white supremacy. We should dismiss these

00:01:25.280 ridiculous accusations immediately and out of hand as soon as we hear them. Instead we're indulging

00:01:30.480 these extremists. For the last few years police forces from the RCMP to many municipal forces have

00:01:35.680 been issuing orders banning officers from displaying this patch. These radicals aren't just the usual

00:01:41.040 suspects who head those constant protests against policing and police forces. Some of these fringe thinkers

00:01:46.080 reside within influential government roles. City of Calgary communications relations advisor Adam

00:01:52.400 Messiah is one of those zealots. I was shocked when I heard his statement on a radio news broadcast

00:01:57.600 this morning when he did an interview for Global News. So I'm going to play it so you can hear it for

00:02:02.000 yourself. So I mean it's a short clip and that might have sounded a little rough but bottom line is with no

00:02:20.000 evidence to support it Messiah said that a lot of police officers wore the patch because they support

00:02:25.200 a white supremac police state and he said they want to create a Eurocentric world. This sort of statement

00:02:32.720 is inflammatory, divisive, and utterly inappropriate from a civic employee. How many non-white officers 1.00

00:02:39.200 wear that patch? I mean many do. And how must they feel to be belittled and accused of supporting white

00:02:44.960 supremacism from an influential city bureaucrat? Activists including Calgary's current mayor have been

00:02:50.240 pushing to defund police forces for years while blaming officers whenever anything may go wrong.

00:02:56.080 When the defund movement was indulged with increased funding for community initiatives to prevent crime

00:03:01.680 they were still outraged because the police themselves weren't actually defunded. Now they always

00:03:06.080 claimed that they wanted more community resources and that that's all that they wanted but no that lie

00:03:10.560 was exposed once they got what they asked for. It wasn't enough for them. Their movement is vindictive,

00:03:15.920 angry, and anti-police and we have to stop indulging them. Their goals are not realistic and they're

00:03:20.880 putting all of us at risk. American cities that defunded their police forces experienced crime waves.

00:03:26.160 Anybody but a crazed activist or a progressive mayor could see and they could have seen that coming

00:03:31.440 easily. Yet we still see influential people calling to defund the police. In what world does

00:03:36.960 defunding something improve it? Will defunding education make teachers better? Defunding health care

00:03:42.000 improve surgical outcomes? The reasoning of the defund movement is outright bizarre. Yet we continue to

00:03:47.520 take it seriously. This constant campaign of insulting and belittling police is coming with a price.

00:03:53.680 A Calgary Police Commission 2021 employee engagement report showed that just 19% of the respondents

00:04:00.400 said morale within the force is good. Only 19% thought morale was good. The lowest levels in a decade.

00:04:07.360 And is that really surprising? I mean, how's it got to feel to prepare for a shift of putting your safety

00:04:13.200 at risk at late night hours, dealing with people who are going to be spitting on you, berating you,

00:04:18.000 and sometimes assaulting you, only to hear from your employers that you should be ashamed of your job,

00:04:21.840 that you're a potential white supremacist and you should be defunded. Is it any wonder that officers do

00:04:26.960 act out on occasion? In any other realm of employment, when employees are acting out and behaving poorly,

00:04:32.240 the employer will try and find out why the workers are experiencing poor morale. In policing, civic

00:04:37.600 leaders are responding by doubling down on the abuse of the officers. Indulging the extreme anti-police

00:04:43.200 activists is actually contributing to the problem of police misconduct. Happy, relaxed officers are far

00:04:49.440 less likely to break rules than the ones who have been beaten down, insulted, and defunded. It's hard to

00:04:54.400 believe this has to be said. The RCMP, they've been unable to fill their recruiting goals and people are

00:04:59.120 hardly lining up to join the other forces. Do activists really think quality of policing is

00:05:03.600 going to improve as veteran officers are driven out while a smaller pool of activists come in to

00:05:08.080 fill the void? I mean police officers are human, of course they make mistakes, and with their job,

00:05:12.160 their mistakes can come with the most tragic of endings. We can't give them a pass when there's been

00:05:17.440 misconduct and nobody's saying we should. We entrust and task police officers with protecting us from harm

00:05:24.080 and we need to treat them with respect for taking on that role. The first step in respecting our

00:05:29.600 police officers is to stand up and tell radical activists like Adam Messiah to get stuffed. We

00:05:34.720 can't allow this constant anti-police campaign to be indulged and appeased. It harms officers and by

00:05:40.960 extension it's going to harm all of us. If the thin blue line patch is tossed to the wayside, rest assured

00:05:46.240 whatever new symbol is created will be smeared and decried as well. The anti-police movement doesn't want

00:05:51.520 police showing any signs of pride or solidarity. They only want the police to display shame and

00:05:56.880 contrition for actions they most of them aren't even responsible for. Nobody should be treated like

00:06:02.240 that for their career choice. And that's what's got me triggered today.

Western Standard - March 31, 2022

City of Calgary representative outrageously slanders police officers.

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript