JULY 5TH UPDATE: ONE DOWN AND NOW THE OTHER THREE HAVE JOINED THEM... ALL 4 OTTAWA SCHOOLD BOARDS NOW NO LONGER PERMIT COMMUNITY POLICE RESOURCE OFFICERS IN THEIR SCHOOLS. BUT...THIS, UNLIKE THE OTTAWA-CARLETON PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD ...DID NOT COME ABOUT BECAUSE OF A DECISION OF THE OTHER BOARDS THEMSELVES, THIS WAS DECIDED BY THE OTTAWA POLICE SERVICE ON ITS OWN. IN PARTICULAR, THIS WAS THE DECISION OF OUR POLICE CHIEF PETER SLOLY...WHO HIMSELF IS BLACK AND WHO WAS ON RECORD AS SAYING THE PROGRAM WAS 'THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTNERSHIP THAT (HIS) SERVICE HAS IN CIVIL SOCIETY'. SO WE HAVE A CHIEF OF POLICE WHO BELIEVES IN THIS PROGRAM, COMPOUNDING THE DAMAGE BY CANCELLING IT IN ALL OTTAWA SCHOOLS.
HOW TO MAKE A BAD SITUATION EVEN WORSE CHIEF SLOLY !!
YOU'D HAVE TO INVENT IT...
BUT THE OTTAWA SCHOOL BOARD DECIDED, IN IT'S GOOD WISDOM, TO DEEP SIX IT.
JUST THIS PAST WEEK, The Ottawa-Carleton Public School Board decided to end their Police School Resource Officer Program effective immediately. And, not only that...
In keeping with the current Progressive Environment, they will also "formally apologize to the students and the communities who have been harmed by the presence of police" in their schools...and "will participate in anti-racist and decolonization training".
Be still my heart. What utter hog-wash !!
It has been shown time and time again that the best policing takes place closest to the people. That is why Community Policing - that is to say - police walking the beats of our towns and cities, provides the best results for society.
And that is why I began today's Blog with the admonition that if the Police Resource Officer Program did not exist in (insert any school board's name here) one would soon be devised. Why so, because it too works !!
The main reason educators give these days for dropping the in-school program is that the presence of police frightens minority groups such as immigrants - ergo, get the cops out of their sight.
But the main reason minority groups themselves do not trust the police to come into their neighbourhoods is because they do not trust the police either.
So what better way to keep these self-same neighbourhoods permanently ghettoized than to return to the practice of not letting their new generations come to know the police and by so doing no longer fear them?
When I was a young kid I remember too fearing the police. I even remember one occasion when a policeman approached a group of us playing together and we ran off - only to quickly return when he called out asking why we were afraid? We all felt pretty silly. In retrospect, I believe we would have all benefited from their presence in our schools.
Later in life as a lawyer I became well acquainted with the police and found them to be all human-beings like the rest of us - just trying to do the best job possible.
But I can hear you ...'what is the big deal ?...you are white like the rest of us'.
So true, but my reply to you is that it is therefore even more important to have minority children brought up from a young age not to fear the police and what better way to do it that than via a School's Police Resource Program? The fact is there is not.
Plus having police on hand can come in handy as you Natalie well know.
Anyway to go back to my initial thesis - if the Police Resource Service did not exist ...it should soon exist because it works and is the right thing to do. But ours is a Progressive Society where all that is lacking is Common Sense.
As I See It...
K.D. Galagher
