My "Letter to the Editor" of the Calgary Sun

Perhaps it is my youthful naivety, but I could hardly take the “To Serve and Offend” article seriously.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on how police officers as a whole are treated by the public, so-called victims of “rudeness”, and profanity.

I can’t walk through the downtown bus terminals without hearing some gaggle of boys with their pants below each buttock referring to how some “pig” was hassling them over some “totally bull---- problem“. How many movies today use donut stores to mock police officers? How many police officers are sworn at for pulling over a speeding car? How many men and women officers are spat on and cussed out for ticketing a car that was parked illegally? How many of them are told to “get a real job”, when they are DOING their job?

I would love to see any member of the average public attempt to do the civil service that police officers do; deal with the stress of protecting and serving the public, and then receive their own “tongue-lashings” when they don’t portray an utterly perfect and unquestionable image.

As Ald John Mar said, “The vast majority of our complaints are in the ‘He pulled me over and wasn’t very nice’ category”. Why does a police officer pull anyone over? Because they are endangering themselves or others, because the officer has observed questionable or dangerous behavior that needs to be addressed, or because the driver was breaking the law. Why do you, Joe Public, believe that you deserve to be treated like a god/goddess when you are disobeying the law that everyone is expected to follow? Should the police officer say something like, “Good afternoon, sir/ma’am. I hate to be a bother, but I couldn’t help but notice you were going 12 kilometers over the speed limit. I know, I know, it might not seem like much, but shucks if it ain’t against the law. I hate to take up too much of your time, but the law says I have to write this here ticket up. I thank you for your patience, good sir/ma’am, this will only take a moment. And please, when you’re done, feel free pay it at your convenience. Oh, thank you, thank you for your patience. You have a good day, now, and please try your best to keep it under the speed limit.” … Really? I think not.

The plain truth that no one seems to be mentioning is, more often than not, an “F-word” gets a lot more attention than “please and thank you”. I would rather have a less-than-pleasant officer on the streets prepared to save my life if need be, rather than a goody-good whose top priority is public appearance.