Police Psychologist Likens RCMP To Putin's Russia
“I'm embarrassed to be associated with organizations that taser sick old men in hospital beds and confused immigrants who are arriving in the country,”
Mike Webster
Police Psychologist
Mr. Webster is a registered psychologist who deals exclusively with law enforcement agencies. His expertise in conflict resolution has been sought to help resolve some of the most volatile situations in recent years, including the showdown with Branch Davidian followers in Waco, Tex., in 1993. He was widely credited with helping avert a bloodbath during the RCMP standoff with native protesters at Gustafson Lake, B.C., in 1995.
He has worked on a contract and fee-for-service basis with the RCMP for more than 30 years. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, much of his work with the Mounties has been in the area of intelligence gathering. After Mr. Dziekanski died at the Vancouver International Airport last October, media outlets in B.C. sought Mr. Webster's opinion on the incident. He was honest: he thought it was a disgraceful display of policing. The officers had blasted the troubled Polish immigrant without making any attempt to resolve the matter peacefully.
"The expectation is that if you work for the Mounties you align your values with the corporate culture and if you don't that's being disloyal and is unhealthy.”
“As a psychologist, I know it's not healthy for people to live in such an oppressive climate,” Mr. Webster said. “Being a member of the RCMP today is like being part of Putin's Russia; they don't tolerate any opinion that doesn't reflect the party line.”
Globe & Mail
Mike Webster
Police Psychologist
Mr. Webster is a registered psychologist who deals exclusively with law enforcement agencies. His expertise in conflict resolution has been sought to help resolve some of the most volatile situations in recent years, including the showdown with Branch Davidian followers in Waco, Tex., in 1993. He was widely credited with helping avert a bloodbath during the RCMP standoff with native protesters at Gustafson Lake, B.C., in 1995.
He has worked on a contract and fee-for-service basis with the RCMP for more than 30 years. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, much of his work with the Mounties has been in the area of intelligence gathering. After Mr. Dziekanski died at the Vancouver International Airport last October, media outlets in B.C. sought Mr. Webster's opinion on the incident. He was honest: he thought it was a disgraceful display of policing. The officers had blasted the troubled Polish immigrant without making any attempt to resolve the matter peacefully.
"The expectation is that if you work for the Mounties you align your values with the corporate culture and if you don't that's being disloyal and is unhealthy.”
“As a psychologist, I know it's not healthy for people to live in such an oppressive climate,” Mr. Webster said. “Being a member of the RCMP today is like being part of Putin's Russia; they don't tolerate any opinion that doesn't reflect the party line.”
Globe & Mail
Poor guy will likely never get another contract for having the guts to say that! But good on him for telling the truth.
RRRR
Posted by
Pamela |
12:29 pm, May 15, 2008
Good point PJ. I found the G&M article kind of disturbing. Something has happened within the honourable old RCMP - there is a new authoritarian streak that is disturbing. The impunity with which they are tasing individuals and then threatening anyone who criticises them is scary.
Posted by
leftdog |
1:38 pm, May 15, 2008
The spokes person for the RCMP here in Kamloops in referring to the tasering of the 82 year old man in his hospital bed said something to the effect of, he had a knife, knives are weapons, we are not here to endanger ourselves.
An 82 year old man with a pocket knife ,on oxygen, laying in a hospital bed is too dangerous?
I dealt with worse when I bounced at the Plains Hotel, by myself.
Makes me wonder, what are they here to do? Just hand out tickets?
Posted by
Chad Moats |
8:32 pm, May 15, 2008