4 Alberta RCMP officers killed during raid

[techumseh]

Source?

[Winston]

The prime minister was expected to call for a moment of silence Friday

...

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by techumseh
Source?

Radio. The URL doesn't work very well.

[notyoueither]

It's actually an interesting question though, so I went looking. Not much can be found, but I did find this.

http://www.thehempire.com/pm/weblog/D20040806/

Fewer than one in five people convicted in B.C. for running a grow op do jail time. In Washington State, almost half those convicted get a jail term of five years or more, Coleman says.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Factoid of the evening... most grow op convictions result in no jail time.

Which is one reason that this sort of thing is extremely rare.

[The Mad Monk]

RIP

I hope this dosen't mean you are starting to catch up with us.

[Dinner]

Those cops aren't paid nearly enough for this kind of danger.

[Richelieu]

RIP.

[Asher]

http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_national.asp?id=59610

Man Who Shot Canada Police Had Troubled Past

Friday, March 04, 2005 8:12:48 AM ET

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The man suspected of fatally shooting four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers at a marijuana-growing operation was an angry person who loved guns and had had trouble with the law, relatives and media reports said on Friday.

The four junior Mounties were guarding a farmhouse believed to be used to grow marijuana and store stolen property when they were ambushed on Thursday by a man with a high-powered rifle. The killings took place near the town of Mayerthorpe, about 90 miles (140 km) northwest of Edmonton.

The deaths marked one of the bloodiest days in the history of the national police force and shocked a country with little violent crime. One of the dead officers had been on duty for just two weeks, said CTV television.

The suspect also shot himself, police said. Relatives and the media named him as Jim Roszko, 46.

A man who identified himself as Roszko's father said his son had always had an angry streak.

"Because of the drugs, you know, and the bad company with bad boys ... (that) dragged him off the good tracks," Bill Roszko told CTV.

"I don't want to have him as my son for what he was like, and the way things ended up. He is not my son," he said. The Globe and Mail newspaper quoted the elder Roszko as saying his son had spent time in prison.

Residents of Mayerthorpe called Roszko "a walking time bomb" with a love of guns, CTV television and the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

CBC radio said he had a history of violence and instability.

Police said the suspect was known to them -- a polite way of saying he had been in trouble with authorities.

The killings focused attention on Canada's booming illegal marijuana trade, which in the western province of British Columbia alone is worth an estimated C$5 billion ($4 billion). Police say much of the trade is dominated by organized crime.

Last November the Canadian government presented draft legislation which would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana -- an idea which has angered law enforcement officials in the United States.

The draft legislation would strengthen the penalties for those involved in large-scale marijuana growing operations.

Public Security Minister Anne McLellan said on Thursday she would look at further toughening the bill, under which growers caught with more than 50 plants face up to 14 years in jail.

The legislation would make possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana punishable by a fine of $150 for adults and $100 for minors. Users would not get a criminal record.

It has been 120 years, during the long rebellion by the mixed race Metis, made up of Indians and white settlers, and and Indians in western Canada, since so many national police officers have been shot and killed.

"I am very concerned about people in society who are acting in a way which is almost unknown in Canada, where people react in a way that is so violent it's almost incomprehensible," said Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who is Canada's top Mountie.

[Asher]

More:

RCMP set up roadblocks around the farm and the air space over the area was closed throughout the day. A television station in Edmonton reported that neighbours believe a man tried to flee the property at high speed Wednesday night.

Sgt. Rick Oncescu of the Calgary RCMP said two SWAT teams had been called into the area.

Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for Edmonton Garrison, said two armoured personnel carriers, an ambulance and about 20 military personnel were dispatched from the military base, but about two hours later, police told the military their help was no longer needed.

Emotions ran high, with local residents striking out at reporters and photographers who had descended on the town. One CBC cameraman was reportedly punched in the eye by a relative of one of the deceased officers.

Mayerthorpe Mayor Albert Schalm said: "I’m sick. I don’t know what to tell you. It shocks me that this could even happen."

James Roszko, the suspect in the shooting, was well known around town as being violent and mentally unstable.

"Cops have known about him for a long time," said Pat Burns, a local carpenter. "The justice system doesn’t have the balls to do what needs to be done."

Several people in town said there were rumours of Roszko hiding weapons on his property. The suspect is also reputed to have put planks with spikes in his driveway. When scrutineers came in before the last provincial election, the spikes blew out their tires.

He was described as a loner who lived in a trailer on the west side of the farm, and his mother lived in a home on the other side of the large farm.

In Whitecourt, Mayor Trevor Thain said. "It’s a sad, sad day in Whitecourt. It’s hard to put stuff like this into words, especially when one of your own is involved. My heart goes out to the family and to the families of the other officers who were killed.

"The detachment is a great bunch of people and I’m sure I can’t even begin to imagine how they feel right now."

Thain said the Whitecourt detachment has about 15 officers while the Mayerthorpe detachment only has about three or four members. Those numbers don’t include a highway patrol unit which is administered through the Whitecourt detachment.

The officers who were shot were not part of the drug squad.

Thursday’s shooting was the first time in nearly 20 years since multiple Canadian police officers were slain in action. On July 4, 1985, Const. Jacques Giguere and his partner Const. Yves Tetu of the Quebec Police Service were gunned down as they investigated the tripping of a burglar alarm at a medical equipment warehouse.

Forty officers in Canada have died in the line of duty since 2000, including seven in 2004.

...

Specifically...

RCMP say three members who died were from the Mayerthorpe detachment

...

the Mayerthorpe detachment only has about three or four members.

[Asher]

Anthony Gordon, 28
Leo Johnston, 34
Brock Myrol, 29
Peter Schiemann, 25

From a recent interview, Brock Myrol said, "I wanted the opportunity to work with people and be able to make a difference. Over time, I saw all the good things you could do for people, and I enjoyed that."

[Space05us]

Space, it was only a marijuana farm
You never know when somebod liek that is going to be the one to go over the top at you

A drug raid is a drug raid. Always unpredictable, the officers should always be prepared for the worst. And from those articles it sound like they were taking it seriously. However they should have never let the suspect get away, when he ran they (at least one guy, who could later call for backup) should have chased him.

[Wezil]

Good to see our billion dollar gun registry is paying off.

[Richelieu]

I was at the RCMP curling club yesterday here in Ottawa during the memorial service for the agents. They were showing it on the big screen. There were at least 50 people in the bar and you could have heard a pin drop.

R.I.P.
...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Space05us

Space, it was only a marijuana farm
You never know when somebod liek that is going to be the one to go over the top at you

A drug raid is a drug raid. Always unpredictable, the officers should always be prepared for the worst. And from those articles it sound like they were taking it seriously. However they should have never let the suspect get away, when he ran they (at least one guy, who could later call for backup) should have chased him.

Agreed that police have to try to be prepared but I don't think any police force in the world would have fared well against a trained sniper with a high powered rifle on his own turf ( particularly when there is every reason in the world to think that the guy would flee and in fact had fled)


The part that most bugs me is that the killer was apparently known as a "dangerous guy"-- How the heck do you take these people off the streets ?? Usually you have to wait for them to do something terrible enough to warrant it.