4 Alberta RCMP officers killed during raid

[Tingkai]

I'm still at a loss for words about this. Completely senseless.

[Seeker]

1) This is the greatest RCMP tragedy in a long time. They were just young guys, no veterans with 'em.

2) As has been mentioned, most grow op raids in western canada, as I know from experience, are fairly civilized occurences as such things go. A bunch of aging hippies, rednecks, and kids don't usually put up much of a fight besides the old 'run away' strategy.

3) This explains some of the 'they weren't following the book' stuff the talking heads are on about. It wasn't that there is a 'gap in training' or procedure.

It's that 99% of the time, shutting down a marijuana op is relatively peaceful.

So that's the kind of 'round-up' situation they thought they were in for. NOBODY told them that it was Roscoe, a homicidal maniac, and that the situation was totally not what they had been led to believe.

Someone should have told them about this nut and his record, that he was likely to go down shooting, and we could have avoided such a loss of life.

[Wraith]

--"A drug raid is a drug raid."

Looks like this became a drug raid only after the fact. Seems they were actually there to reposess his truck. Sounds like everyone around there knew he was a maniac, though. He shouldn't have been let of out jail in the first place if the rest of the story at the link is true.

Certainly wasn't a good thing, but blaming it on drugs is rather... media-whoresque.

Wraith
"EXONERATE, v.t. To show that from a series of vices and crimes some particular crime or vice was accidentally omitted."
-- Ambrose Bierce, The Enlarged Devil's Dictionary

[Straybow]

So, if you are growing pot, don't sample so much of your product that you forget to make payments on your truck.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Seeker
So that's the kind of 'round-up' situation they thought they were in for. NOBODY told them that it was Roscoe, a homicidal maniac, and that the situation was totally not what they had been led to believe.

Someone should have told them about this nut and his record, that he was likely to go down shooting, and we could have avoided such a loss of life.

The local RCMP (3 of the dead) did know about Roscoe. They knew he was a less than nice guy, but I don't think they could have been expected to know that he would become one of our more infamous citizens over the petty charges he would have faced over property and pot.

Originally posted by Wraith
He shouldn't have been let of out jail in the first place if the rest of the story at the link is true.

He wasn't in jail in the first place. That was an early rumour that proved to be false.

Certainly wasn't a good thing, but blaming it on drugs is rather... media-whoresque.

I have to agree. This guy was a borderline psycho who could have gone off over just about anything. The amount of damage that he was able to do when the chip inside his head went overload is very sad, and it is contributing to large reactions.

Opponents of the government are using this to score cheap points, since the government has legislation pending on decriminalisation. And then there are the pro-potheads. They are using this to argue why pot should be decriminalised immediately. A pox on both their houses, I say.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by notyoueither
The local RCMP (3 of the dead) did know about Roscoe. They knew he was a less than nice guy, but I don't think they could have been expected to know that he would become one of our more infamous citizens over the petty charges he would have faced over property and pot.

Very true, and let's not forget that by the local RCMP standards, they had a lot of people out there. It's not like one guy was left to stand guard. There were three of them. Even if there was a veteran officer there, or 10 more officers, the situation may have ended the same.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by notyoueither

Opponents of the government are using this to score cheap points, since the government has legislation pending on decriminalisation.

How is questioning a nonsensical policy an attempt to score "cheap points"? I asked Liberals present to defend this proposed change four pages ago and am still waiting. The federal government's policy will make this sort of thing MORE LIKELY in the future. Cheap point or valid question?

And then there are the pro-potheads. They are using this to argue why pot should be decriminalised immediately. A pox on both their houses, I say.

"Decriminalised" is the problem. Legal for users but not growers. WTF? Is pot just going to fall from the sky in the future? I suspect demand will rise, hence an increase in growops that our brave police are going to be asked to bust up. Either legalise pot outright or maintain it as a criminal product. This mushy middle ground is dangerous and BS.

Liberals...?

[notyoueither]

Well, I think the federal Liberals are moving to make de jur what is already de facto regarding possession of small amounts of pot. So far so good, as it is not good for respect of law and law enforcement when not even the police can be bothered to enforce some parts of the criminal code.

Now, you are right. Where will the pot come from? Very good question.

The best thing that could happen is full legalisation and regulation. Getting pot out of the hands of the pushers who may then introduce people to harder substances makes a lot of sense to me.

Perhaps it is a matter of one step at a time.

[Sava]

Originally posted by notyoueither

The best thing that could happen is full legalisation and regulation.

[Apocalypse]

[Asher]

That's beautiful...who did it?

[Apocalypse]

Don't know, but it'll apparently be displayed in Edmonton

Four Black Horses
by Jim McGregor - Langley City Fire Department

Four black horses without riders
Galloped the Alberta plain;
Four black horses, sent from Depot
To bring the boys home again.

Four black horses with empty saddles
Race the cold prairie sun;
Four black horses arrive at the farmyard
As the last bullet leaves the gun.

Four black horses stand with heads bowed
Wait til the echoes subside;
Four black horses turn as they're mounted,
Now their heads held high with pride.

Four mounted policemen take hold of the reins
Spur their mounts holding lances high;
Four black horses, red serge in the saddles,
Disappear in the Alberta sky.

[notyoueither]

Quite moving.

[Max Webster]

http://www.mitchelladvocate.com/story.php?id=147663

We can now say for certain that drugs kill after RCMP tragedy
Since You Asked...

By Marc Hulet
Wednesday March 09, 2005
Mitchell Advocate — A lot of marijuana advocates will tell you pot is okay because it’s not addictive or it doesn’t hurt anyone.
Tell that to the four families who are in mourning after their loved ones - four Alberta RCMP officers - were gunned down in cold blood while guarding a grow operation during a raid gone horribly wrong.
We can now say, unequivocally, that drugs kill.
The alleged killer, who reportedly took his own life after killing the officers, owned the property where the marijuana operation was found and reportedly had a lengthy criminal record.
And to think, the government of Canada is considering decriminalizing marijuana. How stupid.
It’s almost as stupid as actually doing drugs.
Not only are drugs bad for your health, but they are addictive and they attract some of the worst human beings on the face of the earth.
As well, lesser drugs like marijuana lead to harder, more dangerous and more expensive drugs like cocaine or heroin.
That in turn makes life more dangerous for the average citizen of Canada as we have to worry about having our homes burglarized to help a dope-fiend pay for his or her next fix. Or we have to worry about accidentally getting caught in the crossfire of a drug deal gone wrong or a turf war by rival, drug running gangs.
One of the worst things we can do is turn a blind eye to this problem. It is easy for a smaller community to say, “Oh well, this is a big city problem.”
But I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There are drugs in our community and in our schools. It does happen in Mitchell and it does happen in Fullarton, Logan and Hibbert.
Your children are exposed to it every day, whether it is in the hallways of Mitchell District High School, or in Lions Park.
It is horrible that it takes a tragedy, like what occurred in Alberta, to really open the eyes of Canadian citizens but hopefully we can learn from this.
I lost one very good friend to drugs and I don’t want to lose anyone else.

[Asher]

Pot wasn't the reason the cops were there, pot wasn't the reason the guy was a notorious cop-hater, and pot wasn't why he gunned them down in cold blood.

People who are using the deaths of these officers as political fodder ought to be ashamed. They are horrible Christians.