In-security with Blackwater

A recent New York Times video report sheds more light on a disturbing incident which occurred in Iraq and involved the private military corporation (PMC) Blackwater. The company’s contractors are alleged to have fired unjustly and indiscriminately at civilians while traveling in an area of Baghdad, causing the deaths of 17 people.

What is most telling for me is the lack of oversight on the actions of military contractors operating in Iraq. Because of their quasi-military role, the private military contractors have relatively no supervision by the government and fall outside of normal military rules of engagement. Further, the US government has allowed any prosecution of Blackwater staff to be very murky and difficult. Aside from the company’s own disciplinary actions, it appears that the ’soldiers for hire’ have no legal controls.

From the initial beginnings of the Iraq War, it is easy to see that the use of PMCs has increased to expontential levels (some believe there are 100,000 private military contractors there, near the size of the official US presence). I wonder why is a special consideration or lack of judicial oversight given to private industry? Why is US government action on controlling these forces so slow? Oh yes, I forgot — the Bush family was involved with PMCs in the past and the current US vice-president was a former CEO of another PMC operating in Iraq, Haliburton.

Condolences and questions

The recent killing of RCMP Cst. Worden has hit home for many of us. Our prayers go out to his family and friends in this time of mourning.

As time passes, more information surfaces about the actual call he was attending and the circumstances surrounding the shooting. What I’m sure will generate quite a few questions is the length of time it took for help to reach him. From witnesses, Cst. Worden was lying wounded for some time — without the help of the public or emergency services.

Now that’s great police work

Yesterday, Mounties in northern New Brunswick managed to catch Richard McNair in a stroke of luck and good police work on the part of the attending officers. McNair had been seen throughout Canada since his escape from prison in the States some time ago. It ended perfectly, with a pursuit and foot chase and the rookie got all the fun and glory. Good stuff guys.

Not the rest of the story

CBC did a feature on police custody deaths in the past week. Although the media attempts to report the full story regarding these cases, there is often an element of the public that seems to be able to hijack the media for coverage. There is always the voice from families defending the person killed and if the person is a minority, usually representatives of their culture garner significant attention in the media. What is not published is the perspective of the officer, which will be silent until a trial or inquiry. Despite the good intentions of the media, reporting these cases often leads to one-sided accounts, as nothing can be heard from the officer until testimony is made public. Although I do not excuse acts of maliciousness among the police, when reading these cases it is important to consider an officer’s frame of mind at the time of the incident and keep an open mind until the rest of the story comes to light.

Majority report

I was reading the New York Times the other day and came across an interesting video ad for IBM’s contribution to the NYPD.  With a fancy name like “Real Time Crime Centre“, you’d expect the thing to be something out of a sci-fi movie.  After reviewing some of its features — it sounds very interesting.  Part of the problem with police databases is that mining for info usually requires a person going through several non-connected systems to marry up data in order to produce real good investigative intelligence.  In most cases, departments don’t share their info with other departments, making centralized intelligence gathering almost impossible.  The RTCC seems to bridge these gaps — it would be neat to see it in action.

Professional courtesy?

A friend passed on this site to me last week, Cops writing Cops. Its a site dedicated for other cops to vent their frustrations at ‘colleagues’ from other departments who have written tickets to their own. In the police culture, this issue is very touchy — and can often generate infighting amongst police officers.

The tight in-group cultural mores about ticketing is somewhat an unwritten rule — and complaints of ‘getting a ticket’ usually remains localized to the particular department’s rumor mill — at a ‘water cooler’ type conversation level. However, the above site clearly takes the in-group complaints to an elevated level, which I disagree with. By voicing their concerns public, officers appear as if they believe they are above the law or deserving of special treatment. Copswritingcops has even gone a step further and is a conduit for threatening messages, berating officers by name and borderline slanderous activity. Despite what the officers may have acted like in their officer/violator conduct, I don’t see the need to create and maintain a site that promotes and advertises the so-called unwritten rule.

I’ll be honest and say that I’ve given breaks to other cops. However, lets face it — its just a ticket. Its frustrating to get one, just as any other citizen feels. However, we coppers are no better than any others and should not expect to be treated as such. If you get a break, cool…if you don’t, don’t bitch about it online.