READER GLAD TO SEE GIULIANO ZACCARDELLI GONE

RE: Giuliano Zaccardelli: Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish

I am glad to finally see the public menace known as Giuliano
Zaccardelli climbing down from his high horse.

My personal dream is that he will face some criminal and civil charges
in his new civilian life. That might (to take a page from the RCMP
philosophy on drug use and crime) act as a "deterrent" to other
commissioners who might want to operate like the way Zaccardelli did.

Firing him would have sent a stronger message, but that would be too
much to ask.

Arresting him on the spot, however, would have been the best way to
convince the Canadian people that there is still some justice left in
this country.

So why wasn't he at least been fired? Because the government and the
police are so intertwined that they cannot be separated. The Mounties
have always been the Executive Goon Squad of the government.

They probably have so much dirt on the Tory party, especially our
shifty-eyed prime minister, that Zaccardelli thought he could flaunt
the law and publicly lie under oath. But then, lying under oath, while
in front of witnesses and cameras, knowing full well that your
testimony is gong to contradict previous testimony, is mysterious.

Maybe Zaccardelli is going to claim mental illness as a defence. Maybe
he didn't even know it was an insane thing to do, until the public
outcry. Considering his attitudes towards ending drug prohibition, for
example, I have long questioned his mental and moral stability.

I have no hope, however, that the systemic problems in the RCMP will
be cleared up because of this resignation. I think the corruption is
just too deeply rooted.

Considering where they would draw recruits for the top job, I have no
doubt that the new commissioner will be equally as reliable and
trustworthy as Zaccardelli.

But there is more than just the Arar disgrace on his hands. Take
Mayerthorpe for example. Four officers were killed by a well-known,
gun-toting, cop-hating, neighbour-threatening, child-molesting, repeat
offender who had stolen car parts and marijuana plants on his property.

In a cynical attempt to make political hay off of the heads of those
four dead officers, Zaccardelli comes out howling to the press about
"grow-ops and organized crime". Why the spin?

Why deliberately mislead the public like that? Did he have something
to hide? Was he trying to cover his - or someone else's - brass?

Zaccardelli resigning is not enough. The RCMP is a military regiment,
so it could be shut down in a single day if anyone had the guts to do
it. They should have been shut down after the Winnipeg General Strike
of 1919 (aka "Bloody Saturday"), but prohibition came along to keep
them relevant. Today, The War On Certain Drugs keeps them busy and
well-funded.

Come to think of it, if it wasn't for "The War On Certain Drugs" and
"The War On Whatever Bush Calls Terror", we wouldn't even need the
RCMP.

Air India is another case of the Mounties fumbling the ball on a
crucial play. Then there is their involvement in the Sponsorship
Scandal, and the jostling of the last federal election with the income
trust investigation.

The way they use their position to lobby the government on public
policy is an ongoing national disgrace that no one even seems to want
to mention, let alone address. Since when are the police a lobby
group? Since when are they a political party, church group, or charity?

Let's face it - the Mounties do pretty much whatever they want. They
ignore the fact that they are hired public servants, and that their
job is to protect and serve, not flex their muscles and "send strong
messages".

Then, when things get ugly, they investigate themselves!

No. I'm sorry. It is over. They have to go. We should paint all their
cars, trucks, helicopters, and signs, give all the officers new
uniforms, and assign all of them to provincial jurisdictions.

We'd still have roughly as many officers, they just wouldn't have to
wear the disgraced Mountie colours. All the federal funding that goes
to the RCMP each year could be split up among the provinces as needed,
and that will be the end of them.

As hard as it is for some people to swallow, the time has come for the
Horsemen to go the way of the Airborne - out to pasture.

Russell Barth

Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder

Ottawa