Now THIS is my kind of cop. The more I read about him, the more I like him. Everybody and their dog knows that the so-called “criminal justice system” in this country is nothing more than a criminal-coddling crock of… well, you know. But Calgary Const. Shaun Horne went and did what damn near every cop in the land — not to mention more than a few just plain decent, law-abiding folks — have been itching to do for years: After idiot JP Kristine Robidoux gave career criminal Albert Walter Brazill — a lifelong scumbag with over 65 criminal convictions — a free pass out of the county bucket, Const. Horne stood up in the courtroom and ripped Her Bullshitness a new one.

You can read more about it here, here, here and here. As Rick Bell put it best in today’s Calgary Sun:

What happens when a city cop tells the truth about our justice system? In PC Calgary, he gets yanked off the street and hit with a suspension

Guilty of speaking what everybody knows to be true.

Our so-called justice system IS a mockery and a joke.

Ask any cop.

Ask any criminal.

Ask any victim of crime.

But Const. Shaun Horne, with 25 years of fighting bad guys under his belt, just doesn’t think the fact. He actually says the words.

And the butt-covering city police bigwigs, anxious not to offend the sensibilities of judges, mete out the discipline at the public school board meeting room.

With the clock ticking off toward his last day, a police hearing suspends the constable for a week without pay.

There is not much more they can do. Horne is out the door early in the new year. But the message is clear.

If the officer had years to go before the finish line they’d be getting the nails and the wood out.

“It would be suicidal,” says Rambo Al Koenig, the mince-no-words police association prez.

“Out of fear of reprisals anyone speaking out would have to swallow their pride and their principles.”

But Horne could speak up and did speak up when one Albert Walter Brazill appeared in court for not paying his bar tab.

Brazill is a piece of work, a career criminal with 65 convictions — everything from extortion, kidnapping, forcible confinement to thefts, multiple break and enters, vehicle theft, armed robbery, frauds, forgeries, assaults, many impaired driving and drug beefs and more than once failing to show up to court.

Brazill has nothing to say but tells justice of the peace Kristine Robidoux he needs an alcohol program.

He says he is in Calgary looking for work as a painter but nobody will get him painter pants. Then he gives some sob story about not being able to score work of any kind because he was hit over the head in Regina and his ID was stolen.

“I can’t win,” he says. But he does win, 65 convictions and all.

Robidoux says: “I am just not satisfied the ends of justice are met by having this person detained for the better part of a week.”

Brazill asks if that’s it, realizes it is, thanks Robidoux and smirks at Horne the cop, who’s seen the revolving door so many times before.

Horne calls him a piece of … you know.

Horne then asks the JP if she is “going to release everybody” and calls Brazill’s walk “a joke” and “a mockery.”

By the way, the released Brazill doesn’t show up for his next court date.

Yesterday, it is Horne on the hot seat, three counts of discreditable conduct. Insp. Paul Manuel, representing the police brass, sounds off like a paragon of virtue.

Horne brought “discredit on the reputation of the service” and there must be a strong message to the ranks that “this type of behaviour will not be condoned and must be dealt with severely.”

Manuel waxes on about Horne’s “barrage” of “insulting and condescending language” stating “the seriousness of the matter cannot be overstated.”

“The public interest must be considered,” says the inspector. Right. Since when was the public interest ever considered.

Besides, the constable won’t say sorry and Robidoux the JP is reportedly shocked and gets angry calls at home from the public.

Manuel asks for Horne to get two weeks without pay. He is given one. It is the sad end for a good cop.

Rambo Al says the badges on the street will now know the drill. “No matter what injustice you see, keep your mouth shut,” says Koenig.

Horne has no regrets. He’d do the same but maybe be a little choosier about the words.

He is still frustrated but gets some small comfort from the support of fellow- officers who every day deal with the cushiness of the courts and the public relations blather from their politically correct superiors.

Horne is not surprised by the outcome.

“In my mind, this was over before it started,” he says.

He retires knowing the system is “nowhere near fair” and it isn’t changing any time soon. But the police officer does not shy away from the consequences. Horne says he was offered a reprimand and wouldn’t take it. He will not bend the knee.

When it is over, Manuel shamelessly offers a handshake and the obligatory happy retirement wish to Horne.

The constable just turns away.

For those of you that haven’t heard yet, the cops in London, Ontario have released a photo from the city’s downtown surveillance cameras taken the night of this week’s early morning shooting. It’s not the best pic in the world, but it is clear enough that the distinctive jacket that the suspect was wearing can be recognised by someone that may have seen it before. London police now believe that there was, in fact only one shooter that night. The following has been taken from the London Police Services website:

Public Assistance Key

The London Police Service is issuing another public appeal for assistance in identifying a suspect in the shooting that occurred early Monday morning on Dundas Street. The public has been of great assistance in providing witness accounts of the event. Surveillance images have also been extremely useful in identifying persons of interest that were present when the crime was committed. The London Police Service now believes that it is possible a lone shooter was responsible for all of the shots fired that morning.

Attached is a surveillance image that captured an individual now identified as a suspect. The image is clear and shows an isolated male standing in a parking lot. Note the distinct jacket that the man is wearing. The jacket has a white or light-coloured body and red sleeves.

Although police are not linking this shooting to the downtown shooting committed on October 7^th, there is one key similarity. Both people believed to be responsible for the respective shootings are currently fleeing from the police.

The man accused in October’s shooting, Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed, has been wanted since November 9^th when he failed to attend for a required court appearance. Moalin-Mohamed has been charged with attempt murder in connection with that incident, where 4 men where shot while walking in the parking lot located at 431 Richmond Street.

The London Police Service is working closely with several other police services pursuing a variety of investigative leads as to the whereabouts of Moalin-Mohamed- investigative leads generated in large part by the public.

Also attached is an image of Moalin-Mohamed for dissemination.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts and identity of the shooter from Monday morning is asked to contact the London Police Service at (519)661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Moalin-Mohamed is asked to contact the London Police Service at (519)661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Some people don’t need to be told some things. Some people just already know things like: water is wet; fire is hot; if you run nekkid through a blizzard, you’re going to freeze your twig and berries off… stuff like that. Other folks, though, need to blow a buttload of taxpayers’ money to figure out whether or not a bear craps in the woods. And that‘s just what they got in Nova Scotia, following the 11-month inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Theresa McEvoy (right), who was killed by 16-year old Archie Billard as he was fleeing, stoned, at high speeds from police through the streets of Halifax in October of 2004. Billard was already facing 27 charges related to a string of car thefts.

And guess what the conclusion they reached was? That the YCJA is TOO DAMNED LENIENT!

HALIFAX (CP) – Canada’s youth justice system must be tightened to protect the public from dangerous teens whose lives are “spiralling out of control,” a Nova Scotia inquiry has concluded.

Well, DUUUHHH!!! Figured that out all by themselves, did they? The rest of us have known that since the damn thing was passed. Some of the recommendations in retired judge Merlin Nunn’s 381-page report are [all emphasis mine]:

• make it easier for judges across Canada to detain teenagers before trial
• changes to the definition of “violent offence” in the Act to include conduct that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives and safety of others
• staff at the Windsor courthouse should be provided with “adequate and working telephone, facsimile, printing, computer equipment, and e-mail communication,” along with access to the province’s online justice information system
• allow judges to detain youths if they show “a pattern of offences”
• slash the time lag between when a youth is arrested and they first appear in court [average 175 days in NS] to “within one week of arrest“
• more Crown attorneys and a fully staffed attendance centre where youth who are released on bail will be forced to regularly meet with probation officers before their trial

In a prepared statement, the former judge said the title of his report – Spiralling Out of Control: Lessons Learned from a Boy in Trouble – was chosen to reflect the fact that Billard’s life was headed into a “remarkable crime spree.”

“None of our responses seemed to be effective in stopping him,” Nunn wrote. “They should have.”

Personally, I think we need a hell of a lot more than that but I suppose this is as good a start as any. Now look for the usual handwringing suspects to start popping out of the woodwork to bemoan that those advocating stronger measures “just don’t understand the real nature of the problem” and all the other usual pap.

Dundas Street is closed yesterday between Clarence and Richmond streets while police investigate a mysterious shooting spree. (MORRIS LAMONT, The London Free Press)

Well, it’s been a day now and cops in London are still fiddling with the jigsaw puzzle of what the hell happened on Dundas between Richmond and Clarence on Sunday night. About the only thing that’s known for sure so far is that two guns likely means two shooters. Onc source tells me that cops found two types of casings at the scene: .45 ACP and 9mm Parabellum; two of the most popular calibres from the top 10 of the scumbags’ hit parade.

While it’s bad enough that these malcontents seem to think that it’s fine and dandy to turn the middle of the city into the damned OK Corral, but the local citizenry doesn’t seem to be more interested in being part of the problem than in being part of the solution:

None of the street-level witnesses contacted police.

“It takes more than police to make a community safe,” Chief Murray Faulkner said. “Absolutely no one has come forward to tell us why this thing started. Nobody.”

[…]

Officers arriving at the scene arrested five people at gunpoint on Clarence. Investigators later determined they weren’t involved in the shooting and were released.

Four of them, however, were charged with obstructing an officer. “There was a big skirmish,” Pfeffer said.

Gee whiz, isn’t that just jolly? Cops haven’t even had any luck finding a victim (if there is one) yet. For those keeping count, this is the second shooting in downtown London in as many months. The sooner the Harper government passes its “reverse onus” legislation the better. Maybe then we can finally get these buggers off the streets and keep them there… 🙄

[UPDATE]
It seems that the cops have finally hit paydirt, after a fashion.

Here’s some more crap that I don’t need; and neither does anyone else who lives in this city.

At least my weekend went off pretty well: I got to spend some time with my boy as we worked on a school project he’s doing on Juno Beach. Not a bad way to spend my time, I think. So, Monday notwithstanding, I was in a pretty good mood this morning as I hopped on the bus to get to work.

The LTC sardine can, with its cargo including yours truly, boogied on down Dundas just like it does every day until it got to Wellington; then it turned right, made for Queens and headed west again.

“Oh, fer [badword]’s sakes,” I thought. I had been assuming that construction season was supposed to be over, at least until Wiarton Willy tells us how much longer we can play hockey outside. So I hop out at Queens & Richmond — about 50 metres from where Ahmed Moalin–Mohamed decided to scratch his itchy trigger finger on Thanksgiving weekend — and started walking the extra two blocks that had been added on to my way to work today. On the bright side, my adjusted route took me past a Timmy’s and, let’s face it, a little Timmy’s on the way to work never hurt anyone.

No luck with that either, though. No sooner do I get to D&R then I’m stopped dead in my tracks by the cop on the far side of the yellow police tape stretching clear across Dundas Street.

“Sorry folks, but the street’s closed,” the cop said, in the most polite voice that a guy freezing his butt off and wanting to be someplace else can be expected to muster. “There’s been a shooting.”

Several of us were then informed that getting to work on time this morning was something that we could just save ourselves the trouble of worrying about; the street was closed from Richmond to Clarence and nobody was getting in. Period. Which led to the next natural question: closed for how long?

“Hopefully, we’ll be all finished here within the next three hours or so,” advised the officer, managing the difficult feat of simultaneously conveying both a courteous demeanour and the unmistakable impression that this was something that he was absolutely not willing to be screwed with about.

It turns out that about ten or so shots were squeezed off (not fifty feet from where I work) sometime in the wee hours of the morning today, likely around 02:45, by at least two shooters and once again, we’ve got a couple of gun-toting scumbags running around London:

Police arrived and arrested five people, but said early today those arrested are in custody on “unrelated matters.”

Dundas Street between Clarence and Richmond is still closed as police investigate.

I can remember, not so long ago, when things like this just plain didn’t happen in London. Now, it’s getting to be more and more like TO has been becoming for some time now. If this crap keeps up, we’ll have our own “year of the gun” soon enough…
More on this later.

I know that I’ve already flogged this horse before, but this time is a little different. It seems that the sordid story of trigger-happy Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed may have a silver lining to it, after all. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pointed to Mohamed’s little disappearing act as an example of just why we need reform to the “justice” system in this country and need it now. As the PM put it, describing how Mohamed got off scot free after shooting four people in downtown London:

“Four people,” Harper repeated for impact.

“The judge, acting under the current law, ordered him to stay home with his mother,” Harper said at a Toronto press conference. “He promptly vanished.

“That means somewhere in Canada, maybe in London, maybe in this city, a man facing multiple violent firearm charges is freely roaming the streets,” Harper said. “And it’s hardly an isolated case.”

It feels kind of odd to say this, but if this little nugget of judicial idiocy actually results in changes to the way things are done in our courts, then maybe it will be somehow worth it. According to this article, cops in TO say that 945 crimes involving guns or restricted weapons have been racked up so far this year, with 37% done by some prick already out on bail, parole, temporary absence, probation or some other hug-a-thug bullshit. Not enough for ya? Try this:

Jeremiah Valentine, 24, charged with second-degree murder in the Yonge St. Boxing Day 2005 shootout that left Toronto teen Jane Creba dead was under three gun bans following convictions at the time of the incident.

Screw the “rights of the accused.” I’d rather put up with the odd rare case (and yes, they are rare) of an innnocent man having to cool his heels until his trial comes up than put up with this bullshit any longer.