Saturday, October 28, 2006

Where is the justice?

Here is one of the things that pisses me off more then a lot of others.
I don't think I have anything against authority, that doesn't always apply to my parents, but I appreciate and respect the job of the ones who 'serve & protect'.
On the other hand, when these people, including teachers and others in positions of authority and trust abuse our children and other vulnerable members of society, it just sickens me.

Justin Harris is an RCMP officer in Prince George BC, he was accused of having sex with prostitutes.
He maintains his innocence but we will never have a third party hear the matter because the RCMP seem to have delayed getting the matter to a hearing stage, and it turns out there is a statute of limitations which has conveniently run out.
I don't think that the RCMP should investigate their own, period.
The following is an example of a time when the RCMP laid charges against one of their own for engaging in a sexual affair with a 17 year old girl.

The charge was breach of trust. An RCMP officer is in a position of authority and, as such, is held to a higher standard of conduct. To a 17-year-old girl, an RCMP officer in his 40s would definitely be in a position of authority – a person to be trusted. To take advantage of the uniform and have sex with a 17-year-old girl is definitely a breach of trust.
Or is it?
Here’s the kicker in the case, and it will send groups like the Prince George Sexual Assault Centre, the Elizabeth Fry Society, and the Phoenix Transition Society around the bend. It certainly did me.
The judge who heard the case acquitted the officer on the charge of breach of trust because of the history of the girl involved.
She had basically been on the streets since she was 12. She had a child when she was 14 years old, the father of which was another man three times her age. She had drug and alcohol problems. She was a street kid – through and through. She grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and that was held against her because the school of hard knocks gives a better education than the school system, I suppose.
The judge ruled that because she had led just a tough, marginalized existence in her 17 years, that she was much more mature than your average 17-year-old and, thus, knew what she was getting into when she had sex with an RCMP officer in his 40s. The RCMP officer had no culpability because the girl he had sex with had been marginalized all her life.
The service providers are right – it’s time to start the debate about sexual violence.


So here we are, neglecting children in bad situations, neglecting homeless people, and then when the damage from all the mistreatment and neglect sets in, we abuse them a little more and then blame them and their situation for the abuse they recieve. The fact that she was 17 and had no home, as well as a drug and alcohol problem make the whole thing even worse to me.
Do you think organizations such as the RCMP should investigate their own members?

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