Montreal Police Shooting

For reference I am talking about the recent shooting of two men by the police in Montreal.  One of the dead was an innocent bystander on his way to work at a Montreal hospital. The other was a mentally ill homeless man who was being chance by police after he pulled a knife on them. The shooting  is now the number one national news story in Canada as things like this do not often happen in Canada.

We can expect a lot to come of this incident. There will be a long SIU investigation. There will be an inquiry. There will  be politicians at all levels getting involved. And in the end there will probably be more restrictions placed on police. There will be some who blindly support the police because that is what they do. Even before they bother getting all the facts. And there will be some who will want the officers involved to be severely punished with long jail sentences. Even before they bother getting all the facts.

Those people who want this punishment are in for a big letdown. With the exception of first degree murder criminals do not spend a lot of time in jail in Canada. This case is certainly not first degree murder. It is not even second degree. The most it will be, if it is found the police are at fault, is manslaughter. Or as I like to call it "Mans laughter." And that is if they are found to have acted outside standard police guidelines.

Whichever way it goes we can take one bright spot from this incident. The fact that this shooting is a big deal and is being covered the way it is. There are many countries where shootings like this are common and get little to no press. Though, I know this fact will not be any conciliation to the friends and family of the two dead men.