Monday, December 13, 2010

“We blew it”

Those are the words I want to hear from the Mounties in relation to Leo Crockwell.

55-year old Crockwell is the fellow in Bay Bulls who was supposedly barricaded in his house on Friday night with who knows how many Mounties including snipers surrounding the building. While the Mounties were setting off flashbangs and apparently trying to drown the guy, he went out a side window and headed off to the Goulds for a pack of smokes. Frankly, it would be funny if it wasn’t such an indictment of the incompetence of the scene commander.

I read somewhere the Mounties pumped more than 225,000 litres of water into his home late Friday night and that’s when Crockwell decided to move to dryer ground. Can’t blame him. The house is probably destroyed. Now he’s facing sixteen charges, including five counts of attempted murder.

I can’t help but think in reading the press accounts of how the Mounties tried to cover up their failure. Their spokesman said something about how, after cutting off the power, using the flashbangs and flooding the house, they arrested the guy. They failed to note that he was down the road quite a way at his brother’s place. As a matter of fact, it took them six hours to mention that little fact.

There’s a tarnish on the serge and this doesn’t help it in the least.

2 comments:

Wisewebwoman said...

My inner cynic had a good laugh at all the incompetence, it was so hard to believe.

The fellow was miles over in Petty Harbour having a ciggy and brewski while the Keystone Kops went bang bang and shot off water to beat the band, destroying a house in the process. Completely unnecessarily.

As he hopped out a window and probably thumbed a lift behind them.

Makes ya wonder?

I'd say.

XO
WWW

ViewPoint2010 said...

You know, as a kid, the Mounties were among my heroes. They were to many kids who lived in rural Canada and were the only police we knew. But like so much else now, the more we learn about them, the more we are amazed at the level of sheer incompetence, especially among those who have been promoted to command positions. It really does give credence to Laurence Peters' theory about rising to your level of incompetence. They may be keeping up with the technology, but man, they have lost it in terms of good basic policing skills.