It was revealed this week that Mounties battered down more than 1,900 doors in the days following the overflow of the Highwood River. A conservative estimate places the damage caused by door-kicking Mounties at over $3 million, above and beyond the cost of flood damage.
Mounties also seized hundreds of firearms that they claimed were “in plain sight,” but which we have since learned were often in locked rooms or cases. In one home, Mounties had to search three times before they found two old, unloaded guns hidden behind boxes in the furnace room in the basement.
So much for “plain sight.”
As public anger over this gun grab has persisted, Mountie excuse-making has become ever more unbelievable.
For instance, participants at Thursday’s town hall, hosted by Danielle Smith, the leader of Alberta’s opposition and the MLA for the High River area, were given a letter from the RCMP’s Deputy Commissioner Dale McGowan, commander of all Mounties in Alberta.
In his letter, McGowan claimed his officers smashed down nearly 2,000 doors in the name of “protecting private property.” As one resident at the microphone wryly observed, “how is it protecting private property to destroy the doors to 1,900 homes?”
Even more incredible is the Mounties’ insistence that guns had to be removed from homes before it was safe to let residents to return to their homes because looters and vandals might take the guns.
But that makes no sense whatever. In their zeal to confiscate civilian firearms, Mounties left 1,900 homes (out of about 7,000) wide open to thieves, since it was simply impossible for them to watch over all 1,900 door-less homes as residents poured back in.
Officers didn’t take credit cards, jewelry, cash, passports or other valuables -- just guns. So their door-busting rampage actually made homes much more vulnerable to robbery. (Thankfully there was no widespread theft.)
GUNTER: Gun-owners discouraged from leaving disaster-stricken Alberta homes | Columnists | Opinion | Calgary Sun
more bullshyte and lies from the RCMP
Mounties also seized hundreds of firearms that they claimed were “in plain sight,” but which we have since learned were often in locked rooms or cases. In one home, Mounties had to search three times before they found two old, unloaded guns hidden behind boxes in the furnace room in the basement.
So much for “plain sight.”
As public anger over this gun grab has persisted, Mountie excuse-making has become ever more unbelievable.
For instance, participants at Thursday’s town hall, hosted by Danielle Smith, the leader of Alberta’s opposition and the MLA for the High River area, were given a letter from the RCMP’s Deputy Commissioner Dale McGowan, commander of all Mounties in Alberta.
In his letter, McGowan claimed his officers smashed down nearly 2,000 doors in the name of “protecting private property.” As one resident at the microphone wryly observed, “how is it protecting private property to destroy the doors to 1,900 homes?”
Even more incredible is the Mounties’ insistence that guns had to be removed from homes before it was safe to let residents to return to their homes because looters and vandals might take the guns.
But that makes no sense whatever. In their zeal to confiscate civilian firearms, Mounties left 1,900 homes (out of about 7,000) wide open to thieves, since it was simply impossible for them to watch over all 1,900 door-less homes as residents poured back in.
Officers didn’t take credit cards, jewelry, cash, passports or other valuables -- just guns. So their door-busting rampage actually made homes much more vulnerable to robbery. (Thankfully there was no widespread theft.)
GUNTER: Gun-owners discouraged from leaving disaster-stricken Alberta homes | Columnists | Opinion | Calgary Sun
more bullshyte and lies from the RCMP
