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Catch and release

I am writing this letter after a 48-hour grace period. I say 48 as 24 hours isn’t long enough to absorb what transpired this weekend in Enderby. In fact, 48 hours isn’t enough.

Some background before I get to my point. The bad guy was being hunted down for outstanding warrants a week or so prior to the event. The RCMP knew he was close. The bad guy made the mistake of skulking around a house where the residents knew who he was. They had had enough as well and I have been told and were going to take the bad guy to an "Enderby Dance" where he would be the only one dancing. The clown retreated to the hotel and hunkered down. The RCMP arrived and surrounded the place and began negotiating to get him to give up.

Now this isn’t some distraught 20 something who had a death in the family and wasn’t dealing with it very well as was earlier reported. This was a 36 year-old hardened pathological career criminal with a background in narcissistic crime looking to rip another victim off.

I get a call about what was unfolding and grab my camera’s and walk to the perimeter documenting events. This is at 8 p.m. Nothing was going to get out of that building. There was a prime vantage point kitty corner and two stories up that I positioned myself at and began documenting events.

The RCMP deserve utmost praise and respect for the entire night. Every member to a man handled themselves professionally and with concern for the public and its safety. They were firm but polite and respectful. Eventually the TAC tank rolled up and began communication.

They would ask for him to come out, then nail him with sirens and lights, then request his surrender again. This went on for some time until a percussion round was fired. Then talk then another round. Eventually the tear gas flew and like pouring a bucket of water down a gopher hole he emerged. He was handcuffed and hauled away at about 2:25 a.m. Exceptional job RCMP.

This is the irony of it all and in my humble opinion every law-abiding citizen should be concerned with this. There was a lot of well-deserved firepower focused on this clown. He is a sociopath with zero respect for property rights. But they got their man. Off to the "Buffalo Motel". Haul his sorry ass out of Enderby. Thanks guys.

The next day I head off to Vernon for supplies. Just before the 27th Street off ramp I see this.

As I drove by I told myself, damn, same track pants. What a coincidence. Approaching the lights I said it can’t be and made the call to drive back. It was the bad guy. Hitch-hiking his way back towards Enderby. This is two in the afternoon. Not even 12 hours had passed and he’s out.

Now I can tell you for a fact this wasn’t an RCMP decision. It came from higher up. Whether it was Corrections or the Prosecutors office who knows. But it wasn’t an RCMP call. Whoever made that call needs to be called out and explain themselves to the public, to everyone out there who asks themselves, how the hell does this happen? Can you imagine being on that TAC team and after the arrest you go home to get a few hours deserved sleep, dress for work the next day and as you roll up after a damn good night’s work you see that clown walking out the door?

I’d be choked. DAMN choked.

I think the public deserves a serious explanation. I think the person that gave the order to release that clown should stand front centre and address this decision to the public because this one bad guy isn’t the only one being let out. He’s just one of many. We have professional officers putting their lives on the line to apprehend clowns like this and they have to let the idiot out on some other clown’s decision. What’s with that?

Now, to summarize and put this all-in perspective, and I hope you higher powers that be that supersede and over-ride public safety and our hard-working officer’s dedication to the safety and well-being of our society consider this and reflect on it seriously.

You demoralize the officers that take an oath to serve and protect, to do their best to make our environment safe. You do nothing to inspire confidence in the justice system. You are becoming worse than the career criminals as you erode the justice system. You are career bureaucrats with huge career pensions with no seemingly serious concern for the common citizen who strives to advance their dreams and desire to make an honest living. You reward these criminal clowns with a get out of jail free card to further their sociopathic behaviour. What the hell are you thinking? This COVID threat crap has become a blank cheque for the criminal element. They understand how you think better than you do. They realize they can push it to the limit, they highlight the hysteria surrounding their rights to not be exposed and commit pre-meditated heinous crime only to be released before an officer gets their well- deserved sleep and returns to duty.

You release them. You create this dilemma. You sit back and hide behind this dilemma using it as an excuse and it is affecting the honest citizens who work hard only to be traumatized by these clowns that you release to continue their spree. Who’s worse? The ones that commit the crime or the ones that released them?

If I was going to be sincerely honest, I’d tell you to grow some balls. Tell these career criminal clowns if they wish to continue their spree they’re going to be locked down and to suck it up. Can any sound mind comprehend and make sense of the fact this guy didn’t spend 12 hours in jail and he’s heading back to the scene of a 6-hour standoff that cost $50,000 grand if not more.

Who made the call to release him? What’s wrong with this picture?

Mark McMahon



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