Dear editor:
I wish to write, inform, and protest the events I witnessed this past week.
At the bottom of the Cochrane hill, I witnessed the local RCMP set up and hidden behind bushes. What made this both amusing and frightening were the methods Canada’s finest we’re employing. They were using what appeared to be spotting scopes on traffic coming down the hill.
The use of what is in effect a telescope to peer into the inside of cars is bad enough (this reminds me of a common peeping tom) but the officer, not content to simply hide in the bushes, was wearing a gillie suit, which are commonly used by military snipers.
In this case, its use was not against some dangerous foe, but common citizens going about their business.
When will this fascination of our law keepers with military tactics end, or like our neighbours to the south is it just beginning?
Two citizens have been shot under questionable circumstances this past week, one of whom died with multiple rounds at close range, while the other now clings to life. Neither of these shooting victims were charged with a crime.
Are the behaviours of the officer playing sniper and that of the one who ended the life of a troubled soul related? Some may scoff, but everything has a beginning.
David Gillette
