Who ya gonna call?

Bloggers on all sides of the political compass have written eloquently over the past week about the Robert Dziekanski TASER® killing at YVR. Few are defending the RCMP's actions, but I can't help noticing that those who do typically rationalize their defense by saying "When your house gets broken into, who ya gonna call?"

"Next time your house gets broken into I assume you wont call the police for fear of a “summary execution”."

This cracks me up, given my own experience with the local RCMP detachment when my house was broken into 10 years ago. My call to them went something like this:

RCMP - Good afternoon, RCMP

ME - Yeah yeah! I just got home from work and my house was broken into today. My address is (zot zot zot)

RCMP - Oh, that's too bad. We'll make a note of it...

ME - A note? Are you sending someone out here?

RCMP - Do you want us to?

ME - Well, no kidding! I wouldn't mind seeing a cop car in my driveway right about now -- and I wouldn't mind the guy who broke in seeing it too, if he's still hanging around. Huh? What do you think?

RCMP - But everything's under control, right? Nobody's hurt? We don't usually bother coming out for B&Es unless it's an emergency.

ME - Listen buddy, I need a police report to file with my insurance claim!!

RCMP - Oh, okay. We'll be out in awhile.

"Awhile" was almost 3 hours later, after having to practically beg them to send someone out here. Okay, it wasn't an emergency, but it was still a crime scene. You'd think they'd be interested in checking it out. Given that lackadaisical response, I don't really want to see how they'd respond in an emergency (2 hours instead of 3?), nor would I likely have time to fuck around waiting for them in such a situation. So I'm prepared to handle anything that boots its way in here uninvited (while I'm home) without the help of the RCMP -- I'll still get them to write the report, though. If I can talk them into it.