COWBOYS and INDIANS

July 9, 2024

Gordon Sinclair Jr. COWBOYS and INDIANS: The SHOOTING of J.J. HARPER. M& S, 1999. 

I cannot believe that I did not add to these few updates. 

Read Sinclair's account of the Winnipeg Police handling of the shooting on the street of a First Nations political leader in late 1980s. I've had the copy for ever, but avoided it because of memories of the incident when I was working in Stony Mountain--the distraught nature of other peace officers when seeming discrimination seems to result in death. My own "Winnipeg" novel In Your Dreams and friends who are also writing about policing issues in the prairie city meant that this was the time to read it.

Sinclair, a Free Press columnist, was dogged, pursuing the story even when warned off by supervisors. 

My takeaways include: poor selection of police candidates--screening for previous impulsive and bullying behaviour; poor training of officers especially about the "use of force" protocols; poor understanding of citizens about "use of force" protocols; poor supervision of officers, going so far as recommending "lies"; no discussion about ways for dedicated law-abiding officers to counter "the thin blue line's" expectation of loyalty above all else to each other, not to the people they are hired, trained, paid to serve. Also, there is no discussion about attitudes towards Indigenous citizens vs attitudes towards others. Or about the causes of crime among disadvantaged groups, and the police role in that and related social issues.