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Kicking down doors of High River gun controversy

Soapweed

Well-known member
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/04/11/kicking-down-doors-of-high-river-gun-controversy?token=aeb9e2bc4f9f551c88aecc7ac1fe9fa9

Kicking down doors of High River gun controversy

By Lorne Gunter QMI Agency
First posted: Saturday, April 12, 2014 06:00 PM EDT

The more that comes to light about the RCMP’s High River gun grab following last spring’s devastating flooding in southern Alberta, the more obvious it is the Mounties became obsessed with taking High Riverites’ guns. Rescuing people was secondary to breaking into homes without warrants and stripping the populous of their legal firearms.

It would appear that the incident is a tragic abuse of police powers against law-abiding citizens.

Through the exemplary work of independent firearms researcher Dennis Young, we already know that police broke into twice as many High River homes after the emergency had ended as they did while flood waters were still coursing through town.

The Highwood River overran its banks in High River early on the morning of June 21, just after midnight on the 20th .

Through access to information requests filed by Young, we learned earlier this year that by June 23, the RCMP thought the immediate crisis was over. This was an assessment shared by the units of the Canadian armed forces that were assisting the Mounties with search and rescue.

On June 24, High River RCMP reported to their bosses in Edmonton that they had completed their search of every home in town, 3,337 in all. There were still about 300 people living in the town of 13,000, despite the province’s mandatory evacuation order. But other than that, everything seemed calm.

That same day, units of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry from Edmonton were requesting a return home since there was “no further danger to civilians (life and limb) and evacuations not requested.”

All 31 people rescued by police and the military seem to have been plucked from their homes within the first 24 hours. Then things slowly settled down.

So how come Mounties felt the need to kick in nearly 1,300 doors after June 24, nearly double the number (674) they had kicked down in the first four days of flooding? The logical answer is that they had stopped looking for stranded survivors and had, instead, started focusing on disarming the civilian population.

Indeed, new documents just uncovered by Young show that Mounties kept seizing guns up until July 10, nearly three full weeks after the flood and more than two weeks after the first evacuees had been given the all-clear to return to their homes.

This information makes a mockery of the Mounties’ insistence that they only took firearms they encountered by coincidence. They claimed to take only those firearms they noticed “in plain sight” while they were in homes searching for survivors.

But nearly half the guns they seized, they seized on their second trip to most homes after they had been in them once already and determined there were no survivors cowering inside.

And as Young discovered last week in police records, Mounties also confiscated several pellet guns, bows and arrows, crossbows, “musket powder” and “2 bayonets.”

Apparently, in addition to concerns about retaliation by angry homeowners, Mounties also seemed paranoid about uprisings by Boy Scouts, First Nations, medieval Flemish yeomen, British Redcoats and Imperial Japanese infantry circa 1941.

Good thing they didn’t locate any disruptors or blowguns, so they didn’t also have to be on the lookout for Klingons or indigenous Kuna warriors from South America.

Want more proof of Mountie misbehaviour?

According to residents, members kicked in doors in neighbourhoods that had no flood damage: no water in the basement; no power, gas or sewer outages. There was no chance people needed rescuing in those homes. But doors were kicked down and guns take anyway.

It would appear that this was a despicable incident in which our trusted national police force far overstepped its powers, even in an emergency.

[email protected]
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Big Muddy rancher said:
Per is right there and has been involved with this issue.Raised quite the ruckus.

Per's Facebook page is where this came from. It is really an eye-opener as to how police forces are power hungry enough to mightily overstep their boundaries and obligations. It's very sad what the world has come to.
 

Broke Cowboy

Well-known member
Soapweed said:
Big Muddy rancher said:
Per is right there and has been involved with this issue.Raised quite the ruckus.

Per's Facebook page is where this came from. It is really an eye-opener as to how police forces are power hungry enough to mightily overstep their boundaries and obligations. It's very sad what the world has come to.

Simple proof that despite my usual comments on police actions in your country Soap - my country is going bad as well.

The trust and respect that the police used to have in this country is gone.

Proof of that comes from the advertisements to "sign up" with the OPP, RCMP and certain major city police departments.

It used to be there was a waiting list to simply get on with these folks - now they cannot keep their slots full - no one wants to be associated with them.

Regular citizens know the police can no longer be trusted.

bc
 

Tam

Well-known member
This is the email I sent to PM S. Harper about the issue

As the PM of Canada I feel it is your duty to make sure the RCMP are not stomping on people`s rights. If the stories of the RCMP kicking locked doors in and entering homes in High River, Alberta while they are locking people out of those homes, and seizing privately owned guns are true, then you need to make sure those responsible are held accountable for what can only be seen as a illegal search and seizer of private property. If the Mounties are kicking doors in then they should be held accountable, unless they do not need a search warrant to enter a PRIVATE HOME. If they don`t then you need to make it illegal without just cause and a warrant signed by a judge. They can`t lock people out of they homes and then go in while they are not there and search their homes THAT IS JUST NOT RIGHT. If they can do it to the citizens of High River due to a Flood, then they could do it to any one of us. You as the PM of Canada need to make this right for the victims of the Alberta flood and the Alberta RCMP

Not sure if it did any good but if you do not voice a collective disagreement with the governments actions nothing will be done to fix the mess.
 

per

Well-known member
Yes it was quite the show of police state power but the police were not in this alone. It was obviously endorsed, encouraged and ordered by our provincial politicians. imho I know one thing for sure, my Dad will never again leave his home during an emergency evacuation. He has taken steps to have every essential resource to live a comfortable existence without town services. He is not alone as several on his block have done the same. When my parents were taken from their home under duress, they had gone to bed and the water was receding. (found by forward looking inferred radar) (good for finding people but not guns) Yes the sewer system back up preventer failed and there was 5 feet in the basement but the upstairs was fine and a few days camping wouldn't hurt anyone. We could have gone in the next day and at least powered up the fridges and freezers that were high and dry. They locked their greatest resource out of town and no one argued during the acute crisis but once everyone was safe it was hard to imagine why another 1400 houses were broke into by the police and guns, ammo as well as bows were taken and the houses left unsecure. I can't even imagine the value of the art on the walls that they left vulnerable.

Don't get me started!
 

per

Well-known member
The PM's wife's parents live in town and he did come a muck out there basement. She is from a neighboring town that also had river issues.
 

Tam

Well-known member
They said after this happened the guns that were taken were cataloged and people could come to the RCMP Office and pick them up, which personally I think if they took them that should have to take them back to the rightful owners and pay to fix the doors they illegally kicked in :x but do you know Per did the RCMP release all the guns back to the owners without any delays to prove ownership?
 

per

Well-known member
Most of them Tam have been returned. Some antique firearms were damaged some couldn't prove ownership. (some folks lost their documents to the river) They also took ammunition and destroyed much of it, not going to get that back. The emails from the Military said they didn't want anything to do with this including the road blocks and when life and limb were safe they bugged out leaving the RCMP to their own devious untethered devices. One memo from the RCMP referred to the fact that 2 of a gentleman's guns weren't recorded on the destroyed registry (which obviously was not destroyed). These 2 shotguns were bought after it was supposedly destroyed. oops! As the truth trickles out, not in small part to Dennis Young's freedom of information document requests, my faith in our police force and their political masters diminishes. Most of the town administration thinks the public knowing the truth is a distraction to rebuilding or might reduce the efforts of the Provincial Government to send resources. History has a few rules and not taking action will result in a rerun.
 
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