Tag: police

I know police departments rarely release names of police, even when they get fired for misconduct. But then sometimes I wonder whether the names were available and just left out of news stories?

Like this is an article about a court finding that RCMP violated people’s rights. No RCMP are named, but several protestors and the judge are fully identified.

The baseline level of secrecy around police makes it confusing as a reader, for me at least. Does this mean the court didn’t know any names either, or that the finding was about “the RCMP” as a group, or just that the journalist left out the names?

One time at a club, a friend apologized for showing up late.

Late friend: “Sorry, I dropped a full coffee pot and had to clean up”

Journalist friend: “Oh my god! What was it full of?”

So I assume journalists are usually asking for all the details, but I wonder if police are a special case 🤷

One more related example. I’m sure a separate person writes the photo captions, but the 4th photo in this CBC article is captioned “Anti-logging protesters at Fairy Creek on Sept. 29, 2021” when there are also at least 4 cops in the frame, including the central subject. A whole other level to not even name that police exist.