The South Bayview Bulldog

Today’s decision by the Ontario government to allow rank and file police to use tasers takes law enforcement into an unknown land. It isn’t necessarily a bad place. But some will wonder if the simple human nature of ordinary cops can adapt to a weapon that disables but doesn’t kill. The old  cartoon about the student being tasered because he didn’t show his university ID comes to mind.  In other words, police practice at the most routine level will have to be watched very carefully.  The Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Madeleine Meilleur says her department will stay on top of how the weapons are used.  Here’s why the ministry should figuratively walk the beat with ordinary cops. The threat to use the taser can be abused.  Misuse can occur even when no one is actually whacked with a 500-volt stinger. It also remains true that no police officer will risk going up against a gun with a  taser. In such cases, there is a high probability that someone will be shot. The announcement has raised a day-long complaint from the family of Aron Firman. The 27-year-old young man who died from a taser bolt in an encounter with OPP. Mr. Firman  was mentally disturbed. Circumstances of the case seem incomplete. The family’s lawyer, Julian Falconer, says this a “band aid” application in response to the death of Sammy Yatim. And it may be. But neither Mr Falconer nor the government has a fix for “adrenalin judgement”. Training will not halt the chemical jolt that is rooted in the survival instinct.  It is good to remember that deaths frequently occur not because men and women are cops, but because they are human. Start there to find a solution.

Members of the sophisticated show business audience at the MTV VMA’s Sunday night were clearly shocked and embarrassed by the lewdness of the Miley Cyrus performance with Robin Thicke. Above, Will Smith and his family respond variously with looks of dismay and bewilderment. One wonders, should these kids be there? It was not the only example of distress by the audience. Some might call the Miley Cyrus act pornographic. It was certainly raunchy. Will this unsavoury performance work for her? One critic has crowned her fleshy twerking with the superlative of superlatives — clusterfantastic. Don’t ask. We’ve embedded the video from the CBC on a separate page called Miley (link above) and it is fairly graphic so be your own bad taste control board. Twerking by the way is a stripping term meaning more or less to jiggle everything, says Wikipedia.  

Here is a review of the latest work by “Bennington Heights own” Margaret Atwood. It is called MaddAddam. The review itself is a workout for the mind with at least one detour to the dictionary to verify interiority. As a good teacher might now say: “Look it up”. In the most general of terms the review suggests that Ms. Atwood’s preoccupation with the future and further abuse of women continues to abide in her work. Tim Martin of The Telegraph gives it three stars out of five.