Elsewhere, I've argued stridently against exactly such demonisation. In our CAPS meetings, the beat officers always stressed the point that we weren't investigators, it wasn't up to us to determine whether a crime was actually being committed or not. Our responsibility as citizens was simply to report all suspicious behaviour and leave it to the police to sort out which incidents warranted further investigation, which is why I fault them in this case for making an international incident out of what should've been a routine call.
At the same time, I find it hard to accept that the race of the men--even if imperfectly known--played no role whatsoever in the incident. Perhaps I'm being horribly unfair to Ms Whalen and she would've been every bit as conscientious in reporting the apparent break-in had it involved two ivory-skinned blonde women. But I've simply lived in our imperfect world too long to be entirely convinced of that.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 02:57 pm (UTC)At the same time, I find it hard to accept that the race of the men--even if imperfectly known--played no role whatsoever in the incident. Perhaps I'm being horribly unfair to Ms Whalen and she would've been every bit as conscientious in reporting the apparent break-in had it involved two ivory-skinned blonde women. But I've simply lived in our imperfect world too long to be entirely convinced of that.