Police defend right to camo pants
I had to check the date on this one, but it’s current: police are fighting for the right to wear camo pants and other non-uniform gear as a protest, claiming the 2017 law enforcing uniforms isn’t based on public safety, but is an attack on their freedom of expression. Montreal cops aren’t currently wearing protest clothes – but they might want to in the future.
Roman 08:24 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
I’d have to side with the cops on this one.
Jack 08:57 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
I’d side with them wearing Turbans, Kippa’s and Hijabs. Oh but their union said that would be wrong , clown pants and hosiery cool, its part of their “freedom of expression”. Wave to us on your way back home to Blainville, Terrebonne and Mascouche.
Blork 11:09 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
Wow, the hypocrisy! You can’t wear a hijab and be a cop because wearing a hijab would indicate a bias on your part and what if a hijab-wearing cop was breaking up a fight between a muslim and a christian, would the cop’s pro-muslim bias affect the outcome? (That so-called “problem” ignores the fact that humans are boiling over with prejudices and biases — it’s human nature — but cop training is supposed to teach you how to work through that.)
So now what if a cop wearing “protest” combat pants is breaking up a fight between a union striker and a manager at some factory? Do we assume the cop will be biased towards the striker, because his protest pants shows that bias?
What if a cop is breaking up a fight between a person who openly disrespects the authority of police and someone who doesn’t? Do we assume the cop will be biased in favour of the person who disrespects the authority of police because he is doing so himself by disrespecting his own uniform?
I could go on for days…
(BTW, my tirade above is more about the folly of those “what if” arguments against religious displays than it is about the goddamn pants. Just sayin’)
Ephraim 11:47 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
Don’t think they should be allowed to wear camo at all. In fact, many countries ban anyone but the military from wearing camo. Now, if they want the right to wear regular pants, jeans, slacks, shorts or even leopard skin tights… I don’t have a problem. But I do with camo. They are already unapproachable enough… we don’t need them to look para military.
Kate 12:49 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
To be fair I said camo, because that’s what many cops were wearing during that long protest, but I also saw many officers in other patterns and colours. The point is the police are tightly constrained by laws about what they can’t do by way of protest, which is why they turned to wearing offbeat clothes until Quebec passed the law barring even that. I don’t think the cops were trying to look paramilitary, although admittedly wearing camouflage tends to give that impression.
steph 18:04 on 2019-07-10 Permalink
The pink camo pants are what I remember. https://tinyurl.com/yxekyqk8
Ian 13:35 on 2019-07-11 Permalink
Jack nails it.
@steph I once saw a truly fabulous crew of parking cops in the Village wearing pink camo leggings – they were into it, and so was everyone else. Very handsome bunch, probably did more for police relations in one hot summer afternoon than the entire decade’s police outreach PR team.
dwgs 18:30 on 2019-07-11 Permalink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwrX8DuZr6s