Bossnass

I think it was Ian Tyson.

I come from a line of RCMP. A red serge coat in a picture box hanging in my grandma's bedroom. Not that that is really relavent, but it seems to have a little more resonance now.

I have two friends from high school that trained with two of the fallen officers in Regina, one of them returned my message yesterday; he was stuck on duty way up north in High Level. He related a pretty interesting fact about the last week, since the shooting. No crimes have happened, no calls have been made to the station. Either no one is commiting crimes or no one is reporting them. There has been one traffic violation over a week. This is signifcant because they are normally pretty occupied; the population, as he describes it, is 'troubled natives and mostly asshole tradesmen' which results in regular conflicts between and within each group. That these guys aren't 'stirring up shit' is remarkable.

Further, my understanding is that the shooter made death threats against the truck dealer, had been reported for dealing drugs, and had outstanding weapon search charges, so four officers went to investigate. Four were sent because he was a known offender, normally in a remote area only two would have gone. The shooter wasn't there, or was hiding, but they saw evidence of a chop shop. However, with due process they couldn't search without an appropriate warrant so one car left to get the paper and the other stayed to watch for the shooter. At that point, reports are unclear, even to other RCMP officers. But a third officer was getting a ride from a fourth to relieve one of the orignal two later that day. Later, aparently the next morning when the warrent was ready, all four were found shot with a high-powered rifle. Why no-one reacted to the lack of radio communications overnight is unclear.

Of course, when I was told that, I was also told that it was all heresay, but I consider the source to be sound.