‘Frantic panic’: it was the RCMP, and not the public, who panicked during the mass murders

News

1. The mass murders and police accountability

The RCMP had been told the mass murderer was driving a look-alike police caras early as 10:31pmon Saturday night, April 18, 2020:

“There’s a police car in the fucking driveway,” Jamie Blair told the 911 call-taker after her husband Greg was shot. “It’s decked and labelled RCMP… but it’s not a police officer.”

“It’s a police car,” one of the children told the 911 call-taker. “He’s probably gonna blend in with the cops because he has a cop car.” “How do you guys know it was a cop car; did it have lights and stuff on it?” asked the call-taker. “Yeah, and it has the cop symbol on it, and he owns a cop car,” replied the child.

But police couldn’t seem to wrap their collective heads around the reality of it — they figured it must’ve been an old beater car bought at auction, with the faded outlines of the old decals still visible.

如果他们来自男人而不是女人和孩子，假冒警车的报道会更加重视吗？

But by the next morning, the RCMP understood that the killer was, in fact, driving a replica police car, but even then, they did not tell the public about the fake police car because they didn’t want to cause a “frantic panic,”我在四月报道：

But at about 7:30am [on Sunday, April 19], the RCMP received a photo of the fake police car, and knew the burned out Ford Tauruses in Portapique were not that car. They shared that photo with [RCMP communications director] Lia Scanlan.

斯坎兰称他在早上8点左右,(员工Serg说eant Steve] Halliday. Halliday spoke of his concerns — he didn’t want to “send the public into a frantic panic and overload our OCC operations.” OCC is the Operational Control Centre, then in Truro, which took 911 calls and dispatched police. “In your mind’s eye, you could envision, you know, by this point there’s 100 police cars on the road and, you know, everybody who sees a police car starts calling 911, then the critical information that we ended up with that we needed to ultimately end up getting the suspect.”

因此，公众没有被警告。

After 8am, and unaware of any potential danger from a killer driving a fake police car, Lilian Campbell went for her regular morning walk, continuing care assistant Kristen Beaton made her way between appointments, Heather O’Brien bought coffee to deliver to her daughters, and Joey Webber drove to get some heating fuel; all four were murdered by the man driving the fake police car.

只有在平原路上的比顿和奥布莱恩谋杀后，加拿大皇家骑警的反向路线，并在上午10:21发布了一条推文，涉及杀手和假警车。

Despite fears that publishing that information would create a “frantic panic… [and] everybody who sees a police car starts calling 911,” nothing of the sort happened.

In the voluminous 911 transcripts released so far by the Mass Casualty Commission, I can find only two calls related to incorrect sightings of the killer while he was on the loose. One came during the overnight hours, when someone in Five Houses believed the killer was roaming the woods behind her house. The second was around the time the tweet was issued, when someone said a man with a gun was at the Truro Sobeys. Both calls diverted police resources that would’ve been better placed elsewhere, but neither caller claimed to have seen a fake police car.

(A third 911 call about a man carrying a gun was received after the killer was killed in Enfield, and that call did not involve a police car either. Another person annoyingly called 911 to ask if it was safe to go to Tim Hortons.)

In terms of 911 calls that did mention a police car,none他们中的不正确；他们所有人都涉及实际的假警车。在发布推文之前，有三个。一个与在温特沃斯谋杀莉莲·坎贝尔有关的一项有关。卡罗尔·费舍尔（Carole Fisher）发出了第二个911电话：“他在我们的警车里，在我们的门口。”莱娜·艾伦（Leonna Allen）的第三个电话是，在电话交谈中，他听到她的朋友希瑟·奥布赖恩（Heather O’Brien）被枪杀 - “有一辆警车，”艾伦告诉911。

A fourth 911 call came just moments after the tweet was issued; it was from Tiffany McMaster, who said she had seen the fake police car on Plains Road 20 minutes earlier.

After that, Lynn MacKeigan told her police friend Matt Dorrington that she saw the fake police car driving past her house in Brookfield.

There may have been other police contacts or 911 calls I’ve missed, but so far as I can determine, no civilian incorrectly identified a real police car as the fake police car. There were no false reports. There was no “frantic panic.” On the contrary, once the public was notified about the car, people were very helpful.

There was, however, panic about the fake police car — among the RCMP.

CST的最早完全了解假警车现实的皇家骑警官员。特里·布朗（Terry Brown）和CST。戴夫·梅兰森（Dave Melanson）在凌晨6:30从树林出来后不久就采访了丽莎·班菲尔德（Lisa Banfield）。布朗和梅兰森（Brown）和梅兰森（Melanson）在大村庄消防厅的一辆救护车后面​​向班菲尔德（Banfield）询问，班菲尔德（Banfield）向他们详细说明了这辆车。

在接下来的几个小时里，布朗和梅兰森一再惊慌失措，首先误认为同伴CST。罗德尼·麦克唐纳（Rodney MacDonald）在4号高速公路上为凶手，接下来是在Onslow Belmont Fire Hall的Emo协调员Dave Westlake开火，第三次误以为Halifax Cop误以为Elmsdale的杀手。没有愚蠢的人被布朗和梅兰森杀死，这真是愚蠢的运气。

Brown and Melanson testified together at Thursday’s proceedings of the Mass Casualty Commission. Arguably, the two should’ve been questioned separately,按原样CST。伊恩·法希（Ian Fahie）和CPL。那天晚些时候杜安·伊凡尼（Duane Ivany）；也许布朗和梅兰森有更好的律师。

At 9:48am, Cst. Rodney Peterson passed the killer driving the fake police car on Highway 4, and Fahie radioed: “heads up — he has a front push bar, front push bar,” referring to the black push bar on the front of the fake cruiser.

布朗和梅兰森周四都作证说，他们没有听到该无线电传输。

片刻之后，渔民的电话进来了，几分钟后，布朗和梅兰森走近了该地区。麦克唐纳在巡逻车上被拉到高速公路的侧面。上午9:52，布朗广播：“休息！休息！我们注视着他。在我们前面的高速公路侧面标记了PC。”

MacDonald immediately responded: “Guys, that’s MacDonald. MacDonald. We’re just trying to log in to find out where the fuck we’re at. We’re pulling back out right in front of ya.”

“复制，”布朗说。

布朗和梅兰森在证词中说，他们从未离开车辆接近麦克唐纳，也从未抬起武器。This contradicts MacDonald’s statement to investigators about the incident: “there’s a couple of cars, at least maybe three, piled up down the road several pole lengths away getting out of their vehicles and they’re getting ready for battle and I’m who they’re going to be pointing at.”

Next, Brown and Melanson, driving an unmarked grey Nissan Altima, approached the Onslow Belmont Fire Hall and saw Cst. Dave Gagnon’s police cruiser parked in front of the hall, a man wearing a reflective vest standing next to the car. Brown and Melanson stopped the car 80 metres short of the hall, jumped out, and started shooting.

Brown said he ordered the man to show his hands but instead the man “ducked” behind the car and ran towards the hall, so he started shooting because he feared the man might harm people in the hall. On cross examination, Brown was asked if it were possible he started firing first, and that’s what caused the man to run; Brown said no, the man ran first, and then he fired.

该男子是戴夫·韦斯特莱克（Dave Westlake）。这是他如何关联此事件的方式：

I heard, and I am adamant about this, that I heard ‘Get Down!’ I knew it was a grayish brown vehicle because when the doors opened, I remember that. I also remember seeing a longer gun. It was not a handgun, and then I remember a shot that sounded like a sonic boom and then another one that was really loud and I’m moving at this time. And then I get to the door and I thought I heard maybe between two and three more shots, but they were muffled.

考虑：平原上的两个男人从一辆未标记的汽车中脱下步枪。无论是一个男人大喊“伸出手”还是“下车！”，任何理性的人都会为了安全而奔跑。

Brown said that the word “police” was labelled on his vest, as if that would make any difference — at 80 metres’ distance, Brown and Melanson were unable to read the call letters on Gagnon’s police cruiser (information that would have immediately informed them it was not the killer’s fake cruiser), so why should Westlake have been able to read the word “police” at the same remove?

We’ve covered the Onslow fire hall shoot-up in more detail这里。

第三次事件是在上午11:17，当时布朗和梅兰森接近埃尔姆斯代尔的RCMP障碍。这是无线电交流的笔录：

CST。布朗：在埃尔姆斯代尔（Elmsdale）的路障的成员，那辆白色的卡车在你身后，啊，那是谁？你们知道吗？

CST。O’Shea：[没有音调]

Sgt. Bernard: Negative. Be we had some — we are all on [inaudible] too so we’re super exposed. [inaudible] and ah, Bravo-10 [inaudible] get the bridge blocked.

CST。Brown: You’re all wind. That person has a firearm in their hand. We’re gonna take ’em down here.

身份不明的男性：该人是HRP [哈利法克斯地区警察]官员。

Asked Thursday if, knowing what he knows now, he would have done anything differently on April 19, Brown said no. “That situation translated exactly to the training I received… and I acted to that training… I’m very sorry to the firemen in there… at the end of the day, it wouldn’t change my action.”

梅兰森同意 - 他没有后悔。

Both men were unrepentant, and said they did nothing wrong.

But it’s hard to look at this sequence of events and not think they were itching to kill the killer, and along the way making rash decisions that, at least so far as the fire hall shooting goes, put civilians at tremendous risk.

In contrast, other RCMP officers acted incredibly bravely and made good decisions through the mass murders. Recently released documents show that Heidi Stevenson, in particular, was professional and capable — immediately on learning about the fake police car, she wanted the public informed about it, and she, a constable and not a ranking officer, made smart strategic decisions about where to place the Enfield and Millbrook detachment officers. Likewise, the first officers on the ground in Portapique — Cst. Stuart Beselt, Cst. Adam Merchant, and Cst. Aaron Patton — put their own lives at great risk to enter an active shooting scene, and did as well as could be expected in a hellish, war-like landscape, finding bodies along the way.

但是，毫无疑问，其他警察采取了轻率和不可避免的行动，进一步危害了公众，而指挥决定（未能正确包含Portapique的决定，未能提醒公众，以及其他提醒）是可怕的。绝对应该关押那些负责的人。

But I fear just the opposite will happen: just as “defund the police” resulted inincreasing为警察提供资金，我的期望是，大规模及以后的谋杀案之前，之中和之后的多次加拿大皇家骑警失败将导致加拿大皇家骑警的资金增加，而问责制则减少了。

Already the police union is attempting to reframe the narrative of the Mass Casualty Commission. Inan op-ed in the Chronicle Herald，，，，National Police Federation president Brian Sauvé writes:

Five RCMP members have already appeared before the commission. There is no doubt this testimony confirmed their exceptional training, professionalism, and — most importantly — humanity in the face of tragedy and adversity. But at what cost to members’ mental health, and to what advantage to the commission’s actual forward-looking work?

…

Why must members be required to repeat themselves and face participant questions designed to undermine their abilities, recollection, or effort? And most importantly, why does the commission’s “trauma-informed” approach apply to some and not others?

我自己的观察是，到目前为止已经作证的警察（九个而不是五个）已经用小子手套治疗了。其中七个被允许作为面板的一部分作证，而不是单独的，甚至盘问也受到限制。对证人的唯一真正积极的审讯是达特茅斯GCSURPLUS仓库的经理Max Liberatore的审讯，他知道杀手正在将一辆相似的警车拼凑在一起。

The multiple RCMP failures started with the failure to recognize the threat in the weeks, months, and years before, and to respond correctly to multiple warnings. And the number of police available in rural areas hadnothingto do with containing the killer — given previous failures to recognize the threat, the 15-minute Portapique slaughter would’ve happened regardless, and by the time the killing resumed Sunday morning, there were hundreds of cops responding.

It would be absolutely the wrong response to uncritically praise the entire police response as heroic, wash over the tragic mistakes that were made as failures of resources and training, and then to increase the RCMP budget, but I very much believe that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

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2.非居民税

“On the one hand, I’m not sure what to make of Tim Houston’s full-frontal face plant last week,” writes Stephen Kimber:

“So, today I will put my personal pride aside,” our premier declared Thursday as he humble-pied his way through a humiliating and complete run back of his government’s month-old, ink-barely-dry plan to hike taxes on non-resident property owners.

另一方面，我确切地知道该怎么做。

同样的老，同样的老。仍然。再次。总是。

Click here to read “Non-resident property tax increase: gone before the ink was dry.”

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3.圣马修

“英石。马修（Matthew）在巴灵顿街（Barrington Street）的联合教堂（Matthew's United Church）希望与可以帮助继续在城市的工作和遗产的组织合作，同时重新利用教堂和土地。”

This week on the church’s Facebook page是一个说教堂提供的职位它的建筑物及其坐在的土地上是向任何具有发展想法的组织的礼物，该组织将使会众在为公共利益服务的同时继续使用庇护所。

贝蒂·霍根（Betsy Hogan）牧师说，会众一直在谈论这样一个重建项目已有十年了，她说教堂确实尝试过，但该提议被这座城市拒绝。Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hogan said the congregation started thinking about its legacy again. TheImagine St. Matthew’s Legacy项目是下一步。

“We have this beautiful piece of land, we have this historic sanctuary, which is also a phenomenal performance space,” Hogan said. “We’re also a vital congregation and we’re not going anywhere. We still have our outreach and a life we want to live in the downtown core. So, we were thinking, ‘how can we do this?’

单击此处阅读“圣马修联合教堂（Matthew's United Church）正在寻求提议重新开发其市中心。”

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4. A Mighty (Ever)Wind

Nustar已将Tupper Point Tupper的坦克农场（存储附近新斯科舍省发电站提供的油）已出售给Everwind燃料US$60 million。

根据它的网站，，，，“the EverWind Fuels team includes former executives from Stonepeak, Blackstone, Emera, and Nova Scotia Power.”

Everwind的总裁是Trent Vichie，他是总部位于纽约Stonepeak基础设施合作伙伴的联合创始人，这是一家私募股权公司被称为“基础设施的巨大”之一。Vichie“retired“从Stonepeak拉斯维加斯t year, at age 46. Everwind is a subsidiary of TDL Partners, of which Vichie is the CEO.

The Point Tupper operation is the EverWind’s first project, and will produce “green hydrogen and green ammonia” that will replace coal (presumably that used at the generating plant) and will be used for agricultural fertilizer.

An article by Loz Blain in the technology journal New Atlas headlined “Green ammonia: The rocky pathway to a new clean fuel，，，，” explores the technology behind so-called green ammonia, concluding that:

从本质上讲，氨确实有可能成为可用的清洁燃料。但是这里的路径尚不清楚。需要完成大量的工作，以开发和扩展新的绿色氨产生方法，另一方面，需要完成相当大的工作来开发有效而有力的方法来利用其存储的能源。如果便宜，肮脏的柴油，该方程式的两面也需要变得具有成本竞争力。

但是，研究在这些领域正在收集蒸汽，而使用现有网络和技术的氨将比氢更容易存储，运输和分发。

So, colour me skeptical.

“Development funding for the [Point Tupper” facility has been secured along with federal support for the first phase of the project,” says Everwind’s website, but the size of that government funding has not yet been disclosed.

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Government

城市

Monday

赠款委员会（星期一，上午10点） -virtual meeting

委员(Monday, 12pm) —virtual meeting

Tuesday

哈利法克斯和西部社区理事会（星期二，下午6点） -virtual meeting

省

没有会议。

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On campus

Dalhousie

作者阅读(Monday, 12:30pm, Sexton Design & Technology Library) — Don Lohnes将从他的书建筑师那里读取

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在港口

Halifax
05:00：大西洋，，，，ro-ro container, arrives at Fairview Cove from Liverpool, England
05:30：Titus，，，，car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Southampton, England
06:00：Lagrafoss，，，，container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Reykjavik, Iceland
08:00:MSC塔玛拉，，，，container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Montreal
10:00：Trinitas，，，，cargo ship, arrives at Berth TBD from Mariel, Cuba
11:30:Titussails for sea
15:00:东海岸、油轮到达Irving Oil from Saint John
15:30:大西洋开往纽约
16:45：Lagrafosssails for Portland
21:30：热带希望，集装箱船，从41号码头到佛罗里达州棕榈滩航行

布雷顿角
07:30:海道红木、油轮到达Point Tupper from Es Sider, Libya
13:00：阿尔戈马值，散装，从煤炭码头（点tupper）航行到海

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Footnotes

是的，我不知道。

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