Recording Of RCMP Officers Mocking Assualt Victim Released
CBC Nova Scotia has released a voicemail recording of what sound like RCMP officers mocking a woman who called them about a domestic assault.
A Nova Scotia woman has lodged a complaint with the federal RCMP watchdog after listening to an inadvertent voicemail message in which several “Neanderthal” officers could be heard cursing and making light of a domestic assault she had reported.
The woman fears for her safety and the safety of her children because of a previous relationship. CBC News has agreed to protect her identity.
The woman’s problems began last week when she was hosting a family gathering at her house near Parrsboro in Cumberland County. She said her partner became angry and he stormed out of the house with her cellphone.
Concerned that he would start harassing her friends and family whose names were stored in the phone, she set off to retrieve it from her boyfriend’s house in Springhill, approximately 35 kilometres away.
While driving there, she swerved to avoid a deer on the road and ended up plunging her car down an embankment, she said. Wet and cold, she said she walked for about an hour before a passing motorist picked her up and delivered her to her boyfriend’s house in Springhill.
Her boyfriend was still angry and refused to hand over her phone, she said.
“He had already called the police — his friends, as he says — that I was there assaulting him,” she told CBC News on Monday.
She said he started assaulting her.
“He had me around the neck,” she said. “He threw my coat and my shoes out.”
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This recording displays the complete lack of compassion that police have for victims of crime. I have been told about many instances like this, but it had never been recorded. Officers ignoring information, telling victims that they are lying and yes even mocking them in person.
Officers being able to joke about and mock victims, highlights the severe need for psychological testing and support for front line officers. When an officer has become so desensitized to violence and the effects that it can have on victims. There is a big problem!
Every police force has a different approach in monitoring the mental health of front line officers. Some agencies have no testing, some only require it when being hired, and others only do testing when an officer is promoted.
Situations like this one provide further evidence that regular testing should be done, and that a standard for the testing should be set (country wide). For both the safety of communities and the well being of the officers themselves.
