Cognitive Dissonance

[ltmurnau]

Okay, I can't seem to place two lists of things next to each other in an LJ entry, but here's a comparison of the deeds and official treatments of cop-killer Bourque and soldier-killer Zehaf-Bibeau.


BOURQUE

Offenses:
Killed 3 police constables and wounded 2 others

Weapons used or carried:
Civilianized copy of M-14 semiautomatic military rifle, uses 20 or 30-round magazines; Mossberg pump shotgun; bow and arrows; knives; large amount of ammunition bought same day as incident.

Motivations:

• "Bourque gave a statement to police after his arrest in which he expresses dissatisfaction with his job at a distribution warehouse and also wanted to harm the oil industry. A recording of that statement was played in court in which he refers to setting some gas stations on fire but dumped that plan."
• "A resident saw Bourque walk past her and say, "Don't worry, I'm not out to kill civilians. I'm after government officials"."
• "In response to questions about why he shot the officers, Bourque speaks about the unfairness of the world, the lack of freedom of speech and the "rule of tyrants."
• "Describing how he felt after shootings, Bourque says, "I know this is going to sound pretty messed up, but I felt pretty accomplished.""

Sanction:
Crown is asking 75 years without parole

Repercussions:

• Huge Canadian media coverage during the 30 hours of the incident but little outside Canada.
• Media about how the mental health system fails us, recognition of how difficult a policeman's job is, and the particular senselessness of these deaths.
• Some attention paid to his strict, home-schooled, Christian upbringing but more in the sense of how he changed once leaving the family (drug use, heavy metal music, spotty employment, anger at authority but usual populist targets).
• No legislative or organizational changes.

ZEHAF-BIBEAU

Offenses:
Killed 1 unarmed reservist soldier.

Weapons used or carried:
Lever-action Winchester Model 94 (holds maximum 8 rounds, difficult to reload quickly, not known if he had any spare); knife.

Motivations:

• He left a video on his phone - ""The RCMP has identified persuasive evidence that Michael Zehaf Bibeau’s attack was driven by ideological and political motives," Paulson's statement said. "The RCMP is conducting a detailed analysis of the video for evidence and intelligence." The statement, released during the Sunday dinner hour, said the video could not be immediately made public." (Since Sunday dinner, the RCMP have stated that the video contains images of Bibeau talking about Canadian foreign policy and mentioning the name of Allah...and Commissioner Paulson says that he 'hopes that someday they will be able to release the video". Hm.)
• Anecdotes about his conversion to Islam, after years spent as drug addict and petty thief (attempted to rob a McDonald's with a sharpened stick so he could be taken to jail and kick his drug habit, he was kept one day) estranged from his family; allegations about radical websites visited; anecdotes that he was ranting about demons and the end of the world at the homeless shelter he was staying at in the last few days before the incident.

Sanction:
Ultimate.

Repercussions:

• Huge national and international attention; latest iteration of story is that triggering incident was refusal of Libyan government to renew his passport to allow him to travel (Bibeau was dual national); allegation that his destination was Syria to join ISIS is still unproven.
• ""This was a terrorist attack. He attacked two Canadian institutions - the soldiers standing guard at the War Memorial, and Parliament - had espoused extremist ideology, was, as the police have indicated, radicalized," said Jason MacDonald, a spokesman for Harper told The Canadian Press in an email." So that settles it, I guess.
• Legislation expanding the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Servcies was introduced today (it was announced a couple of weeks back and is now called Bill C-44, "The Protection of Canada From Terrorists Act", though the T-word does not appear in the bill elsewhere).
• "(Justice Minister) Mr. MacKay wrote in an e-mail that new measures “will build on our record of better equipping our security forces and law enforcement with the critical tools they need to intercept and disrupt threats and ultimately convict and incarcerate those who pose a danger to Canadian families and communities.”
• It is expected that legislative changes expanding police powers will follow promptly, at a minimum it will expand powers of surveillance, seizure of passports, preventive arrest; being required to check in regularly with police though without any charge or parole; detention without charge.
• Articles in the national media now appearing about how Canada needs a new security agency for overseas threats, doubling up on CSIS which has been doing that duty but was never supposed to when it was founded back in 1981.

Links to the two newspaper stories, in the same paper on the same day, that prompted this post:
http://www.timescolonist.com/ottawa-shooting-driven-by-ideological-motives-rcmp-1.1467396
http://www.timescolonist.com/justin-bourque-targeted-mounties-because-of-the-badge-they-carried-says-crown-1.1467860

What do these incidents share?
How are they different?
Which one is/was the greater threat to Canada?

Anyway, just putting this here for now, no answers or rhetorical flourishes....

Meanwhile, we've started arresting mouthy senile angry old men:

The arrest of a 70-year-old man who made threats against the B.C. legislature while on a ferry underscores the challenge police face, in the wake of the Ottawa and Quebec attacks on soldiers, to determine if such statements pose real dangers or are merely empty threats.

...a man on the 7 a.m. ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay was heard making reference to the Ottawa attacks, followed by threats against the B.C. legislature. The man was not physically violent and did not have any weapons.

B.C. Ferries staff called Sidney/North Saanich RCMP at 8:19 a.m. Thursday and kept the man in a secluded area of the vessel, said Island district RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Lagan. Mounties boarded the ferry at 8:35 a.m. and arrested the man. “Throughout the day, investigators undertook a full investigation and assessment of the man’s actions, and determined he posed no threat to public safety,” Lagan said, citing existing mental-health issues as a significant factor.

Lagan said the man was released from police custody later in the day, after mental-health professionals became involved. He will not face any charges.

A second man who was set to meet the older man was also detained and questioned. He co-operated and was released without charge.