Hey, you been to the Stampede yet?

Well it's all over the twitter-verse, the bloggo-verse and for all I know the holy-crap-I-don't-know-what-all-a-verse; United Station police officer all PO'ed because he can't pack a gat while strolling about in Canada.

In a letter to the Calgary Herald, which is now, thanks to the information super hi-way, slathered all over the Internets, Walt Wawra, who is a police officer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, describes an encounter between he and his wife, and a couple of young men in Calgary's very own Nose Hill Park. While hiking through the park Mr Wawra and his wife met these young men who asked if he and his wife had been to the Calgary Stampede yet. The Wawras ignored the question so the men asked it again. Mister Wawra writes that he said, "Gentle-men, I have no need to talk to you. Good bye," then he and his wife continued on, leaving the men behind looking "bewildered".

He does write that the men asked in a "very aggressive tone..." and while I don't see how, "Have you been to the Stampede," could be confused with something along the lines of "give me your money or else," I am willing to give Mr Wawra the benefit of the doubt. Say these guys were no-good-niks up to something nefarious. How did he handle it? He let them know he wasn't interested in talking to them and he and his wife left. Nobody was injured and all is well.

Now let's say that Mr Wawra had been packing heat. How would he have reacted to this situation then? Would we be reading now about two serious injuries or even deaths in Nose Hill Park? Instead of using his head to defuse what he saw as a threatening situation, he would rather have put a bullet into some people. Maybe it is just me, but WTF? I would rather be able to think instead of just jerking out some sort of gun thing and spraying bullets all over the landscape.

I suppose the Internets will be all full up with all sorts of, "people in the United States just want to shoot stuff up all the time," but I have taken a different message from this odd little affair. The whole thing makes me extra glad that I don't live in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. Can you imagine coming out of a store and seeing Officer Wawra putting a ticket onto your car? You say, "Hey, I thought I had a few more minutes on that meter," then he pumps five + bullets into you for being disrespectful. Ouch. That might be unfair to Mr Wawra, but still, ouch.

AS a further thought, Mr Wawra ends his letter with, "... in Canada, only the criminals and the police have handguns." Well that is just silly since I personally know of a few non-criminal, non-police folks who have and use handguns. In the second place if that were actually the case then why didn't these two men the Wawras met in the park have handguns?

No offence to Mr Wawra, but I just can't imagine what it is like to be that scared all of the time.

Anyway... Humouroceros