Who does the Yellow Jacket sting?
by Tim Pheotist
There is an old Cherokee legend that speaks of the nature of a giant insect – the Yellow-Jacket. You can find the story here.
Briefly, the people of a Cherokee town were being punished by a giant insect which came into their midst and carried off their children. It was quick, secret and lethal. After many inventive attempts to nail the beast the people baited a trap for it with an entire deer. This slowed down the creature as it dragged the bait to its home for consumption. Following the trail the people of the town found their predator to be a killer Yellow-Jacket – a wasp of massive proportions. Needless to say, they swatted the beast into permanent hibernation! It would sting no more – or would it?
Many of its slaves survived the popular attack and it is the destruction of YJs nest and its offspring that occupies your mild economist today. This economist is angry! It’s not easy for an economist to express anger – our tool bags contain more delicate things like econometric models and mathematical algorithms, rather than Taser guns, nightsticks and protest posters. We tend to do things that make others angry!
But today is a time for angry expression.
On March 20th 2010 a video recording was made of a police action in sleepy Victoria. A number of drunken clubbers were arrested for fighting outside a club in the early hours. The perps. were taken away to sleep off the booze and bruises. A day in the night of club land. Nothing unique. Nobody was ultimately charged and the boys in blue moved on to the next idiocy. Seemingly an appropriate, civilized and intelligent response to an ordinary nuisance.
Except, during the main event, a bystander recorded the activities of a Yellow Jacketed member of Victoria’s finest. He was a standout by virtue of his luminous yellow incident vest – we’ll call him the ‘Yellow Policeman’.
Together with a colleague, the Yellow Policeman soberly and deliberately crossed the road and kicked and kneed the spine of a defenseless and innocent bystander. The individual appeared to present no threat or resistance to the main police action.
Boy, could that Yellow Policeman sting.
The incident was loaded into the You Tube service for the world to see. For the reader that hasn’t seen it in the news go here
and form your own opinion.
Now, what business is this of an economic commentator? The matter is in the trusted hands of the Victoria Police complaints commission, the Mayor, the police chief and other worthies. Justice will be done. Why, the Chief of Police himself is at the helm of the enquiry! Maybe the Yellow Policeman breached policy. Maybe he didn’t. We won’t know until the Chief has spoken.
In the meantime let’s look at the damage – economic and political – beyond the bruising to the spine of the prostrate bystander.
The You Tube video stands to become ‘viral’. That is, it can be viewed all over the world. It speaks for itself. The video and audio quality is excellent. It appears to show a gratuitous and thuggish attack by a Victoria, BC police officer, on an unresisting and prone individual. The video revealed no ‘heat of battle’. The attack seemed calculated and cold blooded.
Victoria is a relatively safe, mild little city. Its economy can thrive on the visits of tourists from all over the world. By today’s city standards Victoria is an oasis of peace.
The citizens and taxpayers of Victoria spend some of their hard earned dollars funding a perpetual campaign to attract tourists and conventioneers. The budget for this campaign will never in a million years be able to buy the exposure that the March 20th You Tube video has received.
In this case not all publicity is good publicity. This is Bad publicity. This is Bad economics.
The gentle reader might think the memory and cost of the Yellow Policeman will soon fade. Victoria won’t be indelibly marked. But there are longer term and measureable consequences – and economists like to measure things.
If justice is to be done, and to be seen to be done, the City will acknowledge error. Maybe it will be sued. Being sued – win or lose – is expensive. So, maybe the city will admit no error. Maybe the Yellow Policeman acted within policy. Such a policy is risky. Others may get hurt. A quick call to the City’s underwriters will likely confirm the increased risk begats increased insurance premiums.
So we have spoiled Tourism Victoria’s advertising and PR campaign. We’ve robbed some moneyed tourists of their peace of mind. We’ve robbed some Victoria business of some trade, we’ve become exposed to becoming a defendant in a possible assault action, and we’ve raised our insurance premiums.
We can, perhaps, assign these negative consequences to the Yellow Policeman and his apparent inability to keep his stinger safely tucked away until it was really needed. Maybe he’ll meet somebody, one day, who is actually standing upright!
Back to the Cherokee town and the giant Yellow Jacket – the thief of their children.
Maybe the Yellow Policeman descends from the giant wasp’s lineage. He certainly has done much damage to our treasure and to our children. These acts and policies have lasting and generational effects. They set the tone for our children that cannot be quickly changed. So the actions of the Yellow Policeman have stolen something from our children.
As a lover of Victoria, always appreciative of its humanity and relative calmness, this writer suggests that if the policy of the City and its police force is now to train and equip police to increasingly expect violence, it will be a short step to actually find that they are provoking violent behaviour.
Of course there are many in our community that will like nothing better than a fight with the police. Often these ‘fighters’ say they represent the ‘oppressed masses’. Police brutality is often the cry. But we must remember, interwoven with our legitimate and peaceful protesters are often agents provocateur. There are agents of Capital on our streets, bent on inciting violence.
Joined with the Yellow Policeman, the apparently escalated confrontational policies of today’s Victoria PD, and the mercenary conscripts of capital who like a fight, we have a recipe for an unquiet town and an economic policy based on fear.
This leaves little to distinguish Victoria from so many other cities throughout the world.
So, like the Cherokees, we’ve found our monster – our Yellow Jacket Policeman. Let’s call him for what he is – the Yellow Policeman – and disown him. And tell the world we’ll save our investment for city improvement, fair trade and help for the disadvantaged. We have no budget for the tools of violence, carefully kept by our servants at the police department.
So, to fondly borrow the words of Sgt. Phil Esterhaus: ‘Let’s be careful out there!’
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