Intelligence, Police and Made up Bogymen

I have attended many counter-terrorism conferences when I was part of the Intelligence Branch of the Canadian Army.  The last conference I attended (2013) was fear mongering the Freeman on the Land Movement (FLM).

Although deranged and perhaps a nuisance, the FLM has not killed anyone.  They do not advocate violent overthrow of government or the mass genocide of those who disagree with their point of view.

Yet back in 2013 I saw political correctness entering the intelligence world and, let me tell you, being politically correct is a poison when it comes to clarity and analysis.  We have millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours chasing an annoyance.  With thought processes like that we might as well turn the might of our intelligence apparatus towards shoplifters.

In an attempt to be racially and ideologically inclusive, like some sick affirmative action program, the chase is on for a non-Islamic based bad guy.

A few weeks ago a RCMP officer was tragically killed outside a casino in St Albert by Shawn Rehn.  Someone posed the question:

My heart is broken for the RCMP member. Indeed the question goes out from the RCMP themselves, "How is/WAS the suspect still on the streets"?

My response (as a gun owner):

How was he still on the streets? I don't want to politicize this or diminish the tragedy but this man was on the streets because he is NOT the focus of law enforcement. We are.... you and I. Every day you are checked on a criminal database. You are required to provide your address to the government like you are on house arrest. They can search your home without a warrant - even a criminal has the right not be arbitrarily searched. They can take your property away with the stroke of a pen. He is on the streets because they are busy watching you. Drug dealers, murderers and thieves take second place to social engineering.

So our intelligence community is chasing FLM and our law enforcers are chasing people with a PAL and there are people who think that taking away more of our privacy and freedoms will fix our ills?  We need to turn our efforts towards legitimate bad guys – Jihads, Drug Dealers and Rapists and stop government agencies from wasting their time on political correctness and social engineering.