Is the police funeral over the top?

Mark Service

Tech Support
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Aug 17, 2001
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The guy died and it's a tragedy. But does it warrant shutting down half the city, thousands of cops from all over and speeches by Fantino and others?

Young men die in Afghaniustan almost weekly and no equiivalent fuss is made.

It looks like a giant effort to take spotlight off the G20 excesses and save Blair's job.
Even though officers went on their own time other things were a huge expense to tax payers. A life is a life if someone dies on construction site they don't get quite the fanfare.
 

Ceiling Cat

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Feb 25, 2009
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Rubby lives in a world where young ladies come and care and pleasure him and even bathe him in a warm hot spring in the sunshine. ( in reality it is the orderly from the psych ward named Buck that bathes him once a week. While Rubby is being bathed Buck likes to say : My name is Buck and I came to............................

 

fun-guy

Executive Senior Member
Jun 29, 2005
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Yeah that makes a lot of sense.
Obviously this funeral will be used as a great bargaining chip.
I can just imagine the next meeting between Blair and Ford.

Blair: We really do need the 5% budget increase.
Ford: I wish I could but we simply don't have the money.
Blair: But we had 12,000 cops at the Russell funeral.
Ford: Oh yeah, that's right. Ok we will find a way to get you whatever you want.
lmao, I'm still wondering how nottyboi thinks this funeral is going to be used as a bargaining chip for their upcoming contract. Bogges the mind.
 

dirkd101

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Sep 29, 2005
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eastern frontier
Police funerals are big. It is the celebration of an officers life and commitment to duty. For soldiers it is the ramp ceremony, held on base, for the fellow soldiers to honour the fallen. Like any funeral, families gather, to mourn together and share in the memory of the departeds life. The police are like any family, but much larger.
To bring into issue if this over the top is in bad taste. To say this will be used as a bargaining chip in contract negotiations is ludicrous. To link this with the G20 as a deflection of what happened, think about that one for yourself and feel very ashamed.
The blue wall is a brotherhood, that's for sure. Like anybody they are not perfect, although, like athletes, many hold them to a higher standard. The linking of a death in one profession to another is like comparing apples and oranges. The police are dealing with elements of society on an everyday basis that the average citizen never comes into contact with. The job is like a never ending battle. Officers grind it out on a daily basis and they are wounded and scarred for their efforts and sometimes one of them pays the ultimate price. Leave them be, let them mourn and celebrate the death of one of their own.
And from Henry the V's speech at Agincourt;
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
 

fuji

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Jan 31, 2005
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So?

Some people think the cost is a factor in determining their opinion if the event was "over the top."

I guess you would rather people not know that information.
I agree cost is a reasonably good objective measure in determining whether it was over the top, believe on that basis that it was really pretty over the top, and also agree with you that it cost the city nothing.

Just because it was paid for by the police union and other NGO's doesn't mean it wasn't paid for, wasn't expensive, or wasn't over the top.

As others have pointed out the police union are essentially milking this for all it's worth, as one poster put it above, essentially as a way of saying shut up and stop criticizing us, look at how dangerous our job is, stop complaining that we're paid too much or that we don't obey the law. Did anybody say that explicitly? Nope. Look up the word "subtext" in your dictionary. The reason the police union want a big highly visible funeral is that "our job is dangerous look what we do" is a big part of the argument they use in attempting to shirk responsibility for their behavior and in attempting to justify their exorbitant cost.
 

Malibook

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Nov 16, 2001
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The reason the police union want a big highly visible funeral is that "our job is dangerous look what we do" is a big part of the argument they use in attempting to shirk responsibility for their behavior and in attempting to justify their exorbitant cost.
I'm sure you are right again and this is exactly what was going through the minds of 12,000 cops at the funeral service, especially the ones from out of town and country.
 

Aardvark154

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Jan 19, 2006
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I agree cost is a reasonably good objective measure in determining whether it was over the top, believe on that basis that it was really pretty over the top, and also agree with you that it cost the city nothing.

Just because it was paid for by the police union and other NGO's doesn't mean it wasn't paid for, wasn't expensive, or wasn't over the top.
So Fuji, what are you proposing a Funeral tax if someone or a group of people spend more money on a funeral than you feel is appropriate, there should be some punitive consequence?!

You have already admitted that the city didn't pay, that it was all 'private' money, so seemingly you now wish to prohibit people from spending their own money on funerals.
 

fmahovalich

Active member
Aug 21, 2009
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For the record - The funeral expenses..the rental of the Convention Centre...staging..sound...all of those expenses are PAID FOR by the Police Association!!

The taxpayers do not have any hard costs for that...Probably A $100,000 HIT TO THE police Association.

And secondly - most officers attending are on days off. 52 Division had all its officers there and the Divisional patrols were covered by other officers FREE of charge. They did it out of respect for their comrades at 52 Division.

In fact..even the PAID DUTY polcie shutting down intersections and stopping traffic and closing streets are paid for by the Police ASSOCIATION.

THE POLICE ASSOCIATION BURIES THEIR OWN.

The TAXPAYER PAYS very little of a Police funeral.
 

fmahovalich

Active member
Aug 21, 2009
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As for coverage and high volume of attendees.

Police would go to these things.....as would the public, whether or not the MEDIA showed one picture.

AND THE LARGE amount of people......it is what it is....if you think more peoplke should go to a soldiers death..or a workplace accident death...please go and boost the numbers. no one stops anyone!!!
 

danmand

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Nov 28, 2003
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So Fuji, what are you proposing a Funeral tax if someone or a group of people spend more money on a funeral than you feel is appropriate, there should be some punitive consequence?!

You have already admitted that the city didn't pay, that it was all 'private' money, so seemingly you now wish to prohibit people from spending their own money on funerals.
Are you saying that only "no" is an acceptable answer to the question in the title of the thread: "Is the police funeral over the top?"

If so, the thread is superfluous.
 

Malibook

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Are you saying that only "no" is an acceptable answer to the question in the title of the thread: "Is the police funeral over the top?"

If so, the thread is superfluous.
Yes it is over the top but it is none of my business, would also be an appropiate response.

Yes followed by the usual anti-police blah blah blah yada yada yada, is not an appropriate response.

Some families spent big bucks on monuments instead of a modest headstone.
So what?
 

danmand

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Nov 28, 2003
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Yes it is over the top but it is none of my business, would also be an appropiate response.

Yes followed by the usual anti-police blah blah blah yada yada yada, is not an appropriate response.

Some families spent big bucks on monuments instead of a modest headstone.
So what?

To be clear, now, the only two answers that are acceptable are:

1. no

2. yes, but it is none of my business.
 

Aardvark154

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I feel sorry Danmand, since it seems that you expect no one would want to come to your funeral or bother with a headstone and no one should bother to spend one thin dime to remember you.
 

danmand

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3. Yes, but it is not my concern.

4. Yes, and good for them.

5. Yes, but why do you care?
Good, that provides a bit more choices.

The issue that still lingers, is why to ask a question, when only some answers are allowed.
 

danmand

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Nov 28, 2003
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I feel sorry Danmand, since it seems that you expect no one would want to come to your funeral or bother with a headstone and no one should bother to spend one thin dime to remember you.
Am I to understand that you infer that on the basis of this post:

Are you saying that only "no" is an acceptable answer to the question in the title of the thread: "Is the police funeral over the top?"

If so, the thread is superfluous.
You may have a future on TV, as a medium for channelling.
 

hoyaday

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Mar 29, 2009
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Police have a pr firm that will keep this in the news, instead of just burying the dead and moving on.
 

fuji

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So Fuji, what are you proposing a Funeral tax if someone or a group of people spend more money on a funeral than you feel is appropriate, there should be some punitive consequence?!
Nope. I am proposing that we recognize the fact that it was over the top. Nothing more.

You have already admitted that the city didn't pay, that it was all 'private' money, so seemingly you now wish to prohibit people from spending their own money on funerals.
Where's you get the idea I want to prohibit anything? I simply want to point out that it's a piece of over the top politicized grandstanding by the police union. Nothing more.
 
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