Re: "Our understanding of authority has been eroded," Letters, The Gazette, Jan. 5.
Letter-writer Simon Chance wondered why, these days, it appears that police officers, and other "persons in authority" are frequently publicly considered guilty of an alleged wrongdoing and required to prove themselves innocent.
That’s easy to answer — because people placed in those positions of authority must be held to a higher standard of conduct and behaviour than that of an anonymous member of the public. There have been too many published incidents, anecdotally and otherwise, where these "people in authority" have abused their positions in society by either being overzealous, condescending, or inept when dealing with the public. I could give a specific recent personal example, however, this is not the forum for that.
Suffice to say, the general public should not ever acquiesce asking questions on the justification of actions (or inactions) of these groups.
Last I heard, the motto of any police force or other agency of "people in authority" has never been "Lower your expectations — then, you won’t be disappointed."
Randy Kish, St. Albert
