Bad Humour All Round

Let me see if I understand this.

A suicidal man calls 911 for help. Help doesn't arrive for some time. The man kills himself.

Let's be clear about some basics. If a guy is determined to kill himself, sooner or later, he's bound to succeed. Doesn't matter how hard you or I try.

That does not excuse, however, a system that cannot take care of itself or people in crisis who turn to it for help. There were several communications breakdowns and errors in the human chain of non-response here.

Not the least of which was the now alleged bad jokes being made at the time by two cops who were privy to the dispatcher's calls.

But hear this. Jamie Graham, Vancouver's Chief of Police says of all this that he is worried that the officer's attitudes may reveal "a complacency, a callousness, perhaps a bad attempt at black humour that has no place in circumstances of this kind."

And right you are, Chief.

But, soft! What ghost sits on yonder wall?

Isn't this the same Chief of Police who but a few moons ago left a pistol target sheet on the desk of a female City Manager with some clever, cryptic comment about the dangers of public life?

Does the entire Force need urgently a weekend at Comedy School?

Monkey see; monkey do-do.