Grant is a retired law enforcement officer and native of Vancouver, BC. He has also lived in Brazil. He has written twelve books. In 2018, two of them were shortlisted for the 2018 Wattys Awards.
HOW TO KILL A DEMOCRACY: FIVE EASY STEPS If you were a doctor, and American Democracy was the patient, what would you conclude about the patient’s prognosis, after the shocking events of this week? Would you conclude that the patient, seemingly near death, had been killed by an acute injury, or a chronic illness?
There’s a contradiction central to the movement to, as a group of thoroughly woke Google employees put it, “defang” the police.
Even if you don’t have kids, you can certainly relate to the following statement: “Today, I should’ve hit the snooze button.”
Every so often, I like to re-read my own books. Maybe it’s an exercise in hubris. Actually, there’s no maybe about it.
Scenes from America’s latest racial outrage: A police officer, surrounded by his fellow officers and a watching crowd, kneels on the neck of a black man named George Floyd until he passes out. By the time the ambulance arrives, it’s too late. George pleads with the officers to stop the pressure on his neck, as does the crowd. But it falls on deaf ears.
If there’s one group of people who’ve flourished in the global pandemic, it’s the judgy among us. I use the term “Little Hitlers,” an English pejorative for those who never seem happy unless they are pointing out the flaws in others’ behaviour, and making constant suggestions, however unwanted, for the self-improvement of their neighbours.
Here’s a maddening misconception about law enforcement that drives most cops crazy: The old “Blue Wall of Silence.” Yes, police culture does demand a certain amount of brotherly and sisterly loyalty. After all, these people you suit up with in the locker room are the same people who may have to pound ass down a blind alley, responding to your “Officer needs assistance call.” They are the same people who may have to drag you out of a pool of broken glass and your own blood under fire.
I am 51. After years of deluding myself that I am still 35, I can no longer sustain the illusion. The scale, and the mirror, beg to differ.