Another chapter
I’m officially done with the second level of Chapter Nine of Blood Bound. Now, this may sound like it’s taking a long time (and actually, it is. I’m furious with myself over it), but I do believe I can practically guarantee that I’ll have it all over and done with by the middle of April. Well, the second go anyway. Yay!
The more I look over the early chapters though, the more I see I’ve missed – while it may be up for querying, it wouldn’t be quite up for publishing, so I’ll give it another go over, all in one shot. This’ll mean setting aside a single total day. Should be fun.
So, let’s just have a bit of a general update, shall we?
The other day, s92a (the ‘guilt upon accusation’ clause) of the New Zealand Copyright Amendment Act was scrapped, with the government officially announcing that it would look into more alternatives. Let’s all give a great declaration of ‘Yay!’ 
Catherine started up another blog. On the Nightstand is a fun book-recommending blog. It’s also a shameless excuse to read as much as possible. I’ve been added as a guest blogger, so I expect I’ll have to read more books. Harder than it sounds – I love books, but recently have been reading more and more online than onpaper.
I’m still trying to get this whole avatar-in-wordpress thing to work out. I’ll let you know how it goes.
My honours list letter came in the mail the other day, which was cool. Now I’d like my Firearms information, kthnx.
I have to go and walk the dog. I’ll go to that as soon as I’ve finished with this post.
The music for the Graduation seems to be coming along nicely. Not. If anybody’s reading this and actually wants music that they think they can put up with, let me know what you want! Otherwise, welcome to my MIKA and Nickelback collections. 
Seriously, I actually love that stuff. I’ve also started gathering background music for the dinner itself. Inordinate amount of Beatles in there, may need to fix. I think I’ll try to sneak in some ABBA (Fernando springs to mind…) too, and a bit of Jazz maybe some Brian Wilson, and let’s see what I’ve got in my soundtracks, and ooh, classical, and hey! Doctor Who music, that’ll do it, yeah, now, what’s this stuff buried under there- Ooh it’s-
I think you get the picture.
Right. Doggie. With a woof, and off we go!
Here’s a simply terrifying thought…
And I think the article itself speaks far better and more eloquently on the subject than I ever could.
Police Powers II – another review
Or: The Police Services Act in Ontario, and why it’s not at all boring.
This here’s the review as given to the entire class. Going over it on here rather helps me study.
- DEFINITIONS – member of force, police force, police officer, OCCoPS
“member of a police force” means a police officer, and in the case of a municipal police force includes an employee who is not a police officer;
“police force” means the Ontario Provincial Police or a municipal police force;
“police officer” means a chief of police or any other police officer, but does not include a special constable, a First Nations Constable, a municipal law enforcement officer or an auxiliary member of a police force;
“OCCoPS” is an acronym for the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services.
- HIERARCHY
- Govt of Ontario
- Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services (Solicitor General – Sol Gen)
- Police Service Act & Corrections Accountability Act
- OCCoPS – Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Service
- Police Service Boards
- Chief of Police
- Police Service
POLICE SERVICE STRUCTURE – OPP
- Commissioner
- Deputy Commissioner
- Chief Superintendent
- Superintendent
- Inspector
- Staff Sergeant
- Sergeant
- Constable
- Cadet
-OCCoPS – Role – All members appointed by L.G.
– Reviews\Monitoring of police services & boards
– Hold inquiries and investigations when requested or on their own
– Hold hearings and adjudications – complaints
– Determine resolutions
– Make recommendations to police boards & chiefs
– Enforce penalties
– Report directly to the Sol Gen
– Can suspend board & chief
– Can remove board & chief
– Can disband police force
– At hearing – evidence must be proven to be clear and convincing before any sanctions taken against officer\chief
– For complainant to ask for a review by OCCoPS – must be in writing within 30 days
– Commissions decision can be appealed to Division Crt – must be in writing within 30 days
- POLICE SERVICE BOARDS –
– PSA states there shall be a police service board for every municipality that has a police force
– Can be 3, 5, or 7 members depending on population base
– 3 member = head of council (mayor or appointee) + person not employed by the municipality + person appointed by L.G.
– 5 member = same as 3 member + council member and 2nd L.G.
– 7 member = same as 3 member + 2nd council mem + 3rd L.G.
– Police Service Boards appoint the Chief and Deputy Chief
– Persons ineligible for PSB = judge, j.p, police officer, defence lawyer
– Responsibilities include – set up objectives & priorities of community with help from chief
– establish policies for effective management of force
– establish policies for the release of personal info
– establish guidelines for dealing with complaints
– direct chief and monitor his performance
– can’t direct chief on day to day operations or give orders to individual officer
– consult with chief on operational costs for force and submit costs to municipal council
POLICE SERVICE ACT –
– Administered by the Sol Gen of Ontario
- Duties include – monitoring of and consulting with Police Service Boards
– monitoring of and consulting with police forces
– develop & promote programs to enhance police practices
standards, and training
– inspect & review of police forces across Ontario
– issue directives and guidelines respecting policies
– Operate the Ontario Police College
- Every municipality shall provide adequate & effective police services that shall include the following Core Services:
1) Crime prevention; 2) Law enforcement; 3) Assistance to victims of crime; 4) Public order maintenance & 5) Emergency response
- KNOW THE CONTENTS OF THE 5 CORE SERVICES
- Under what circumstances does the OPP provide policing services –
WHEN A MUNICIPALITY CAN’T
- Name 3 persons/groups that can ask for the OPPs’ assistance in policing –
1) OCCoPS, 2) Police Service Board, 3) Crown Attorney
- OPP do not normally enforce by-laws except when under an agreement
Oh, what to pick…
I’m having a bit of a thinky-thoughty moment (yes, I have thoughts. Hush), and I have narrowed my thinkiness down to two specific categories.
1) due South fandom.
2) Copyright law and the Internet – or, rather more specifically, s92(a), 92(c), also known as the Guilt Upon Accusation proposed law change in New Zealand.
Which shall I pick to chat about today… But first, and out of the cut because I don’t want it to be missed:
This lovely webcomicker’s house just burnt down. Yes, really. The gal has nothing, and that’s not cool, but she does have a paypal account, and that is cool. So if anybody feels like visiting the site and helping her out, that’d be seriously awesome. Every penny helps, right?
Star Wars fun
It should be noted at this juncture that I am, in fact, a long-time Star Wars fan. I have been one for a great deal longer than, say, Catherine has (despite on of her characters being addicted to it. I would worry that he’s me, but frankly, he’s cooler than I am, and if anything, I’m more like Adam than I am anybody else).
On that note, it’s important to realise that I am also a bit of a geek.
no4a2no9 posted a link to this little gem.
Seriously. Tears in my eyes funny.
If you wanna see it without leaving whichever site you’re on, go to the cut at the end of this post.
In other notes, my room is still a bit of a mess, and I have realised that I need to have some way of getting userpics going on this particular blog – I have these things for a reason, you know?
Regarding my room’s messy state, I rather think I’ll be able to clear it quickly. If I could only get out of bed. It’s warm here.
Also, I’m giving serious consideration to getting one of those teeny tiny little laptops, the ones with the ginourmous harddrives, and setting up this one as a desktop-like thing, with all the EXHDD and my little attachments and everything set up permanently in my room. I’m after the portability factor here – while I love this laptop to tiny pieces, and it is light, there are some times when I’d like to be able to have things that I can fit into smaller places, and take anywhere. I can’t do that with this fella.
So, thoughts. Should I spend my money on a smaller laptop with a larger harddrive space, or should I simply stick to what I’ve got going and connect up the 500GBEXHDD a bit more? (Speaking of which, I should clean that up soon. Too many duplicate iTunes files, and yes, you’d keep your music on an EXHDD too if you had the sort of library that completely outstrips your own main harddrive.)
Also, customisation. I need stickers. I’m almost tempted to make some. There’s a good and solid security reason behind customising the outside of a laptop – and yes, it’s another legal thing. The sorta stuff I learn in Police Powers and so forth – also known as ‘why all of my books are completely and utterly un-resellable’. Not that I would resell them (aside from the fact that the Code is not out-of-date, thanks to the recent raising of the legal age of consent in Canada from fourteen to sixteen).
Ooh, yes. Books.
I got books eight through ten of Dragon Voice the other day. This is a series I’ve been collecting for a while. I’m also going to be getting Tactics soon, but that’s entirely aside. Dragon Voice is brilliantly wonderful, and the translators have gone to the trouble of making the fonts fit the scene, something rarely done, even by Tokyopop. This, when the musicians harmonise, they really do harmonise, right on the page. That’s a talent, and one that I often drool over.
Now there are only three more left to go. I honestly and completely hope that they’re going to finish the translation of the series. I don’t want to have to have an unfinished series in my collection, that’s just not how I work. Least of all one that I love so much.
Also in the recent additions to my bookcase, I’ve gotten a copy of a book that one of my teachers actually wrote. It’s freakin’ huge. It used to be a required text, but now it’s out of print. Why? Because in the past seven years, the things we learnt in class has been taken down and taken out and edited, and now we learn less than 10% of what’s in this book. Yes, really. Now, this book has got to be one of the most important books in my bookshelf now. It has information that you need to know if you’re going to be a Police Officer anywhere in the world, written clearly and concisely. It has basic communication, it has simple ways to tell if people are lying, it has things like not using the word ‘don’t’ when asking a person not to do anything – and this is all explained psychologically, too, which is possibly the most impressive part. It’s all very well and good telling a person to not use a word, but sometimes, you want to understand why. In this case, it has to do with the way that the human mind is set up in terms of communication; in order for the phrase “don’t fire the gun” to get through to a person, the person must first imagine firing the gun, and only after that been done does the imagining of the elimination of the act happen. And that’s an incredibly scary concept. And yes, since this book also includes how to arrest a person. My books have handcuffs in them! Also, headlocks and how not to use them. We should be leaning these things, and as recently as seven years ago we would have been. But because some of these might be considered dangerous, I suppose at this point we’re just lucky to be getting lessons on pressure points. Always useful, those.
I’m thinking of suggesting to our class rep that we all find out where he does martial arts (says he’s a sixth dan in ju-jitsu on the back of the book, and yes, that is good) and just taking those classes as well. Wouldn’t be too much more in terms of money, but we’d certainly be covering everything that we don’t learn in class.
Speaking of class, learning how to shoot is also on my agenda for this year. Or rather, learning firearms safety. Shooting is really secondary to learning how to avoid accidents with those things. It’s said that guns don’t kill people, that people kill people – well, let’s try to avoid stupidity and accidents, okay?
Reasonable Grounds
‘A set of facts or circumstances, which if true, would lead an ordinary, prudent and cautious individual to have a strong belief and which exceeds mere suspicion’
So, then, how does that really define the phrase? After all, reasonable grounds is one of the main and important items in something like arresting a person, right? That’s still a very vague definition.
Well, let’s look at how to apply it.
You are a civilian, and you witness a man running out of a store, with merchandise. Someone else is chasing after that man, yelling out “Stop that man, he’s stolen something” (or some variation thereof).
This is giving you Reasonable Grounds to presume that he man is indeed a thief. As it happens, you may arrest under these circumstances, but what if you don’t hear anything of the sort?
Well, even if you’re a Loss Prevention Officer, Security Guard, or just generally an employee or owner of the store, you do not have the authority to arrest someone just because you see them acting suspicious (and that’s a good thing, because otherwise I might be in trouble – nothing more suspicious than a Fijian shirt in Winter). When a person starts leaving the store, however? Whole ‘nother ball game, that.
But what’s Reasonable Grounds for a Police Officer?
Well, that often involves acting on a tip-off, or just seeing a person being all sneaky or suchlike (why do they run? Why do they always run…). Remember, you can walk up to anybody as an Officer and ask who a person is. They don’t have to answer, but you (and here I expand the word ‘you’ to include those outside Law Enforcement), just like every other person in the world, have a right to ask. In fact, most folks don’t know that they don’t actually have any legal obligation to answer – at least, not within Canada. Nine times outta ten (or, to fit with tonight’s Repo trip, ten times outta nine), they will tell you anyway – or they’ll ask “do I have to tell you,” you will answer in the negative, and then they’ll tell you anyway.
But I digress.
To briefly cheat from my classes, what we’re looking for here is by far a lower standard of proof than what might be required for a prima facie case (’at first glance’ – yes, I took Latin for several years), let alone something as lofty as ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’.
It’s a little bit more than ‘mere suspicion’. Mere suspicion might be ‘Huh. He’s got an interesting walk’. More than mere suspicion might be ‘Huh. He’s got an interesting walk and that lady over there that he just bumped into is suddenly looking for her handbag’.
And therein lies the difference
(Repo! Also, happy More Joy Day!)