BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is from R. Bruce MacGregor, a retired auxiliary member with Barrie police.
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I was extremely disheartened to come across this article published on BarrieToday on Jan. 6, 2021 and to read Barry Ward's comments that he backs the principle of defunding police and actually voted in support of understanding what a 10 per cent decrease of police funding would look like.
In the article, Mr. Ward went on to say, “I support the idea of gradually taking money away from policing to put it into crime prevention measures, which can include housing, counselling and other social services.”
The irony of Mr. Ward's comments in 2021 are that on his current website, he preaches his support for enhancing police services in Barrie.
"... 'Defund the police' has become a bit of a loaded term. What does it mean? To me, it doesn’t mean eliminating police budgets, although that is how some politicians have come to use it as a 'dog-whistle' tactic to scare voters.”
Mr. Ward also had this to say on his website: “Our only role is approving the police budget (and for the record, I have not once supported cutting the police budget in all of my years of city council)."
Ward stated in 2021 that “council will re-address the matter in the future,” which insinuates that he possibly plans on moving forward with the 10 per cent decrease if elected mayor. This is a classic example of telling voters what they want to hear to gain votes.
Mr. Ward needs to explain these discrepancies in his platform before voters head to the polls.
One of the crime prevention measures that council should be focusing on is enhancing police services in Barrie, not "gradually reducing their funding."
Mr. Ward's pure lack of respect for our front-line workers is extremely alarming to me, especially with a municipal election looming, and Ward tossing his hat in the ring to be Barrie’s next mayor.
The defunding of the police movement unjustly paints the entire law enforcement community as corrupt and immoral. We all know that simply isn’t true.
Police officers are heroes in their communities who are risking their own safety to protect ours. Our law enforcement officers deserve the highest level of respect, which Mr. Ward seems to be lacking.
R. Bruce MacGregor
Barrie
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