The frustration on Toronto police Insp. Peter Yuen's face was unmistakable as he addressed the Chinese community two weeks after a hard-working father of two was killed by a stray bullet in east Chinatown.And before... yet again... we start into how our racist Canadian system discriminates against non-whites... let's examine that Asian "class" thing...
Two weeks had gone by and police had not received a single tip, he told reporters at a news conference.
"We have yet to receive a single phone call from this community," he said. The January shooting remains unsolved to this day.
Karen Sun, the executive director of the Toronto chapter of the Chinese Canadian National Council, said for some parents, becoming a police officer is as prestigious a job as becoming a plumber.Of course, that's not the fallacious "hot-button argument" that's inevitably offered up first...
"It's a class issue," she said. "Not that policing is bad but we want our children to have good professional jobs. Policing is seen more as being a lower status kind of job."
The police have a less than honourable reputation in China. The stereotype is that the profession tends to attract people who are uneducated and unmotivated to move past their working class stature.Hang on a second... if that's an accurate perception of the mindset within "the community"... wouldn't that logically throw suspicion on the motives of every Chinese recruit on the police force?
Moreover, police officers are often seen as being corrupt, taking advantage of a stringent regime to exert excessive power over the people.
Whaddaya call that? Oh, c'mon... the word is right there on the tip of my tongue...
P.S. -- Any Chinese readers out there... who care to weigh in here?
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