The Long Arm of the Law, an Idiot's Version

It is good to see that in Montreal that crime has fallen to such lows that the police have plenty of time to harrass, cuff, and lock up in the clink a mother of two. Yes. We can rest assured there are no unsolved murders in Montreal. No assaults. No rapes. No child abductions. No robberies. No domestic violence. Nothing that would take the steely eyes of the police from their job of monitoring the escalators to the subway and their sworn duty to ensure that everybody holds the rail at all time, for "safety" of course.

From an article by Les Perreaux in Globe and Mail...

Anyone who has ridden an escalator and bothered to pay attention has seen – and likely ignored – little signs suggesting riders hold the grimy handrail.

In Montreal's subway system, the friendly advice seems to have taken on the force of law, backed by a $100 fine.

Bela Kosoian, a 38-year-old mother of two, says when she didn't hold the handrail Wednesday she was cuffed, dragged into a small holding cell and fined.

“It was horrible, disgusting behaviour [by police],” said Ms. Kosoian, a 38-year-old student of international law. “I did nothing wrong. They should go find the guys who stole my tires off the balcony.”

I wonder... which is worse for you sense of safety:

• not holding a rail on a moving elevator


• being cuffed and thrown into a cell, having your wrists bruised from cuffs, and having the skin peeled back on your feet from the big boots of the cop who is manhandling you

Obviously the answer in Montreal is that you are far more insecure and endangered when you dare to ride an escalator "free style" (otherwise known as "standing there waiting to get to the bottom without posing with a hand resting on the rail") than you are when being roughed up and terrorized by the police.

Montreal... a great place to visit if you are a cop in full uniform and ready to test out a new billy club breaking a few heads. But for everybody else, it sure seems that you would be better off not visiting. And if you live there, you might consider moving to a town where the police think murders, rapes, and assaults come higher on the "to do list" than roughing up mothers on the subway escalator!