Dear Editor:
As human beings, our nature is to complain loud and long when a perceived injustice has been done to us or we feel we have been treated poorly, but we don’t speak up when the opposite happens. We somehow feel it is our due, and we needn’t draw attention to it. I would like to draw attention to it.
On September 4, 2020 I was driving to our Chilliwack hotel after a long day’s travel from Summerland to the Lower Mainland to pick up new bikes and a car for my husband. I had been in heavy traffic for what felt like hours and through inattention committed a traffic violation in Agassiz, BC. An RCMP Constable (his name was impossible to read) stopped me.
During the entire exchange, the constable acted professionally and treated me with both respect and kindness. He made it clear I was in the wrong (which I was), but he did so in a manner that showed no ego, treating me as a human being and his equal, and allowing me to keep both my dignity and my pride. He didn’t lose his cool when my sister-in-law and I took our dogs out of the car for a well-needed stretch or when my husband pulled over in the car we just bought, neither of which are included in a routine traffic stop.
All in all, I was very impressed with this constable, and while I have very few interactions with the RCMP to base it on, it is my hope this constable is the norm and not the exception.
Mary Weiss
Summerland