BPS Valentine’s video off brand

Opinion

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This article was published 14/02/2025 (234 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week the Brandon Police Service shared a short tongue-in-cheek video to Facebook encouraging the public to “do something special” for “an ex romantic partner” who “maybe misses court or has a warrant or two” by calling the police on them.

The video has gone viral, amassing over 430,000 views and shared over 3,000 times in less than 24 hours.

In the video, a ride to jail in a police cruiser is referred to as “luxury transportation.” Jail is called “the crowbar hotel” and we learn that a stay comes with “fine dining cuisine” – visualized as a pizza pocket and juice box. The elected MLA for Brandon West and former chief of the Brandon Police Service posted in response to the video, “outstanding service provided by Brandon’s favorite hotel.”

When an officer arrests and detains someone, it is often the worst day of that person’s life. Referring to jail as “Brandon’s favorite hotel,” knowing full well that it is not, and making light of the circumstances that lead people into conflict with the law is not only tone-deaf but is cruel and devoid of empathy. Police training claims to have steered more toward empathy following the inhumane police murder of George Floyd in 2020. As noted in Police Chief Magazine the following year, a publication which bills itself as “the world’s largest and most influential professional association of police leaders,” when officers engage in empathy, they in turn demonstrate their trustworthiness with the community.

An empathetic stance, for instance, might recognize that some people share custody of children with their ex-partners, and might rely on their financial support. Downloading the responsibility on citizens to help police jail an ex-partner who missed court could adversely affect the lives of their children and other family members. This could include missing a rent payment, which could lead to eviction.

People miss court for all kinds of reasons, like lack of transportation or illness (including mental illness). Additionally, some people, as hard as it might be to believe, might care about the well-being of their ex-partners, even while they are no longer together. And for those who do not, the suggestion of weaponizing the police to exact revenge on an ex is not one that should be encouraged.

Mockingly presenting jail as a luxurious alternative to Valentine’s Day does not necessarily instill confidence to call the police. It is ghoulish.

» Christopher J. Schneider is professor of sociology at Brandon University. His most recent book is Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of Digital Media, 2nd edition (Lexington Books, 2024).