Editor does a roadside ‘oops’ caught on video

Our national police force has had its share of embarrassments over incidents caught on video. But it can cut both ways, as the editor of the Osoyoos Times discovered this week.

Keith Lacey, who runs the newsroom at the community weekly near the U.S. border, was not amused when he got stopped last Friday night by Cpl. Ryan McLeod and asked to blow.

The 50-year-old Lacey, who arrived in Osoyoos last November, had emerged from a restaurant-pub with his girlfriend and a bottle of wine. In a 1,400-word editorial published in the paper and on its website this week, he lambasted McLeod for treating him with “basically zero respect” and “humiliating” him.

The roadside breathalyser test showed the editor was OK to drive but Lacey was not assuaged.

The whole thing was, he said, “disgusting…. This is another example of a cop who abused his power.”

Lacey went on to write, “When I later informed him I was the editor of the local newspaper and was going to write about our little episode, he finally shut up and showed me some respect.”

Supt. Ray Bernoties, the officer in charge of B.C. RCMP Communications — those are the folks who handle media matters — replied to Lacey on Thursday.

“Well sir, I’m very pleased to report that there is a video of this incident,” he wrote in the letter, which the Times hasn’t posted. “The video was taken from the police car and includes audio of the entire interaction between you and the police officer. I have just watched the video and observed a very calm and professional member of the RCMP doing his job.”

Bernoties offered to post the video online for “the good people of Osoyoos.” Or, he’d be willing to drive up from Vancouver at his own expense and on his own time for a public showing.

Then, the knockout punch: “Allow me to quote you from the video sir. ‘I am the editor of the newspaper and you will see the powers that I have.’”

Ow. Not “I’m going to write about this,” but “you will see the powers that I have.” (It’s worth noting that using your position in the media as an offensive weapon when trying to resolve personal grievances is a strict no-no in the journalism biz.)

“It’s been a rough couple of days,” Lacey admitted when he picked up the phone yesterday, acknowledging the firestorm of public reaction.

“I don’t really want to do an interview.”

He confirmed the editorial was pulled off the paper’s website Wednesday and that a “clarification” will be issued in next week’s print edition. He’s “man enough to own up” to what he’s gotten himself into.

“You’re calling about Osoyoos, I assume,” the voice at RCMP E Division said when I called for Bernotie, who soon got back to me.

“I’m not trying to take a run at this guy (just) because he’s an editor,” Bernotie said, adding, “I’m not holding this video over his head.”

It won’t be released unless Lacey is OK with it, he said.

But, he continued, Cpl. McLeod (“a real nice, respectful, calm guy”) deserved to be defended, and the incident shows the public how police can do their jobs properly and still “be later slandered so publicly.”

And, maybe, it’s a lesson for at least one editor on the use of “power.”