admit to then rectify my ignorance on issues as I become aware of them

It seems that every single case of a police incident (many of them shootings) gone wrong involves plain clothes police officers.

The one that first comes to mind is Diallo which was a bunch of years ago but is still earth shatteringly sad.

More recent events include:

• groom shot dead after bachelor party
• grandmother shot dead as she attacked plain clothes officers entering her home
• football players stopped in Montreal

Look, if I see strangers approach me gruffly, I’m also apt to act strangely which gets officers more hostile. But your badges mean nothing to me; anyone can get those online which makes me (and the unfortunate folks above, I’m assuming) more hostile.

I need to understand where the “plain clothes” notion started and what benefits it has. I’m hoping that I find out that the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Update: Nov 28 – Called my local police station’s community reps to ask about the use of “policiers en civil” and hope to get a call back soon.

Dec 1. Un hun. No call back from the community reps. Don’t make me come down there and visit y’all.

I don’t get ‘em.

The Canadian government was in a tizzy earlier this month with China over its human rights abuses. They also have a Canadian (Huseyin Celil) in custody there and ain’t fixin’ to let him go anytime soon.

The threatened solution by some pundits? Trade ban.

My first ignorant thought was “how would the folks in Chinatown survive?” If you block imports, a lot of the goods that they sell wouldn’t make it to port and many failed businesses would result, right?

I dunno. The 30-day self-imposed time limit to rectify my ignorance starts…now.

Update: Nov 28 – Maybe this Maclean’s article will help me understand a bit more. By the way, I think I’m using the wrong term as “trade ban” didn’t call up the information that I was expecting during a search engine search and Wikipedia has nothing for that entry or mention of “bans” but there is a bit of info under “trade barriers”

...as:

1. It’s one that will never really be complete
2. Some issues would require a longer time than others when it comes to rectifying my ignorance
3. It may become political