This one is a real Gordian knot.
A little while back, RCMP officer Corporal Jim Brown exploded into the news. A bunch of bondage photos had emerged, in which he allegedly menaces an unidentified woman. He, or someone that looks like him, uses a knife to cut off her clothes. There’s more (and dammit, I’d show you if I could find them) – at one point, she’s in a cage, and at the end she’s playing dead.
Brown is into S&M, and on a website goes by the name Kilted-Knight. So, here is a police officer who in his private time likes to engage in bondage and domination.
For a short time he was involved in the massive Pickton investigation. Years later, these photos came out.
Now, I’m no fan of the RCMP (I think the VPD are orders of magnitude better and more ethical than the BC mounties), and the province will have to spend millions of dollars untangling their endless fuck-ups – the murders (poor Robert Dziekanski, and Ian Bush, who was shot in the back of the head while in custody), the dinosaur culture, the sexual harassment, the old-boys networks, and that mountie who knocked up a gangster’s girlfriend.
But there is a whole host of panjandrums who are calling for Brown’s head. Lawyers of Pickton victims, bloggers, academics, victim advocates.
‘So yes they are pictures of consenting adults but what they are depicting is criminal acts of sexual violence,” as one blogger puts it.
Yes, they are consenting adults. But in yet another wrinkle, a few friends of the disgraced officer have come forward. They say Eroticvancouver.com has stated that only few of the photos are of Brown, and the more dramatic ones are of another man. One might say that it’s a bit fanciful to suppose that those two separate men of a certain age in the BC bondage scene both have moustaches and shaved heads, but that’s a common look in the sub/dom community.
It’s pointless and blatently illogical to link the Pickton murders to the lifestyle of a Mountie. Yes, he should have been more careful (his photos had originally been found on a memory stick by someone else), but that’s a code of conduct issue, and not a moral issue linked with Canada’s most prolific serial killer. In being a bit of a perv, Brown has become a scapegoat for crimes he never committed, as if his very existence somehow is part and parcel of how the Mounties dropped the ball in the early days of Pickton. But that’s another story, and one that has nothing to do with Brown and how he likes to get his jollies. If we delved into the life of every man who ever investigated anything, we’d have no investigators left.
And besides – these photos are hot. While you might be disgusted (I ain’t, but I’m looking at the issue of possible consent here) by what Jim Brown and this unidentified Brown lookalike do, you can’t deny the smile on that woman’s face. She’s enjoying herself, and she’s clearly into it.
Jim Brown should take his disciplinary lumps. In his personal life, he likes to be the one giving out the punishment, so a Code of Conduct hearing will be extra painful for a lifelong dom like him. But everyone else should leave him the hell alone.
I can’t believe this is an issue at all. Thousands of Canadians practice BDSM and take part in, let’s say, “alternative” sexual lifestyles. Brown being an RCMP officer makes no difference, unless he was in his uniform or something. He clearly did not represent himself as an officer on the site, and this prudish overreaction is just shameful.
I agree, although I think Brown has also become a political football.
Anyone in a position of authority needs to act in a manner that is of a higher standard.
So, yes , it does matter. Not what he does behind closed doors, but as soon as it is “out there” in web-land, it does indeed matter.
Judges, teachers, priests, professors, cops, MPs, etc…
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Hi,
First off, thank you for taking a look at this matter. More people need to do it, and hopefully more people need to hold the press accountable for what they got wrong in the rush-to-publish that all too often looks like a rush-to-judgement.
One small correction in your assumptions (don’t feel bad – I’ve been following and writing about this story A LOT, and I’ve had my share of mistakes) – I’m one of the people who first stepped forward and appeared in the media to say that some of the photos are not of Jim Brown. I’m not a friend of the Corporal, it is in fact the man who actually appears in the “abduction sequence photos” that I know, and know quite well.
If folks are interested in knowing more about this matter I’ve been covering it over at my blog Erotic Vancouver.
Vancouver Sun reports on lack of code of conduct inquiry into RCMP Officer’s sexually explicit photos on the web* – Thursday, July 5
http://eroticvancouver.com/vancouver-sun-reports-on-code-of-conduct-inquiry-into-rcmp-officers-sexually-explicit-photos-on-the-web
Spotlight on the media: Abduction scene photos are not of RCMP Corporal Brown – Friday, July 5
http://eroticvancouver.com/spotlight-on-the-media-abduction-scene-photos-are-not-of-rcmp-corporal-brown
Sun Reporter answers questions re: possible fabricated description of photo & more – Friday July 6
http://eroticvancouver.com/sun-reporter-answers-questions-re-possible-fabricated-description-of-photo-more
Where were the trail bosses? Responsible journalism failed – Monday July 9
http://eroticvancouver.com/where-were-the-trail-bosses-responsible-journalism-failed
Reive
Editor Erotic Vancouver Magazine
Thanks. I saw a tv piece in which a woman, stating she was a friend of Brown’s, said that some of the pics were of someone else, and that she knew both people but didn’t wish to divulge their identities, so that’s where I got that info. But I’ll see if I can change my piece a little ,without it looking too awkward.
… and Save On Meats likes this post. Who knew? Thanks, guys.
Uh-oh…. Hopefully Save On Meats will soon NOT be liking your post. (Or rather, it’s not that they’ll dislike it, it’s just because they’ll no longer have “liked” it.)
That’s because while I must have liked your post BEFORE realizing that I had to switch from a work account that I’ve got access to!.
Oh dear. Lives are ruined by such innocent internet mistakes!