RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT - Through the Years

RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT
THROUGH THE YEARS
Our lockup in the Detachment consisted of a metal cage in the basement with a bucket for
‘relief’. We never used it as we (I) would have to clean it! Prisoners were instead taken,
handcuffed, to Hope.
In those days, there was no protective screen between the front and back seats in the police
cars. One day a Greyhound bus stopped in front of the office, the driver running in to report a
‘disturbed’ person on his bus. I rushed out to find this nutcase on a rampage inside the bus, the
other passengers just sitting there dumbfounded. I arrested him and handcuffed him on the
spot (under the Mental Health Act), and took him into the office where it was quite clear that he
was unbalanced. He was an older gentleman. Advising Hope Detachment to look after my
area until I returned, I started driving this man to the mental hospital in Coquitlam, a good 2½hour
drive from Boston Bar. Still in the Fraser Canyon, he managed to move his handcuffed
wrists from behind him to the front. The Detachment didn’t have a straight-jacket. Then he
whacked me on the back of the head, on the bone behind my ear, with his fist. I’m sure he
cracked my skull as I had headaches and a sore spot there for many months. Then the nutcase
started playing with himself in the back seat when we hit all the traffic in Coquitlam and
everyone could see. So happy to turn him over to the ‘white-coats’ at Riverview mental hospital.
To get across the Fraser River to the
Indian Reserve, CP Rail station, and back
country of North Bend, we had to take a
one-car aerial ferry, pictured here. A
bridge has since been constructed.
Had to dress up for a parade or something
one day, so this is me…hoping I don’t get
a call.
During my posting in Boston Bar, the
RCMP was going through a period of
“austerity”, and their solution to save
Boston Bar to North Bend aerial ferry
money was to limit police vehicles to a
certain amount of mileage every shift…so
everywhere everyone sat in the office
waiting for calls, instead of proactively
patrolling. How absolutely absurd. I
ignored it.
Boston Bar - 1969
June 2017
99