Final Spin

(Post 1 on this topic is here)

The very short news conference of the Villanueva family this morning was interesting. The victim’s sister (Patricia Villanueva) makes an interesting spokesperson for the family: calm, strong yet obviously devastated by the tragic events. She doesn’t use police jargon and nothing about her looks rehearsed or polished – she doesn’t come across as an activist. She asks people to stay calm, thanks them for their support and only blames the work of the police officers when pressed by reporters.

She says she doesn’t know much about police procedure, but it seems to her that if the officers didn’t feel in control they should have called for backup, not reached for their gun. She won’t say if she trusts the investigation process, but when gently pressed she mentions that “to be impartial, it has to be done by different people, right?”

That’s good. That’s really very good.

If the Montreal police PR team doesn’t realize how much credibility and sympathy this woman has right now, they are headed for a PR disaster. Let’s see what happens now.