Requiem for a dog

A state funeral for a dog reveals where the collective mind of our police, politicians, and media is truly at

by Reed Eurchuk <reurchuk@republic-news.org>

When future cultural archaeologists sift through the detritus of our society for clues to its disintegration, surely the recent state funeral for police dog “Nitro” will give them pause.

Mayor Sam Sullivan, Police Chief Jamie Graham, three hundred officers from Saanich, Delta, West Vancouver, Abbotsford, Victoria, and the RCMP, as well as members of the Vancouver Fire Department and Canada Customs, were joined by hundreds of other well-wishers in a tearful farewell to that ferocious canine foe of the criminal. According to Pete McMartin’s excellent piece in the Sun, a kilted bagpiper, four mounted police officers, and a four-man honour guard congregated under a large projection of the deceased dog, slain while pursuing a car last January 23. Vendors sold $20 memorial DVDs entitled Nitro: Guardian of the Night.

On the podium, Police Chief Graham solemnly compared our love of our dogs with our love of our spouses and children. “Some may wonder why we grieve so hard over the loss of a police dog,” said Graham, with the cadence of a church minister. He went on, “It’s a special kind of grief for feelings that are present. One writer suggested it was just a dog, but that would be like saying, ‘It was just a husband,’ or ‘just a daughter.’ The stages of grief we will feel over the loss of this great animal are not unlike what we feel during the loss of a human partner.”

McMartin reported one lady “placed a little teddy bear by Nitro’s shrine” as the mourners milled about. Following the service a reception was held.

Such a lavish display of grief can only occur in a society like ours that represses the consciousness of so much suffering—or, from a vulgar Freudian angle, the repressed consciousness of suffering gets displaced, erupting in misplaced grief for another. How else can we account for such things as the media obsession with the Jen-Brad-Angelina triangle? Voyeurism and titillation get mixed with soap opera myths of the perfect love match destroyed by the roving eye, the beautiful siren. Thus is the media the “perpetual emotion machine” that Perry Anderson talks about.

How can we account for the burlesque of Nitro’s funeral, the opulence, the horses, the bagpiper, the uniformed officers, the armoury, the reception, the projector, the DVDs? This display is a counterpoint to the reality faced by the city’s homeless. How much media attended the funeral of Frances McCallister, who recently froze to death on Vancouver’s streets? From this perspective, the ghost of McCallister loomed, watching over Nitro’s funeral.

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