Some days he is ashamed to be a Haldimand OPP officer.
He is ashamed of the two-tier justice system that has cops treating natives differently from non-natives. He is ashamed of the way law and order has taken a back seat to politics. He is ashamed the OPP has let down the people of Caledonia.
Blunt talk from a front-line officer who is supposed to be seen, not heard.
He is one of 70 officers working out of the Haldimand OPP detachment.
These are the cops who patrolled Caledonia long before the native land occupation rocked the community. And they are the cops who will be there to pick up the pieces when the drama ends.
I'm not going to tell you this officer's name. Doing so would almost certainly land him in hot water with OPP brass. Because unlike Commissioner Gwen Boniface, this constable isn't afraid to admit the OPP has mishandled the Caledonia situation.
In fact, he apologizes on its behalf.
"Residents of Caledonia have been absolutely let down by the OPP," he says.
"I am apologetic for the perception that's out there that there is a two-tiered justice system. And it's a perception we've earned."
Since the earliest days of the months-long dispute, there have been two types of OPP officers in Caledonia: The locals, who belong to the Haldimand detachment, and the so-called "reclamation officers" who have been brought in from around the province to serve short tours of duty before shipping out again.
For the most part Haldimand officers have little to do with the native protest, getting involved only when their presence is urgently needed.
Otherwise, Haldimand officers continue with the day to day policing of the town.
"There's still guys beating up their wives, there's still car accidents, there's still kids breaking windows," the constable says.
The problem is, the local officers are having a hard time doing their regular jobs. Area residents have lost respect for the OPP. They saw the videotape of reclamation OPP officers standing by while television cameramen were assaulted and robbed by natives in the Canadian Tire parking lot near the barricades. The constable says the OPP's unforgivable lack of action that day was the result of a number of factors: The officers were outnumbered; they were from across Ontario and didn't work as a team; and they didn't know what protocol to follow. So the public, he says, has a right to question the OPP's ability and desire to uphold the law.
Just try to give a speeding ticket to a non-native in Caledonia right now, the officer says. The speeder is likely to say, "You're only doing this to me because I'm not native. The natives are speeding all over the place in their pickups and nobody is giving them tickets."
It's hard to argue with that when it's true, the officer says.
"I think, quite honestly, their complaints have some merit." For instance, on Wednesday night, about 50 teens got into a donnybrook in front of the McDonald's.
The official word from OPP spokesperson Constable Paula Wright is police aren't sure what the melee was about. The unofficial word from witnesses is that it was a racially motivated dispute between native and non-native youths.
At 10:20 p.m. reclamation officers were sent to the scene because the local officers were tied up at another call. They too headed over as soon as they were free and were joined by Six Nations Police.
One youth -- a native boy -- was separated from the rest and spoken to by police because he had been the victim of much punching and pushing. A witness says other native teens mistook the police gesture as a sign that the boy was in trouble and used cellphones to call other native youths to the scene.
As the native youths became more agitated, OPP officers had to use pepper spray to control some of them. In the end, one aboriginal teen who was refusing to follow police orders was arrested but only after officers convinced their supervisor it was necessary. No charges were laid against the boy and he was soon released.
"We would not tolerate that from a bunch of white kids," says the Haldimand constable. "If we're going to be told not to enforce the law, why even go out there in the first place? ... We're tolerating lawlessness and thuggery right now."
These days, the local OPP are somewhat like Canadians who travel abroad with the national flag sewn onto their backpack so as not to be mistaken for Americans. The Haldimand officers -- when recognized as such -- tend to get sympathy from the public.
And, when the protests finally stop in Caledonia, says the Haldimand constable, it will be the local cops who set about the task of rebuilding the cultural bridges that have been torn apart.