Police brutality in Victoria, B.C.

The first guy was already being restrained and did not look like he was a threat to anyone. He still got two hard kicks to the back. That's excessive force. We're supposed to expect more from law enforcement.

I understand emotions were running high, and it's true that we don't know what went on before the video camera got turned on. Still, a police officer should be in better control of himself and of the situation. Taking control does not mean walking up to a suspect who's been restrained and hoofing him twice in the back. That's bullshit.

Cops do dangerous work, no doubt about it. But they don't have the right to treat people like that just because they carry badges and guns.

 

Officer: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Suspect: Because you earned Cs in high school?

 

Oh, and looky here. It seems the Victoria police have a bit of a history when it comes to using excessive and/or unreasonable force on people in their custody.

This story emerged less than two weeks ago.

Two Victoria police officers have been charged with assault against two brothers who were arrested in October 2008 for public intoxication.

Const. Brent Keleher is charged with two counts of assault against Jeffrey Meyers after he was arrested on Oct. 18, 2008 — one while Meyers was in a police cruiser and Keleher was driving it to the station, and the second while Meyers was at the police station, according to court documents.

Const. Ryan Young is also charged with two counts of assault — one against Jeffrey Meyers and the other against his brother Trevor Meyers — while they were at the police station.

Neither Jeffrey nor Trevor Meyers was charged with an offence in relation to the arrest.

Here's another story from January of this year.

A veteran Victoria police officer has been suspended with pay and is the subject of criminal and Police Act investigations after a man was assaulted in police cells, Chief Jamie Graham announced Monday.

On Jan. 15, a 33-year-old man was arrested for violating court conditions and taken to the cells in the Victoria police headquarters on Caledonia Avenue. The sergeant monitoring the cells — identified as Sgt. George Chong — is accused of using force against the man, although the reasons for doing so were not made clear at a news conference yesterday.

“During the booking-in process, an incident occurred and the prisoner received injuries that required hospital treatment,” Graham said during a news conference.

...

This is not the first time Chong, who is in his late 40s, has been investigated by the department.

He pleaded guilty to an off-duty assault that occurred in June 2008, which resulted in a written reprimand from Victoria police. A provincial court judge handed Chong a conditional discharge and nine months’ probation, as well as ordering him to undergo anger-management counselling.

And there are two more instances, both of which can be read about in the first link:

The department’s legal bills have been double what was budgeted the last three years — at $300,000 per year — and much of that is attributed to civil lawsuits brought by Thomas McKay and Willow Kinloch.

In the McKay case, Victoria police settled for an undisclosed amount after a complaint of excessive force was substantiated against Const. Greg Smith, who seriously injured the handcuffed student in police cells, leaving him with brain damage and permanent, severe disabilities. A jury awarded Kinloch $60,000 after the teenager sued the city and police for tethering her in cells for hours.

So, do the Victoria police deserve the benefit of the doubt in this most recent case? Hmmmmm......

 

For clarification, I believe those are city cops, not RCMP. Usually bigger centres will have their own cops in addition to the RCMP.

RCMP are a national force while the cities will control their own police forces.

 

I watched the video a couple of times now. The first guy he was booting you have no idea what instigated that, the guy may have even had it coming. The second guy I don't think he deserved to get booted. He was cooperating. The first cop says get on the ground, he does. Second cop comes rushing in and next thing he knows is wrenching his arm behind him. He is supporting himself with one arm and is told to put that arm behind his back and before he can readjust to comply is getting booted. then his arm gets wedged between him and the ground and he gets a couple of extra knees to the spine. He wasn't refusing to cooperate. He wasn't talking back, he wasn't reaching for a weapon. The cop went over board and should be disciplined himself.

I can understand some excessive force if the guy is refusing to cooperate or is being belligerent, etc. but that wasn't the case here.

 

You and I may well think so. I'm sure the cop even thinks it. But he's not entitled to do it just because he's pissed off about whatever the guy may have done one minute, two minutes or several minutes earlier.

Look at it this way - if you walk up to a guy who insulted you or even punched you in the face a little while ago, whether it was 30 seconds or five minutes ago, and you give that guy two swift kicks, guess what? That's assault, and you should be going to jail. And this cop should be too. His badge doesn't give him any more rights than you or I have. In fact, he's held to a higher standard than is the general public simply because of his training and his place in society.

Furthermore, with the negative attention the Victoria police has had focused on it lately, you'd think its officers would be aware of the need for, shall we say, more positive behaviour and more appropriate relations with the community. Clearly, this fucking loogan is too dumb to care about anything like that.

So, fuck him. He's a perfect example of a bad cop, and I hope he's prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

 

You're right, of course. My bad.

 

For every one of these caught on camera, there are probably 100 that aren't.

 

Love all these cop apologists. You don't need context to know that the cop used excessive force on the second guy and this idea that if you don't do EXACTLY as a cop says, they're entitled to beat the crap out of you. And this idea that one or both of these guys may have had it coming to them is scary.

Double J is absolutely right. Having a uniform and a shiny badge doesn't give you carte blanche to kick some defenseless guy while he's down. I hope the guy presses charges and they give that bald cop a nice long suspension

 

Call me a cop apologist if you want, that's fine by me. They do a job I wouldn't want to do, and my heart will rarely bleed for guys involved in bar brawls. And I'll say it again - without knowing what the guy on the ground did, I'll reserve judgment. What if he cracked some girl in the face or hammered somebody with a beer bottle?

And I don't know that I'd call what the cop did kicking the crap out of somebody.

 

I'm not a big fan of guys involved in bar brawls but that's hardly the point.

And so what if he may have hammered someone with a beer bottle? He gets charged with assault and gets thrown in jail. Cops have their jobs presumably because they're trained NOT to react that way.

 

Then the cop should do his job and arrest him.

Two wrongs don't make a right is such an incredibly simple concept. We laugh at its simplicity when trying to teach to children. And yet, some adults still don't get it.