It’s a Start At Least: Police Accountability

These two news stories caught my eye for different reasons. We have had a spate of violent police actions and no-accountability for that violence by police in Canada.

Local police and RCMP regularly get off for their violent crimes, yes violent crimes. Anyone can see the videos of these events and KNOW they are violent crimes under the guise of police authority, police safely. It’s obvious to ANY non-biased observer the officers have over reacted and in most cases police escalate the situation instead of trying to de-escalate a relatively non-threatening one.

I fear for my personal safety now if I ever have contact with police. In Canada you say? Yep. Crazy.

The second story is a police feel good story that puts the public’s expectation of police brutality into context in a really bizarre way.

From tasering people to death (multiple cases), filling people full of lead (recently in Vancouver and Toronto-including a final bullet to the back of the head execution style), using excessive force to detain someone who is peaceful or demonstrators being attacked – this list goes on and on and it’s disgusting.

These violent acts continue because the hierarchy of the police force and the political will to allow them to continue stays intact. This violence should be unacceptable in a modern peaceful society – yet it is tolerated and encourage as demonstrated by the fact that police get away with it over and over.

BUT there is a GLINT of hope of change. A Toronto cop was just sentenced to 45 days (whoopee, what would you or I get?) for his “assault with a deadly weapon” on a G20 protestor in 2010.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/crown-calls-jail-term-toronto-cop-convicted-g20-165213097.html?.tsrc=yahoo

PDF of article- Toronto cop sentenced to 45 days in jail for G20 assault, intends to appeal

His lawyer pleading about how hard it has been for the poor criminal cop because he got caught and prosecuted for his crime, he has paid a big enough price. Ya right. You try that argument. Luckily the Judge didn’t buy it but still gave a light sentence.

His lawyer, Harry Black, urged the judge to give the officer an absolute discharge, saying his client has suffered enough with depression, anxiety and the break-up of his marriage after he was charged. Andalib-Goortani’s “fragile” mental state has only worsened since his conviction, Black said.

But Ontario Court Judge Louise Botham said that a discharge would be “contrary to the public interest,” nor would a sentence served in the community be adequate.

“Citizens will respect the rule of law when they can be confident that those with the power to enforce our laws do so fairly,” Botham said as Andalib-Goortani held his head in his hands. “When that trust is abused citizens need to know that police will be held accountable.”

The judge’s words, bolded above, are the key to begin returning the rule of law to this land…not the fantasy appearance of it, as exists now. It’s good to hear that attitude BEGINNING TO BE SPOKEN IN COURT BY A JUDGE.

The convicted cop may win on appeal though, leaving the impression the courts are tough on crime because it is in the news now and may not be in the news if he wins his appeal. It’s happened. We’ll see.

Sweeping official offenders under the rug has been the standard for a long time, not wanting to admit it could ever happen in their organization and sending a message to other dirty cops (politicians, civil servants etc. etc.) – carry on.

I like to read the comments people leave after an article and there were many good ones including these two:

Here’s a thought – maybe people who develop such ~fragile mental states~ when forced to deal with the consequences of their own actions shouldn’t be given badges and batons and guns and turned loose upon the population? – Amoeba

Andalib-Goortani’s “fragile” mental state has only worsened since his conviction, Black said.
If he’s that mentally unstable, he shouldn’t be working as police, firefighter or paramedic. Those 3 are all high stress occupations and guaranteed to have you questioning your own sanity when you decided that was the career choice. – John SomethingOrOther

The second story is a police feel good story that puts the public’s expectation of police brutality into context in a really bizarre way.

The police, sadly, have a publicly acknowledged violent image as abusers of their authority, too many times rightfully so, it’s not really a question anymore. Of course, not all police officers, but enough to undermine the faith, trust and sense of honour that we SHOULD be able to have in the police.

This second story is a gone-viral-look-how-professional-courteous-and-respectful-this-police-officer-is when confronted with a difficult individual. YES, praise to the officers in that instance for DOING THEIR JOB THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE.

I hope it becomes a lesson as to the way officers SHOULD always act.

This story is happy but sad in the exposure of what people now expect as the norm, violence form cops.

People are celebrating that a cop actually did the right thing, the right way instead of cowering behind his taser, baton or gun like so many other cases. It is downright bizarre when we must celebrate someone “actually doing it right” because the public expectation worldwide has shifted to expect over-the-top violence from police!

Think about it, many people now expect violent behaviour from cops because we have lots of examples of it and there has been little to no accountability for it. It has become a shock to see honourable, respectful policing. Is that a sad statement to have to make, or what?

I’ve written many times herein about the police, and have great respect for the honourable cops, and we all wait for the day when the few criminals in uniform have their day in court defending their illegal actions.

Being an officer of the law is supposed to be a badge of honour, not a license to beat and kill. As an officer of the law your FIRST responsibility is to be a good example of lawful behaviour. Good cops will acknowledge this quietly and I challenge them to speak out inside their world against the bad cops – otherwise the good cops become complicit in the bad cop’s crimes.

It’s not an easy job, it has risk, but that is no excuse for using violence in unwarranted situations. Our society doesn’t want to be more afraid of cops than crooks – in most of Canada I bet that concern is a fact, sadly not an exaggeration.

Here’s the how-to-do your-job-the-right-way lesson video for all cops: