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By The Ranting Canadian, on April 5, 2013, at 8:27 pm
With all the stories across Canada of police brutality (including killings), harassment, rights violations, discrimination, perjury, political bias, corruption (e.g. bribes, smuggling, extortion, drug-dealing) – and seeing almost no consequences for the crimes committed by police officers – it’s extremely difficult to resist the A.C.A.B. (All Cops Are Bastards) attitude.
How are we supposed to keep falling for the line that “there are just a few bad apples” when the supposed good apples consistently rally around the bad apples and even promote them to higher positions? It’s very hard to tell the difference between the (Read more…)
By The Ranting Canadian, on April 5, 2013, at 7:20 pm Young woman arrested for posting photo of graffitti online:
According to CBC News:
A 20-year-old woman has been accused of criminal harassment and intimidation against a high-ranking Montreal police officer after she posted a photo of anti-police graffiti online.
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Pawluck insists that she’s done nothing wrong and the actions of the Montreal police amount to harassment.
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Montreal criminal defence attorney Eric Sutton says the Crown will have to prove that Lafrenière reasonably feared for his safety because of the photo posted by Pawluck.
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“I think this may be somewhat of a political statement by the police
. . . → Read More: The Ranting Canadian: Young woman arrested for posting photo of graffitti online
By Lorne, on March 15, 2013, at 2:34 pm No need to join a gym, I guess, when police have so many on-the-job-workout opportunities.
Raymond Costain, afterwards.
H/t trapdinawrpool Recommend this Post
By The Ranting Canadian, on February 17, 2013, at 12:03 pm
Inspired by news stories of the last week or so:
What do the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Vatican, the Canadian senate, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Conservative Party of Canada have in common?
They are antiquated, dysfunctional, corrupt, racist, sexist, homophobic, elitist, perverted, deceitful, abusive, secretive, right-wing, hierarchical, criminal-like organizations that are mostly controlled by bigoted, old, rich, white, authoritarian men, yet are mostly funded by lowly, non-wealthy working people – many, or most, of whom naively hold faith that those institutions are designed to serve the general public.
Those state-sanctioned gangs have directly and
. . . → Read More: The Ranting Canadian: Inspired by news stories of the last week or so:
What do the…
By Guest Blog, on February 10, 2013, at 2:11 pm During the Quebec student protests against the tuition hikes, members of the press came under attack by the SPVM (Montreal Police). This video aims to raise the issue of press freedom in face of suppressive and brutal tactics by the SPVM to deny access of coverage to members of the media. The Canadian Progressive recommends: READ MORE
By Lorne, on January 7, 2013, at 12:38 pm As noted the other day, there has been an ongoing jurisdictional battle in the case of alleged police brutality victim Tyrone Phillips. The complaint, filed by Phillips to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, could not be investigated by the SIU because Toronto Police, citing provincial regulations, refused to hand it over to SIU head Ian Scott, despite the fact that Phillips had given his permission to do so.
Resolution appears to be at hand. As reported in today’s Star, the complainant was able to obtain his original report from the Office of the Independent Police
By Lorne, on January 4, 2013, at 8:32 am Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that standard, perhaps both the Toronto Police force and I are insane; I seem to periodically write essentially the same blog post about their misbehaviour, and they seem to keep practising a disturbing pattern of conduct that cries out for remediation.
The latest case of alleged police brutality was reported yesterday in The Toronto Star:
Ian Scott, director of the Special Investigations Unit, (the body that probes incidents of serious injury and death in which police officers are involved) said Wednesday
. . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: Toronto Police: Again and Again and Again ….
By Zoom!, on October 5, 2012, at 10:59 am
I’ve been following the sex assault trial of Steve Desjourdy, the Ottawa police officer who cut off the t-shirt and bra of a young woman while she was pinned to the cell block floor by several other officers. This case made headlines a few years ago, and I blogged about it more than once.
The young woman was charged with assaulting a police officer, but the original judge dismissed the charges because of the conduct of the officers, calling their behaviour malicious and the charges a travesty. He made the cell block video publicly available, and we all saw what
. . . → Read More: knitnut.net: Justice vs. Verdict
By Brendan K. Edwards, on August 8, 2012, at 4:13 pm
While Chuck D’s famous phrase “Rap is CNN for black people,” has been quoted by countless ‘reality’ rappers, there are few artists who have embraced the concept as throughly as Emrical. The only difference is that in this case the Montreal-based emcee reports from the racially diverse low-income community of Montreal-North.
Emrical’s latest video Combien de Morts focuses on the tragic death of Fredy Villanueva, a teen who was shot by police in Henri-Bourassa Park on August 9, 2008. It is an incident that spawned a riot and was followed by a flood of newspaper headlines, local
. . . → Read More: Art Threat: Montreal-North stand up: part two – An interview with MC Emrical on the fourth anniversary of the death of Fredy Villanueva
By Obert Madondo, on July 26, 2012, at 5:38 pm I spend the last five hours digesting the contents of the report on the first systematic look the NYPD’s response to Occupy Wall Street protests. The report is the product of an eight-month investigation undertaken by law clinics at Fordham, Harvard, NYU and Stanford.
Titled “Suppressing Protest: Human Rights Violations in the U.S. Response to Occupy Wall Street” (PDF), the report ins’t the easiest document to study for someone who was brutalized by the Ottawa Police as a member of the Occupied Ottawa movement. It paints a “damning picture of an out-of-control and aggressive organization that routinely acted beyond
. . . → Read More: Canadian Progressive World: NYPD brutalized Occupy Wall Street protesters and violated their rights: REPORT
By Lorne, on July 23, 2012, at 1:05 pm So says a young Hispanic boy in the following video, a followup of the police brutality in Anaheim I posted about yesterday:
Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on July 22, 2012, at 2:24 pm Can there be any justification for firing non-lethal weapons on unarmed people, including women and children?
H/t Sandra Harris
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By Lorne, on July 20, 2012, at 2:37 pm You decide. Recommend this Post
By Orangutan, on May 22, 2012, at 8:44 pm Just a few of my photos of Tuesday’s protest in Montreal, the single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Estimates of crowd numbers run from the tens of thousands all the way up to 500,000. The protest marked the 100th day of the Quebec student strike.
Jeanne Reynolds and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
Can you see Anarchopanda, the mascot of the student movement?
. . . → Read More: From Orangutan: Photos of the Peaceful Protest, May 22, 2012, Montreal,
By Orangutan, on May 21, 2012, at 11:57 am Yet another display of shameless brutality from the City of Montreal Police Service (SPVM). This gem shows “Constable 728″ pepper-spraying protesters in an obvious abuse of power. Stay classy SPVM. Stay classy.
By Orangutan, on May 21, 2012, at 2:04 am Yet another example of shameless brutality coming from the City of Montreal Police Service (SPVM). The video was apparently shot Sunday at the 27th consecutive nightly protest against the Quebec Liberal government’s proposed tuition hikes. At about the 40 second point in the video, you can see the victim’s red sweater underneath the police car. I and other concerned people tweeted the SPVM (@SPVM) about this, and the response we got was, “We saw it [the video] and we verified to make sure. No one was run over by a car.”
By Orangutan, on May 20, 2012, at 1:06 pm While sitting on an outdoor patio in downtown Montreal Saturday night as the 26th consecutive protest against the Quebec Liberal government’s proposed tuition hikes marched by, bar patrons were treated to pepper spray from the City of Montréal Police Service. With the passing of Bill 78 on Friday, which made the right of Quebec citizens to protest subject to the conditions and controls exercised arbitrarily by the police, the Quebec student movement has further escalated.
The Jean Charest led government, incidentally, is also in the midst of a public-works contracts corruption scandal involving, among other factions, the Mafia.
By Orangutan, on May 20, 2012, at 12:22 am This happened on May 19, 2012, at the 26th consecutive protest in Montreal against the Quebec Liberal government’s proposed tuition hikes. With the passing of Bill 78 Friday, Premier Jean Charest suspended the democratic rights of all Quebecers, whose right to protest is now subject to the conditions and controls exercised arbitrarily by the police.
By Obert Madondo, on May 5, 2012, at 1:03 pm Below is my appeal to newly-appointed Conservative senator and former Ottawa Police chief, Vernon White, to resign. I mailed the letter to the senator on March 14, 2012. On the same day, I started an indefinite hunger strike against the … Continue reading →
By Lorne, on May 2, 2012, at 11:07 am Given the brutal manner in which some police officers discharge their authority, it always strikes me as just a tad ‘precious’ when they complain about how unjustly they are being treated whenever the press offers some criticism of their practices.
In responding to The Toronto Star’s series, Police Who Lie, Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, complains that the investigative project is a gross misrepresentation of police practices, and condemns it for using a presentation style disturbingly similar to the covers of tabloid magazines that grab your attention while you’re standing in the checkout line at the
. . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: The Irony Of Police ‘Sensitivity’
By Lorne, on May 1, 2012, at 8:26 am As a direct result of their investigative series, Police Who Lie, The Toronto Star is once more contributing to the social good. The following is reported today’s edition:
Ontario’s chief prosecutor will probe the issue of police officers who are found by judges to have lied in court.
Attorney General John Gerretsen made the announcement Monday following a Toronto Star investigation that found more than 100 cases of police deception in Ontario and across the country.
“The most important thing is that people tell the truth in court. The question really becomes: if a judge makes a serious
. . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: Another Victory For The Star
By Lorne, on April 29, 2012, at 9:07 am A taser to the scrotum 10-15 times. A ‘rear naked choke hold’ (an arm around the throat, another behind the head and a knee in the back). A beating in a ditch. The suspect’s ‘crime’? Leaning out his window and shouting “Hey, baby!” to several Niagara Regional Police officers.
Thus begins the third part of the Star’s investigation into police officers who abuse their authority and subsequently perjure themselves in court, usually with no subsequent punishment from their departments.
You can read all of the sordid details here. Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on April 28, 2012, at 11:44 am I have the feeling that if I had both the time and the narrowness of purpose, I could devote this blog entirely to police and their abuse of authority and the citizens they are sworn to protect. It seems that one doesn’t have to look far, be it on YouTube or the daily papers, to find new outrages committed by the constabulary.
The unfortunate pitfall of all of this, of course, is the danger of slipping into the fallacy of gross over-generalizations. The fact is, of course, that the majority of police do not abuse their powers (except in special
. . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: More Troubling News On The Police Front
By Thor, on March 14, 2012, at 12:31 am The following is a partial list from The Toronto Star: G20 Summit: Cop Unmasked As Protest Couple File Suit (Read the Star article for all the details)
March 7, 2012: Toronto police settle a human rights claim filed by a paraplegic man arrested during the G20 summit. Terms are not public due to a confidentiality clause.
Feb. 16, 2012: Toronto lawyer Nicholas Wright sues Toronto police for $25,000 for alleged unlawful arrest.
June 24, 2011: Sean Salvati, a paralegal arrested prior to the G20 summit and allegedly strip-searched, assaulted and held naked in a jail cell for nearly an hour
. . . → Read More: Driving The Porcelain Bus: List of Toronto G20 Lawuits
By Lorne, on February 26, 2012, at 3:43 pm Although the political abuse of power is endemic in this country, especially at the federal level, it is sadly not the only one in which innocent people are victimized.
While I have frequently written on police misuse of power, the instances of that abuse, and the difficulty in bringing the perpetrators to account, seem only to be growing. Both Susan Clairmont, of The Hamilton Spectator, and The Star’s Rosie DiManno, in an especially hard-hitting piece, offer some important insights into the obstacles faced by those seeking to bring rogue authorities to justice.
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