tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3313441005983809242024-03-12T18:43:33.151-04:00Stories of Corruption!!Police & Politicians are NOT above the law!
Real life stories of corruption, brutality, and abuse of power- pulled from the headlines and relayed from the front-line. Our best defense is TECHNOLOGY!
Start recording... Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger344125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-74548978721106735392015-01-09T08:50:00.001-05:002015-01-09T08:50:15.559-05:00More laws to invade our RIGHT to privacy promised by Harper because of Paris "attack(s)"<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Paris shootings were an assault on democracy, new anti-terror measures coming to Canada: Stephen Harper says</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Canadian Press and James Keller and Dylan Robertson, Postmedia News<br>
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015</p>
<p dir="ltr">The terrorist attack against a Paris newspaper was an assault on democracy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday as he warned that jihadists are at war with anyone who values openness and tolerance.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr. Harper said new arrest powers aimed at thwarting terrorist threats will be in a bill tabled shortly after Parliament resumes in late January.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“They have declared war on anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they would think and act,” Mr. Harper said of what he described as the “international jihadist movement,” including ISIS.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“They have declared war and are already executing it on a massive scale on a whole range of countries with which they are in contact, and they have declared war on any country, like ourselves, that values freedom, openness and tolerance. We may not like this and wish it would go away, but it is not going to go away.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Speaking to reporters Thursday in the Vancouver suburb of Delta, <b>Mr. Harper said the coming anti-terrorism bill is likely to contain “additional powers to make sure that our security agencies have the range of tools available to them to identify potential terror threats and to take arrests and other actions — detention and arrests and other actions — where necessary.”</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Parliament returns Jan. 26. “I anticipate that we will be moving forward very early in the new session,” he said, adding that his government is trying to carefully balance freedom and security.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr. Harper declined to say whether the Canadian government has raised its threat level — which, unlike in other countries, is kept secret — following France’s decision this week to elevate its own public threat level.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But he spoke forcefully of how “the international jihadist movement has declared war” on all free societies, including Canada.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>“The threats are real; if anyone doubted that, I think those doubts vanished on Oct. 22 [when a gunman killed a soldier and stormed Parliament Hill]. Although I would point out to people that that was not the first incident, or first visible manifestation of this threat in Canada,” he said.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">“We may not like this and wish it would go away, but it is not going to go away,” Stephen Harper said on Thursday, speaking of an “international jihadist movement.” </p>
<p dir="ltr">He pointed to the so-called Toronto 18 case, in which a group of young men were arrested in 2006 and accused of plotting to bomb several high-profile targets; the alleged 2013 plot to bomb a passenger train; and an alleged plot on Canada Day of 2013 to bomb the B.C. legislature in Victoria.</p>
<p dir="ltr">While Mr. Harper urged Canadians to be vigilant about the possible threat of terrorism, he urged them not to let it take over their lives.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“At the same time, we also encourage people to go about their lives and to exercise our rights and freedoms and our openness as a society as loudly and as clearly as we can,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Because that is the best way of defeating what is ultimately a movement of hatred and intolerance.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The gunmen who stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo killed eight journalists, two police officers, a maintenance worker and a visitor. The attack prompted rallies in a number of countries, including Canada, that saw attendees hold up pens to support the newspaper and condemn the attack.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and in cities across this country, openly demonstrated that we will not be intimated by jihadist terrorists,” Mr. Harper said. “Today, I know all Canadians … stand together with the people of France.” our great friends and allies.’’</p>
<p dir="ltr">“When a trio of hooded men struck at some of our most cherished democratic principles — freedom of expression, freedom of the press — they assaulted democracy everywhere,” said Mr. Harper.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Canadian Press and Postmedia News</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-577504897647762292015-01-04T11:42:00.001-05:002015-01-04T11:42:22.318-05:00$400,000 and counting collected by cop nabbed for undeclared beer<p dir="ltr"><b><i>$400,000 and counting collected by cop nabbed for undeclared beer</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Postmedia News and Trevor Wilhelm and Tristin Hopper, National Post Staff<br>
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015</p>
<p dir="ltr">In the summer of 2010, Windsorite Dorothy Nesbeth returned from a trip to Detroit with undeclared alcohol: 102 cans of beer, two five-litre boxes of wine and two bottles of rum.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ms. Nesbeth, a constable in the Windsor Police Service, was caught, and soon suspended with pay as her bosses began the process of stripping away her badge.</p>
<p dir="ltr">After collecting more than $400,000 while off the job — and undergoing a much-delayed review process that cost upwards of $500,000 — the constable was thrown off the force just before Christmas.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But now, after she filed an appeal, Ontario law has required that Ms. Nesbeth be returned once again to the payroll.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“The circumstances surrounding these allegations were so serious that dismissal was warranted,” said Windsor Police chief Al Frederick on Dec. 19, 53 months after the officer was first suspended.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In a 31-page ruling prepared by Retired Supt. Robert Fitches, Ms. Nesbeth was described as no longer being trustworthy as an officer and beyond hope for rehabilitation. Aside from a tearful apology at the misconduct hearing, Mr. Fitches doubted that she knew she had done anything wrong.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In sum, the ruling concluded, Ms. Nesbeth’s “usefulness to the Windsor Police Service has been annulled.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The constable, for her part, has claimed that as a black woman, she has been targeted for dismissal by the “old boys club” mentality at the Windsor Police.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Everyone in the greater Windsor community knows the Windsor Police Service has a history of hiring and promoting on the basis of nepotism, cronyism, and favouritism,” her lawyer, Patrick Ducharme, said at the officer’s disciplinary hearing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In 2013, Ms. Nesbeth even sued CBSA, saying it was guilty of “misfeasance” for telling her bosses about the seized alcohol — and kicking off the disciplinary proceedings. She also sued the Windsor Police sergeant who took down the information, saying he shouldn’t have passed it on.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ms. Nesbeth was among several Windsor Police officers accused of border violations during the same period.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Only one year before Ms. Nesbeth’s fateful border crossing, another veteran officer, Ronald Hansen, was caught at the Detroit border with a carload of undeclared water pipe tobacco.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr. Hansen resigned before his misconduct charges could go to hearing. A few months after Ms. Nesbeth’s suspension, Windsor Police also booted out Const. Colin Little, a nine-year veteran who had been found swapping licence plates on his car in order to better sneak shipments of booze over the Ambassador Bridge.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Even if Ms. Nesbeth had spent the minimum of 48 hours on U.S. soil, her car was packed with more than 13 times the duty-free allowance.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Nevertheless, the constable’s claim at her hearing was that she didn’t technically smuggle anything because the border officer did not specifically ask her if there was any alcohol in the car.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The agent had instead asked her if she had purchased any alcohol in the United States, to which she shook her head.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ms. Nesbeth had indeed paid for liquor at Detroit-area supermarkets, but she said it was for her mother, who was in the car.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I asked her to pay for it for me then I would pay her back,” her mother, Winnifred Garriques, told the hearing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When Ms. Nesbeth was sent to secondary inspection, border officers also claimed that Ms. Nesbeth tried to use her status as a police officer to intimidate them, telling inspectors at one point, “what goes around comes around.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">“It’s just a phrase people say all the time,” Ms. Nesbeth testified in September, 2011.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“If you treat people badly it will come back to you in the end.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">A misconduct charge for allegedly threatening the border officers was later dropped.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On New Year’s Eve, Windsor Police confirmed that Ms. Nesbeth was again receiving an officer’s salary after she filed an appeal. Chief Frederick has previously said that provincial rules dictate that Ms. Nesbeth must go back on paid suspension until the appeal process is finished.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ontario is the only province that mandates that police officers suspended for misconduct continue to receive a paycheque.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Under the Police Services Act, even if officers are facing criminal charges, they have to be paid their full salary until their dismissal has finished wending its way through the proper channels.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In June, the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police passed a resolution calling on the government to strip suspended officers of their paycheque, arguing that the public trust was hanging in the balance.</p>
<p dir="ltr">On Thursday, Joe Couto, a spokesman with the Association, told the National Post that suspension without pay remains a “key priority” for the coming year.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Windsor Star and National Post, with files from Sarah Sacheli</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-10709137642291646932015-01-03T13:33:00.000-05:002015-01-03T13:33:49.674-05:00Police union president says shootings a symptom of understaffed force<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Shift-Book, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20.0200004577637px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="border: 0px; font-family: TitlingGothicFBCond-Standard, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 3.93em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 100; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0.15em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
Police union president says shootings a symptom of understaffed force</h1>
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Published on: <time class="entry-date published pubdate" datetime="2015-01-02T18:04:35+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">January 2, 2015</time>Last Updated: <time class="updated" datetime="2015-01-02T18:04:35+00:00" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">January 2, 2015 6:04 PM EST</time></div>
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<figure class="align-none wp-caption post-img" id="post-424614media-424614" itemid="http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2015/01/ottawa-on-january-6-2014-police-union-president-matt-sk.jpg?w=1000" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="border: 0px; color: white; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 2em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Police union President Matt Skof." class="wp-post-image" itemprop="url" src="http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2015/01/ottawa-on-january-6-2014-police-union-president-matt-sk.jpg?w=1000" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" itemprop="description" style="background: rgb(12, 12, 12); border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px 0px 0px; padding: 10px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><div style="border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
Police union President Matt Skof.</div>
<span class="img-author" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span itemprop="creator" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chris Mikula</span> / <span itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ottawa Citizen</span></span></figcaption></figure><div itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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The president of the union representing Ottawa police officers says that a hiring freeze that the chief of police is intent on continuing is part of the cause of a record-year for gun violence in Ottawa.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.286em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1.52em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While the Ottawa Police Association believes there will always be fluctuations in crimes of all kinds, the impact of what they say is an understaffed and overworked workforce can’t be dismissed.</span></div>
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“We’re at a point where we’re so stretched for resources, starting from patrol and moving all the way through the organization, that it’s so difficult to accomplish proactive policing,” said president Matt Skof.</div>
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“You’re in a position where you’re always just reacting to the call.”</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Amid criticism from shooting-affected communities that police aren’t doing enough to combat gang violence in the city, Skof said it’s difficult to do the fundamentals of policing when there aren’t enough per capita officers to do the job.</span></div>
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A recent report by the Fraser Institute called the forces in Ottawa and Gatineau the third-most understaffed in the country.</div>
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“It’s not just patrol that is short. It’s all the sections that are short. All these sections have bodies dedicated to other projects, to other areas, and it’s because of that that we’re seeing this difficulty in managing the resources that we have because they’re so tight,” Skof said. “The squeeze is on everyone.”</div>
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And in that situation, the union says policing becomes reactive.</div>
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The force has said they’ve increased patrols and will be briefing patrol and neighbourhood officers on shootings and gang activity. The service continues to reiterate that there is no bigger concern for city police right now than gang-related shootings. Detectives have been moved from other investigative units to the guns and gangs section for an indeterminate period, but that leaves many wondering what will happen to the sections and jobs they’re leaving behind with their own important workloads.</div>
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The union contends that although the population of Ottawa has grown, that growth hasn’t been reflected by an expansion of the service. Instead, a five-year hiring freeze is expected to extend into the new year after Chief Charles Bordeleau said the force would scrap plans to hire 15 new officers and eight civilians in order to “absorb growth” so that the force can produce a budget that comes in under Mayor Jim Watson’s proposed cap of a two-per-cent tax increase.</div>
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The service is attempting to balance a limited increase against a retroactive 2.5-per-cent pay increase awarded to rank-and-file officers in both 2013 and 2014. Bargaining for a 2015 contract has yet to begin.</div>
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<div style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 1.286em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1.52em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet, after a year of record-high shootings – 49 shootings across 52 weeks – multiple councillors have said they would be willing to </span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">entertain additional police funding.</span></div>
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Coun. Diane Deans has urged Bordeleau to meet with city council and make a case for what resources the police service needs.</div>
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Coun. Rick Chiarelli has also gone on record saying that council will weigh additional funding if Bordeleau can prove it’s necessary.</div>
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Earlier this week, concerned about the spate of shootings and what it might be a symptom of internally, Skof approached city councillors asking each to either meet with him privately or together as a group to give them the association’s perspective on the problems plaguing the service and what Skof called a “political squeeze” on the police budget.</div>
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“From my perspective, we do need to have growth.”</div>
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<i>[Coincidence that 2015 Bargaining is about to start?? This is LAUGHABLE!! Yes, the Ottawa Police may be to blame- but not due to understaffing. Their approach has helped to create violence, and taunting shooters by saying that "they have bad aim" is probably not the best idea. Job, REAL JOBS, are the solution. Not Mc-Jobs]</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-41961847825388152792014-12-30T12:19:00.001-05:002014-12-30T12:19:46.774-05:00Police to add detectives to gangs unit after day of two shootings<p dir="ltr"><b>Police to add detectives to gangs unit after day of two shootings</b><br>
Shaamini Yogaretnam More from Shaamini Yogaretnam	</p>
<p dir="ltr">Published on: December 29, 2014Last Updated: December 29, 2014 10:24 PM EST	</p>
<p dir="ltr">(Police tow away a Nissan Altima with bullet holes in the drivers' door after a shooting on Bloomsbury Crescent on Monday.)</p>
<p dir="ltr">Just hours after Ottawa police decided Monday to beef up the investigative arm of its anti-gang unit to deal with a record number of shootings, officers responded to the city’s second report of gunfire in less than 24 hours.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Patrol officers were on scene near Bloomsbury Crescent and Regency Terrace, in the Woodroffe Avenue-Baseline Road area, late Monday afternoon after a man was hit twice in a volley of shots fired in a drive-by shooting.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And just as a Monday morning shooting victim had, the latest victim took a taxi to hospital, leaving police to search the area around a white sedan with a bullet-riddled driver’s side door that had crashed into a garbage bin.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The shooting — the city’s 48th of the year — punctuated a day of meetings prompted by mainly gang-related and targeted shootings that have spiked in recent weeks. Days before year’s end, police were swamped with open investigations, unco-operative victims, and searches for suspects who seem to have little reluctance to resort to gunfire.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The force previously added officers to its Direct Action Response Team (DART), which works to suppress gang activity through surveillance and monitoring. Officers from the drug unit and a surveillance team were on loan after the city hit 45 shootings in mid-December.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PbeEQY1e9U0/VKLesKmrZ5I/AAAAAAAAALc/LLtN8aqP0uU/s1600/police-tow-away-a-nissan-altima-with-bullet-holes-in-the-dri.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-PbeEQY1e9U0/VKLesKmrZ5I/AAAAAAAAALc/LLtN8aqP0uU/s640/police-tow-away-a-nissan-altima-with-bullet-holes-in-the-dri.jpg"> </a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-27871122575759900472014-12-30T11:54:00.001-05:002014-12-30T11:54:51.230-05:00Chair of Police Services Board to meet with Police Chief about resources to combat gang violence<p dir="ltr"><b>Chair of Police Services Board to meet with Police Chief about resources to combat gang violence</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Posted on 12/29/2014 11:17:00 AM by Sarah Anderson</p>
<p dir="ltr">The head of the Ottawa Police Services Board is meeting with the Chief of Police this week to discuss resources and whether or not the service can fight ongoing gang violence without expanding its membership.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Originally the Ottawa Police Service was supposed to grow by 23 members in 2015 but because of budget constraints that is no longer the case.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Chief Charles Bordeleau has told CFRA News he can manage the ongoing issues by redistributing officers to where they're needed most but Councillor Eli El-Chantiry wants to know if, in fact, that will be enough.</p>
<p dir="ltr">El-Chantiry said on Mark Sutcliffe's Chatroom that when we're talking about fighting the city's established gangs and drug trade, enforcement is only one side of the issue.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"None of the gang members are testifying in court against others so that is a challenge. So, what we need is, we need our community to help us," said El-Chantiry.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"I'm sure those gang members have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, someone who knows about their activities and they can help us if they share that information with the police. That's where we need the community involvement."</p>
<p dir="ltr">El-Chantiry said more also needs to be done to get illegal handguns off the streets and to eliminate the market for the drugs that are being sold and traded by the city's gangs, fuelling their activity.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i><b>[Hey El-Chantiry, would YOU turn in your son or daughter if they were involved in illegal activities? Would you rather see your child in jail from your own testimony than in your home where you can talk to him/her, try to help him/her, and above all show love?! Nobody will rat on their own kid; nor should they. Ps, cops are being pulled from other duties to now work in this gang task force in Ottawa... INCREASED POLICING IS NOT THE ANSWER!! GANGS ARE A RESULT OF STRUCTURAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES- NOT A RESULT OF LACK OF CAMERAS OR POLICING! THIS CITY IS ABOUT TO BECOME THE WILD WEST! PLEASE RECORD!!!! CHARTER RIGHTS STILL APPLY, REGARDLESS OF THE SUSPICIONS THEY HAVE OR PROFILING THEY DO!!]</b></i></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-28877224211831104202014-12-30T11:42:00.001-05:002014-12-30T11:42:49.785-05:00Greenspan & Doob: Stephen Harper’s scary crime bluster<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Greenspan & Doob: Stephen Harper’s scary crime bluster</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Edward L. Greenspan and Anthony N. Doob, National Post | December 30, 2014 | Last Updated: Dec 30 7:18 AM ET</p>
<p dir="ltr">Crime and punishment issues are far too serious to allow the national debate to be dominated by dishonest platforms and slogans.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Editor’s note: Last Thursday, legendary Canadian defence attorney Edward “Eddie” Greenspan passed away. Hours before his death, he submitted an article to the National Post. With the permission of his co-author, Anthony Doob, we are honoured to run that article below.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“All convicted criminals belong behind bars.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">We know of no person knowledgeable about criminal justice in any democratic society who has ever proposed imprisonment for all convicted offenders. But earlier this month, Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Steven Blaney, who oversees our penitentiaries, bluntly told Parliament that “Our Conservative government believes that convicted criminals belong behind bars.” No qualifications, no exceptions.</p>
<p dir="ltr">An opposition MP understandably replied, “Mr. Speaker, that is scary to hear.” Scary? It’s more than scary. It is hard to imagine such a statement being made by someone who supposedly has knowledge about crime and the criminal justice system.</p>
<p dir="ltr">VANCOUVER — Canada is a much safer place than 20 years ago but policing, legal, judicial and correctional costs have gone through the roof, according to a new report from the Fraser Institute.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The crime rate fell 27% in the past decade, with the number of crimes, their severity and the pain and suffering they caused all decreasing. But justice costs rose by 35%, according to the report from the public policy think-tank.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Written by Stephen Easton, Hilary Furness and Paul Brantingham, The Cost of Crime in Canada report revealed that policing expenses, the biggest single driver — $388 per capita in 2012 — rose 44%, corrections expenses were up by 33% and court expenses jumped 21%.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Continue reading…</p>
<p dir="ltr">Consider this example: If we take the Public Safety Minister at his word, his government believes that all those guilty of driving with blood alcohol levels even slightly above the legal limit, not speeding and not involving an accident, belong behind bars: Go directly to jail, no need to consider anything else. Currently, only 8% of all offenders — and fewer than 2% of all young women — are imprisoned for this offence. Do the Tories propose locking up the 92% who are dealt with through other means?</p>
<p dir="ltr">Correctional Service Canada has recently been criticized by almost everyone outside of the Conservative party for its decision not to alter its policies on the use of solitary confinement for the mentally ill in Canada’s penitentiaries. It refuses to attempt to address the problems — including suicides — that solitary confinement and overcrowding create. Imprisoning all convicted criminals will exacerbate the very problems in our penitentiaries for which Corrections has been criticized by various groups, including, as reported in this newspaper, the Canadian Medical Association.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Unfortunately, the Public Safety Minister was not speaking off the cuff when he made his remarks. They are a faithful reflection of what the federal Tories believe. Earlier this fall, Prime Minister Stephen Harper took credit for reducing Canada’s crime rate, saying, “We said ‘Do the crime, do the time.’ We have said that through numerous pieces of legislation. We are enforcing that. And on our watch the crime rate is finally moving in the right direction; the crime rate is finally moving down in this country.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">We plotted Statistics Canada data on the overall crime and the homicide rates since the early 1960s. Total crime peaked in the early 1990s when Brian Mulroney was prime minister and declined thereafter. It would be more logical, though wrong, to give the credit for our falling crime rate to prime ministers Kim Campbell and Jean Chrétien. Homicide specifically peaked in 1977. Attributing the drop in Canada’s homicide rate thereafter to the 1977 abolition of capital punishment would fit the data better than Mr. Harper’s explanation, though it, too, would be wrong.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr. Harper became prime minister in 2006. For Mr. Harper to say that on his watch “crime is finally moving in the right direction” is either blatantly dishonest or breathtakingly ignorant. With the attention that his government has given to punishment, we suspect he is not ignorant. As former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly bluntly remarked “Taking credit for a decline in crime is like taking credit for an eclipse.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Imprisonment is certainly appropriate for some offenders. But it is worth examining two arguments that are often made for imprisoning offenders who could be punished in the community. Some believe that crime will be deterred if punishment severity were increased. Scores of studies demonstrate this to be false. This is inconvenient for Mr. Harper since many of his 86 so-called “crime” bills (33 of which have become law) are based on the theory that harsh sentences deter. Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, understood deterrence better than does Mr. Harper. Macdonald noted that “Certainty of punishment … is of more consequence in the prevention of crime than the severity of the sentence.” Mr. Harper, who could benefit from empirical evidence, chooses instead to ignore it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some believe that offenders learn from imprisonment that “crime does not pay.” This, too, is wrong. Published research — some of it Canadian and produced by the federal government — demonstrates that imprisonment, if anything, increases the likelihood of reoffending. For example, a recent study of 10,000 Florida inmates released from prison demonstrated that they were more likely subsequently to reoffend (47% reoffended in 3 years) than an almost perfectly equivalent group of offenders who were lucky enough to be sentenced to probation (37% reoffended).</p>
<p dir="ltr">Crime and punishment issues are far too complex and far too serious to allow the national debate to be dominated by dishonest platforms and slogans. False promises are often convincing. Whether those offering them are dishonest or ignorant matters little: Conservative crime policies will not make Canadians safer.</p>
<p dir="ltr">National Post</p>
<p dir="ltr">The late Edward Greenspan was a Toronto criminal lawyer. Anthony Doob is professor emeritus of criminology at the University of Toronto.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-30398571528347783332014-12-29T10:50:00.001-05:002014-12-29T10:54:31.270-05:00‘She was right there when they shot him': Surrey Safeway worker ‘a mess’ after fleeing knife-wielding man<p dir="ltr">‘She was right there when they shot him': Surrey Safeway worker ‘a mess’ after fleeing knife-wielding man</p>
<p dir="ltr">Nick Eagland, Postmedia News<br>
Monday, Dec. 29, 2014</p>
<p dir="ltr">A pair of baking racks was all that stood between a bakery employee and a distraught man who was following her with a knife Sunday morning at a Surrey supermarket.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Then Metro Vancouver Transit Police arrived and told the man to drop the knife. When he moved toward the officers instead, they shot him. He died later in hospital.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to authorities and the woman’s firsthand account as retold by her boyfriend, the man had been stabbing himself when police arrived at the Whalley Safeway.</p>
<p dir="ltr">She saw a guy that looked like he had no shirt on and he had stabbed himself repeatedly. He took the knife off one of their shelves, I guess</p>
<p dir="ltr">Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan said Surrey RCMP received a call at 8:03 a.m. that a man had gone behind a counter at a convenience store near Surrey Central SkyTrain station and repeatedly demanded that an employee give him a knife.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mounties alerted Transit Police, who were 300 metres away, but by the time they arrived the man had left the scene.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The two Transit Police officers then monitored Surrey RCMP radio channels and heard a call that there was a man with a knife in a nearby Safeway.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>They arrived moments later to find a man repeatedly stabbing himself</b>, Drennan said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“They started to talk to him, and issued commands and directions to drop the knife, drop the knife repeatedly,” Drennan said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">They started to talk to him, and issued commands and directions to drop the knife, drop the knife repeatedly</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Rather than follow their directions, he advanced on the members with the knife and shots were fired.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Drennan said an officer shot the man and he was rushed to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, where he died.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Blake Simning told The Province that his girlfriend, an employee at the Safeway location for 29 years, was working in the bakery Sunday morning and called 911 when she heard a commotion in the store.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Simning’s girlfriend, whose name he didn’t offer, was being kept inside the store while investigators interviewed witnesses, but she was able to phone and text him to share what she had seen.</p>
<p dir="ltr">She told Simning the store had just opened, so few customers were inside at the time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">She walked through the store to look down a few aisles and find out what was happening, Simning said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“She saw a guy that looked like he had no shirt on and he had stabbed himself repeatedly. He took the knife off one of their shelves, I guess.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“He spotted her and started following her down the aisle. She ran into the bakery and took two really big, tall bakery racks to block off the entrance, and at that point police had shown up and fired two shots.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>She’s crying and she’s upset because she was right there when they shot him, she was trying to hide behind something</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>One shot hit a freezer or cooler and another struck the man with the knife, Simning said.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Simning said his girlfriend “was a mess” following the incident.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“She’s crying and she’s upset because she was right there when they shot him, she was trying to hide behind something,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO), charged with investigating officer-involved incidents involving serious injury or death, was dispatched to the scene.</p>
<p dir="ltr">IIO spokeswoman Kellie Kilpatrick said the office was notified of the incident at or near a Safeway grocery store at 104th Avenue and King George Boulevard in Surrey just after 8 a.m. Sunday.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Kilpatrick said the IIO received unconfirmed reports that the man was “self-inflicting” prior to his contact with police.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Surrey RCMP secured the area until the IIO arrived. The IIO spent Sunday gathering video surveillance footage and canvassing and interviewing witnesses.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Representatives from Safeway declined to comment Sunday morning, but Kilpatrick said store employees quickly implemented emergency protocols during the incident.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Drennan said both officers involved in the shooting Sunday were experienced members of the force.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Transit Police officers receive the same training and certifications as members of other police agencies in B.C. and are specifically trained to de-escalate situations where mental health may be a concern, she said.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>[☆i I thought the story wad that this guy took off out of the store and was murdered by transit cops at another location?! I'm sure the IIO will agree with whatever statements make the best case for the murdering transit cop. As a social worker, I deal with members of the public with mental health issues, daily... I've never shot anyone. Just sayin...☆]</i><br>
</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-42732864639469115412014-12-29T10:41:00.001-05:002014-12-29T10:41:35.721-05:00Man dies after being shot by transit cops (after stabbing himself in the store)<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Man dies after being shot by transit cops</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">QMI Agency</p>
<p dir="ltr">First posted: Sunday, December 28, 2014 05:15 PM EST | Updated: Sunday, December 28, 2014 05:20 PM EST</p>
<p dir="ltr">A man who had been stabbing himself inside a Surrey, B.C., grocery store was shot by local transit police early Sunday and later died.</p>
<p dir="ltr">News1130 reports that at 8 a.m. a "distraught" man was stabbing himself at the Safeway store near King George Highway and 104th Avenue.</p>
<p dir="ltr">He left the store and was later located by transit police and at least one shot was fired.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Transit police were first to arrive at the scene because the Surrey Central SkyTrain station is nearby.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>[☆safe to say that this man had mental health issues? Afterall, he was apparently stabbing himself. I guess cops were called to speed his death along, not to prevent it? Transit cops must be mental health specialists in B.C. STOP BRINGING GUNS TO KNIFE FIGHTS, OFFICERS. If the next report released says this man pulled his knife on the transit cop, and the transit cop felt threatened by a stabbed up man, likely in pain and possibly weakened by blood loss, so he murdered him, I will not be surprised. ☆]</i></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-31652475869902694412014-12-23T15:58:00.001-05:002014-12-23T15:58:55.892-05:00Off-duty black cops say they get racially profiled by NYPD <p dir="ltr"><b><i>Off-duty black cops say they get racially profiled by NYPD</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Michelle Conlin, Reuters</p>
<p dir="ltr">First posted: Tuesday, December 23, 2014 12:23 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, December 23, 2014 12:42 PM EST<br></p>
<p dir="ltr">NEW YORK- From the dingy doughnut shops of Manhattan to the cloistered police watering holes in Brooklyn, a number of black NYPD officers say they have experienced the same racial profiling that cost Eric Garner his life.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Garner, a 43-year-old black man suspected of illegally peddling loose cigarettes, died in July after a white officer put him in a chokehold. His death, and that of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked a slew of nationwide protests against police tactics. On Saturday, those tensions escalated after a black gunman, who wrote of avenging the black deaths on social media, shot dead two New York policemen.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The protests and the ambush of the uniformed officers pose a major challenge for New York Mayor Bill De Blasio. The mayor must try to ease damaged relations with a police force that feels he hasn't fully supported them, while at the same time bridging a chasm with communities who say the police unfairly target them.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What's emerging now is that, within the thin blue line of the NYPD, there is another divide - between black and white officers.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling, which refers to using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The officers said this included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Desmond Blaize, who retired two years ago as a sergeant in the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, said he once got stopped while taking a jog through Brooklyn's upmarket Prospect Park. "I had my ID on me so it didn't escalate," said Blaize, who has sued the department alleging he was racially harassed on the job. "But what's suspicious about a jogger? In jogging clothes?"</p>
<p dir="ltr">The NYPD and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the police officers' union, declined requests for comment. However, defenders of the NYPD credit its policing methods with transforming New York from the former murder capital of the world into the safest big city in the United States.</p>
<p dir="ltr">EX-POLICE CHIEF SKEPTICAL</p>
<p dir="ltr">"It makes good headlines to say this is occurring, but I don't think you can validate it until you look into the circumstances they were stopped in," said Bernard Parks, the former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, who is African American.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Now if you want to get into the essence of why certain groups are stopped more than others, then you only need to go to the crime reports and see which ethnic groups are listed more as suspects. That's the crime data the officers are living with."</p>
<p dir="ltr">Blacks made up 73% of the shooting perpetrators in New York in 2011 and were 23% of the population.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A number of academics believe those statistics are potentially skewed because police over-focus on black communities, while ignoring crime in other areas. They also note that being stopped as a suspect does not automatically equate to criminality. Nearly 90% of blacks stopped by the NYPD, for example, are found not to be engaged in any crime.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The black officers interviewed said they had been racially profiled by white officers exclusively, and about one third said they made some form of complaint to a supervisor.</p>
<p dir="ltr">All but one said their supervisors either dismissed the complaints or retaliated against them by denying them overtime, choice assignments, or promotions. The remaining officers who made no complaints said they refrained from doing so either because they feared retribution or because they saw racial profiling as part of the system.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In declining to comment to Reuters, the NYPD did not respond to a specific request for data showing the racial breakdown of officers who made complaints and how such cases were handled.</p>
<p dir="ltr">White officers were not the only ones accused of wrongdoing. Civilian complaints against police officers are in direct proportion to their demographic makeup on the force, according to the NYPD's Civilian Complaint Review Board.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Indeed, some of the officers Reuters interviewed acknowledged that they themselves had been defendants in lawsuits, with allegations ranging from making a false arrest to use of excessive force. Such claims against police are not uncommon in New York, say veterans.</p>
<p dir="ltr">STUDIES FIND INHERENT BIAS</p>
<p dir="ltr">Still, social psychologists from Stanford and Yale universities and John Jay College of Criminal Justice have conducted research - including the 2004 study "Seeing Black: Race, Crime and Visual Processing" - showing there is an implicit racial bias in the American psyche that correlates black maleness with crime.</p>
<p dir="ltr">John Jay professor Delores Jones-Brown cited a 2010 New York State Task Force report on police-on-police shootings - the first such inquiry of its kind - that found that in the previous 15 years, officers of colour had suffered the highest fatalities in encounters with police officers who mistook them for criminals.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There's evidence that aggressive policing in the NYPD is intensifying, according to data from the New York City Comptroller.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Police misconduct claims - including lawsuits against police for using the kind of excessive force that killed Garner - have risen 214 percent since 2000, while the amount the city paid out has risen 75 percent in the same period, to $64.4 million in fiscal year 2012, the last year for which data is available.</p>
<p dir="ltr">REPORTING ABUSE</p>
<p dir="ltr">People who have taken part in the marches against Garner's death - and that of Ferguson teenager Michael Brown - say they are protesting against the indignity of being stopped by police for little or no reason as much as for the deaths themselves.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"There's no real outlet to report the abuse," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain who said he was stigmatized and retaliated against throughout his 22-year career for speaking out against racial profiling and police brutality.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Officers make complaints to the NYPD's investigative arm, the Internal Affairs Bureau, only to later have their identities leaked, said Adams.</p>
<p dir="ltr">One of the better-known cases of alleged racial profiling of a black policeman concerns Harold Thomas, a decorated detective who retired this year after 30 years of service, including in New York's elite Joint Terrorism Task Force.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Shortly before 1 a.m. one night in August 2012, Thomas was leaving a birthday party at a trendy New York nightclub.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Wearing flashy jewelry, green sweatpants and a white t-shirt, Thomas walked toward his brand-new white Escalade when two white police officers approached him. What happened next is in dispute, but an altercation ensued, culminating in Thomas getting his head smashed against the hood of his car and then spun to the ground and put in handcuffs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"If I was white, it wouldn't have happened," said Thomas, who has filed a lawsuit against the city over the incident. The New York City Corporation Counsel said it could not comment on pending litigation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At an ale house in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last week, a group of black police officers from across the city gathered for the beer and chicken wing special. They discussed how the officers involved in the Garner incident could have tried harder to talk down an upset Garner, or sprayed mace in his face, or forced him to the ground without using a chokehold. They all agreed his death was avoidable.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Said one officer from the 106th Precinct in Queens, "That could have been any one of us."</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-68393827298903565412014-12-23T15:52:00.001-05:002014-12-23T15:52:52.480-05:00Sask. RCMP constable faces child pornography charges<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Sask. RCMP constable faces child pornography charges</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">QMI AGENCY</p>
<p dir="ltr">First posted: Tuesday, December 23, 2014 11:50 AM </p>
<p dir="ltr">An RCMP constable in Saskatchewan has been charged with several counts of accessing and possessing child pornography.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Saskatchewan RCMP say the 31-year-old was arrested on Monday, but had been suspended with pay since Oct. 17 after an investigation was launched and numerous computer devices were seized.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Aiden Arthur Pratchett had been with the RCMP since April 2010 and was stationed in Fond du Lac, Sask.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Pratchett has been charged with four counts of accessing child pornography and four counts of possessing child pornography.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Allegations like these are disturbing when made against a member of the general public. We find it extremely disturbing that a serving police officer is facing charges like this," Supt. Alfredo Bangloy said in a press release.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Pratchett has been released from custody and is scheduled to appear in a Prince Albert, Sask., court Jan. 28.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-2852944722120935412014-12-22T14:03:00.001-05:002014-12-22T14:03:25.863-05:00Is a growing anti-police sentiment putting Canadian officers in jeopardy?<p dir="ltr"><b>Is a growing anti-police sentiment putting Canadian officers in jeopardy?</b><br>
By Matthew Coutts | Daily Brew – 34 minutes ago</p>
<p dir="ltr">Late last week, B.C.’s Delta Police Department scrapped an online promotional campaign for a bracelet supporting an officer currently facing murder charges.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to the Vancouver Sun, the campaign was scrubbed because of complaints that the sale showed a bias toward the accused police officer.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What followed was an argument about how far local police could go in showing support for one of their own, as he works his way through court for the 2012 shooting of a suspect in a five-hour police standoff.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It was a small incident, which received little attention outside of the community. But it speaks to a larger issue playing out across North America.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There is a heightened level of concern about how police officers are perceived at the moment.</p>
<p dir="ltr">After several high-profile deaths at the hands of U.S. police in recent months, followed by the fatal shootings of two on-duty New York Police Officers, authorities are turning on one another, claiming that a bias against police is clouding public sentiment.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In a column published in the Toronto Sun, Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack said the anti-police rhetoric that runs rampant in North America played a role in the deaths of two New York police officers last week, and continues to threaten lives and public peace.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"It is unthinkable that these officers were murdered simply for doing their jobs. Yet we know that on Christmas Day, NYPD officers – deep in mourning – will wake up, put on their uniforms and go to work," McCormack wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">He further opines:</p>
<p dir="ltr"> Officers around the world face increasingly widespread criticism, rush to judgement and trial-by-media, as anti-police rhetoric reaches a fever pitch. We are now seeing that the impact of anti-police sentiment – statements such as “police officers are the enemy” – taken to an extreme, can destabilize communities, cities and even entire nations.</p>
<p dir="ltr">McCormack’s comments don’t come out of the clear blue sky. He was notably critical when Alok Mukherjee, chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, posted an image on Facebook comparing the number of American deaths caused by Ebola, terrorists and police agencies.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mukherjee said sharing the image was not an endorsement and was simply intended to prompt conversation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">McCormack accused him of fostering anti-police sentiment and called for his resignation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Notably, the police union president seemed to make vague allusions to that conflict in his editorial, stating that “there are consequences when individuals, groups and politicians post irresponsible anti-police rhetoric, for the sole purpose of inflaming an already volatile situation.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">He said those messages, spread through media, “most certainly played a role in the senseless deaths of these two officers.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">McCormack’s claim that this public wave of anti-police rhetoric was behind the deaths of those police officers doesn’t stand alone.</p>
<p dir="ltr">New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told ABC News that Mayor Bill de Blasio ran an anti-police election campaign last year. Former New York Gov. George Pataki tweeted that the mayor and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. used “divisive anti-cop rhetoric" that helped inspire the shooter.</p>
<p dir="ltr">President Barack Obama has been criticized, and others have pointed at the media’s coverage of protests following incidents like those involving Michael Brown and Eric Garner.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Howard Safer, the former commissioner of the NYPD, wrote in a column for Time that the national dialogue on policing has been distorted. Brown and Garner died while resisting arrest, he notes. Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu died while doing their jobs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"There are 18,000 police departments in the United States. They interact millions of times with the public, and make hundreds of thousands of arrests," he wrote.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Very few result in a suspect’s death or injury. We do not have police forces out of control as the media and the [Al] Sharptons of the world would have us believe."</p>
<p dir="ltr">In America, it is sadly not entirely clear how many people are killed by police. There are debates about how and where police statistics are compiled, leaving the subject matter inconclusive.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i><b>Fivethirtyeight.com, an analytics news site, notes that the U.S. government doesn’t track how many people are killed by police. (The FBI does track “justifiable” police homicides and pegs the number at about 400 per year.)</b></i></p>
<p dir="ltr"><i><b>The site went on to break down independently-gathered statistics to suggest that police have killed about 1,250 people in the “line of duty” since May 1, 2013. The site notes that the figure is not directly comparable to the FBI’s own “justifiable homicide” tally.</b></i></p>
<p dir="ltr">The Wall Street Journal compiled its own statistics for the years between 2007 and 2012, and also found that the <b><i>FBI numbers were low.</i></b> It suggested the bureau’s numbers were lower than those compiled from the 110 largest police agencies in the country.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Beyond debate, however, is that interactions between the public and police are more closely watched than ever before.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Scores of websites and Facebook groups monitor and compile reports of police incidents.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Cato Institute compiles daily accounts of reported police misconduct. Gawker has a list of every unarmed person of colour killed by police since 1999.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So, yes. The public is watching police more closely. In today’s society, everyone is watching everything more closely.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The issue resonates in America most of all, but the same debate is ongoing in Canada.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Last year’s death of Sammy Yatim still stands out, as do several other fatal incidents.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In Yatim’s case, the public nature of his death – while standing alone on a streetcar surrounded by police – prompted public debate. Several videos of the incident were released publicly, prompting massive protest in the streets of Toronto. An officer faces charges in the shooting, and the debate continues despite the eventual court decision.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Is it right to blame every police officer of wrongdoing? Of course not, and no right-minded person does. But <b><i>it is also not reasonable to expect the public from expressing outrage when they have grown outraged at specific incidents, nor is it reasonable to expect media to ignore that outrage.</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Anti-police rhetoric isn’t helpful, neither is pro-police propaganda. What is needed is a rational conversation and reasonable steps to improve the relationship between the police and public.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And the understanding that that conversation will inevitably happen in the public spotlight.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>☆[it is not our perception that's changed, it's that we are all now well informed citizens of the world with access to technology. Police abuse and murders perpetrated by police are being filmed. Video evidence is generally considered indisputable proof of wrongdoing when civilians are on trial, yet these dirty, murderous, rights violating assholes with guns, vests, and badges are repeatedly caught on camera: breaking the law, terrorizing, murdering, beating, sexually assaulting, and abusing people yet THEY ARE NOT PROSECUTED, NOT CHARGED, THEY KEEP THEIR JOBS AND THEIR CRIMES GO UNPUNISHED. THE SCALES OF JUSTICE HAVE BEEN UNFAIRLY TILTED IN FAVOUR OF THE POLICE FOR TOO LONG. JUSTICE IS FOR EVERYONE; IF SOCIETY HAS LAWS THEY APPLY TO EVERYONE... so until there is justice, there will likely be no peace. </i><br>
<i>This article cites the fact that officers come into contact with many people daily. True. During those 'contacts' with the public , how many officers were shot at or killed by a member of the public? Now how many civilians were murdered or shot at during these 'contacts'? This can no longer be a one sided story- the truth can be found, can be seen with our own eyes. Try honesty, transparency and accountability as places to start.]☆</i></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-88493750646675947812014-12-21T20:02:00.001-05:002014-12-21T20:02:43.408-05:00Rapper Game sends message to NYPD: "I guess y'all can't breathe either"<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/rapper-game-sends-message-nypd-i-guess-yall-cant-breathe-either/">http://thefreethoughtproject.com/rapper-game-sends-message-nypd-i-guess-yall-cant-breathe-either/</a></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7MZzJUvPYmI/VJdticWKGRI/AAAAAAAAALM/_sf1TL8ldCI/s1600/Screenshot_2014-12-21-19-54-20%25257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7MZzJUvPYmI/VJdticWKGRI/AAAAAAAAALM/_sf1TL8ldCI/s640/Screenshot_2014-12-21-19-54-20%25257E2.jpg"> </a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-25259463225270008372014-12-21T12:33:00.001-05:002014-12-21T12:33:50.158-05:00B.C. police force defends wristband campaign to support officer charged in shooting death<p dir="ltr"><b>B.C. police force defends wristband campaign to support officer charged in shooting death</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">SAMMY HUDES</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Globe and Mail<br>
Published Saturday, Dec. 20 2014, 4:03 PM </p>
<p dir="ltr">A B.C. police force is defending its promotion of a bracelet campaign in support of one of its own officers currently facing charges of second-degree murder.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The campaign was started by the Delta Police Association, with members encouraged to wear blue wristbands supporting Delta Police Constable Jordan MacWilliams, who was charged with second-degree murder in October in connection to a 2012 shooting.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Const. MacWilliams was one of the officers who responded to a report of shots fired in parking lot near a New Westminster casino on Nov. 8, 2012. The response team encountered 48-year-old Mehrdad Bayrami, who was reportedly armed. After police tried to negotiate with the man, an officer-involved shooting occurred. Mr. Bayrami was wounded and died in hospital on Nov. 18.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The rubber wristbands are meant as “a show of support, not protest,” said Delta Police Staff Sergeant Ryan Hall in an email. They are blue with the words, “honour,” “integrity,” “courage” and “trust” written in white letters, along with Const. MacWilliams’ badge number, 2573.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We ask that the public recognize that Const. MacWilliams was on duty, responded to a significant incident and was in the execution of his duties when this incident occurred,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Staff Sgt. Hall serves as president of the police association, which he says was “looking for a tangible, professional and silent way” to show solidarity with their colleague, who appeared in court on Thursday. The wristbands were initially created for officers only, but after requests from members of the public, the police association began selling them, he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">More than 2,500 bracelets have been sold for $2 each, which covers the costs of production only.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Delta Police Department itself has been promoting the campaign on its website and through its official social media accounts. In one Facebook post, it advertised that bracelets could be picked up in person at the department headquarters. It also lists a private email address on its website through which the public can place orders.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sarah Swallow, a spokesperson for the police department, said the website was used as a “stop-gap” to deal with the high volume of inquiries from the public requesting to purchase the wristband before they had even been publicized, since the police association did not have its own website.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We pride ourselves in being a transparent organization, and we understand and recognize the concerns brought up about the appearance of our impartiality given that the wristbands were publicized on our Police Department social media,” she said in an email. “As soon as these concerns were raised, the Delta Police Association immediately created a separate email address for the wristbands that is not affiliated to the Delta Police Department.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>But Micheal Vonn, policy director for the BC Civil Liberties Association, said the police department’s use of public resources negates its appearance of impartiality and undermines the public trust.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>“The police are supposed to be policing. The crown is tasked with deciding whether there is enough evidence to support charges and whether it’s in the public interest to bring those charges,” said Ms. Vonn. “At that point, police, especially police that might be called in as witnesses and otherwise, must be neutral.”</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Douglas King, a lawyer and police accountability campaigner for the Pivot Legal Society, agreed.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>“It’s absolutely brutal,” he said. “You kind of can’t have it both ways. If we’re going to have independent oversight of the police department, then the police departments have to be willing to accept the decisions that they make.”</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Ms. Vonn called the police force’s involvement “misguided” and inappropriate.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>“We’ve never encountered this question before,” said Ms. Vonn. “May the police use public resources of a public institute to make a public statement about what they think of the guilt or innocence of a person who’s been charged with a crime? Thirty seconds reflection on this should surely have shown the police that there is no way that the public could not understand this is as weighing in on the appropriateness of charges. That is simply outside the jurisdiction of police.”</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Staff Sgt. Hall said the police association appreciated concerns over its show of support, but that the campaign would continue.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>“We know the Judge has an onerous job ahead of them and respect that position. We also will not allow this to interfere with the court process or our ability to do our jobs impartially on a day to day basis,” he said. “At this time, we want to support our friend and coworker through this trial process, regardless of the outcome… We respect and will follow the trial process.”</b></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://static.theglobeandmail.ca/f9f/news/british-columbia/article22170681.ece/ALTERNATES/w220/s1600/1395243_763175143758389_6910711368531504544_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://static.theglobeandmail.ca/f9f/news/british-columbia/article22170681.ece/ALTERNATES/w220/s640/1395243_763175143758389_6910711368531504544_n.jpg"> </a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-23593356452435065262014-12-20T12:10:00.001-05:002014-12-20T12:10:25.509-05:00Quebec judge [MICHEL GIROUARD] accused of buying cocaine as a lawyer fails attempt to stop disciplinary hearing<h1 class="npStoryTitle" itemprop="headline" style="background-color: white; font-family: PostSerifLight, georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 40px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Quebec judge accused of buying cocaine as a lawyer fails attempt to stop disciplinary hearing</h1>
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<img alt="Quebec Superior Court Justice Michel Girouard, right, with his lawyer Gérald R. Tremblay. Judge Girouard sought to stop a judicial council investigation into allegations he purchased cocaine while he was a lawyer." class="attachment-single-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" height="465" src="http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/michel-girouard.jpg?w=620" style="border: none; margin: 0px; max-width: 620px !important; padding: 0px;" width="620" /><div class="npPhotoTxt npJsH" style="background-color: #333333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span class="npPhotoCredit" style="color: #cccccc; float: right; font-size: 9px !important; line-height: 12px; margin: 1px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px;">Graeme Hamilton/National Post/File</span><span class="npPhotoCaption" style="color: white; font-size: 11px !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Quebec Superior Court Justice Michel Girouard, right, with his lawyer Gérald R. Tremblay. Judge Girouard sought to stop a judicial council investigation into allegations he purchased cocaine while he was a lawyer.</span></div>
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MONTREAL — A Quebec judge alleged to have bought cocaine as a lawyer has failed to stop disciplinary proceedings against him and will face hearings next spring that could lead to his removal from the bench.</div>
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The Canadian Judicial Council — made up of 39 of the country’s senior judges and chaired by Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada — had suspended proceedings against Superior Court Justice Michel Girouard as he sought to have the process declared unconstitutional.</div>
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But after Federal Court Justice Luc Martineau this month dismissed Judge Girouard’s request for judicial review, a council spokeswoman said Friday that its inquiry would go ahead regardless of whether there is an appeal.</div>
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Short of a court ordering the inquiry committee to stop, public hearings will be held next spring, said Johanna Laporte, director of communications for the council.</div>
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“Experience has shown that delays caused by judges challenging the process in Federal Court is something that I don’t think Canadians are ready or willing to tolerate,” she said.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Allegations that Judge Girouard had purchased cocaine in the 1980s surfaced in 2012 in the midst of a major police operation in northwestern Quebec. After being informed of the allegations, the chief justice of Quebec Superior Court filed a complaint with the judicial council that year.</span></div>
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Last June, the council named an inquiry committee comprised of two judges and a lawyer to examine the allegations against Judge Girouard after concluding they were serious enough that they could warrant his removal from office.</div>
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Judge Girouard mounted a multi-pronged attack on the judicial council in his application for judicial review. He argued its procedures threaten “judicial independence enshrined in the Constitution” and said panels that decide whether a public inquiry should be held do not operate under any established rules of evidence. He also challenged the federal council’s authority because the alleged misconduct occurred while he was a lawyer, and disciplining the conduct of lawyers is a provincial jurisdiction.</div>
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The Attorney General of Canada countered that it would be premature for the Federal Court to short-circuit the process since the judge’s complaints could be raised with the inquiry committee.</div>
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In a ruling dated Dec. 5, Judge Martineau agreed that the questions raised by Judge Girouard are best addressed to the inquiry committee, preferably at the beginning of its study of the case.</div>
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Gérald R. Tremblay, one of Judge Girouard’s lawyers, said he is reviewing the Federal Court ruling and no decision has been made about an appeal.</div>
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The evidence against the judge is under seal, but his judicial review application provided some details. According to the court documents, an informant told police in 2012 that he had sold cocaine to Judge Girouard when he was a lawyer, until either 1989 or 1991. Judge Girouard denies the allegations and said the judicial council panel that recommended public hearings “systematically set aside” his version of events.</div>
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National Post</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-7067476538137654302014-12-20T12:05:00.002-05:002014-12-20T12:05:47.646-05:00Great tips for recording the police. The laws cited are american, but the tips are great!! Thanks, COPBLOCK!<div class="header row" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 14px; width: 984px; zoom: 1;">
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FILM THE POLICE</h1>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Why Film The Police?</strong></h2>
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Documenting the actions of police employees can help protect you and others because it creates an objective record. You have the right to record anything in public – including, and some would say, especially – police employees.</div>
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Though police employees are people just like you and me, courts have ruled that police can lie to you, and that they may not be held accountable for their actions per unfair legal doctrines and practice like “sovereign immunity” and “acting under color of law”.<a href="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/film-police.png" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;"><img alt="film-police" class="alignright size-full wp-image-13948" height="200" src="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/film-police.png" style="border: none; color: transparent; float: right; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;" width="333" /></a></div>
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Recording your interaction preserves the truth for anyone to see. The camera is the new gun. It is the great equalizer. Film the police!</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When Filming The Police</strong></h2>
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Have the proper mindset. Treat each police interaction as a hostage situation. By remaining calm, cool, and collected, it will help to defuse, rather than aggravate things, and thus increase the likelihood of a good result.</div>
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Know that anything can happen during police interactions. Consider possible scenarios and try to mentally prepare yourself in case you are confronted by a hostile police employee. Ultimately, how others perceive and react to your recording of the police interaction is contingent on the individuals involved. How often others in the region film the police also plays a factor – the more common is the practice, the more likely the police will react in a neutral or even positive manner.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">If The Police Engage</strong></h2>
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If you are approached by a police employee when filming, chances are you’ll be asked, “Why are you filming?”</div>
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You can choose to remain silent – that’s your right.</div>
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Know that the police employee may tell you’re “interfering” with the scene, and demand that you move away. Whether you choose to back up or not, panning down with your camera to show your feet, and the distance to the ongoing stop, can help put things in perspective. When doing that you may want to verbalize an estimate of the distance between yourself and the police officer to emphasize that you are not in fact interfering.</div>
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If you don’t feel comfortable and you want to be elsewhere, simply walk away. If you’re questioned further – your identity or identification may be solicited – ask, “Am I being detained?” If the police employee replies “No”, then you’re free to go. If the police employee responds “Yes”, then ask “What is your specific and articulable reasonable suspicion?”</div>
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Or you can also reply with some or all of the following:</div>
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Pursuant to numerous settled legal cases at the local, national, and Supreme Court level, I am recording police activity today to preserve an objective record of the truth. I don’t seek to take away from your ability to enforce the law, but rather am here to make an objective and permanent record of the situation. This is both for your benefit and mine</div>
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The police employee may respond, “Of course I do. Can I see some ID?”, to which you can ask, “Sir, what crime am I suspected of?” The police employee may note, “None. I just want to know who I’m talking to.” You can answer with, “As you well know Sir, I don’t have to provide ID unless I am a suspect in a crime. Am I being detained or am I free to continue documenting the truth?”</div>
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Handling an interaction in this way – responding to questions with open-ended questions, is a powerful way to disarm the police employee (though keep in mind that police employees can and do lie so the response given may be misdirection). Ending with “Am I being detained or am I free to continue documenting the truth?” gives them a choice – they can choose to knowingly violate your rights (on video) or they can choose to not interfere with your right to record.<a href="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/virginia-copblock-meg-mclain-nate-cox-no-victim-no-crime-jury-nullification.png" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;"><img alt="virginia-copblock-meg-mclain-nate-cox-no-victim-no-crime-jury-nullification" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-20816" height="200" src="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/virginia-copblock-meg-mclain-nate-cox-no-victim-no-crime-jury-nullification-300x200.png" style="border: none; color: transparent; float: right; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a></div>
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If you have a police interaction that others should be made aware of, share it via the form at <a href="http://copblock.org/submit" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">http://copblock.org/submit</a></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">No Victim, No Crime</strong></h2>
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A police employee may harass, issue ransoms to, and cage, you simply for not obeying. Even if you do nothing wrong, hostility from strangers who sees themselves as “authorities”, and who are treated by others as such, based simply on their attire, may result in physical force.</div>
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In such unfortunate and unnecessary situations, remember that the police employee is the aggressor, not you. It can be empowering to know that you did nothing deserving of such treatment, it can can be very empowering. Instead of apologizing, or taking a plea deal, or funding their outfit, you can choose to stand on your conscience and speak the truth.</div>
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Just as there is no way to codify every possible scenario of human interactions that are said to be “illegal,” so too is it impossible to unpack every potential conversation a police employee might have with you, the videographer. Trust your gut. You may want to watch videos posted by others to see how they handle situations to learn what most resonates with you. Many people and organizations that do a good job in interactions with police are included at <a href="http://copblock.org/allied" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">http://copblock.org/allied</a></div>
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If the situation gets really out of hand, and you’re in fear of death, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cElTyqJkMEw" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">you absolutely have the right to defend yourself</a>. However, if the unjust action isn’t putting your life or that of another in jeopardy, continue to stay as calm as possible, and vocalize what’s happening. Your narration will communicate powerful information to later viewers (whether they are internet users or jury members) as to who was the actual aggressor.</div>
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For more, see <a href="http://copblock.org/copblocking101" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">http://copblock.org/copblocking101</a></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Legislation related to Recording Video and Audio</strong></h2>
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Some people are under the misconception that it’s illegal to film the police in certain places. That is patently false. You have the right to video record anything in public in any geographical location.</div>
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Restrictions related to the recording of police employees (and others) are related to the capturing of audio. And police and prosecutors, in an effort to deter those they claim to serve and protect from documenting their actions, have been known to levy charges based on antiquated wiretapping legislation. So, do yourself a favor – don’t give the would-be censors any room to levy such accusations. If you’re in a two-party consent state or a place where the legislation isn’t too clear and you’re recording, inform the other parties present.</div>
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Some suggest that even if you’re in a one-party consent state that you inform the others present as it usually helps to change the dynamic of the situation for the better (as those being recorded both see your recording device and hear you vocalize that recording is happening, which can deter aggressive behavior).</div>
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<a href="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/recording-video-map-copblock.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;"><img alt="recording-video-map-copblock" class="size-full wp-image-40683 alignleft" height="320" src="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/recording-video-map-copblock.jpg" style="border: none; color: transparent; float: left; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" width="460" /></a><a href="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/recording-audio-map-copblock.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;"><img alt="recording-audio-map-copblock" class="size-large wp-image-40684 alignleft" height="320" src="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/recording-audio-map-copblock-1024x708.jpg" style="border: none; color: transparent; float: left; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" width="460" /></a></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">one-party consent states:</strong></strong>Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin,Wyoming</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">not clear, err on side of two-party consent states:</strong>Hawaii (a one-party state but requires two-party consent if the recording device is installed in a private location), Illinois (recent legaland cases are conflicting on status), Montana (pretty much a one-party consent state – requires notification only)</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">two-party consent states:</strong><br />California (calls made from a one-party state into California are subject to California’s more restrictive, two-party consent legislation), Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Washington</div>
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Source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#United_States" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#United_States</a></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Tech</strong></h2>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
See: <a href="http://copblock.org/cameras" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">http://copblock.org/cameras</a></div>
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Get a recording device and use it!</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
An audio recorder is good – they’re inexpensive and small, making them easy to always carry or to conceal. You may want to attach it to a lanyard and have it around your neck, or keep it in your breast pocket, so should you see some police activity, you can start recording.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
A video camera is better – whether an expensive consumer-pro high-definition camera or the video function on a point-and-click camera, capturing audio and video is huge. A solid hand-held videocamera can be gotten for around $200. Many decent options cost <a href="http://www.copblock.org/10423/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">less than $100</a>. Or you could even use the video recording feature on an old point-and-click camera.</div>
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<a href="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/remember-your-camera-know-your-rights-a-primer-copblock.png" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;"><img alt="remember-your-camera-know-your-rights-a-primer-copblock" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22662" height="300" src="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/remember-your-camera-know-your-rights-a-primer-copblock-300x300.png" style="border: none; color: transparent; float: right; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a>A streaming application is best – as it means the content you captured is stored offsite, away from the destruction of aggressors who want to censor their misdeeds. If you have a smartphone and you don’t yet have a free streaming application, download one:</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 17px;">
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;"><a href="http://bambuser.com/broadcasts" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">Bambuser</a> – for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bambuser.broadcaster&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5iYW1idXNlci5icm9hZGNhc3RlciJd" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">Android</a>, for <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/bambuser/id344600665?mt=8" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">iOS</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;"><a href="http://fivofilm.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">Fi-Vo Film</a> – for <a href="http://market.android.com/details?id=com.fivofilm" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">Android</a>, for <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fi-vo-film/id766255914?mt=8" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">iOS</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;"><a href="http://justin.tv/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">Justin.TV</a> – for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.justin.android&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInR2Lmp1c3Rpbi5hbmRyb2lkIl0." style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">Android</a>, for <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/justin.tv/id358612216?mt=8" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">iOS</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;"><a href="http://ustream.tv/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">UStream</a> – for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.ustream.ustream&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInR2LnVzdHJlYW0udXN0cmVhbSJd" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">Android</a>, for <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ustream/id301520250?mt=8" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">iOS</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">Vimeo</a> – for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vimeo.android.videoapp&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS52aW1lby5hbmRyb2lkLnZpZGVvYXBwIl0." style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">Android</a>, for <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vimeo/id425194759?mt=8" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;">iOS</a></li>
</ul>
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For more on these streaming apps, and for other smartphone apps, see: <a href="http://copblock.org/apps" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">http://copblock.org/apps</a>.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
Just like a videocamera, the livestreaming app will capture both audio and video. But unlike a videocamera, the smartphone app will – so long as you’re able to get an Internet signal – push the content offsite. (If you are in a location with no Internet access, many apps – such as Bambuser – will save the streaming data to your phone, for upload once the device has signal.)</div>
<h2 style="border: 0px; font-family: OswaldBook; font-size: 1.667em; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 15px 0px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 2px;">
<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tips</strong></h2>
<ul style="border: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 17px;">
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Become familiar with the functionality of your recording device. During a police encounter you may be under more stress, or in a low-light situation, or you may want to record covertly, so, as basic as it sounds, practice with its operation. This will give you peace of mind and help to ensure that you’re actually recording when you want to be recording.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Know the limits of your recording device. How long can you record for after a full-charge or new batteries? How much content can you fit on the internal memory or on your SD card? Note that the resolution size of the content captured will impact the length of recording possible.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">If your device records to an SD card, carry a spare. If you ever find yourself in a dicey situation, and want to safeguard the content you’ve captured, quickly eject the SD card with content and replace it with the extra SD card. The SD card with content can be hidden nearby for later retrieval, given to a friend who can</li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Carry multiple recording devices in case one fails, or is snatched-up. For more on this, see: <a href="http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2013/11/20/importance-carrying-multiple-recording-devices/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">The Importance of Carrying Multiple Recording Devices</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">It’s much safer to film the police when with one or more other people. Each additional recording device acts as an additional layer of safety, a link in a chain, as not all videographers or their devices can be snatched-up. For more on this, see: <a href="http://copblock.org/copblocking101" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">http://copblock.org/copblocking101</a></li>
</ul>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Recovering Deleted Footage</strong></h2>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
If a devious police employee deletes footage you captured, or if you yourself accidentally delete a needed recording, there’s a good chance it can be recovered – but be sure not to use the device to record again until you’ve extracted the deleted content successfully!</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
Essentially, deleting a file from your device merely removes it from the file directory, without which, the file won’t appear. When you run a software recovery program it will scrape all video content from the destination you indicate (the internal memory of the device or the SD card). The recovery program is not a laser – you can’t search for a specific file. Instead, it operates like a vacuum, sucking all content from the destination.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
<a href="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/protect-your-community-film-the-police-copblock.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;"><img alt="protect-your-community-film-the-police-copblock" class="alignright size-full wp-image-40690" height="342" src="http://www.copblock.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/protect-your-community-film-the-police-copblock.jpg" style="border: none; color: transparent; float: right; font-size: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;" width="274" /></a>There are many software recovery programs, some are listed below. Note that some of the free versions recover only up to 1GB. If you try one and it doesn’t return the deleted content you hope to recover, don’t be deterred, just try another. Have patience for this process, as, depending on your drive size, it could be time-consuming.</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 17px;">
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Data Rescue 3 – $100 – <a href="http://store.apple.com/us/product/TX415LL/A/prosoft-data-rescue-3" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for Mac</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Disk Warrior – $100 – <a href="http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for Mac</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Free Undelete – $0 – <a href="http://www.officerecovery.com/freeundelete/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for PC</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Glary Undelete – $0 – <a href="http://www.glarysoft.com/glary-undelete/" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for PC</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">iSky Soft Recover – $0 – <a href="http://www.iskysoft.us/lp/data-recovery-mac/both.html?gclid=CIqru7ySx7sCFclcMgodQAIAoQ" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for Mac & PC</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Photo Rec – $0 – <a href="http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for Mac & PC</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">Puran File Recovery – $0 – <a href="http://www.puransoftware.com/File-Recovery.html" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for PC</a></li>
<li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 8px;">TechTool Pro – $100 – <a href="https://micromat.com/products/techtool-pro" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.3s ease; border: 0px; color: #0060b6; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.3s ease;" target="_blank">for MAC</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 0px;">
<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Content related to video recovery</strong></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-77397601405302631412014-12-20T11:32:00.000-05:002014-12-20T11:35:57.978-05:00New courthouse security rules 'draconian,' say lawyers<br />
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New courthouse security rules 'draconian,' say lawyers</h1>
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<a class="author" href="http://ottawacitizen.com/author/cobbsee" itemprop="name" style="border: 0px; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: Shift-Bold, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline; width: 660px;"><img alt="" class="avatar avatar-33" src="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/30f6ba28e7138911cffc5c3bc453e467?s=33&d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D33&r=G" height="33" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 2px 10px 0px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" width="33" /><span class="name" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">CHRIS COBB</span><span class="author-more" style="border: 0px; color: #4c4c4c; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: underline; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline;">More from Chris Cobb</span></a></div>
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Published on: <time class="entry-date published pubdate" datetime="2014-12-08T15:35:21+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 8, 2014</time>Last Updated: <time class="updated" datetime="2014-12-08T15:35:21+00:00" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 8, 2014 3:35 PM EST</time></div>
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<time class="updated" datetime="2014-12-08T15:35:21+00:00" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><i>(VIDEO AVAILABLE BY FOLLOWING THE LINK)</i></b></time></div>
<time class="updated" datetime="2014-12-08T15:35:21+00:00" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #656565; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/new-courthouse-security-rules-draconian-say-lawyers-with-video">http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/new-courthouse-security-rules-draconian-say-lawyers-with-video</a></i></b></span></time></div>
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Proposed security measures at Ontario courthouses will stifle the public’s right to access court proceedings and close the door on a traditionally open system, say Ottawa defence lawyers.</div>
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Although the Ontario legislature has yet to approve changes to the provincial Police Services Act, some of the measures are already in place at the Ottawa courthouse.</div>
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Most notable and controversial is police questioning of everyone who walks through the court’s main entrance on Elgin Street.</div>
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Revisions to the Police Services Act are “fundamentally flawed,” said Trevor Brown, president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa.</div>
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“While there is always a need to make sure the courts are secure,” he said, “these are draconian measures, and are susceptible to arbitrary use and abuse.</div>
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“One should not be required to submit to an interrogation and a search as the price to be paid for accessing what are supposed to be public courts,” he added. “The courts are where we go for protection and enforcement of our most fundamental rights and freedoms. It’s not supposed to be the place we go to have them abused.”</div>
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The Ottawa courthouse has had three open access entrances since it opened in 1986, but when the $1-million-plus security reconstruction project is finished next spring, members of the public will have to line up at the Elgin Street entrance to be screened by security staff and pass through metal detectors.</div>
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The other two doors will become emergency exits.</div>
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Although tightened security has been talked about for several years, it was fast-tracked following the killing of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the nearby National War Memorial in October.</div>
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There has been a security desk deep inside the Elgin Street entrance, but staff manning that desk has traditionally been there to help visitors, not to question or monitor them.</div>
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“The starting point for a courthouse is that the justice system should be available for anyone to come and watch out of pure interest, ” said defence lawyer Howard Krongold.</div>
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“Having people questioned at the door has a chilling effect on the movement of people into a courthouse,’ he added. “People should feel they can see justice being done without feeling they are being watched themselves.”</div>
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Fellow defence lawyer Mark Ertel agreed.</div>
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“Courthouses are instruments of democracy and it’s a fundamental right of people to access them without being asked what their business is about the place,” he said. “It should be none of the police’s business why people are coming into the courthouse.”</div>
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The questioning of members and monitoring of people coupled with the “intimidating” security measures will sound the death knell for open courts, predicted Ertel.</div>
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“People will stop going because they won’t want to explain to police and security guards what they are doing there,” he said.</div>
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“The days of people coming to watch court cases were almost behind us,” added Ertel, “but now they will be behind us for sure.”</div>
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Metal detectors didn’t stop an armed man accessing the Brampton courthouse earlier this year and shooting a police officer, said Ertel.</div>
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“So another question is whether it is a waste of resources,” he said. “As far as I know, there has never been any threat to the Ottawa courthouse.”</div>
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Portable metal detectors, stationed outside individual courtrooms where high-profile cases are being heard, have been used for many years.</div>
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The system has worked well, said Brown.</div>
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“Absent some demonstrated need for these drastic changes, it makes no sense to spend vast amounts of taxpayer dollars on something that isn’t a problem,” he said. “The legislature should be looking to make changes that are as minimally intrusive as possible.”</div>
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Ottawa police Insp. Steve Bell, co-chair of security committee at the Ottawa courthouse and the officer in charge of courthouse security, said the Brampton courthouse shooting played a significant role in the security review.</div>
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“There is research that says one of the most effective ways of securing your building is to have a single point of entry where there is a screening point,” he said.</div>
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Security changes since the Cirillo shooting have been positive, said Bell.</div>
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“It hasn’t really impacted the flow in and out of the building,” he said, “but we believe it has made it more secure. We always try to balance what’s the current threat level to our city, to our country against the security measures we put in.”</div>
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In an emailed statement, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi — the Ottawa-Cenre MPP — said the legislation ensures that courthouses “are safe and accessible” and that “local police are best positioned to assess the appropriate level of security required for court facilities within their jurisdiction and remain responsible for providing that security.”</div>
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Naqvi declined to be interviewed because of “previously scheduled community events.”</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With files from Andrew Seymour, Citizen staff.</em></div>
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What the legislation proposes</h3>
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Highlights from Ontario’s proposed revisions of the Police Safety Act as it impacts provincial courthouses</h4>
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Security staff would have the powers to, “where reasonable”:</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.12em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 2em 1.37em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Require any person entering or inside a courthouse to identify himself or herself and provide information for the purposes of assessing the security risk.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Search, without a warrant, any person, property or vehicle entering or attempting to enter the premises where court proceedings are conducted or who is on such premises.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Search, without a warrant and using reasonable force if necessary, any person who is in custody where court proceedings are conducted or being transported to and from such premises, or any property in the custody of the person.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Refuse to allow a person to enter or demand that a person leave the premises where court proceedings are conducted, and use reasonable force if necessary to exclude or remove the person, if the person refuses to identify himself or herself, provide information, submit to a search or if there is any reason to believe the person poses a security risk.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Arrest anyone who attempts to enter without identifying himself or herself, providing information or submitting to a search where these have been required or after being denied access or being directed to leave and to use reasonable force to make an arrest.</li>
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It would also establish:</div>
<ul style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.12em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.4em; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 2em 1.37em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Offences for individuals entering or attempting to enter without identifying himself or herself, or submitting to a required search or after being denied entry, or for failing to leave immediately upon demand.</li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Penalties for the offences, such as fines up to $2,000, or imprisonment up to 60 days.</li>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-39417942272148359262014-12-20T11:27:00.000-05:002014-12-20T11:27:47.516-05:00Jailhouse beating victim charged again, fears return to Ottawa jail<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Shift-Book, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 20.0200004577637px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="border: 0px; font-family: TitlingGothicFBCond-Standard, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 3.93em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 100; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0.15em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
Jailhouse beating victim charged again, fears return to Ottawa jail</h1>
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Published on: <time class="entry-date published pubdate" datetime="2014-12-10T18:08:19+00:00" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 10, 2014</time>Last Updated: <time class="updated" datetime="2014-12-10T18:08:19+00:00" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">December 10, 2014 6:08 PM EST</time></div>
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<figure class="align-none wp-caption post-img" id="post-398338media-398338" itemid="http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2014/12/marin-ombudsman-andre-marin-is-seen-at-the-ontario-legislatu1.jpg?w=1000" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="border: 0px; color: white; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 2em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Ombudsman André Marin is seen at the Ontario legislature in Toronto in June 2013 following the release of his report into jail guard brutality. Behind him is a photograph of prisoner Jean Paul Rheaume taken after he was beaten and stomped at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre." class="wp-post-image" itemprop="url" src="http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2014/12/marin-ombudsman-andre-marin-is-seen-at-the-ontario-legislatu1.jpg?w=1000" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" itemprop="description" style="background: rgb(12, 12, 12); border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: -1px 0px 0px; padding: 10px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><div style="border: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.8em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
Ombudsman André Marin is seen at the Ontario legislature in Toronto in June 2013 following the release of his report into jail guard brutality. Behind him is a photograph of prisoner Jean Paul Rheaume taken after he was beaten and stomped at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre.</div>
<span class="img-author" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span itemprop="creator" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Colin Perkel</span> / <span itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Canadian Press</span></span></figcaption></figure><div itemprop="articleBody" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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At 36, Jean Paul Rhéaume has endured more than his fair share of hardship.</div>
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He was left brain damaged after a car ran him over when he was a child, and as an adult, he’s been in and out of the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre on Innes Road.</div>
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His last sentence — just 30 days — was the worst. Handcuffed, shackled and pinned face down on the concrete floor, one or more guards stomped his head until he lay in a pool of blood. The guards then filed bogus reports to cover it up.</div>
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He once told the Citizen he feared he’d be killed if he was sentenced again to the notorious Innes Road jail.</div>
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Now, Rhéaume might be a step closer to returning to the same jail where he was abused. Ottawa police have again charged the mentally disabled Vanier man with a series of offences: theft under $5,000 involving a cellphone, criminal harassment involving a man, uttering death threats over the phone to the same man, and two counts of assault against two women.</div>
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The allegations, which have not been proved in court, stem from events in June and August.</div>
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Rhéaume, free on bail with conditions that he not contact the alleged victims, is to appear in court later this month.</div>
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The Oct. 23, 2010, beating of Rhéaume was highlighted in a scathing 2013 ombudsman’s report on provincial jails.</div>
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The Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre “exemplifies everything that is wrong in a correctional institution,” Ombudsman André Marin said in his report.</div>
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Rhéaume’s beating was the subject of a high-profile trial in November, but in a rare move, the Crown halted its prosecution of a former guard after two weeks of testimony mired in lies and collusion. John Barbro, a former guard at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, was immediately acquitted in the stomping of the 170-pound Rhéaume, who was pinned to the floor by some of the jail’s biggest guards.</div>
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A guard who billed himself as an eyewitness changed his story a week before trial, saying he actually didn’t see the accused stomp the inmate, and it emerged that two other guards colluded and filed bogus occurrence reports about the beating. One guard testified that his report was filed under duress after provincial investigators threatened his job and reduced him to tears.</div>
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Some Crown witnesses — all guards — said Barbro was wearing boots. The prosecutor acknowledged uncontested evidence showed that Barbro was wearing white sneakers.</div>
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Barbro was the only guard fired for beating <span class="s1" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rhéaume and the only one prosecuted. </span>Some of his fellow guards were suspended for their roles in theOct. 23, 2010, beating but were spared criminal charges. Court also heard that another guard was seen punching the prisoner.</div>
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Exhaustive cross-examinations by defence lawyer Michael Edelson laid bare the code of silence among guards, and even the prosecutor recognized a witness’s reluctance to testify against a fellow guard.</div>
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Shortly after the 2013 release of the ombudsman’s report, Rhéaume told the Citizen he feared he’d be killed if he ever went back to the jail, or at the least punished by guards who would brand him a rat for speaking out.</div>
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“I’m scared,” he said at the time. “I don’t want to go back to jail.”</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With files from Drake Fenton</em></div>
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/crimegarden" style="border: 0px; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">twitter.com/crimegarden</a></div>
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<span class="s2" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="mailto:gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com" style="border: 0px; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">gdimmock@ottawacitizen.com</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-85172904473588169502014-12-20T11:21:00.001-05:002014-12-20T11:21:54.601-05:00Cops smashed up home lawsuit alleges<header class="headerStory col650 " style="background: rgb(170, 170, 170); border: 0px; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 650px;"><hgroup class="clearfix" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><h1 class="title zero entry-title" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: FranklinGothicFSMediumCondens, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.917; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
Cops smashed up home lawsuit alleges</h1>
</hgroup><br /><address class="meta vcard author reviewer" id="" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #666666; display: inline; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 3px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">
BY <a class="url fn" href="http://www.ottawasun.com/author/tony-spears" rel="author" style="background: transparent; color: #0044aa; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">TONY SPEARS</a>, <span class="org" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">OTTAWA SUN</span></address>
<div class="meta" style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; clear: both; color: #666666; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 3px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">
FIRST POSTED: <time class="published dtreviewed value-title" datetime="2014-12-14T02:38:40Z" pubdate="" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Sat Dec 13 2014 21:38:40 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)">SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2014 09:38 PM EST </time>| UPDATED: <time class="updated dtreviewed value-title" datetime="2014-12-14T02:41:18Z" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Sat Dec 13 2014 21:41:18 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)">SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2014 09:41 PM EST</time></div>
</header><img alt="Ottawa courthouse" class="photo" src="http://storage.ottawasun.com/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297320400634_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x" style="background: rgb(170, 170, 170); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="" /><span style="background-color: #aaaaaa; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px;"></span><br />
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Cops also face two other recent lawsuits, including one in which a mother alleges officers trashed her home while executing a search warrant in February.</div>
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In a statement of claim filed last week, Bonnie Seguin alleges she was called a "f---ing pedophile" and a "pervert" while she lay on her living room floor wearing a housecoat and nothing else.</div>
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The morning of Feb. 4, Seguin had received a call telling her that her son had been busted at Algonquin College when police tactical officers arrived at her home.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-68899004844672318922014-12-16T18:42:00.001-05:002014-12-16T18:42:56.324-05:00Bradford, Ontario cop put in chokehold with his own baton: Police<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Ontario cop put in chokehold with his own baton: Police</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">First posted: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 05:31 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 05:41 PM EST</p>
<p dir="ltr">BRADFORD, Ont. – The tables turned on one Ontario officer on Monday, when a suspect put him in a chokehold with his own baton.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The officer was answering a call about a domestic dispute north of Toronto, where he reported the situation was calm while he awaited a backup officer to join him.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Without warning, police said, a man rush the officer, knocking him to the ground and dislodging his baton, police report. The suspect hit the officer with the baton and put him in a chokehold.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A family member helped separate the two, but the man became enraged again when the backup officer showed up.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The man was eventually hit with a stun gun, restrained and taken to hospital, where he was held under the Mental Health Act.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The officer was treated for minor injuries and released.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A 20-year-old man was arrested and charged with two counts of assault, assaulting police, assault with a weapon and assault with intent to resist arrest.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-33262513424912366872014-12-16T08:55:00.001-05:002014-12-16T08:56:50.586-05:00Constables ERIN CAVAN AND JORDAN BLONDE go to court for assaulting someone in their custody!<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Ottawa Police officers accused of assault in court on Tuesday</i></b><br>
Posted on 12/16/2014 3:48:00 AM by Alison Sandor and Jenn Pritchard</p>
<p dir="ltr">Two Ottawa Police officers charged with assault will be in court on Tuesday.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In early November, the Special Investigations Unit charged Const. Erin Cavan and Const. Jordan Blonde after an incident at the Queensway Carleton Hospital in May, 2014.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The SIU says they have reasonable grounds to believe the two officers committed a criminal offence against a 32-year-old man on May 1st at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Matt Skof, the president of the Ottawa Police Association told CFRA the charges are a waste of resources.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Once again Ottawa's going to be going through a very similar scenario that we went through in the last couple of years, with legal issues," said Skof. "We're looking at an incredible waste of tax paying resources. These are two professional officers assisting another professional in their duties and to suggest that there's intent behind this is absolutely disingenuous and ridiculous."</p>
<p dir="ltr">The SIU is an arm's length agency that investigates reports involving police in Ontario where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Both Cavan and Blonde remain on active duty.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>[Hey Mr. Skoff, shut up and let SIU do their job!  They're no less crooked that you and your Union, but for ONCE, just shut your mouth.  Opening your mouth does nothing to increase our perception of your intelligence and it does nothing to increase public trust.   Seems the Union can't bully hospital staff... I hope the truth comes out and these cops are caught and forever labeled!  I'm fine with my taxes paying for uncovering and firing dirty cops; I'm not fine with my taxes paying those dirty cops to assault, rob and harass people.  So let's make this worth all of our hard earned money- fire the dirty cops!  Also, a criminal record for each would be great!! THIS is the case Bordeleau was urged to stop discussing with the media.  Interesting...]</i></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-5552274858961261002014-12-14T18:56:00.001-05:002014-12-14T18:56:44.458-05:00Ottawa police officer Bonin, gives glimpse of investigation techniques...<p dir="ltr">Aerith seems to have taunted officer Bonin of the Ottawa Police.<br>
The investigative techniques described in relation to the Aerith investigation are the same techniques used while investigating anybody.<br>
To most of us it would be called harassment (the people the cops 'talk to' aren't suspects, they are people they think matter to their suspect (ie: mother, wife, brothers/sisters, father)) but to cops, this is a technique?!<br>
</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-D364Ws4wExk/VI4jusCbgnI/AAAAAAAAAKw/B-YWpmLDDj8/s1600/Screenshot_2014-12-14-18-49-25%25257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-D364Ws4wExk/VI4jusCbgnI/AAAAAAAAAKw/B-YWpmLDDj8/s640/Screenshot_2014-12-14-18-49-25%25257E2.jpg"> </a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-18352013870714662432014-12-14T15:41:00.001-05:002014-12-14T15:41:52.240-05:00America’s correctional system is utterly disgraceful. And ours seems to be heading in that direction<p dir="ltr">Conrad Black: <b><i>America’s correctional system is utterly disgraceful. And ours seems to be heading in that direction</i></b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Conrad Black<br>
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014</p>
<p dir="ltr">[I have repeatedly inquired as to the status of an Ontario man, allegedly held in unjust conditions for two years. I've received no response. Perhaps more draconian measures are required.]</p>
<p dir="ltr">In recent weeks, Canadians have watched, astonished and dismayed, the unfolding barbarity of American justice. Last week’s highlight were protests over the death of Eric Garner, someone suspected of illegally selling cigarettes, who died after a botched arrest by police officers in broad daylight on a New York sidewalk. There are lessons in this for us too.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Scores of thousands of people in many American cities were outraged when a grand jury, servile as always to the wishes of prosecutors, against whose caprices the Constitutional Bill of Rights set up the grand jury, declined to indict any of the officers for this obvious manslaughter. Official response was sufficiently prompt and apparently genuine that the demonstrators seemed to be placated and the greater part of the reaction subsided. It was almost a flashpoint, yet a flashpoint of the old bug-bear of white abuse of African-American suspects. This is a legitimate grievance, certainly, but only a small part of the American legal problem, which is the effective collapse of trustworthy adjudication in criminal matters and the explosion in uncontrollable complexity and cost of civil litigation.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The familiar facts need not be over-emphasized: The United States has 5% of the world’s people, 25% of its incarcerated people, and50% of its lawyers, where legal practice requires serious professional formation. The U.S. legal profession takes 10% of GDP, $1.8 trillion. There are 48 million convicted felons in the U.S. population, the country has 6-12 times as many incarcerated people per capita as Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. American prosecutors win 99.5% of their cases, 97% without trials, numbers rivalled, if at all, only by North Korea.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This the “sweet land of liberty,” where it is held to be “self-evident that all men (and women) are created equal (and) endowed with certain unalienable rights.” The demonstrators have missed the opportunity to broaden their protest to include the entire range of the corruption of the American legal system, from which all Americans suffer and not just, or even necessarily mainly, African-Americans, and which is riveted on the neck of American life and society like a venomous horse-leech. A more broadly based protest would enlist the majority of Americans and force reform, as civil rights eventually did when the whole of America, and not just its direct victims, became disgusted with the spectacle of racist brutality everywhere about it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is the country which has secured the triumph of democracy and the free market system in the world, but it is not now a very well-functioning democracy. And Canada in some respects, is emulating it. I will not tax the patience of readers with another recitation of the knuckle-dragging, me-too, branch-plant, copy-cat Canadian government simulation of the American assault on any hope prisoners may have of leading normal lives again. We have lengthened sentences by legislative usurpation of the discretion of judges, restricted visiting access to inmates by family and friends, reduced rehabilitative facilities, and plod on with the punitive idiocy of prison for non-violent people, much as has been the case for centuries.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At least, as new prisons are being built, there is some chance that Canada will escape the over-crowding, squalor, and violence of much of the American prison system. But while we await the inevitably negative results of the Toews-Fantino school of Conservative rehabilitative personality development (Fantino’s incumbency at Veterans’ Affairs appears to be in its death-throes, at least), there is already evidence to hand that our correctional service apparatus and the prosecution service that feeds it have in some distressing respects taken the American correctional ethos on board.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some readers will recall that on Oct. 25 I wrote of former Oshawa regional councillor Robert Lutczyk, a man who has been detained in the Central East Detention Centre in Lindsay, Ont., for two years. He is facing serious charges, but has been denied bail three times, denied legal aid though he does not have the means to conduct a defence, allegedly denied access to a computer to learn the crown’s digital disclosure on the case, and denied pencil and paper to prepare anything, and such notes as he was able to make with borrowed materials have been confiscated. When I wrote to the Ombudsman’s office about this case, I was very courteously informed that this was not their domain and referred to the director of the facility at Lindsay, Neil Neville. I wrote Mr. Neville on Oct. 3 asking very respectfully if the reports given to me and summarized here were correct, and was prompted to refer to the matter in my column of Oct. 25 because I had heard nothing from Mr. Neville. It is, as I write, December 11, and I have still not heard from Mr. Neville.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is behaviour that is absolutely typical of the operation of the American system. It is a determined effort to grind the detained (in this case untried and presumed innocent) person’s face in his own impotence. It also drives home the lack of any justified expectation of being treated like a human being with a genuine ability to make something of his presumption of innocence and of his day in court, when it eventually comes after years of contemptuous mistreatment. Even innocuous and excruciatingly polite requests for information, by people invited by the accused to make them, are glacially ignored. Mr. Lutczyk has sent extensive messages to authorities and copies to me which (improperly) have not been delivered.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I repeat that I have no knowledge of or position on the merits of the case against this defendant, but he has rights and there is a public right to know that assured rights of defendants are being respected. At a hearing on Wednesday, which it would be improper to describe in detail, there were further indications of the cavalier treatment of Mr. Lutczyk. This is the last overture I will make to Mr. Neville. If he or some other competent representative of the department of Community Safety and Correctional Services of Ontario does not respond to this inquiry with reasonable timeliness, even if conditionally and tentatively, draconian measures to extract an answer to these questions will commend themselves. I have some knowledge of successful jousts of this kind in a tougher league than Mr. Neville would have experienced.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b><i>Custodians have vast powers to mistreat unconvicted detainees; they have no right nor any durable ability to resist an assertion of the public’s right to know if the justice system is respecting the rights of individuals</i></b>. I repeat that I am not making an accusation and if Mr. Lutczyk has no legitimate complaint, I will be delighted to publish that fact.</p>
<p dir="ltr">***</p>
<p dir="ltr">It is impossible for me to finish this column without writing that it was my privilege to meet Jean Béliveau, with Rocket Richard and Ted Williams, the great sports hero of my youth, a number of times over more than 40 years. He was always the charming, gracious, elegant and inspiringly natural gentleman all who knew him have described; a great star and a very great human being. The funeral service for him in Montreal and the remembrance at the Bell Centre were profoundly moving and tasteful, and the rendition of the national anthem before the hockey game that evening was the most affecting version of it I have ever witnessed. No one who was exposed to his almost flawless suavity as a player and as a personality will ever forget or fail to be grateful for them.</p>
<p dir="ltr">***</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thanks to reader Morton Doran, who wrote that Napoleon, and not the Duke of Wellington, warned against interrupting an opponent while he was making a mistake, a quote from my column last week. Napoleon did say it, at Friedland in 1809, but Wellington said something similar in a civil context 20 years later and I thought him a more suitable source. But I see that I created confusion, and have modified online versions to cite both men, and apologize for not handling the quote more clearly. Thanks also to James Bartleman for his letter published on Dec. 9 in the National Post. However, his impression that I considered the “people who greeted the Europeans on their arrival (in what is now Canada) as inferior people,” is mistaken and completely inexplicable.</p>
<p dir="ltr">National Post</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-60186854411887088152014-12-13T14:14:00.001-05:002014-12-13T14:14:40.675-05:00Montreal plans to spend $20k+ to keep Ian Davidson's (the leak) info away from media<p dir="ltr">MONTREAL — Montreal plans to spend $20,000 to block QMI Agency's investigations desk from getting information on dead police mole Ian Davidson.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sgt.-Det. Davidson of the Montreal police computer division tried to sell a list of police informants and other secret data to the Mafia before committing suicide in 2012.</p>
<p dir="ltr">QMI's Montreal investigative unit filed court motions to obtain search warrants carried out at Davidson's home and other locations in October 2011.</p>
<p dir="ltr">QMI is also seeking any other documents accompanying the warrants, as well as a list of items seized during the searches.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Police sealed the documents at that time.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Montreal police say releasing the warrants and related information could allow criminals to identify informants.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"It is...important to prevent public access to this information," city lawyer Paule Biron says in a report.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Montreal has hired veteran criminal lawyer Pierre Dupras, who's billing taxpayers $260 an hour, according to a city document released Wednesday.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Dupras frequently represents police officers facing criminal charges or ethics complaints.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In October, QMI found Davidson's leak of confidential data was far greater than authorities have admitted.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Not only did he steal the list of informants, he also copied a list of 1,500 active confidential sources and 10,500 others who were inactive.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Davidson pilfered names, photographs, agent ID numbers and the names of their supervising police officers.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The mole also stole files the confidential sources had provided to police as well as briefing notes on police investigations.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-36425361847077874012014-12-12T10:52:00.001-05:002014-12-12T10:52:05.900-05:00Fire the corrupt cops- it's a simple solution <p dir="ltr">If a store hired an employee who assaulted/shot customers, would they still have a job?<br>
The police unions have too much power! What they fail to realize is that if they get rid of the bad ones, the good ones will earn the public's trust back... eventually.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-lqOGInIw-eE/VIsPJDRrn7I/AAAAAAAAAKg/0T6ox4q63cA/s1600/IMG_646562070944932.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-lqOGInIw-eE/VIsPJDRrn7I/AAAAAAAAAKg/0T6ox4q63cA/s640/IMG_646562070944932.jpeg"> </a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-331344100598380924.post-41079442000936554592014-12-12T09:29:00.000-05:002014-12-12T09:29:39.262-05:00Montreal DETECTIVE-SERGEANT with a HISTORY of DOMESTIC violence threatens cabinet minister<header class="headerStory col650 " style="background: rgb(170, 170, 170); border: 0px; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.6000003814697px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 650px;"><hgroup class="clearfix" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"><h1 class="title zero entry-title" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: FranklinGothicFSMediumCondens, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0.917; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
Montreal cop arrested for allegedly threatening cabinet minister </h1>
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FIRST POSTED: <time class="published dtreviewed value-title" datetime="2014-12-12T02:14:45Z" pubdate="" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Thu Dec 11 2014 21:14:45 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)">THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014 09:14 PM EST </time>| UPDATED: <time class="updated dtreviewed value-title" datetime="2014-12-12T02:25:45Z" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Thu Dec 11 2014 21:25:45 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)">THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014 09:25 PM EST</time></div>
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MONTREAL -- A detective-sergeant with the Montreal police force has been charged with uttering death threats against Quebec Minister of Municipal Affairs Pierre Moreau.</div>
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The 44-year-old man has been in custody since earlier this week and is expected to appear in court Friday.</div>
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The threats appear to be linked to Moreau's involvement in proposed legislation that would change the pension plan for municipal workers.</div>
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The police officer's defence lawyer said his client could have made indirect threats while watching television news reports.</div>
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<b><i>The accused cop is also facing six charges related to domestic violence, including making death threats against his wife and children.</i></b></div>
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His wife reportedly went to police Monday to file a complaint against her husband.</div>
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Moreau said Thursday he couldn't comment on the case, citing safety issues, but expressed confidence that police were handling the issue professionally.</div>
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The police officer has been suspended from his duties during the legal proceedings.</div>
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