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Greater Victoria police forces issues and news


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#21 aastra

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 07:32 PM

Another question: if a drunk guy has apparently been involved in a serious physical assault and the cops arrive and order the drunk guy to sit down on the grass while they try to restore order, and the drunk guy immediately thereafter stands up and walks back toward the fray, what would be the appropriate response from the police?

We're seriously wishing for the RCMP in downtown Victoria? Are people on crack or something?

#22 http

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 08:19 PM

It certainly looks excessive but we don't know what has happened to prompt this kind of action. Maybe the preceeding events caused the reaction by the police.

With the use of the Taser highly restricted this kind of physical force will be in use more and more I'm afraid.


NOTHING prompted this violence. If there had been danger before, it had passed before the souveiller hit `record'. What threat did the officer face from the first man, already down on the sidewalk? The second man was cooperating with the police. Well, as best he could, given that he was being kicked. I am certain the city would be a safer place with that officer off the force.
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#23 manuel

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 09:27 PM

Thank god for digital video. Now I know not to trust (and give less respect to) - our local police force. Sure, they were taking down drunken louts, but soccer kicks to a dude who is already complying with their requests? WTF?
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#24 rjag

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Posted 23 March 2010 - 09:47 PM

Lets not be judge, jury and hangman based on this folks. There are a lot of witnesses (not all drunk) if the officer used excessive force then I know he will be dealt with in an appropriate manner. VicPD are trying very hard to not have a bad rep.

My 1st reaction was WTF! when I saw it, but after watching it a few times and watching the officer in black running over and forcing the guy down leads me to believe theres more going on that wasnt recorded.

#25 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 03:06 AM

Lets not be judge, jury and hangman based on this folks. There are a lot of witnesses (not all drunk) if the officer used excessive force then I know he will be dealt with in an appropriate manner. VicPD are trying very hard to not have a bad rep.


There could have been 100 witnesses, but the fact is nothing was raised until the video came to light. Without it, there would have been no investigation. At the very least, the officer is guilty of being so stupid as to not realize that probably more than half of the pople on the streets at 1am have a very capable cell-phone camera on their person.

#26 Bingo

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 06:43 AM

I suppose this video will only help promote more violence against the police. I wonder if those cameras being worn by the officers will show more of the incident?

The two Mounties that were swarmed breaking up a brawl in Peace River were both injured, with the female suffering facial injuries and the male a broken nose.

#27 Baro

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 07:05 AM

Don't worry guys the police are investigating them selves, I'm sure if there was any wrong-doing the offending officer will be given the same level of fair justice as any citizen caught assaulting someone. I mean these are the police we're talking about, they take justice very seriously and would never sweep something like this under the rug, try to destroy evidence, or outright lie to protect their own.

And stuff like this has absolutely no relation to police departments all over trying to ban anyone filming them, nah that's totally just about police safety.
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#28 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 07:22 AM

[...]

Hamilton said three officers witnessed an eight-man brawl just after midnight.

The men, in their 20s, were intoxicated and beating up a 27-year-old man who later lost consciousness.

"The guy was flat on his back, and a guy was kicking him in the face and the officers saw that, so they run over and everyone's fighting," Hamilton said.

The officers used pepper spray with little or no effect, Hamilton said.

"They're trying to get control and that's what you're seeing, they're trying to get various people into custody."

Paramedics took the victim to hospital. He had no recollection of what happened and is not cooperating with police.

Three individuals were also arrested but later released without charges because the victim would not cooperate.

Police never found the man they believe was responsible for the brunt of the beating.

Some of the men in the brawl sustained minor cuts and injuries, Hamilton said, but they were a result of the brawl, not the officers' use of force.


[...]

http://www.bclocalne...s/88971792.html

See, the police say there was three police trying to deal with 8 guys kicking one man that was down, but there was obviously more than one attack/fight going on. And they say they did not even arrest the main guy responsible. Why not? Are they, or were they still looking for him?

#29 pontcanna

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 07:23 AM

I find it significant that the fellow doing the kicking (yellow jacket) is wearing sergeant's stripes, hence is a field supervisor and is supposed to keep a lid on possible excesses by his men/women. Hmmm.

#30 Bob Fugger

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 07:43 AM

I could have sworn that I heard a snippet of an interview with Dean-O this morning on CBC Radio where he indirectly places the blame on the victims. Not being able to comment directly on an ongoing investigation, he essentially made the point that something like this was bound to happen, given the increase in drunken behaviour downtown.

Well now, that's been nicely rationalized by the Chair of the Police Board, eh?

#31 aastra

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 07:49 AM

...the police say there was three police trying to deal with 8 guys kicking one man that was down, but there was obviously more than one attack/fight going on.


Are you guys watching a different video than the one posted above or something?

#32 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 07:51 AM

Are you guys watching a different video than the one posted above or something?


My statement here talks about how the police are trying to put it into context. But their description of events before the video is shot does not jive with all the injuries.

#33 aastra

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 08:22 AM

Three individuals were also arrested but later released without charges...


Okay, now I'm appalled with the rest of you.

Another thing about the video: no ambulance seems to be present, no ambulance lights, no approaching sirens...doesn't that tell us that the cops have indeed been caught in the act of breaking up the violence? Earlier I stated that the violent incident had probably just gone down, but I think we can see that it's actually still going down. And we can see that the police aren't getting much cooperation. Should the police have tried making polite appeals to reason instead of getting tough?

#34 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 09:32 AM

Okay, now I'm appalled with the rest of you.

Another thing about the video: no ambulance seems to be present, no ambulance lights, no approaching sirens...doesn't that tell us that the cops have indeed been caught in the act of breaking up the violence? Earlier I stated that the violent incident had probably just gone down, but I think we can see that it's actually still going down. And we can see that the police aren't getting much cooperation. Should the police have tried making polite appeals to reason instead of getting tough?


The police were in the midst of reasonable cooperation from the two guys that yellowboy kicked.

#35 Holden West

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 09:36 AM

I've seen a few episodes of COPS and I wonder if an inebriated person has an almost instinctual urge to resist being restrained. It's like they can't comprehend the reasoning behind simply lying down and placing their hands behind their back. They think they are being rational in getting up and talking to the police but in reality all they're doing is staggering around incoherently. The more the police use force the more resistant the drunk gets. You see this all the time.

I think the police need more practice in immobilizing drunks. On TV I've seen it done swiftly and humanely and other times awkwardly and sloppily with unnecessary violence.
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#36 Mike K.

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 09:37 AM

...

Video of Victoria police officer’s questionable use of force goes viral
By Mike Kozakowski, VibrantVictoria.ca
http://vibrantvictoria.ca/?p=2133

A video showing a Victoria Police officer using what many consider to be excessive force against two individuals involved in what is reported to have been a brawl between eight individuals is going viral after being released on YouTube.

CTV posted this video on YouTube on March 23, submitted to the media outlet by Mike Morellato, who may have filmed the incident. Thanks to coverage on radio stations, online news site and blogs from across the country, the video is quickly catching the attention of the entire country. [...]


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#37 aastra

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 09:56 AM

The police were in the midst of reasonable cooperation from the two guys that yellowboy kicked.


You must have better eyesight than I do, VHF. The little dogpile on the street is tough to make out but I see two cops with their hands full, which prompts the cop in yellow to come in and do some kicking. It's difficult to tell exactly what's happening, but summarizing it as "reasonable cooperation" is ridiculous.

The guy on the lawn had been ordered to sit on the lawn, no handcuffs or anything. So what does the guy do? He gets up and approaches the fray again, and (of course) the cop in yellow responds.

The cop in yellow went overboard with a couple of his kicks. Not good. But when a dozen or more drunken thugs get in a brawl on a downtown street and the cops who respond get no compliance whatsoever, it's hardly a surprise to see the police get rough.

For all we know the unconscious guy might have been killed if the police hadn't waded into this mess.

#38 aastra

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 10:02 AM

I just find it funny that people are really upset because a cop dished out one solid kick and one or two more smaller kicks, but nobody seems to care that a drunken brawl that knocked one guy out cold was what started it all.

If you're horrified by what you see the cops doing as they try to contain the situation then you'd probably faint if you saw what was going on before the cops arrived.

#39 aastra

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 10:07 AM

It's difficult to tell exactly what's happening, but summarizing it as "reasonable cooperation" is ridiculous.

Let me temper this a bit. The guy behind those two cops on the street there may well have been cooperating, but we don't really know for sure because everyone in that group has their backs to the camera (except the girl, who the cop in yellow seems to have an issue with at one point, but it appears that she was merely reacting to the kicks that the cop in yellow had just delivered).

So I'm prepared to give you that one. That particular guy may well have been cooperating by the time the yellow cop kicked him.

#40 Jill

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Posted 24 March 2010 - 10:09 AM

So it isn't reasonable to expect police to be able to control their tempers, even (or especially) when dealing with people whose judgment is seriously impaired by alcohol? I think we should hold the police to a higher standard of behaviour than that of the kind of person who gets drunk and starts brawling in public, but maybe that's just me.

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