Police Misconduct

Official Oppression sounds like a term that could go hand-in-hand with ‘Martial Law’ and ‘Police State’. In the wake of Toronto’s G20 policing disaster and with an alarming rise in police misconduct and brutality complaints across North America, it is hard to shake the sense of insecurity when you hear police and oppression in the same sentence.

In fact, Official Oppression is a charge that is laid against police officers and other public servants when they exhibit specific illicit or corrupt behavior.

According to the VTCA Penal Code, a public servant is guilty of Official Oppression when they:
• Intentionally subjects another to mistreatment or to arrest, detention, search, seizure, dispossession, assessment, or lien that he knows is unlawful;
• Intentionally denies or impedes another in the exercise or enjoyment of any right, privilege, power, or immunity, knowing his conduct is unlawful; or
• Intentionally subjects another to sexual harassment.
• For purposes of this section, a public servant acts under color of his office or employment if he acts or purports to act in an official capacity or takes advantage of such actual or purported capacity.
• In this section, “sexual harassment” means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, submission to which is made a term or condition of a person’s exercise or enjoyment of any right, privilege, power, or immunity, either explicitly or implicitly.
• An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

With these laws in place, it is still common to see misconduct by government workers go unpunished. Even if a guilty conviction is made, sentencing is usually rather light. This year in San Antonio we saw a perfect example of this. During a traffic stop in 2007, officer Todd Burke repeatedly struck an unaggressive individual more than a dozen times in the head with his baton. After being found unanimously guilty by jury for Official Oppression this year, the judge handed down a sentence of only 80 hours of community service. This is a laughable consequence for such a vicious assault crime and gross abuse of authority. But, it is absolutely paramount that we do not lose hope!

It is our obligation as citizens and members of the community, to promote public awareness of the boundaries that the police force and other public servants must act within. We often overlook the fact that our penal code (criminal code) holds laws and rules that are to be upheld by even our police force. Unless we understand these laws and hold strong when calling out the misconduct within the public sector, as it happens, we will forever be victims.

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Toronto’s G20 Summit left a deep, permanent scar in the heart of the city. While some of the protesters may have been lawfully detained for endangering the lives of their peers that weekend, it must be understood that a majority of the citizen’s that were detained and assaulted by the enormous policing force, were victims of senseless bullying and unwarranted serial arrests.

Almost 1000 arrests were made in total that weekend by 11000 on-duty officers. Maybe the budget would have been better spent on training fewer officers more diligently on effective mass-crowd control? Instead, our tax dollars promoted acts that severely traumatized our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and placed them in indecent, unbearable conditions comparable to prisons in war-torn, developing countries.

The pain that we have thus far allowed to be inflicted upon our fellow citizens must not be allowed to go without consequence. It is important that we make sure that every victim’s story be told and recorded so to deter such mob-style policing from ever occurring again.

IF YOU ARE A VICTIM OF TORONTO G20:
It is very important for you to contact office of the Independent Police Review Director and send them a detailed account of your encounter with the police. All submissions will be taken into consideration during the Independent Civilian Review of the G20 put together by the Toronto Police Services Board. This review will analyze policing tactics used in Toronto during the G20 summit. The e-file complaints page can be found here: https://www.oiprd.on.ca/OIPRD.Efile/frm_efile_1.aspx?LanguageType=English

You are also strongly encouraged to share your pictures and stories with me. I will be glad to post any submitted content from my readers. You can reach me at contact@newsense.org. It is absolutely paramount that every story be told so that those at fault receive their due consequences, and so that we do not to repeat or allow such negligent, incompetent policing ever again.

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A&E’s hit crime show, The First 48, accompanies cops during the first 48 hours of homicide investigations. The premise of the show is based around the first 48 hours being the most critical time in successfully finding a killer.

Just after midnight on Sunday May 16, 2010, the A&E camera crew filmed a police raid in Detroit that will never air on the show. In fact, those involved are trying their hardest to ensure that no one ever sees the footage.

That morning, Detroit police began their raid on the Jones’ house, by throwing a flash-bang grenade through the window and shooting their way through the door. This grenade landed on or next to little seven year old Aiyana Jones, who was fast asleep on the couch. Upon detonation, Aiyana was severely burnt and then struck and killed by a bullet from the entering police.

In a ridiculous effort to point the finger, Detroit police arrested Aiyana’s grandmother Mertilla Jones. Mertilla was assaulted and humiliated and tested for drugs and gunpowder (all tests came back negative).

Mertilla was quoted on Tuesday saying,

“As soon as they hit the window, I hit the floor, and I went to reach for my granddaughter. I call her Malia—her name is Aiyana—because she’s my Mini-Me. My Mini-Me. I seen the light leave out her eyes. I knew she was dead. She had blood coming out of her mouth. Lord Jesus, I ain’t never seen nothing like that in my life. And my seven-year-old grandbaby! My beautiful, beautiful, gorgeous granddaughter! My goodness! What type of people? What type of people?

You can’t trust the police. You can’t trust Detroit police. You can’t trust them. You can’t trust them. They wouldn’t even let us go check on the other babies. They wouldn’t even let us go check on the other kids. They were so rude to us. And when I see y’all done killed my grandbaby on an effed-up [inaudible], then one of them said, ‘Oh, [bleep],’ and grabbed her up and ran out the house.”

A seven year old baby girl burnt and shot dead by police in North America. How many more children need to die at the hands of foolish policing and “mistakes” before we rise up together and change the system?  I’ll bet this never even made your local six o’clock news. Don’t let it be your baby before you decide to take a stand.

My heart goes out to the Jones family on their tragic loss.

Rest In Peace Aiyana Jones.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/She-Has-A-Name-Aiyana-Jones/122734241085128

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According to Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, the number of reported occurrences of police misconduct resulting in injury or death in Ontario, has been steadily increasing since 2004. Police dash cams have proven to be a valuable witness that presents a precise, just and unbiased account of events. They should definitely be a standard requirement of any police force in North America; where our police system is still flawed and filled with deceit. Of course dash cameras are still only a band aid to a much larger problem.

San Jose's new officer cam

In an attempt to step back and address the larger issue of police misconduct on a whole, Canada’s Senate Security Committee release a position paper dealing with the overseeing of police services. The 102 page report calls for similar methods to be used in Canada as being piloted right now in San Jose, CA. Since December ’09, members of San Jose’s police department have participated in a project where a small, audio-video earpiece records each individual officer as they go on about their duties.

This method and device are long overdue considering the history of police misconduct and corruption throughout Canada and the United States. Vancouver, BC has volunteered to pilot a similar program with its officers, but it has been reluctant to assign a date for commencement. It is paramount that we make these devices mandatory for all police departments. The implementing of such a project would certainly be the logical first step in protecting the security of our citizens and ending a terrible reign of terror brought on by those who are there to protect us.

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We send our doctors, lawyers and professors down an extraordinary educational path, before we can trust them to help us with our problems. No one would feel comfortable seeking care from a doctor who has been in training for less than year. So why do we then entrust the most important job in our community to people with little training and education. To become a police officer, you require no more than a high school diploma and good physical and mental health.

This lack of education murdered 258 people in 2009 in the United States; all reported deaths involved police misconduct. All of these deaths were avoidable had the police officers involved known how to react to the situation at the time. Ignorance and poor training leaves these officers with the inability to properly assess situations, and handle confrontation. Unfortunately, the victims of this broken system will always be our loved ones.

There is only one way to fix this problem, we need to educate our police forces. It should be mandatory for all those interested in law enforcement to take a rigorous post-secondary course. This course should delve into psychology, philosophy and mathematics. We need to build a police force that is interested in making the necessary moves to better our communities, instead of an alternate profession for those seeking excitement, power and benefits. Just think of the values such a police force would add to your community.

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