Ottawa outraged video of woman's arrest - bra & blouse cut off by male cops, lead away topless

[Liberal_in_LA]

Video here
http://www.theprovince.com/videos/index.html?v=1671313199


http://www.thestar.com/article/897409--strip-search-of-ottawa-woman-troubling-mcguinty-says

OTTAWA—Premier Dalton McGuinty says he is shaken by accounts of a video showing Ottawa police strip-searching an Ottawa woman while male officers held her down.

“I must say what I have heard is very, very troubling,” McGuinty said Friday said of the video, which even Police Chief Vern White has acknowledged will shock Ottawa residents.

“From time to time things happen that shake us and it’s very important that we get to the bottom of this and that people know exactly what happened . . . and that it doesn’t happen again,” he told a news conference after touring an Ottawa recreation centre.

The treatment of Stacy Bonds, who is black, following her arrest on Sept. 28, 2008 had inflamed many residents of the national capital, even before the video was made public on the Ottawa Citizen’s website Thursday. (See video here and here.)

Among other things it shows Bonds being kneed by a female officer, followed by a male officer cutting off her bra while she is held on the floor of the police station by several male officers.

After Ontario Court Justice Richard Lajoie watched the security camera video, he stayed charges against her of assaulting police and condemned the behaviour of the officers involved, calling the treatment and subsequent strip search a “travesty” and an “indignity.”

The province’s Special Investigative Unit, which probes police conduct in certain instances, is investigating how the now 27-year-old Bonds was treated after being arrested on suspicion of public intoxication.

The 27-year-old was left topless in a cell at an Ottawa police station for three hours in soiled pants.

http://www.thestar.com/article/897409--strip-search-of-ottawa-woman-troubling-mcguinty-says

[GKirk]

1. Canada is the last place

I would have expected this to have happened at.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Canada having huge police abuse crisis. more here

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Troubles+mount+Ottawa+police/3901062/story.html

[MedicalAdmin]

12. Canada, lamentably, followed Rayguns lead.

And militarized their police to a large extent. Of course this is less an issue in Canada than the US as Canada actually has mechanisms to make sure that politicians keep a lid on things. They can both recall and get a vote of non-confidence (which brings down the administration immediately). The US - we have to wait until the next bought and paid for election.

Having said all of that, that shit aint' right. But I am reminded of this video by Chris Rock. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MwxYn4BhoQ

[provis99]

17. other corrupt Canadian police forces: Winnipeg, Calgary, the OPP, Toronto.

a lot of the cops in Canada seem to be taking inspiration from stories of America's most fascist cops.

[XanaDUer]

14. Why?

I'm afraid, anywhere there are fallible humans, abuses will happen. Canada has an ugly history of mistreatment of indigenous people:

http://www.publicagenda.org/blogs/canada-apologizes-past-mistreatment-indigenous-tribes:



And the sad Helen Betty Osbourne case - she'd be 58 if she had not been murdered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Betty_Osborne

Is Canada becoming a police state, like America? http://www.planetfriendly.net/police.html

The banality of evil.

[Posteritatis]

15. We have as fine a tradition of that kind of BS as many other nations do. (nt)

[Heywood J]

19. This is but the first article in the series.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/882189--are-these-cops-above-the-law

A Toronto police officer inexplicably floors his gas pedal, speeds into an illegal right turn and runs down a grandmother, severing her brain stem and killing her instantly.
<snip>
During a traffic stop near Canada's Wonderland, York Region officers rough up a small, 50-year-old accountant, breaking his arm and leaving him roadside.

A Peel Region police officer sucker-punches a handcuffed prisoner and breaks his jaw in two places.
<snip>
All of these officers were quickly cleared by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) — the provincial agency responsible for investigating serious injuries and deaths resulting from interactions between police and the public. All still work as police officers.

[joeybee12]

2. Wow, who woulda thought that even Canadian cops are racist neanderthals? knr

[Posteritatis]

16. It wasn't long ago that we had some very open, very ugly policies on race

That stuff tends to stick around, since it wasn't until the sixties or seventies that we finally started distancing ourselves from the worst of it. We're better than we ever have been, but are still very far from perfect.

[AspenRose]

4. If you look at the comments section, it says that the Judge determined

she was NOT intoxicated.

So what was all of this for, exactly?

(Rhetorical question.)

Another comment on the site:

"I'm a (fellow) conservative. There's no way you can condone police brutality ever. It has no place in a democratic, civilized society."

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Also, police management had video months ago, Didn't act until video was going public

[AspenRose]

7. AND two of the officers have previously abused people before.

Yikes.

[tblue37]

10. She was walking home from a party when the cops accosted her and questioned why she was out on

the streets at night. Then she simply asked why she had been stopped in the first place, and that pissed them off (cops do not like to be questioned). So the took her in to the station, beat the crap out of her, stripped her, and charged her with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer.

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. yep. Crime - walking while black, talking back to cop

[tblue37]

22. She actually wasn't even talking back--just asking why they stopped her. But an

an authoritatarian a**hole would naturally consider that "talking back."

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PDJane]

8. It's not the first place, but it's far from the last.

The trouble is that:

1. People who want to be police officers are probably not the folks who should be allowed to be police officers. They don't get these guys in sunday school, either.

2. Police officers tend to be authoritarian types to begin with.

3. The 'us and them' mentality develops, and none too slowly, in officers of the law; sort of a siege mentality.

4. Power is almost always abusive, and these men pick up a young woman who has had too much to drink and asks a question...oh, and she's another race...the do these things because they can.

That latter point is why there was such an orgy of police brutality around the G20....it was "OK" because these people were protesting the powers that be, my god. They were given permission, I suspect to use force..and they did, over and over again. Moreover, in such a crowd, it's very easy to hide your identity, so that the consequences are minimal.

And yes, I've seen this stuff first hand; I married a member of the local constabulary. I plead hormones and youthful stupidity.

[laundry_queen]

21. Not all, but a good portion are like that.

A family member, who is a city cop, tells us stories of the power trippers. Said family member is not like that at all and has told off superiors for pulling that crap. This person is also a visible minority so maybe that makes them react differently.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Thanks to moderators for deleting that "useless without pictures, I like boobies" subthread

It was incredibly sexist and hateful

[demmiblue]

11. +1

[Uben]

13. The officers should be labeled as sex offenders and fired

They should be humiliated and ostracized from ever holding another law enforcement job. If they did that to my wife, I wouldn't give a plug nickel for their well being. Over-zealous cops are an infection on society and only make honest cops look bad. They should cleanse their own like they protect their own.

[Liberal_in_LA]

20. the officers are being investigated for sexual assault

The province’s Special Investigations Unit is now investigating the officers who handled Bonds for alleged sexual assault. An internal probe will resume once the SIU finishes which was launched personally by White, who called the tape “shocking” twice in the last 11 days.

http://www.oyetimes.com/views/columns/7726-stacy-bonds-it-could-happen-to-anybody

[Canuckistanian]

23. She's now suing several named officers and the Police Services Board

I just heard it on the radio tonight.

I hope the same judge hears the cases.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. good. I think the city will out outraged if she doesn't get justice. Just give her the $$$ now