oh 3 cheers to you Stubby, real show of support for your fellow member. No wonder morale in the force keeps getting lower, they’re turning the constables into pussies.

How about the criminals start becoming accountable for their actions. We are a bleeding heart society!!!!

If tey tasered an 11 year old for the same damn thing, why not the adult male who is larger, and more dangerous than an 11 year old. Give your head a shake, it makes total sence!!!

Considering the Monty Robinson situation I have to think that this cop really has nothing to worry about. Of course Fitzpatrick can’t play the race card.

Each case is considered on its own. Robinson and the tasered teenager have no relevance. Neither does whatever punishment is meted out to a convicted criminal. What matters is whether the officer broke the law, how severely, and any mitigating circumstances.

The thing that disturbs me is the length of time it takes. Is it my perception or is it real that charges aginst police officers who committ alleged assaults take much longer to go forward than similar alleged assaults by non-police? This process needs to be speeded up. Imagine the stress on an accused person, guilty or innocent, wondering for two years whether charges will be laid, not to mention the cost to the public of keeping someone who turns out to be guilty on full pay while prosecutors make up their minds.

At this point, why don’t we just disarm our force, give them a bunch of Carebear teddy bears to give to criminals, a “How did we do servicing you” card, and have a personal injury lawyer ride around as the RCMP officers partners so the criminals have easy access to lawsuits.

This is just getting ridiculous, the police are going to be afraid to protect us now for fear of being sued/arrested themselves.

“This is just getting ridiculous, the police are going to be afraid to protect us now for fear of being sued/arrested themselves.”

They should be afraid. The problem with our cops has been getting worse for years.

Must feel great to spew such comments while hiding behind a user name hey dragon master? I’m sure you want the police to worry about the level of force they use when you or one of your loved ones is in a dire situation. I’m sure if not enough force was used you would be the first person on here complaining about it. Time to worry less about the criminals and their rights.

So who is pressing these charges? The violent male with the knife?

We don’t know the whole story at all. Perhaps the arrested individual should be happy that the officer didn’t use his gun instead of the CEW.

The RCMP needs a union to represent and support the officers on the street. Would this charge even be considered in Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto where they have union representation?

As a boy I watched as police when they wanted to arrest somebody go into a bar armed with billy clubs usually 3 or 4 officers to arrest a subject and if he resisted they beat him with a billy club til he surrendered or was unconcious.

That was the norm in the ’70’s and early ’80’s then the advent of at the time non lethal weapons made things easier for the police but they were still forced to pull their service weapons a lot. Then came the ’90’s and the time of the bleeding heart cry babies who wanted tighter controls on police.

They got their wishes and then some and now when a police officer touches a suspect they almost have to file a 15 page report on how and why they touched the suspect. Now the suspect actually has more rights than the police officer and a civilian.

You got what you wanted and now every time an officer spits it makes front page news. I say go back to the old days with billy clubs at least criminals knew that it was going to hurt if they resisted.you do the crime you pay the price.

I see that while the rate of crime has decreased over the last 30 decades or so in Canada, the police use of weapons has also become more restricted over the same time period.

I wonder whether there is a correlation between the two. ;-)

Maybe we could reinstate billy club beatings and see if the crime rate will go up.

I know Chad on a non police basis, and he always struck me as one of the more level headed people I’ve met, so I’m quite surprised by this.

But, I think the best solution to deal with this excessive use of force problem, is those who think they police are getting too heavy handed, volunteer to ride with them. Then, when the police come up against a violent situation, they can ask the ride alone what level of force is appropriate. If the ride alone says something like – physical restraint, and the officer disagrees and feels CEW would be better, the ride alone can try and physically restrain the suspect, and if it doesn’t work, then the officer can use his CEW.

Violent guy with a knife…
Violent guy with a knife…
Violent guy with a knife…

Neither the suspect nor the cop were injured, and the public was protected, sounds like a win/win to me.

Ammonra is right.(can’t believe I typed that). 2 years to file charges?? Are you kidding? As for you police supporters, they have intoduced this level of sceptisism themselves with the many documented and vidio evidence of police abuse. Kicking people in the head, etc. We all know they have a tough job, but they are all not “Dudly do-rights”.

Using an electrode to make an arrest should only be used in the most serious of cases if at all. Its a complete violation of a persons right to risk killing them through a ‘no-fault’ device.

We don’t know the facts here. Thats what the courts are for. I would think if the guy was violent at time of arrest the prosecutors would have factored this in and not laid charges… obviously something is amiss here.

Was suspect not resisting arrest and no prior criminal record? We don’t know. Was the ‘call’ of a violent male with a knife not based on facts, but rather vindictiveness by the ‘caller’? Was the approach taken of guilty until proven innocent without any time taken to assess the situation?

What is ‘called in’ and what is actually happening can be two entirely different things depending on who makes the call and what their motives are.

I don’t think prosecutors who work closely with the RCMP would forward charges if they didn’t think something was amiss with the officers behavior. At this point the court of law should clear things up as to what the real situation was in this case.

Some key words in the story above are ‘no injuries sustained’ and ‘suspect’. This tells me they had no reason to lay charges or the suspect would have been charged with something. That is a red flag right there.

I think the comments by Supt. Eric Stubbs are entirely appropriate and in line with a rule of law society. That is the good news story here IMO.

Would you like my name address and phone number constable Number4 ???

Are you for real or are you having reading comprehension difficulties?

Walk in an officers shoes for a few weeks and then let’s discuss this issue again. You couldn’t pay me enough to put up with the abuse, ridicule, threats and assaults these folks do on a daily basis. Imagine going to work every day and having to put up with this BS?

While I am concerned with apparent mis-use of force by police, I can certainly appreciate the difficult job they have to do. The numbers of deranged individuals in the public continues to rise out of proportion due to use of crystal meth and crack, and (oh joy) now “bath salts” Bad enough that some folks lose all reason just with alcohol, nowadays the cops have far more to deal with than their predecessors, and many more restrictions on how they are permitted to respond. There will always be mistakes, the police are human, there will be bad apples too, but you get that at every level of society, everywhere, and the police force is not immune.
Let’s wait for the trial before we convict this constable, shall we?
metalman.

Eagleone

“Was the approach taken of guilty until proven innocent”

You must be refering to your comments and looking to find the constable guilty until proven innocent.
Have read some of your posts in the past and wonder if you ever find anything good to say about the police and their tough job,always looking to find fault.Who do or will you run to if a problem arrises?

They had to lay indictable charges since the matter happened two yrs ago. This is just a polictical move by crown or should I say clown counsel.Something stinks here or perhaps the boy’s parents laid a private information. They evidently threw out the use of force study done by the west vancouver police.

Just because the constable was charged it doesn’t mean he is guilty. He is doing administrative duties because being on the road right now with the stress of a court case coming up would be a good idea.

Since he was previously cleared by a use of force expert, and he was on the job, I would hope he has a department of justice lawyer acting in his defense. Should be interesting seeing a flunky crown lawyer from the lower end of the graduating class go up against a cream of the cropper.