ishmael n. daro

I’m not one of those people who causes a fuss every time a police officer sneezes, screaming “POLICE STATE!” However, the case of Yao Wei Wu does make me question whether we are not becoming more and more accepting of state violence.

Here’s the story. On January 21, two Vancouver police officers were dispatched to respond to a domestic violence call in Mr. Wu’s apartment building. According to Mr. Wu, the officers knocked on his door, and when he answered they forced their way inside, dragged him out of the apartment, and proceeded to beat him. The only problem is that the police officers had the wrong guy. They even had the wrong apartment. The domestic violence they were sent to investigate was on the other side of the building.

Mr. Wu is a Chinese immigrant with little English. As the police officers went about beating him senseless in front of his terrified wife and children, he had no way of communicating that this was a case of mistaken identity. They handcuffed the 44-year-old construction worker and a bystander who happened to ask why the two officers — in plain clothes — were brutalizing him.

Police Chief Jim Chu has since offered an apology on behalf of the Vancouver Police Department.

Although everyone is understandably horrified that Mr. Wu was beaten — so savagely that he has been unable to return to work due to bruising to his knees and back, as well as fractures around his eye — the outrage has largely been because the police officers got the wrong apartment. Very little ink, if any, has been spilled about the fact that the two police officers in question were determined to forcefully enter someone’s home and beat them even if it had been the right apartment. Of course, there is no way to know that for sure, but given that they gave Mr. Wu no time to respond, forcefully entered his home, and went about beating the defenceless man suggests they would have done the same to the true culprit on the other side of the building.

Today’s National Post reported today on Mr. Wu’s efforts to sue the city and the police with the following headline: “Vancouver resident files lawsuit against police for mistaken beating.” Evidently, it wasn’t the fact that the police officers in question were committed to beating a defenceless man on the mere suspicion of wrongdoing. No, it was that they beat the wrong guy! But as most journalists will gripe, they don’t write the headlines; it’s the editors who do that. So here’s the first part of the article:

A Vancouver resident mistakenly beaten by police at his home earlier this year has filed a lawsuit against the city, two officers and the municipality of Delta.

So the only messy part of this story is that Yao Wei Wu was mistakenly beaten. Because if the cops had beaten the right guy, no problem.