... ishmael n. daro | violence

Posts tagged ‘violence’

March 25th, 2010

Victoria Police kicking it old school

Here’s a great video shot in Victoria, B.C. less than a week ago. On March 20, police were called to break up a bar brawl. In their efforts to detain some of the suspects, one officer whose name has not been revealed (dressed in yellow) resorts to some pretty powerful kicks in order to subdue two men.

Video:

The first man is already on the ground and seemingly struggling against two police officers. In comes Officer Yellowjacket, who stomps on the suspect, then winds up to deliver a football kick to his lower back.

He then points to a man on the median and tells him to get on the ground. The man complies but is still rushed by another officer who attempts to handcuff him. Yellowjacket, perhaps a soccer player or football kicker in a previous life, decides that this suspect too needs some encouragement and delivers another powerful (and audible) kick to the suspects arm (ribs?).

There’s no knowing what the full context of this altercation was and the police officer’s conduct may not be as bad as this video clip makes it seem.

According to the Victoria Times Colinist:

[Victoria Police Chief Jamie] Graham said the three police officers involved in the incident — part of a late-night task-force foot patrol — had just left the Victoria Social Club in Market Square and stumbled upon the drunken fight. They found a “helpless unconscious man lying on the sidewalk being kicked in the head,” he said.

The police officers worked to disperse the crowd and save the man being assaulted. If in their efforts to avoid potentially life-threatening injuries to that man the officers got a little rough in the heat of the moment, it can probably be excused. However, the sheer force used by Ol’ Yellowjacket is offputting. After all, aren’t police officers trained to stay calm under stress or has police training come to include a little too much soccer practice?

One wonders why, in an age when most people have video-capable devices on them at all times, Officer Yellowjacket thought he could subdue the suspects with such force and not have it come back to haunt him.

My favourite part of the video is the handcuffed man in white leaning against a light pole. As the second suspect is violently subdued, he does his best to blend into the background — something pretty difficult when you’re a large fellow squatting in the middle of the street.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Buzz
  • PrintFriendly
  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in news | No Comments »

Tags: ,
March 5th, 2010

Our ever-sinking moral standards


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.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google Buzz
  • PrintFriendly
  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in news | No Comments »

Tags: ,