Ottawa cops in hot water, again.

A video allegedly showing police brutality in the ByWard Market late Friday night has prompted a review into the incident by the Ottawa police, says police Chief Charles Bordeleau. The shaky video appears to show a man being forced to the ground by three police officers. While being held by officers, the video documents one officer punching the man in the upper body and head area as many as a dozen times. The one-minute video does not show how the altercation began, nor does it show police taking any suspects away. 

From here. 

I heard this report on Radio-Canada. The police chief "invites" witnesses to step forward to share what they observed.

Given what happened to these women who witnessed and reported police violence in their neighbourhood, I'd think that people might feel threatened by the legal bullying tactics that cops exert inside the courtroom in addition to their illicit, intimidating reprisals.

Also, a reminder: What every citizen NEEDS to know about photographing and filming police officers in Canada, from here. 

UPDATE: A female witness who was there that night "could not corroborate the police account of what happened at the scene..." She also said: "The cops showed up and made it so much worse". From here. 
  
I predict that cops will intimidate and frighten this witness into changing her recollection of what she observed.

UPDATED AGAIN: Ontario Ombudsman André Marin reprimands the Ottawa Police Service.

The same day Bordeleau initiated the complaint, he also sent an internal email to the force’s rank-and-file reminding them that “the job of a police officer is a difficult one and we all know that enhanced scrutiny is a fact in our role.”

Bordeleau also wrote that officers have the public’s confidence and his confidence and respect for the work they do.

Marin says morale-boosting comments by the chief or even officers identifying Fairbairn and saying he’s a great guy, are innocuous enough, but when officers start giving their personal assessment on the extent of the force used by Fairbairn in the altercation, they influence the investigation and the likelihood that witnesses, civilian or uniformed, who saw evidence to the contrary, will come forward.

“The pursuit of the truth becomes pointless.”

Marin called for officers to use the same rigorous and strict process they use when investigating the public and to not show favouritism and partiality at the outset, just days after the incident.

This is how police forces roll.  A reminder of how cops intimidate those who witness their violence, here.

Evidence that some cops are indeed pigs.

A woman who was bound and sexually assaulted by her then-neighbour, Col. Russell Williams says the police left her tied up for five hours after responding to her 911 call.

Laurie Massicotte says Ontario Provincial Police officers told her they had to leave her in the harness, fashioned by Williams, until an OPP photographer arrived to take pictures of her in the restraint. [...] "Five hours, no medical attention. I was in total shock. I didn't know what the heck was going on." The OPP, she said, treated her like a criminal in the early hours of the investigation.

One officer told her neighbour, Massicotte said, that police suspected she was trying to "copycat" what happened to another sexual assault victim in Tweed, Ont., 12 days earlier.

From here.

Remember, the police did not release to the public any information or warnings with regard to the break-ins and sexual assaults to which women in that area had been subjected.

So how could she "copycat" those crimes? Instead of treating Massicotte like the victim of a crime, the cops assumed she was a perpetrator or complicit.

How many times does police malfeasance need to be proven before the criminal justice system expels these incompetent, sexist, brutal cops?

Don't get all testerical, Mr Police Chief.

The police chief of a small South Carolina town will ask a jury to decide if a woman broke the state's obscenity laws by driving a pickup truck with plastic testicles hanging from the back.

Bonneau Police Chief Franco Fuda ticketed Virginia Tice, 65, in early July at a local convenience store after spying the adornment dangling from her truck.

South Carolina law considers a bumper sticker, decal or device indecent when it describes, in an offensive way as determined by contemporary community standards, "sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body."

Right. So one would think that Bonneau cops hand those $447. tickets to every truck driver passing through town whose vehicle sports a version of the mudflap below, thus generating thousands of dollars in revenue for that hardscrabble burg.
That would be an incorrect assumption to make, however.

"This is certainly not a staple of my ticket writing in Bonneau," the police chief told Reuters on Wednesday.

From here.

State wildlife officer and registered nurse ...

There is a dearth of heroes these days. My co-blogger wrote about the Cons' testerical and shrieeky attempt to spin a StatsCan release about decreased crime reporting to their advantage.

Contempt Party senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu claimed last year that "those stats are being manipulated" but yesterday he backpedaled furiously when Radio-Canada asked exactly what he meant by that declaration.

It surprises me that, given what happened in Toronto during the G20, no one has suggested that people don't trust the police.

As well, there are more and more cases of cops' violence and criminal actions; reported incidents of the cops breaking laws, bullying people and disregarding the rights of complainants and alleged criminals have been caught on tape.

When their conduct is investigated, cops are ALWAYS exonerated.

So why report crime and get re-victimized by the police?

Thus it warms the heart and raises the spirit to hear about Shelley Hammonds, a state wildlife officer and registered nurse in Tennessee who spent three weeks tracking a starving black bear with a jar stuck on its head.

On June 28 [...] a utilities worker spotted it near the city of Newport water treatment plant. The bear had apparently been foraging in garbage.

Through days and weeks of sightings and near misses, Hammonds tried to capture the bear as temperatures hovered in the mid-30s each day.

“I honestly don't know how any creature on Earth could live through that kind of heat and dehydration, surviving on its own breath,” Hammonds said. “When you see an animal with such an incredible will to survive, you really want to help it.”

[...]Their paths crossed near Interstate 40 and she finally scored a direct hit with a tranquilizer dart. The bear eventually lay down in the parking lot of C&C Pawn Shop in Newport. Hammonds immediately hooked the bear up to an intravenous drip.

From 200 pounds, it was down to 115, she estimated.

One last word on police impunity. What does it take for a cop to lose his job? This, apparently.

Only in L.A. you say? Pity.

The People are Revolting!

Omigawd. Go to Canadian Cynic and check out CC's Viscount First Lord Twatrick-on-Dingleberry Monckton gets his comeuppance. Harumph.

His link will take you to TBogg's blogpost about Viscount Monckton, the ersatz leader of the Climate Change Denialists, telling the sad tale of his run-in with the forces of order, outside the conference centre where the UN global gathering unfolded.

Monckton, who looks like a un-handsome aged Mr Bean, bleats on and on about the unceremonious handling he gets from the Copenhagen riot police. Remember, in this context, he is a demonstrator, a protester in fact because the organizers have revoked the accreditation of most of the observers from non-governmental groups.

A choice quote from the Viscount:

"To assault an accredited representative of a conference your nation is hosting, and to do it while your own police cameramen are filming from above, and to do it without any provocation except my polite, non-threatening request that I should not be manhandled ..."

You get the picture; Monckton, oozing entitlement from every body orifice, is outraged, nay, OUTRAGED!!! at this travesty of democracy.

There's more to be read about Viscount Climate Change Denialist but it's noteworthy to mention that in 1999, he launched a highly profitable product called the Eternity Puzzle. The solution was provided before the deadline and Monckton claimed that he had to sell his modest mansion to pay for the prize. That turned out to be a lie, intended to promote sales of the puzzle.

The post's title is taken from Start The Revolution Without Me (or possible History of the World: Part I). Reading about Monckton's pseudo-tribulations reminds of the former's hilarious imbroglio, based upon the classic movie chestnut of aristocratic and peasant babies switched at birth.

One aspect of human nature that the film satirically explores is that human beings have the tendency to fight change to the point of being stupid and short-sighted, despite the seriousness of the situation. The Corsican Brothers and King Louie VI give the audience great examples of this.

Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland do a terrific job portraying the very different sets of twins, as both sets go through different adventures, fully showcasing their comedic talent and chemistry with each other. [...] Claude and Charles have an easier time pretending to be noblemen, and sort of roll with the punches, adapting their plan as they go, while Philippe and Pierre can't pretend or adapt at all, and wind up in the insane asylum for a while, a dirty and uncomfortable place for these noblemen.

Indeed.

"Sire, sire! The people are revolting! Yes, and they stink too!"

Viscount Monckton, snake-oil salesman of "nobility" and mouthpiece for privileged interests in maintaining the status quo.

Bad cop, bad cop.

From this blogsite: "Any time a law enforcement officer is accused of tarnishing the badge, it is an embarrassment to all the honest, hard-working members of this profession who work day in and day out to protect and serve with integrity." I discovered What Happened to Protect and Serve? when I was trying to track down earlier news items about James Talford, in regard to this:

A former member of a New York state police anti-terrorism unit has been ordered to stay away from two Canadian women he was accused of harassing.

A Buffalo City Court judge granted 45-year-old James Talford of Clarence a conditional discharge Tuesday on his guilty plea to non-criminal violation counts of harassment and disorderly conduct.

The judge also issued orders of protection to both women.

Talford was an investigator with the Buffalo office of the state police counterterrorism intelligence unit when he was arrested in late July. [His] lawyer said he retired from the state police about a month ago after 21 years with the agency.

It must have been terrifying for the women he harassed. I'm presuming that Talford said some very disturbing things that were likely recorded, in order for charges to be laid and for the case to come before a judge. He probably didn't phone to beg them to take him along the next time they indulged in a cross-border shopping spree. No. It's likely he threatened them. And when a guy who works with a state police counterterrorism intelligence unit threatens you, it's frightening. And serious.

So. Back to that blogsite. There are 62 posts with a 'death from Taser' label and an item about Inspector Steve Izzet - head of the Toronto police intelligence unit. Umm, what is it about 'intelligence units'? Is that where the dickheads get parked when none of the other units will take them? Izzet faces serious charges. According to this, a tribunal hearing was scheduled for the end of April. That was almost 6 months ago, there's been nothing in the news since then.