Police allegedly beat innocent East Vancouver man

[grumpydigger]

Police pursuing bank robber get wrong guy, then learn there was no robbery Police allegedly beat innocent East Vancouver man - British Columbia - CBC News

Vancouver police are caught in an embarrassing situation in which they're accused of beating up a man who they thought was a bank robber. Not only was he not the right guy — it turned out no bank had been robbed.
Manjit Singh says he had just taken his garbage out the curb of his home near Joyce Street and Kingsway when a police officer approached him.
“He pushed me on the fence,” said Singh, 51.
Other officers then swarmed him and started beating him up, Singh said.
"One guy put the knee on my neck, one guy put the knee on my legs,” he said. “They start kicking me … powerful kicks. Left, right, left, right."
Singh's wife says an officer told her Singh had just committed a crime.
"He said [Singh] just robbed two banks and he dropped something off over there and I said, 'No he just dropped off the garbage there,'" said Sarita Shankaran.
Issue apologies

The Vancouver Police Department acknowledges six of its police officers were investigating a possible bank robbery in the area when Singh was confronted.
Another man was eventually apprehended, but was later released after police realized no offence had actually been committed.
As part of an internal police investigation into what happened, three officers arrived at Singh's house Friday but Shankaran turned them away.
She said the family is seeking legal advice.
Vancouver police are not hesitating to admit the error.
"We're sorry, we've apologized yesterday and we've apologized today,” said spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness. “Chief [Jim] Chu called and spoke to the family on the phone last night."
The case appears to be similar to an incident in 2010 when South Vancouver resident Yao Wei Wu was pulled out of his home and roughed up by two plainclothes officers who mistook him for another man who had allegedly assaulted his wife.
"I need justice now,” said Singh, who suffered cuts, bruises and apparent trauma. “Why they attack on one innocent guy? They can talk to me nicely."

The major problem I have, is that once they have the suspect subdued and there's four or five cops surrounding him they seem to take great pride at taking turns putting the boots to him while he's on the ground........

Not to worry though,the Vancouver police will investigate the RCMP.......LOL

 

[Ron in Regina]

Ever notice the word "allegedly" only comes up in the media when
it seems that someone is guilty beyond a doubt? Weird, eh?

1/2 a decade of investigation & an inquiry part way through, should
remove this far enough from the public mind for it to become a non
-issue.

 

[CDNBear]

Seems you guys really do have a serious problem with your Police services out west.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Seems you guys really do have a serious problem with your Police services out west.

In pockets. The RCMP in Saskatchewan (from my experience) are great to
deal with.

 

[CDNBear]

In pockets. The RCMP in Saskatchewan (from my experience) are great to
deal with.

The RCMP, York, OPP, Durham, Tdot and so on, Police services are decent here too.

But it seems that every couple weeks, we get another thread or contribution to ongoing threads, about Police misconduct out west.

Interesting.

 

[Ron in Regina]

It seems to be in clusters too (geographicly). Where there's smoke....

 

[grumpydigger]

Basically about 70% of the RCMP are stationed in British Columbia.....if that is a contributing factor.

 

[SLM]

My perception has always been that when these types of abuses, bad behaviours etc occur within a group, they continue to occur because the actions result in isolation both from the community and from other agencies. Then it just becomes this self-perpetuating cycle. They end up going on the defensive indefinitely and miss cleaning out the bad apples.

They definitely need a good house cleaning if this continues to happen.

 

[damngrumpy]

One person told me that if he were walking the streets alone at night and on one side was
a group of bikers and other a couple of cops he would chose the side with the bikers as he
said you are more apt to be attacked by the cops.
Seriously though, we have to have some civilian oversight as these people should not be
allowed to police themselves. In addition, Ron the reason alleged is use is for legal purposes.
If i say the attacker was and give a name, as a journalist and or a broadcaster I am liable for
saying they were guilty before trial. That goes for police or anyone else and why the term is
used. It is supposed to be used in all cases when reporting until a verdict is reached.

 

[Ron in Regina]

My perception has always been that when these types of abuses, bad behaviours etc occur within a group, they continue to occur because the actions result in isolation both from the community and from other agencies. Then it just becomes this self-perpetuating cycle. They end up going on the defensive indefinitely and miss cleaning out the bad apples.

They definitely need a good house cleaning if this continues to happen.

...or for where these things do happen, and the consequences turn
out to be a joke, repeat and escallating behaviour occurs. If it's snuffed
out early, the opposite happens and it's a done deal with little to no
negative publicity. Just an opinion.

 

[Ariadne]

Ottawa police beat innocent woman

Ottawa Police Beats Innocent Woman at Police Department - YouTube

 

[CDNBear]

I guess you're from out west. LOL.

 

[L Gilbert]

I think the word "west" has someone caused a kind of a complex in the cops out here in the west. Some seem to act like this is 1865 or something. Cops need posses nowadays, they have shootemups sometimes with unarmed "bad guys", etc.

 

[SLM]

...or for where these things do happen, and the consequences turn
out to be a joke, repeat and escallating behaviour occurs. If it's snuffed
out early, the opposite happens and it's a done deal with little to no
negative publicity. Just an opinion.

Of course. Many people sit right on the edge of the "us vs them" mentality when it comes to law enforcement in the first place.

When these things happen and the response is "we apologize" or "we're investigating" and nothing ever changes it does enormous damage to the public trust. It just erodes it. Dealing with the problem head on, even being perceived to be doing that, would go a long way. But they too can and do succumb to the "us vs them" mentality, they close ranks and go on the defensive. At least, that's how I perceive it. And that just perpetuates the problem, because the next violation of public trust doesn't need to be real, it just needs to be perceived as being a violation. So the cycle continues.

So you're right, if they were held to the same standard for violating the rules as the rest of the population, there would be a better relationship with the public at large. And I think these incidents would be few and far between.

Just my two cents.

 

[Ariadne]

I guess you're from out west. LOL.

I don't think one has to be from the East or West to know that police screw up across the country from time to time. It always makes the National headlines.

 

[L Gilbert]

I don't think one has to be from the East or West to know that police screw up across the country from time to time. It always makes the National headlines.

The frequency of events is a bit disturbing, though.

 

[Ariadne]

The frequency of events is a bit disturbing, though.

It's completely unacceptable ... and the internal review should not give those officers another chance to do the same thing. Their judgment is clearly not working properly and they need either retraining or another line of work.

 

[L Gilbert]

It's completely unacceptable ... and the internal review should not give those officers another chance to do the same thing. Their judgment is clearly not working properly and they need either retraining or another line of work.

Which is what I meant by my reference to the Old West and in particular to Wyatt Earp style of law enforcement: shoot first and then figure out what's going on, gunwhip anyone that gets in your way, any perceived perp is 99% guilty right away.

 

[Cannuck]

Our locals are at it again. Two officers walked into the local pub and berated the owner for all sorts of things she couldn't possibly be responsible for. It was so bad, she went to speak with the detachment commander who told her that it must have been a communication problem as one of the officers involved was French (he speaks perfect English). She`s laying a formal complaint against the officers so it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I`ve always thought that a provincial police force was not the answer as it would not be an efficient use of taxpayers money but with each and every story I hear about incompetent RCMP officers, I`m more inclined to accept that option.

 

[taxslave]

Our locals are at it again. Two officers walked into the local pub and berated the owner for all sorts of things she couldn't possibly be responsible for. It was so bad, she went to speak with the detachment commander who told her that it must have been a communication problem as one of the officers involved was French (he speaks perfect English). She`s laying a formal complaint against the officers so it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I`ve always thought that a provincial police force was not the answer as it would not be an efficient use of taxpayers money but with each and every story I hear about incompetent RCMP officers, I`m more inclined to accept that option.

BC had a provincial police force at one time. It was disbanded because of rampant corruption. Ever since I can remember VPD has been little more that a criminal organization.