Police Folk Allegedly Behaving Badly
- Thread starter Bruce Monkhouse
- Start date
Nor the first time they’ve used the same fundraising address website after said interaction.
The timing of the camera pan makes it tricky, but for him to get from where he was when it panned away to where he was when it panned back, it looks to me like he would have to have been trying to push through and pat the officer. That’s typically not well received by VIP members.
Legally speaking, verbalizing the arrest gives the officer quite a bit more immediately leeway to physically control the situation. An arrest is not a charge and doesn’t necessitate a charge being laid, and the lawfulness of an arrest is not contingent on whether a charge ends up being laid; that comes down to officer’s discretion.
We will probably none of us get much further detail until and unless a lawsuit is actually filed and discovery is made public in a few years. From my ability to quickly google and check CanLII, doesn’t look like there’s anything published yet from the similar lawsuit that was announced by the same organization two years ago after one of their employees was slightly injured at the convoy. Just so people have a sense of timeframes.
Halifax Tar
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It was a an awesome pick...
Speaking hypothetically and generally, yes, crown would have to establish that the accused knew the victim was a police officer. The offense is described well at this site:
Assault Peace Officer (Offence) - Criminal Law Notebook
Considerations would include the officer’s dress, actions, the context, whether the accused could otherwise be shown to have knowledge that would establish they knew the victim was police, etc.
Simple assault would be a lesser and included offense; if crown didn’t think they could prove knowledge that someone was a police officer, they could still prosecute simple assault.
All of that presupposes that crown believes a prosecution is in the public interest.
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I think Canadians are a bit too comfortable in lack of consequences for being pricks and invading peoples space. How many countries could you try and push through a security cordon to ask the Deputy PM, Vice Pres or whatever of the country and only get fairly politely arrested (vice shot, beaten, piled on etc)?
Even for celebrity VIPs they'd get pushed back harder than that when some total rando runs up to someone on the street; it's not a press scrum when you ambush someone walking down the sidewalk.
I think they probably would have been better off pushing him away and telling him to back off and then arresting him if he tried to push past them, but same guy will probably whinge about snowflakes while being 10 ply.
daftandbarmy
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QV
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I suggest the revolving door of our justice system is the reason. In Canada one can do 15 B&Es and be walking the streets, so why can't you ask ignorant questions to a minister or have bouncy castle parties on the streets of Ottawa?
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It's hard to tell from what we see but it doesn't look to me like a secure area so he might not have had to push through anything. The sidewalk area certainly didn't look secure and she doesn't appear to have had a bodyguard. I believe the PM was at that event as well so the members out from were likely his security detail; either an advance team waiting around the entrance for him to show up or he was already there and they were securing the venue. There' sa number of black SUVs parked there.
The reporter looks to me like he could have been working the Deputy PM towards the wall (or she moved towards the wall to draw him in). I've seen cops handle aggressive panhandlers the same way when they were squeezing a pedestrian.
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Except the reporter was never charged. The RCMP arrested him, then handed him over to local police who simply took him around the building and released him without incident.
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“…push through a security cordon…”
Were you watching the same video as the rest of us?
Looking for the cordon…
Seems the LE was site-specific, unless I’m missing how CP works
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I think the arrest was unwarranted and the RCMP CP Team handled it poorly... thankfully the local Police were a little wiser and simply took Mr. Menzies around the corner and released him... absolving them of any criticism, potential lawsuits and hits to their professional reputation.
Mr. Menzies was standing right in the middle of the details vehicles. They played right in to his trap with their actions
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Yeah, sorry rewatched it, somehow must have skipped the initial bit straight to the 'pick' manuever.
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I think the arrest was unwarranted and the RCMP CP Team handled it poorly... thankfully the local Police were a little wiser and simply took Mr. Menzies around the corner and released him... absolving them of any criticism, potential lawsuits and hits to their professional reputation.
Mr. Menzies was standing right in the middle of the details vehicles. They played right in to his trap with their actions
If the detail was there to protect Freeland they were doing a pisspoor job of it given that she and her aide had to walk down the sidewalk to reach the detail.
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Right. I was curious along the lines of can police arrest people knowing that there weren't any legitimate charges. Arresting someone in bad faith or something along those lines.
The RCMP officer setting Menzies up to bump into him then crying assault seems like a bogus arrest.
Exercising discretion not to charge does not mean lawful grounds to charge do not exist, nor does it invalidate an arrest. Grounds to arrest without warrant are found in s.495 of the Criminal Code and offer considerable leeway to a police officer acting in good faith who has reasonable grounds to believe an offence is being or has been committed. Any of us who’ve worked on the road have had many instances where we’ve arrested someone to get a situation under control, then elected not to charge them and released them without process. Establishing a false arrest would require that an officer fails to articulate that these lawful grounds for warrantless arrest exists. The onus is on the officer to establish that they did, but it’s not a particularly high bar, and releasing someone without process doesn’t automatically start some other process.
No doubt there will be a public complaint, which would get investigated. If the complaint investigator finds against the officer then presumably a disciplinary/conduct investigation would start. Personally, from what we see, I wouldn’t be worried about it.
No doubt there will be a public complaint, which would get investigated. If the complaint investigator finds against the officer then presumably a disciplinary/conduct investigation would start. Personally, from what we see, I wouldn’t be worried about it.
A useful ten minute primer: Warrantless Arrests - Criminal Law Notebook
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So, how can a police officer meet the minimum standards when they are prohibited by law from using a firearm?
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I'd say the same way not a zero percentage of military folks can't pass a fitness test....
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