Stacey Bonds, a young black makeup artist with no criminal history was arrested by
The facts of Ms. Bonds’ treatment bear repeating.
Ms. Bonds was walking on
In response, the police arrested her for public intoxication and handcuffed her. As Ontario Court Judge Richard Lajoie later held, Ms. Bonds was not drunk. Once Bonds was taken to Ottawa Police headquarters, the judge noted that she was anything but "violent or aggressive." As can be clearly seen in the video, Ms. Bonds is much smaller than the police who confronted her.
In spite of the lack of violence or aggression, Ms. Bonds was assaulted by police. Judge Lajoie found she was the victim of "two extremely violent knee hits in the back ... and has her hair pulled back and her face shoved forward." Although it is hard to see exactly what happened afterwards because one police officer is blocking the video camera, it appears that a female police officer hurt her leg; she is seen limping in a later part of the video. Perhaps that injury explains what appears to be increasing hostility as the video continues. Ms. Bonds was forced to the ground with a riot shield — though she was “not resisting with hands flailing or feet flailing,” the judge said — and subjected to a strip search. The video shows four male and one female officer taking part in, or watching, as Ms. Bonds was forced to the ground.
Judge Lajoie severely criticized police actions at the station, saying "there is no reasonable explanation ... to have cut Ms. Bonds’ shirt and bra off, and there is no reason, apart from vengeance and malice, to have left Ms. Bonds in the cell for a period of three hours and 15 minutes half-naked and having soiled her pants, before she received what is called a blue suit”. Judge Lajoie, on considering a charge that Ms. Bonds assaulted police, “that is an indignity toward a human being and should be denounced."
As a prosecutor and as a defence lawyer I have heard numerous complaints about police misconduct. I have argued cases where an accused, charged with assaulting police, claims to have been the victim of police violence. Such claims have until now, I am afraid to admit, usually rung hollow with me. To be blunt, I did not believe them. I know that police have a difficult job. Police are often faced with violent, intoxicated, individuals who have no regard for the truth and who will say whatever they think will get them out of trouble. It is all too easy to assume that complaints about police brutality are false claims made to avoid the consequences of criminal wrongdoing.
However, the Stacey Bonds case shows a Canadian being mistreated by police in the Nation’s Capital. Compounding the wrongful behavior was the laying of charges for the apparent purpose of covering up misconduct. How many “assault police” charges are merely trumped up for the purpose of concealing official wrongdoing? Put otherwise, absent a video recording would Ms. Bonds have had a fair hearing? The likely answer is depressing.
There is a malaise in the system. How could five police officers have taken part in the brutalization of Stacey Bonds and then allowed charges for “assault police” to go ahead? How could a Crown Attorney have failed to stay charges on seeing the video? More generally, how is it that people whose job it is to see justice done acted so unjustly. The system as a whole takes a beating when abuse occurs. Trust in the system is eroded.
To fix the problems the Bonds case uncovered will be difficult. Yes, videotaping all police/citizen interactions will help and should be mandated. More broadly a new professionalism is required in the justice system.
A free nation does not fear intimidation by police or the state. A free people can ask “why” when stopped by police. An honorable police is not afraid to explain its actions to the people it there to protect. Nelson Mandela rightly said, “I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.” For the sake of all Canadians a case like that of Stacey Bonds matter must never be allowed to happen again.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Citizen+obtains+video+Stacy+Bonds+jailhouse+abuse/3883952/story.html
17 comments:
As a professional legal researcher
, I've found that in cases like these, it helps to see how the courts have considered the various pieces of evidence and testimonies in similar fact situations.
Though such matters often do come down to considerations of credibility, a review of similar cases will often help you identify issues for consideration that are not so readily apparent when approaching a case such as this in isolation.
Agreed
Great article, James, and I linbked to the Citizen version.
With all due respect, CL, the facts were clear enough for the judge--this is just legal bafflegab. The prosecutor in this case must have been out of his mind.
Bet if she hadn't been black or a female, she would have been treated less brutally. Disgraceful police behaviour.
Perhaps police feel less vulnerable to prosecution after the precedent set by their fellow officers at the G20. There is no full public inquiry and charges have not been laid. It seems to be a disturbing escalation of this kind of behaviour and sends a chilling message to citizens.
I dont think you accurately reflected the contents of the video. In my view, Ms Bonds was resisting the officers, you can see her struggling with them.
I think that when you're in police custody, you do what they tell you to do. You dont resist them or you risk treatment such as this. I didnt see any egregious beatings of the subject. I dont believe the use of the riot shield was unjustified. It appears that ms Bonds kicked the female officer in the leg, and I dont blame officers for protecting themselves.
I dont think that just because a Judge says something was bad, it was bad. In my view, this is not the hot-button issue it is being made out to be.
And In every article I read, ms Bonds WAS drunk at the time of arrest. Where did you find that she wasnt?
Is Canada becoming a police state? Thank god for cameras -- how much worse are they when they know no-one can see. I used to respect police but am starting to fear them and believe abuse allegations more readily.
Let's keep another very important point in mind. If Ms. Bonds is represented by counsel before a court of law, then it's a matter of the court weighing the quality of her lawyer's evidence against the quality of the evidence put forward by counsel from the other side.
If a lower court clearly shows bias against Ms. Bonds' Toronto police assault case, the quality of her evidence is on record for a higher court to rule on, at least in regard to the question of bias.
As for my own biases, yes, I come at this as a lawyer and as a professional legal researcher, but I honestly have to say that, at least when such matters hit the courts, the system is generally fair and logical.
Admittedly, the main problems that arise in these Toronto police assault cases really have to do with access to quality counsel. And admittedly, I haven't read this particular case, but when you read enough cases, you do appreciate the extent to which the courts are compelled to fairly judge and weigh the evidence, even if you think you've seen all you need to see on that video.
No judge, after all, is keen to have their discretion called into question by a ruling of bias by a higher court.
And let us all keep in mind that evidence in these cases is usually weighed through a publicly accessible, and often published, decision.
That does not happen at all in a police state. Canada is far from being one.
I find it hard to believe that as a prosecutor and defence lawyer you find this case to be an 'exception', rather than the rule? You obviously do not have a clue as to what is really going on, on the streets of our cities and towns throughout this great land with police violence escalating over recent years against citizens, including tasering and murders happening almost on a daily basis. We now live in a sanctioned 'police state' brought about in large part by the Harpercons and until 'privileged and influential' people such as yourself either fall victim themselves or get out of your ivory towers and recognize and do something about it, the bodies and carnage will continue to pile up.
I've always enjoyed reading your posts and believe you to be a good and honest man, but your naiveté and/or complicity in the injustices that are being perpetrated on the people in our country by the state makes me wonder about the ‘bubble world’ you must live in, and thereby, I question your judgement on these matters... and now even your integrity is now in question by me as well.
Shame on you for supporting or turning a blind eye to the fascist police state many ordinary Canadians have come to find to their horror that we now live under.
John Prince,
are you for real? Police murdering people on a daily basis? Canada a police state?
you should try venturing outside canada and see 'justice' in outher countries. Canada is about the farthest thing from a police state that there is. Rights in Canada are protected much more vigorously than most other areas.
The fact that we are allowed to see this video and talk about it openly should be proof that we are NOT in a police state.
Anon @12:16
Tell that to Stacey Bonds or the ones arrested at the G20, or the numerous other examples that appear almost daily in Canadian newspapers throughout our land.
If things play out as normal... The fact that we are allowed to see this video and talk about it openly should be proof that we are NOT in a police state.... that will be all that happens here i.e. we will have seen a video with a lot of crying and moaning by the public but then things will revert back to the same old same old i.e. the land of Alabama during the fifties, and nothing 'substantive' will happen. Mainly because of the 'apologists' and 'deniers' such as you, allowing the mayhem to continue due in large part to your ignorance and mistaken believe that we still live in the land of the free and brave. There is nothing ‘free’ about freedom in this country as anyone who has ever been subjected to the indignity’s and abuse of power by those entrusted to serve and protect will tell you.
In conclusion, I believe if an honest poll was done on this subject the results would prove my case and open the eyes of blind zealots such as you to what the true reality is for many forced to live in fear and tyranny from the police and justice system in this country.
"The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." - Anatole France
John Prince,
No one denies the existence of police assault, but that is an endemic problem in all countries, democratic or otherwise. The crucial difference is that we do have a reasonably fair system in place to address clear, blatant abuses, but keep in mind that the system is not set up to passively address all such abuses in the absence of citizen initiative.
What I'm talking about here is the major problem of access to counsel for the poor. Rather than passively bemoan a "police state", I put it to you that you can take the initiative and gather around like-minded people to fund a suit on behalf of Ms. Bonds.
If the evidence of abuse (or, essentially, unjustified police conduct) is put firmly before a court, then a court is compelled to address the evidence put before it by counsel, and it must do it in an open, publicly accessible fashion, with clear rationales and explanations put forth, with its discretion subject to review by a higher court. That's the system you live under. You can either use it for optimal effect on behalf of the abused or you can mischaracterize it.
On your allegation of murders (presumably police-initiated murders) happening "almost daily", that's certainly news to me. I would like to see the statistics on that.
In the end, you should realize that a system does exist to address police abuses of power. But since police counsel will assuredly buck many accusations of misconduct, it is up to an engaged citizenry to ensure that those who experience abuse, and who cannot afford access to counsel, can use the system to their benefit.
Surely, no true police state would ever provide even a modicum of such an opportunity. Ultimately, the ball is in your court as a concerned citizen to see that justice is done.
CooperLegal,
... we do have a reasonably fair system in place to address clear, blatant abuses...
Only if it is caught on video as hard evidence it seems, and not because of a system that is working. In fact, the system is not working when there is no accountability. Police know they have more or less a blank cheque to do as they please because of the lack of civilian oversight in many cases across the land and/or a justice system that is more geared and prone to protect those they consider to be one of their own (an ‘us’ against ‘them’ mentality) which was clearly shown by the prosecutor in the Bonds case. Repeat this case a thousand fold and there is your justice system of which I speak and of which you plead ignorance of.
Murders by police of our citizens is happening but proving such seems to be an impossible task as evidenced by the lack of prosecutions. If I’m not mistaken, I believe no police officer in this country has ever been found guilty of murdering a civilian (or only a handful at most) since confederation, which of course is a statistical improbability.
However, the ‘killings’ of civilians is easier to prove as the dead bodies keep piling up with alarming regularity, as even a cursory inspection of the records by a lawyer such as yourself can easy attest to.
I believe as one working in the system it is more incumbent on you to stand up and fix what is broken, rather than trying to entice me do it for you by rounding up people to line your pockets. It is people such as yourself that are the problem rather than the solution, because you have to know what is going on and what is not going on that should be. And yet your profession does little to nothing, probably because it would cut into your paycheques as lawyers, I'm thinking? As with you guys it’s always about the money, isn't it?
Below is a link to a blog of mine that clearly shows the abuse by our police forces with their use of the Taser. Take a look at it for examples of torture and murder and then go to YouTube and watch some videos there on police brutality and bear in mind that these are only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak with untold others that were not caught on tape. Afterwards I’m sure you will rethink your position and come out of the obvious state of denial you have been under. Now whether that is due to a lack of experience, work (business), or living a sheltered life I do not know but I do know you need to visit your local ghetto more, speak to the people and listen to their stories and leave the cocktail circle alone for a while, as most of them are to busy figuring out how to line their pockets than what is going on down 'in the hood'.
http://blog.johnprince.ca/2008/12/land-of-taser-home-of-slave.html
In closing let me just say that a justice system that condones abuse of its citizenry by turning a blind eye to transgressions by the police is an accomplice, and as such is as guilty as the abusers... and yes the situation is endemic.
Social inequality is spreading and we are fast becoming a fascist totalitarian society where 'wage and debt slavery' has taken root. We have justice for the rich and well connected (recent Attorney General road rage killing of a cyclist in Toronto and the RCMP cop in Vancouver who killed someone while driving drunk, who also happened to be one of the guys who Tasered to death the Polish guy at the Vancouver International Airport, a while back). As a result, look around, we are in the midst of a police state with 'class warfare' happening in more neighbourhoods than you can shake a stick at. Therefore, yes, we are becoming a society of “Justice for the Rich and the Law for the Poor”. Thanks in large part to the Harpercons and their wholesale sell off of Canada to the highest bidder, while keeping the populace in line, of course, with threats of Gestapo tactics on city streets as demonstrated by them recently at the G20 in Toronto.
Sometimes these shows of security force are staged precisely because the cameras are there. Cameras sometimes skew the point of view. It's also shocking to see that similar police tactics are being used elsewhere.
Those in higher political positions in our society need to find out who is giving the orders for this heavy-handed policing and why.
Anon Deux
How it can be defined?
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