Quit Hitting Yourself -- Funny Kids Game or not too funny Police Tactic?

Well, maybe it's me... maybe I don't have much of a sense of humour, or any at all.

http://www.calgarysun.com/news/columnists/gerry_forbes/2009/07/19/10185071-sun.html

If the jokes weren't truth, they might be funny, but the jokes represent the truth and as such, they are a little too close to the rather flippant manner in which SOME (not all) CPS go about the business of interacting with Calgaryians.

Seriously, imagine the reality of what many citizens have experienced: being proned, face digging into the concrete, with arms roughly pulled behind the back. Handcuffs are used, so tight that the steel cuts to the bone. The citizen says things like, they are too tight; it hurts; please loosen them only to be told things such as:

"Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they are new. They'll stretch out after you wear them for awhile."

This joke is akin to the kids game, "quit hitting yourself", which actually finds its way into the occasional interaction involving police and citizen. I have heard and read reports of precisely this. Citizen is proned out and is consistently told, "quit resisting, quit resisting" (and of course they are not) -- all the while the officer continues to dig the knee into the small of the back -- amongst other things...

And when the citizen wants to complain, it is told things such as:

"So you want to talk to the shift supervisor? I don't think it will help because I'm the shift supervisor."

You get the point of that one...

Not too funny....

But when the occasional complaint goes public, the Chief, Calgary Police Association President and others will be quick to extol the virtues of the alleged, offending officer -- maybe even before the investigation has been completed. Again, not too funny....

Incidentally, has anybody heard of what has happened with the investigation into the death of Harley the dog?


http://andjusticeforall-calgary.blogspot.com/2009/07/token-investigation-investigation-into.html

We are waiting... and I am not laughing...

David G. Chow
Calgary Criminal Defence Lawyer

http://www.calgarydefence.com/