Mountie boots BC man in the face
p2pnet view Crime:- “The investigators arrived Tuesday afternoon and are making headway.
“They have approximately 40 witnesses to interview and have brought in three more investigators to expedite the investigation.”
It will “take time to conduct a proper probe”.
That’s RCMP superintendent Bill McKinnon quoted by the Province on the investigation into an appalling incident in which a Kelowna, BC man, Buddy Tavares, already on his knees, was kicked hard in the face by a Mountie, gun in hand.
The pic shows Tavares going down flat just after constable Geoff Mantler booted him in the teeth.
You don’t need 40 people to know it actually happened. It’s on a video.
Just like the death of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being tasered by four Mounties in another brutal BC police attack.
How many other ‘incidents’ go undiscovered or unreported because no one was around with a camera?
And they wonder why many (most) people are scared of the police.
Mantler, meanwhile, has been suspended from duty with pay.
Province – Protest planned over violent arrest, January 16, 2011
tasered by four Mounties – Cops to be charged in Dziekanski taser death?, June 30, 2010
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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January 16th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
It would have been “injured while resisting arrest” if a camera hadn’t been there.
January 16th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
KELOWNA, B.C.—A weekend rally is planned in Kelowna as angry Okanagan residents demand action against an RCMP officer accused of kicking a suspect.
Organizers are spreading the word on Facebook, calling supporters to gather at noon, Sunday, near downtown Kelowna for a march to the RCMP detachment.
The group wants Const. Geoff Mantler charged with assault after a video showed Kelowna resident Buddy Tavares being kicked in the head during an arrest Jan. 7.
Mantler is suspended with pay while an internal code-of-conduct probe is underway and members of the Abbotsford Police Department carry out a criminal investigation.
Tavares is charged with careless use of a firearm. RCMP have said the offence has “overtones” of a domestic violence situation, but Tavares was stopped after shots were fired at a Kelowna-area golf course.
The 51-year-old, on leave from his job at the course while recovering from a brain injury suffered in a recent motorcycle crash, says he was asked by his employer to use a shotgun to scare geese off the greens.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/922019–protest-planned-in-kelowna-over-mountie-seen-kicking-suspect
January 16th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
The fact that this is on video tape and yet this piece of filth pig has not been criminally charged goes to show you that the RCMP are nothing more than a bunch of gang-thugs that care more about protecting “their own” than doing what they are paid for which is to SERVE THE PUBLIC.
Believe me, if it had been anyone else who committed that assault on video they would have been immediately charged.
If justice is not SWIFT, this WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Let’s hope justice can happen within the judicial system lest it be handled extra-judicially by local angry citizens.
People, you need to protect yourself from criminals, both in and out of uniform. Some defence training goes a long way, and so does bear spray. And remember, ALWAYS carry a video camera and ALWAYS record the police. If they ask you to turn it off, refuse, and if they try to seize it, stand your ground and do what you have to do.
January 16th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
This incident as with other documented abuses of power of course will happen again here in BC and most likely across Canada. Until the time the BC government, their agents, and “the police forces” are held truly accountable for non-called for injuries and deaths they inflict to our innocent or should I say complying citizens of BC.
Shootings, tazering, baton/flash light and physical beatings of complying persons that are unfairly inflicted upon every age of our society happens much too often and then they “police forces” lie and say they were justified in ‘the actions’; whether they really have factual grounds or not.
It is an abuse of power plain and simple from the entire organization; which is horror. A citizen taking a video recording of incidents as they see them is also at risk. Remember it is our right to make those unworthy in our society accountable. The RCMP, BC Police services are now trying to negotiate a 20-year contract. Is this in BC citizens’ best interest? I don’t think so!
Our society has so much crime with poverty, gangs, drug abuse and I question, can we trust our police services to ‘Serve & Protect”. I’m unsure after seeing this disturbing incident of the Kelowna police.
January 17th, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Ah, the people we trust with our lives, once again proving to the entire world that no amount of training can undo a lifetime of sticking ones head up ones own ass. There was ZERO justification for that kick to the face. I hope the constable gets what he has coming to him.
January 18th, 2011 at 11:29 am
Until the mass public wakes up and demands that the ISU and the like are destroyed and replaced by cop-haters (shouldn’t be hard to find) with a few objective people on the side, and until judges are not friendly with cops (and their senior leaders who permit this behaviour), it will continue.
Only when the 15 million people say “enough is enough” and take up a serious fight, constantly calling/faxing/emailing/stopping by MP’s/municipal ward councilors/mayors/premiers/and the PM himself, will something be done.
And while we are a peaceful nation, the RCMP isn’t stupid, they know at some point we’ll fight back and actually respond to situations in the same way they typically respond (note: typical does not mean all the time, there ARE officers who are not assholes, they just don’t have the power to fight the many that are assholes) and that’s what they fear the most!
But maybe if we had politicians that were not asleep at the wheel or following what they are paid to do by lobbyists, we would not have this problem. But we do, so we need the masses to wake up instead of saying “oh he must have deserved it” before it is too late and option B comes into fruition, and it will.