I find this story quite disturbing. Bad enough that the police are beating up on women and drunks and people in custody, but kids too?
The 15-year-old kid, on the evening in question, was getting into a little trouble with some friends – throwing paintballs, lighting a newspaper on fire in a schoolyard. When a plainclothes cop yelled at him, he ran. He didn’t believe the cop was a cop. Two cops gave chase, tackled the kid and pinned him to the ground. The kid stopped resisting. The two officers started hitting him in the face and head. They kept demanding that he put out his hands, but whenever he tried, they hit him some more. Once he was finally cuffed, one officer put his knee on his neck and hit him again.
It’s not just a case of the cops’ word against the kid’s. There were civilian witnesses. And photos of the kid’s injuries, which included an impression of teeth on his shoulder.
The kid was charged with mischief. After his mother complained to police, another charge was added: assaulting a police officer.
This seems to be a fairly common practice among the Ottawa Police – charging the people they assault with assaulting them.
The cop has been exonerated of wrongdoing by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, a provincial civilian agency. It was concluded by the review that the amount of force used by the officer was ‘acceptable.’
The kid – who has no criminal record – still faces charges of assaulting a police officer.
“Mainly it’s been upsetting that as the person beaten by the police, I am now the only one charged and the cops and the OIPRD only seem interested in supporting each other in not holding Const. MacFadden responsible for his actions of violence towards me,†the boy said in a statement.
That’ll teach the kid to respect authoritarian policemen who abuse their power over him ^NOT.
It seems that there’s an escalation in police brutality. Unhappy with the behaviour of unruly kids, police are taking matters into their own hands and trying to punish them and their parents for what they perceive to be a tolerance of petty crime and vandalism.
In this case -as in many others – the cops are part of the problem.
A really really BIG part.
I await Chris Bentley to speak out for the rights of Ontario citizens in about … oh, never.
The silence is deafening.
This is so upsetting to hear.
I know. I actually believed things might change.
So the kid didn’t believe the cop was really a cop, and the cop didn’t believe the kid was complying.
The cop got the benefit of the doubt, and the kid got the benefit of the fist.
– RG>
I don’t get why they even LIKE hitting people. They keep seizing – or creating – opportunities to do it, but it doesn’t sound like any fun to me.
“After his mother complained to police, another charge was added: assaulting a police officer.”
This is sadly common practice with police. Any time a cop uses excessive violence they justify it with charging the victim/perp with resisting-arrest/assaulting a police officer. It protects the cop. In this case it appears to also be used to punish the mother’s complaint as well. I’m sure that’s killing two birds with one stone from their perspective.
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t think any competent juror should convict anyone of “assaulting a police officer” unless it’s caught in high-def video by multiple civilian cameras.
“McFadden also recalled that during the seconds-long struggle he was thinking about Const. Eric Czapnik, the police officer who was knifed to death outside the Ottawa Hospital in 2009.”
If McFadden’s fevered imagination thinks any kid puttering around town could be a mentally ill, armed, ex-RCMP officer with murder on his mind, I suggest he find another profession.
I agree. Wholeheartedly. I don’t believe for a second he was thinking about Czapnik while he was beating that kid, but if he was, it’s time to surrender the gun and badge.
AFTER his mother complained they added a charge of assaulting a police officer?????
Do judges not see information like this?
Sickening.
The judge in the Stacy Bonds case saw it. (Sadly he died a week or two ago.)
This makes me completely sick. I would love to hear the explanation for the bite marks.