The videos of Roxanne Carr being checked into the Ottawa Police cell block are now public. You can see them here.
Roxanne Carr left the following comment on my blog, on the Bank Street Bully post, in December, 2008. I haven’t edited it at all, other than to add paragraph breaks for ease of reading.
My name is Roxanne and I am victim of Police Brutality.On August 23rd 2008 my roomate who was a military cop and also worked with the Ottawa Police called one of his friends who I had met prior showed up to my home with a fellow female officer who I did not know and asked for my roomate Devon .
My friend and I were sitting on the front steps of our shared house when they arrived. I went inside to get Devon and they proceeded to the front of the house outside the gates. The spoke for about 10 mintues then the three of them approached the two of us sitting there.
Devon stood beside me while the male officer stood in front of me and his female partner behind him. The male officer told me and I quote to get my fucking stuff and that I no longer lived in the house and to get the fuck off the property. I asked him why what did I do ? He said Devon who was a military cop, trained snipper and had been to Afgahnistan twice was afraid for his life??? I asked him how that was possible since I didnt even know Devon was in the house until 15 minutes before they arrived. I then said I was going to call my mother to get me which I did.
My mother asked to speak to the officer and the officer told me to fuck off and slapped the phone out of my hand. I picked the phone up and went to turn in the house to get some stuff and the make officer jumped me from behind saying your lunging at Devon. He threw me up against the wall and said your under arrest for resisting arrest which I then asked how does that make sense He then threw me to the ground and began to beat me.
He put is boot on the side of my face and told me to get up, I told him I cant your standing on my face. Then the beating started as other officers arrived 6 cruisers in all. I weigh about 125 pounds and am 5 foot 7 . 5 of the male officers beat the hell out of me. They broke my wrist and my radius bone on my right arm. They burned my hand on the metal of a running car, they slammed me into the ground holding me by my broken wrist and my pants and dragged me across the ashphalt. I recieved many many injuries. I had advised the officers that I had a brain injury and to stop slamming my head off the car which of course they continued to do. The 5 male officers beat on me while the female stood there threatening to pepper spray me.
My friend Sean was screaming to stop hurting me and tried to take pictures as well but the police threatened him and said they would charge him if he did. The enventually charged him with obstruction of justice and officer DeeShaw punched him in the face.My mother arrived on the scene and caught them.
When I was brought to the police station mulitple officers pulled me out of the car and one of them then broke my arm. I was screaming and in shock. They threw me in a cell where I was stipped naked and left for 8 hrs beaten bloody and naked. They released me into the street at 2:00 am in the morning.
I have the pictures of the injuries and of course this is now with the lawyers . I would like to state I am not a criminal. I am a mother of a 18 yr old son. I am educated and have worked for top IT companies. I have no history of violence my only crime was living with Devon. I wqas 2 move out in a few days as he had become violent and threatening telling me I was going to get hurt.
I dont believe all police are bad I have family who are Ottawa Cops and they are good people. We as a society need to wake the hell and see the truth , we pay taxes so they get paid and do their job so we have the right not to be beaten brutally by these people. Im a ordinary citizen and if you think this cant happen to you then your wrong they told me we are paid gangstas and we can do what we want.. Think about it if the streets are so safe and crime is down why are so many people dying ? How many crimes were being commited while they were busy beating me?
That’s horrifying. What do you think can be done?
Did you watch the videos, Lynn? I don’t see any clear-cut brutality there, but then again, she says it took place at the scene of the arrest, and as she was being removed from the police car, and there’s no video of that.
She certainly didn’t look like she was resisting – quite the opposite. She looks almost limp. I don’t know why they had to tie her arms behind her back before removing the cuffs, especially since there were half a dozen of them and only one of her. That looked like it hurt.
I’m wondering if she has medical evidence to corroborate the extent of her injuries.
I read in the news that after she was arrested she kicked out the back window of the police cruiser. I think the restraints were to prevent her from lashing out at the police personnel. It is a job I would not want to do, that’s for sure. How do you avoid getting injured yourself when dealing with someone who, for whatever reason, is lashing out? I wondered about how limp she was, when I saw the blonde female officer turn her head on the floor, but I think she was conscious and able to move as shortly after that, she did turn her own head and then of course, she got her own feet under her.
I think, with that many officers on the scene, it would be impossible for one or even two officers to treat her badly and not be called on it by the others.
I also believe that we each have our own perception of an event that can be radically different from the perception of others, even with the identical circumstances. Just ask your spouse how that last vacation went.
One of the lessons I take from all this is, don’t resist arrest. Even if you are completely innocent, that will be proven in due course. In the meantime, be polite and exercise your right to remain silent.
Bit naive of you.
The G20 and the resultant aftermath showed that cops are not interested in catching criminals when they wear a police uniform. The number of cases of institutionalised myopia and straight up lies that that one weekend produced has meant that my view of the police has changed forever.
I look at them and wonder if they’ll commit their next crime against me.
Kicked out the back window of the police cruiser? Yeah, sure. According to whom? The police? They lie systematically in cases like this. We know that from case after case after case–none of them ever tell the truth about police wrongdoing, they always make up stories. We never catch them unless there turns out to be video which contradicts their claims. But nothing they say is worth the hot air they’re blowing.
I agree. They stay silent or lie and cover up for one another all the time. There’s ample evidence of that. It’s that Brotherhood thing.
“One of the lessons I take from all this is, don’t resist arrest.”
If I understand her story correctly, they accused her of resisting arrest before or without actually arresting her.
As for none of the other police officers speaking up, if your colleagues were violent sadists, who are issued, trained to, and authorized to use firearms and other weapons, would you want to be the one to call them out? Not only could they mess with you for the rest of your career, but they also have the power to pull you over on the roadside: they can mess with you for the rest of your life. Never underestimate the power of the police Brotherhood.
Case in point, look at how the police (both individual officers and the institution) kept the Dziekanski incident under wraps, illegally confiscating video evidence and claiming that their actions were reasonable and responsible. It wasn’t until after a lot of sleuthing and uncovering inconsistencies between different officers’ notes that they were found to be lying.
Her story is marginally coherent and absolutely dismissible. Being a victim, especially of “the state”, has far more cachet than being wrong/engaged in illegal activities/prone to making bad life choices/in the wrong place at the wrong time (with, apparently, the wrong roommate.)
I’ll go along with you on the marginal coherence, but how do we get from there to “absolutely dismissible”?