[IPSM] 2 Mounties suspended over beating (indigenous man)

[Macdonald Stainsby]

2 Mounties suspended over beating
POLICING I RCMP probes claim a young native man was beaten and left to 
walk home

       Jeff Lee and Darah Hansen
       Vancouver Sun


Saturday, September 03, 2005
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=242c218c-47ad-41ad-84d9-010d6d3e7833


MERRITT I Two RCMP officers have been suspended and an auxiliary 
constable has had his peace officer status revoked after allegations a 
young aboriginal man was picked up on Friday night two weeks go, 
severely beaten and dropped off in the bush to walk 10 kilometres back 
to this Nicola Valley town.

"This has got to be the worst beating I've ever had in my life," Glenn 
Shuter, 25, said Friday. Two weeks later, Shuter still sports a black 
eye, a swollen ear and two broken front teeth -- the result, he said, of 
the police assault.

"They [the police] are supposed to serve and protect, not go out and 
kill someone."

Shuter said he was repeatedly punched in the face, stomach and ribs by a 
Merritt RCMP officer, while two others stood and watched. He estimated 
the Aug. 19 beating lasted approximately 10 minutes and ended only when 
Shuter spit out blood and broken teeth from his mouth and begged the 
officer to get off of him.

"It was crazy. I was worried I was going to die out there," he said.

Shuter said the officer responsible for the beating suspected Shuter had 
stolen another RCMP member's bicycle, an accusation Shuter said the 
officer repeatedly made as he drove Shuter out of town. The second 
officer and the auxiliary member followed in a truck, he said.

Shuter, who said he has a criminal record for assault and break and 
enter, denied taking the bike, but said the officer wouldn't listen to him.

Following the beating, Shuter said, he walked back to town to a friend's 
house, then later went to hospital, where he stayed overnight for 
treatment. He said he since has had trouble sleeping and eating because 
of the injuries, which he said included four broken ribs.

Shuter has filed charges against the officer and is planning to sue the 
RCMP for damages.

"I want my teeth back," he said.

He also wants the officer to taken to task for the alleged assault.

"I can't get over this," he said. "I hope he loses his job. Maybe then 
he'll learn a lesson from this."

The RCMP's E Division (provincial) headquarters put the constables on 
administrative leave and launched an internal investigation after the 
incident was brought to the detachment commander's attention by the 
RCMP's victim services staff.

The officers are being investigated for assault causing bodily harm, the 
RCMP said in a statement.

The incident, said to have occurred on Aug. 19 but not made public until 
now, is just the tip of a larger problem between the RCMP and some 
citizens of Merritt, according to several people, including city 
councillor and former mayor Bob Baird.

Baird said Friday there has been increasing tension between the police 
and both native and non-native residents, who have complained about 
excessive use of force, including the use of Taser stun guns that 
deliver an electric shock.

And Norma Hall, an office manager for the Lower Nicola Indian Band, said 
there were so many complaints of assaults by police officers over the 
past year that she and several others formed a "watchdog" group called 
People's Advocacy for Police Accountability. That group, whose meetings 
were covered by a local newspaper, included people who filed formal 
complaints of abuse to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the 
RCMP.

There are two large first nations groups, the Lower Nicola Indian Band 
and the Upper Nicola Indian Band, centred in Merritt, a ranching and 
logging community of about 8,600.

Hall said her 32-year-old son Aeron was one of those who complained. He 
claimed he was arrested last year and Tasered by officers after he 
refused to take off a medicine bag hanging around his neck when told to 
submit to a strip search.

"From our point of view, this was bound to happen," Hall said, in 
reference to the latest complaint. "We've had a lot of complaints from 
citizens of Merritt, and not just from the aboriginal community."

Cpl. Reg Burgess, a media spokesman from the RCMP's southeast district 
in Kelowna, said he was not aware of any other complaints against 
officers in Merritt, although the detachment was aware of the advocacy 
group.

The Aug. 19 allegations came to light when RCMP victim services 
complained to Staff-Sgt. Al Clark, the detachment commander, who then 
assigned a senior officer to locate and interview the victim. A criminal 
investigation was started immediately.

"We are investigating to determine if there is any credence to these 
allegations," Burgess said. "In this case, it is a serious allegation 
and we are taking it seriously."

But Hall said complaints about deteriorating relations between police 
and the public have been ignored.

In many cases, she said, first nations people feel they are being picked 
on by a small group of officers who harass them for minor or even 
non-existent offences.

"We want people to know that they should tell others when things like 
this happen. They should talk to their friends, to victim services, to 
anyone who will listen," she said.

Baird, who has been a member of Merritt's council for 30 years, said he 
has tried unsuccessfully to convince the local RCMP and E Division 
headquarters to adopt a community policing model to improve relations. 
"It's been like pulling hen's teeth," he said.

However, Harry Kroeker, another councillor and former mayor who is 
acting mayor this month, said relations with the 29-member RCMP 
detachment have been good.

A year ago, the RCMP went to city council to get its blessing for a 
"zero-tolerance policy" to curb a growing problem of vagrancy, 
skateboarding on sidewalks and other problems that citizens were 
complaining about, he said.

But there was never any suggestion the police were beating up people, he 
said, and Friday's allegations have left him shocked.

"It is not something our town would like to have on an advertisement," 
he said. "I thought things were going pretty good with the police. But I 
am pleased that the RCMP took this initiative on their own to disclose 
this, rather than waiting for someone to make it public first."

jefflee at png.canwest.com

THE COMPLAINTS LIST

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has received 19 
complaints against the Mounties in Merritt in the last three years.

Jim Leveque, a spokesman for the commission, said it received two 
complaints between April, the start of the fiscal year, and now. Another 
10 were filed last year, and seven the year before.

In 2004-05, the commission received 825 complaints, of which 460 were 
from B.C., which has the largest RCMP force in Canada.

jefflee at png.canwest.com
-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.