Ending Police Impunity
- Lorne Gershuny -
Justice for Ejaz rally outside Peel Police
Headquarters, June 27, 2020.
The brazen killing of George Floyd in the course
of his arrest by Minneapolis police on May 25 has
justifiably sparked widespread condemnation not
only in the U.S. but in Canada and other countries
too. Millions have watched in horror as the police
officer is caught on video confidently applying
deadly violence to quell any resistance to the
arrest while callously ignoring Mr. Floyd's
desperate pleas for his life. People everywhere
are understandably furious that this kind of
police brutality during an arrest continues to
occur with impunity, despite the cries of outrage
that have been voiced repeatedly.
 In past instances
that are fresh in the collective memory, the
pattern has always been for the state authorities
to blame the victim for the attack, exonerate the
real criminals and keep in place a system that
trains and encourages police to use as much
violence as they deem fit to crush any resistance
to an arrest, even if they kill the person in the
process.
The beating of Rodney King in 1991 gained
worldwide notoriety for the savagery of the
arrest. Four Los Angeles police officers were
caught on video clubbing Mr. King 56 times as he
was writhing on the ground trying to ward off the
blows from their batons. The police were charged
with excessive use of force. At trial, they
pleaded that they were legally entitled to use as
much force as was necessary to get Mr. King to
comply with their commands to stop struggling and
that he was to blame for the violence used against
him. Three of the officers were acquitted and one
had a hung jury. The blatant injustice prompted
angry protests in Los Angeles and other cities,
including Toronto. Two of the officers were later
convicted of federal civil rights violations.
In 2014, Eric Garner was subjected to a brutal
arrest on the street by a group of New York police
officers. He was dragged to the ground by use of a
chokehold, after which an officer crushed his
chest and pushed his head into the concrete
sidewalk until he succumbed to a fatal asthma
attack. A video taken at the scene clearly shows
how the officers ignored Mr. Garner's urgent pleas
for them to stop the attack because he could not
breathe. A grand jury decided not to indict the
officer who directly caused Mr. Garner's death and
the federal Justice Department also declined to
press charges. Again, there was a huge outcry
against impunity for police brutality. In 2019,
the guilty officer faced a hearing not for killing
Mr. Garner but for breaching police department
rules by using a banned chokehold and for
aggravated assault. He was found guilty of
breaching the rules but not of aggravated assault.
The officer was fired, five years after the
killing, but no other punishment was imposed.
Before that, in Toronto in 2000, Otto Vass was
killed after being arrested by four Toronto police
officers outside a convenience store. When Mr.
Vass objected to the arrest, the officers took him
to the ground and put him on his back. One of the
officers knelt with his full weight on the man's
chest until he stopped moving because he was dead.
Even in death, Mr. Vass was dealt an indignity:
the official cause of death was declared to be
cardiac arrest due to acute mania and excited
delirium. The community organized to demand
prosecution and seek justice. All four officers
were charged with manslaughter. At trial, they
raised the defence that they were legally correct
in using as much force as they felt they needed to
get him to stop struggling against them, even if
they killed him, and they blamed him for his own
death, saying that he had "reaped what he sowed."
All four were acquitted by a jury.
The continuing protests raging in Minneapolis and
many other cities show clearly that people
everywhere want an end to impunity for police
brutality. One aspect of the solution would be to
ensure that the perpetrators are punished for
their crimes. The four officers involved in the
killing of Mr. Floyd have all been charged with
murder in various degrees but it remains to be
seen whether the legal system in Minnesota will
hold them accountable for their crimes or, like
their predecessors, they will escape
responsibility by asserting that the deadly
violence they used in the course of the arrest was
all perfectly correct and proper.
For the future, there are legal changes that can
be made to deter the use of lethal violence
against any person who is resisting arrest but not
posing a real threat to anyone. In Canada, the
criminal law could be made explicit that it is
never justifiable to cause death in the course of
enforcing an arrest, other than in self-defence,
instead of having the current law which leaves it
open to the police officer to claim that lethal
force was not excessive in the circumstances. This
is just one suggestion that might initiate a
change in the culture of impunity for police
brutality. If it could save even one life by
making a police officer hesitate before killing a
person in his or her custody, then such an
amendment would be worthwhile. No matter what, we
must continue to raise our voices in protest
against the prevalence of police brutality and for
a society with a rule of law that truly provides
equal rights for all.
End Impunity for Police
Brutality!
Punish the Police Criminals!
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 24 - July 4, 2020
Article Link:
Ending Police Impunity - Lorne Gershuny
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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