Showing posts with label Halifax Youth Court Judge Anne Derrick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halifax Youth Court Judge Anne Derrick. Show all posts

2008-02-01

Out of Control Police Taser Innocent Teenage Girl

Since when is Tasering a teenage girl during an unlawful arrest “in accordance with our departmental procedures”. Apparently when it is done by the Halifax Police.

On Tuesday, Halifax Youth Court Judge Anne Derrick had harsh words for the officers who tackled the girl in her own bed and shocked her twice with a stun gun.

Derrick found the girl not guilty on charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer because the arrest was not lawful.

"The spectacle of a 17-year-old girl being Tasered in her bedroom is a very disturbing and disconcerting one," the judge said in her ruling.

"I find the police acted outside the scope of their authority in arresting [the girl] and that she was entitled to resist and committed no offence in doing so, and I acquit her of the charges before the court."
It is the courts that decide when someone has done something wrong, not the perpetrator. The police are not above the law. If anything they should be held to a higher, not a lower, standard of conduct.