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.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.
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."
"This column is dedicated to the proposition that Canada (and indeed the world) is in a crisis situation and that fundamental social change is required to remedy this situation." - The First Column, Lambda November 2, 1971 This blog is inspired by my column of the same name in the Laurentian University Newspaper, Lambda, from 1971-1973. The title refers to the concept of subverting the system from within. To read key excerpts from those columns read the first few posts in this blog.
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.
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