The Saskatoon Police Service has suffered a black eye or two in the past few years. But it appears the citizenry isn’t above taking advantage of it.
In the past two years, 112 complaints have been laid against members for inappropriate conduct. 7 were founded. Yesterday they announced that they’re fed up.
This week a 23-year-old man was arrested six months after he was convicted of lying about allegations of Police Abuse. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail but had failed to show up for his sentencing hearing. The Saskatoon Police Association said it would follow up any false allegations with legal action. “If you’re going to lie about something a police officer has done to you, we’re going to pursue criminal charges or we’re going to sue you,” said spokesperson Stan Geortzen.
Can’t say that I blame them.
Freezing deaths of native men over the past years have been laid at their feet, despite any hard evidence of police involvement. And this winter, two native men were found, nearly frozen, on Saskatoon streets. The metabolic effects of alcohol, insufficient dress and poor judgement can have that consequence. Those incidents did not involve police accusations – because they were found and survived to tell their tale.
Like the thousands of claims for compensation for abuse in state and church run institutions in the past, these cases tend to produce an avalanche of opportunist claims by those who want in on the compensation fund, or in the case of police-suspect interactions – leverage against the charges they’re facing.
Beaurocracies have been turning a blind eye to these abuses for too long, harming both the taxpayer who generally foots the bill for the crimes of others through the funding of compensation packages, and the deserving victims of abuse and misconduct, whose genuine suffering is overshadowed by frivilous claims over imagined or overstated slights.
Yes, and the same for the bogus rape charges, and the like.
Huge wastes of resources, and discrediting to REAL cases, the lot.
On the other hand, when you only give 9 months those who imprison and torture children for over a decade, what the heck, the world is mad.
As a recovering alkie, I’m very grateful to the Calgary Police for looking after me when I was less than careful about choosing a good public venue to pass out in (like outside in the middle of a cold snap) back during my drinking days.
I woke up in a drunk tank plenty of times surrounded by lots of other drunks, including native ones. At no time did I ever see the police treat the natives with any less consideration than I received.
Cops have a tough job and most deserve praise for dealing with the crap they encounter every day.