Are there double standards when comparing how a member of a poilce force get charged if they commit a crime to when a regular individual commits a crime? Here are some examples:
1) In Kelowna an RCMP member while writing a report was being bugged by another member of the RCMP. The member writing the report pulled out her gun and pointed it at the member who was bugging her. There were other members in the office also. If somebody else on the street had pulled out a gun on a police member they most likely would die in a hail of bullets. Eighteen year old Sammy Yatim was shot dead for having a 4.7 inch switchblade.
The police can make the argument that they knew the member pointing the gun and knew she wouldn't pull the trigger. However Barry Shantz was a well known activist for the poor and mental health and he was shot dead when police went to his house.
The Kelowna RCMP officer got suspended for 15 days and was transfered to a different city. We think a non-police officer would get jail time if they survived the police officer's reaction.
2) A Calgary officer kicked his dog because the dog was barking loudly while an arrest was being made. A Calgary police spokesman said the officer was in a high stress situation. If a non-police officer kicked a pet there would be some type of charge laid. If the officer can't handle the stress level of an arrest then maybe he is not cut out to be an officer or needs further training. I wouldn't want to meet this officer on the street when he is stressed out. If he can kick a police dog who knows what he might do to an individual on the street.
When police arrive to someone's house or come to arrest someone then typically people get stressed out. If someone is suffering from a mental illness their agitation level rises even further when they see police. So with the person stressed out and police stressed out can lead to bad results. Police need to be able to keep their cool.
3) Winnipeg police officer Holz who was drinking and driving and then ran over Cody Severight, killing Cody. Officer Holz then left the scene, so doing a hit and run. When officers arrested Holz they took 3 to 4 hours to do a breathalyzer. If that was anybody else I bet the breathalyzer would be done very quickly. In 3 or 4 hours that person would be able to sober up. Read more on this case.
4) A Kelowna RCMP officer went through Arlene Westervelt's cellphone shortly after she had drowned in a canoeing accident. Reports say the RCMP officer was a friend of Arlene's husband and the couple was thinking of divorcing. Arlene's family thinks it was wrong for the officer to unlock Arlene's phone and then give it to Arlene's husband. The family believes Arlene's husband may have erased some files from the phone. If a non-police officer took a phone of someone who had just passed away while an investigation is continuing on the reason of the death we would think a second investigation would have started to see who all accessed the phone and what files were accessed. Read more on Arlene's case.
5) A new Ottawa police officer Nicola Harrison, on her fifth shift alone, accessed a confidential database and sent information to her boyfriend. She was docked 60 hours from her vacation time. If Nicola was in the private sector she would probably get disciplined for "theft of time" since she was doing non-work duties during working time. She may even be terminated for not being able to trust her in the future. If she was in the software industry and she sent some confidential code to someone then she might have even gotten sued. But because she is in the police industry Nicola gets a slap on the wrist. Read more about Nicola.
6) On February 19, 2019 Anjanette Young had just come home from work as a social worker. Chicago police department got some got a search warrant on false information and broke down Anjanette's door. The police had the wrong house. No charges were laid against the police officers. Lindani Myeni was shot dead by the police when he mistakenly went to the wrong house thinking it was a temple. Anjanette has to deal with the trauma of being handcuffed in her house for 12 minutes while the police searched through it. Read more about Anjanette.
7) Constable Roch Bouverat started to date a lady that he had arrested. Then one day he was called to a 911 call of a man running in and out of traffic. Roch didn't attend the call because he was with this lady. As a result Roch was demoted for 15 months. If this case happened in the private sector Roch would most likely have been fired for theft of time. Instead of being at work during working hours he was hanging out with his girlfriend. What if the guy who the 911 call was for got hit by a car and died? Who would be responsible for that? How would the Windsor police force explain to the man's family, that one officer who was dispatched to the call didn't attend because he was hanging out with his girlfriend? The Police Act that was created over a 100 years ago needs to be updated so it doesn't protect the officer as much and instead is geared toward protecting the public. Read more Roch's case.
8) Insp. Joyce Schertzer is under investigation because she went to an accident, that was outside of her jurisdiction in Ontario, that involved her nephew and told him to leave the scene of the accident. If anybody else left the police would search for us and hit us with a number of charges. In British Columbia, RCMP officer Monty Robinson also got away with drinking and driving. Cops know how to get away with charges. Read more on the investigation.
9) During a Vancouver Police Departments (VPD) weekend getaway, something happened where one officer drove away drunk, rolled his car then returned to where he was staying and pulled a knife on the other officers. The RCMP were called but before they arrived 2 other VPD officers took the drunk officer away. If a normal person took away a person holding a knife there would be all type of charges for both people. Read more about the story.
