What happens when a police officer arrests the wrong person? What if during the arrest of the wrong person the person is assaulted? The trauma that the person faces afterwards is can effect the person for a long time. The person could be afraid of the police in the future, depending on the injuries from the assault the person might need to get surgery along with a bunch of domino consequences like taking time off work, and on and on. Even if the person is not assaulted it is very stressful to be put under arrest.
On some cases the police work on a case for months before arresting someone and others, like the examples below, the arrests are done instantly.
Alex Fisher was riding his bike in the early hours close to Guildford Mall in Surrey, British Columbia. Around the same time there was report
of a robbery at a 7-11 store. When one RCMP officer saw Alex on his bike and the officer had a short discussion while Alex was still
biking. Then the officer stopped the car in front of Alex's bike and threw Alex to the ground. The call of the robbery stated that
the thief had a weapon. So the officer thought Alex was the thief and thought he had a weapon which is why he threw Alex down. But if
the officer thinks Alex has a weapon isn't it safer to wait for back-up to arrive before leaving your police cruiser and attempting to
arrest the person. Or did the officer have a feeling that Alex wasn't the thief but felt like throwing someone to the ground anyways
because he was having a stressful day and needed to relieve some stress? Read more about
Alex. Alex said officer (so one officer) and in the media report the RCMP say officers (so more than one officer). We don't know where
the difference happened?
Daniel Clause lost his life when officers saw that he matched the description of a robbery suspect.
A PhD student from Guinea, Mamadi Ill Fara Camara, was arrested and detained for 6 days in Montreal because the police thought he was
someone who has assaulted a police officer. Evidence proved he was innocent. If a person had assaulted just a regular person, like in a
bar fight, would they be detained for 6 days or would they be released on the promise to appear in court. Are the standards different
when a police officer is assaulted? What if a nurse was assaulted, or a teacher? Would the person be detained for 6 days also or would
they be released after they are charged? Read more on Mamadi.
Gyasi Symonds, a black man, was racial discriminated when he was given a jaywalking ticket. The human rights board decided that the Halifax Regional police officers were watching him for no reason. Gyasi was awarded $15,232 by the board. Even though Gyasi was not assaulted, for him to be watched was not necessary. Follow Gyasi's story.
