Why people are really starting to hate cops

[wanderingman]

The officer was travelling 122 km/h right before the accident and tried to slam on the brakes, investigators told the boy's family. The cruiser hit the family's car at a speed of 90 km/h.

The speed limit on the street was 50 km/h.
The officer was not responding to a call or to an emergency, CTV Montreal's Maya Johnson reported Wednesday. The Crown does not have to give its reasoning when it decides not to lay charges.


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/no-charges ... z3JcrwW7k2

[A_Britishcolumbian]

as i have mentioned, and it should be visible by reading the news, there are forces within the force, the rcmp, that are speaking out about wrongdoing within.

Mounties have sunk to shocking depths in the past to make unloved colleagues feel miserable—that much we knew. But messing with a fellow officer’s investigation? To settle personal scores?

Surely, that’s an ethical bridge too far. For any cop.

Alas, it’s precisely the scenario that arose Wednesday during a civil trial in Newmarket, Ont., where Sgt. Peter Merrifield, a 17-year veteran of the RCMP, has been unspooling a saga of alleged harassment and ostracism he believes was intended to drive him out of Canada’s iconic police force.

You can find the essentials here. But the thumbnail version begins in 2005, when Merrifield’s superiors looked askance at his decision to stand for a federal Conservative nomination in Barrie, Ont.

He lost, but senior officers began holding him back from coveted assignment and investigations, citing concerns about conflict of interest that Merrifield believed were groundless. Merrifield insisted he’d done nothing wrong and, from there, things escalated. His commanders launched a series of code-of-conduct investigations against him over the next two years and Merrifield—whose performance evaluations spoke of an excellent (if outspoken) Mountie—says he was left feeling “blackballed,” isolated and devastated. In 2011, he went on sick leave for more than a year.

His testimony this week in Ontario Superior Court has included some head-shaking anecdotes. But none was more troubling than his allegation that two fellow officers approached one of his confidential informants in the middle of an investigation to discourage the man from working with Merrifield.

It was 2007, and Merrifield was running a probe into a firearms smuggling ring in southern Ontario. The informant, he said, was rated by the RCMP as “court-worthy”—the most valued rating on a reliability scale the RCMP applies to its confidential sources (at the other end: “treacherous”). In addition to the informant, Merrifield had a fellow RCMP officer working undercover on the case.

The safety of that officer, he said, as well as the integrity of the investigation, hung in the balance. So he was appalled, he testified, when the informant told him that two fellow officers—an inspector and a sergeant—had at the time of the investigation tried to warn him off working for Merrifield.

The pair had met the informant to discuss a separate case, court heard. But when they learned that Merrifield was the man’s handler, they warned him that Merrifield was “not a team player” and was not trusted by other RCMP officers. At a later meeting, one of the officers allegedly told the informant that Merrifield was suing the RCMP, and that was considered poor form (Maclean’s is withholding the names of the officers’ until they’ve had a chance to respond).

Merrifield said he did not know the officers well, and that he learned all this four years after the fact, while on sick leave. His informant had stuck it out on his gun-smuggling investigation despite the warnings, he added, but that was small comfort.

“This was a sacred trust that had been broken,” Merrifield testified. “I was hurt. I was offended. I was upset. This was taking harassment to a new degree, toward obstruction of justice, when one officer advises an informant not to work with another officer.”

Sean Gaudet, a Justice Canada lawyer representing the RCMP, objected strenuously to the allegations being allowed as evidence because they were based on hearsay. But Justice Mary Vallee overruled him, and we may learn more now that she has opened the door: Merrifield’s lawyers plan to call the informant as a witness next week.

Supt. Paul Hebert, the case handler of the suit for the RCMP, said it would be “irresponsible to comment” on the allegations while the matter is before the courts. He said a fuller picture would emerge when Merrifield is cross-examined, and when the RCMP submits its own evidence.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/blac ... stigation/

[FreeRights]

It's an absolutely horrific situation, and I feel badly for the boy's family.

That being said, there's a reason why they aren't pursuing charges. It's not because they want to just let it slide or anything, there is a reason why the Crown doesn't feel that the charges will stick. We don't know what that reason is, so I would like to hold judgment on this, but fortunately the outrage will possibly have that information released.

[wanderingman]

It's an absolutely horrific situation, and I feel badly for the boy's family.

That being said, there's a reason why they aren't pursuing charges. It's not because they want to just let it slide or anything, there is a reason why the Crown doesn't feel that the charges will stick. We don't know what that reason is, so I would like to hold judgment on this, but fortunately the outrage will possibly have that information released.

If there is a reason? then why arn,t the parents or for that matter the public being given one

[FreeRights]

If there is a reason? then why arn,t the parents or for that matter the public being given one

Because the family are weighing their legal options and as a result, the issue will be before the courts in no time. Of course they wouldn't comment expecting it to go to court.

[metallica]

the issue will be before the courts in no time

I guess you haven't had to deal with the Courts in awhile. My son was Murdered and it took 2/1/2 years to find this *bleep* was out with a slap on the wrist. Don't hold your breath or you will run out of air with our system.

[Smurf]

Are a lot of the complaints about the cops really against them or the legal system? In most cases the fact that cops are not being charged has absolutely nothing to do with the cops.

[Captain Awesome]

I always hated COPS.

What a stupid show.

[wanderingman]

Are a lot of the complaints about the cops really against them or the legal system? In most cases the fact that cops are not being charged has absolutely nothing to do with the cops.

I disagree.Most of all cop failures I have read about in the last few years involved the police investigating themselves and then few are handed over to the prosecuters and 100% sure there lots of not totally leagal wangeling behind the curtins so to speak to talk the prosecuters out of charges
This FC in montreal should have without a doubt should receive some sort of consequences. At minimum released from the force and heavy fine

[my5cents]

The officer was travelling 122 km/h right before the accident and tried to slam on the brakes, investigators told the boy's family. The cruiser hit the family's car at a speed of 90 km/h.

The speed limit on the street was 50 km/h.
The officer was not responding to a call or to an emergency, CTV Montreal's Maya Johnson reported Wednesday. The Crown does not have to give its reasoning when it decides not to lay charges.

Since the topic doesn't include "Why Quebecers are starting to hate cops", or "Ontarians are....." I gather this topic is supposed to include the suggestion that we in BC "are really starting to hate cops" as well.

If this was about a transit bus driver in Montreal who lets say was drunk while driving his bus and killed a child and was getting off scott free because of something the Montreal Transit authority did, would you be saying "Why people are really starting to hate bus drivers " (meaning locals as well).

as i have mentioned, and it should be visible by reading the news, there are forces within the force, the rcmp, that are speaking out about wrongdoing within.

As well, if we were talking about another Federal, country wide service, such as the post office. Let's say a postman in Toronto did something horrific, would that stimulate you saying we should start to hate posties locally ?

How could these wrong doings that have occurred thousands of KMs away have any bearing on our feelings for local police ?

[wanderingman]

How could these wrong doings that have occurred thousands of KMs away have any bearing on our feelings for local police

because we have SO many police wrong doings in BC alberta ect also.
If one is so naïve as to not see that then well Sorry cant help the blind

IF we had as you say postal workers whom did so many dirty ,unethical and outright wrong things as often as the police do then yes we would start to hate postal workers also but in my opinion your example is pretty lame at best

[wanderingman]

I always hated COPS.

What a stupid show.

interesting you bring that up. I don't like it at all as I see really really bad police and police tactics on that show all the time

[my5cents]

because we have SO many police wrong doings in BC alberta ect also.
If one is so naïve as to not see that then well Sorry cant help the blind

That's like hearing that a hardware store that operates in Montreal is defrauding it's customer, so we should be worried about hardware stores in BC as they might be defrauding customers here.

Montreal police have absolutely no connection with local law enforcement.

? "SO many police wrong doings in BC...."

Do you have statistics that show BC is higher than other jurisdictions for "police wrong doings" ?

[the truth]

wandering man, WE GET IT you hate cops. I have been on this planet over 50 years ,never had a problem with them,i must be the luckyest person on the planet, wooooooooooooo lucky me.in general people who hate cops have had a few or many runins with them says it all

[Smurf]

I have been here a couple of decades longer than you and have to agree that I have never had a problem. Not once have I gotten something I didn't deserve and if I remember my young days properly I got breaks.


EDIT TO ADD:
Even in my young days I was smart enough to shut up when the situation warranted it. Probably saved me a lot of problems.