Rogue Police

The Gates/Crowley has been all over the news. But that isn't the only case of rogue police. The local police have a long history of taking "justice" into their own hands by taking people they consider to be criminals out to Stanley Park and beating them. Or taking drunk natives out of jail and letting them freeze to death in back alleys downtown. Or kneecapping people that they feel are not "forthcoming" enough.

With a history like that, you would think the judicial system in Vancouver would be wary and want to ensure that justice is seen to be done. Not so here. The latest scandal: three off duty cops beat a news vendor savagely because he didn't drop everything and rush over with a copy of a paper when one of the cops barked an order. What do you get when you beat a guy and leave lasting physical damage? Oh, you get three weeks of "house arrest". Like that is a hardship. Like that will stop a bully from beating up his next victim!

Oh... and one of these 3 rogue cops is a lot like Crowley. He was an instructor at the police academy. Yep... you read that right. The guys who teach cops how to do their job are in fact out beating up innocent citizens because the innocent citizen does leap when told to "jump", doesn't ask "how high" when ordered to "jump".

And the judicial system seems to think this kind of "instructor" is just hunky-dory. Read it all here.

As for the victim?

Khan is also destitute and unable to work, his lawyer Mobina Jaffer told reporters outside court.

"Mr. Khan is not a vengeful person," she said of her client. "He's a very kind man."

But he suffers lasting effects from the assault and has been told by his doctor that he cannot drive, Jaffer explained.

"He's working very hard to get back to work," said the lawyer, who is also a Liberal senator.

Asked if Khan planned to file a civil suit against his assailants, Jaffer said: "He has not decided that."

But she said he was disappointed that the West Vancouver mayor and the police chief at the time, Kash Heed, never called him to offer an apology.

Khan and his wife said their life has changed since the assault.

"I now have to take care of three kids and my husband," wife Rabida Khan told reporters.

And beating up the newspaper vendor wasn't the only violence in which off-duty cop Gillian indulged in that night. Here are details from an earlier newspaper article:

About 1:30 a.m., the trio went to the Roxy and had more drinks. Gillan, who had been an officer for only 18 months, left alone from the Roxy and flagged down a passing Corvette, which picked him up.

The man driving the Corvette, Aubrey Simon, who has since died, told police he was driving to the Hyatt on Burrard Street to meet some friends. He said Gillan said he was a Vancouver cop, which struck Simon as odd, considering the man was extremely intoxicated.

Simon said Gillan suddenly became very angry, began kicking the car’s dashboard and climbed out the passenger window. Simon asked him if he was okay and Gillan replied: “If you come any closer, I’ll have people deal with you,” then walked out in the middle of the street.

Simon recalled he went into the Hyatt and phoned 911 to report Gillan’s irrational behaviour. By the time Simon came back outside, Gillan and two other men had a man pinned to the ground and appeared to be roughing him up.

What I find very mysterious is that the guy with the Corvette who gave the cop Gillian a ride, is now dead. Odd.