Lawyer alleges conspiracy at B. C. Taser probe

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nationalpost.com/news/canada … id=2073528

[quote]"The four RCMP officers who confronted Polish traveller Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport in 2007 had conspired, in a “self-serving collaboration,” to “fabricate an untruthful version of events,” the lawyer alleged.

They covered up and lied, claimed Mr. Rosenbloom, appearing at the inquiry for the Government of the Republic of Poland. The four officers “misled” homicide investigators following the incident, he continued. They created an “almost identical and fictional account” of their ill-fated interaction with Mr. Dziekanski, who died during the encounter.

They “lied under oath” at this inquiry, claimed Mr. Rosenbloom, in “an intentional act to subvert the course of justice.”

Police conspiracy. Perjury. These are the boldest allegations heard to date at the inquiry called to examine events that led to Mr. Dziekanski’s death.[/quote]

Just wonderful.

Now a perfectly acceptable defence in court is “the RCMP officer is lying, your honour.”  And you know what?  He probably is.  Once upon a time, if it was your word against an RCMP officer’s word in court, the default would be that the RCMP officer would be believed.  

But now that we see how the entire force has gone to cover up and protect their own, I’d say it would be perfectly valid to turn this on its head.  From now on, it will be assumed that the RCMP are lying, until proven otherwise.

I hope that the code all the RCMP guys are following is worth it – these 4 guys are worth more than the reputation of the entire force, I guess.

If these 4 guys weren’t RCMP officers, they’d have been split up immediately, and a deal offered to the first one to give a statement against the other 3.  An hour, maybe two hours, and it would have been over.

Here we are years later, and we’re finding that the layers of coverup (and the coverup of the coverup) are so deep that it’s done irreparable damage to the RCMP’s reputation.

Next time a mountie gives evidence in court, the jury will have an automatic reasonable doubt.

Sadly, I’m sure that there are RCMP officers out there that still think it’s right to defend these 4 guys, even if it ultimately harms the entire force.

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His back was turned during the video though leaving it open to interpretation.  This and the death of that kid are both attempts by the liberal media to portray the RCMP as the bad guy.

I’m sure if the RCMP had the power to monitor our internet connections without a warrant those two criminals would have safely been arrested for their crimes long before any of this could happen and they would still be alive in prison where they belong!

I’m personally ecstatic no charges have been laid against the officer for DUI. It sets a great precedent. Cops should be allowed a few crimes here and there, their job is stressful, cut them some slack.

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Things might be different now for members. They’ve been given the okay to form a union…which might offer some protection from management and their …decisions?

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MiG,

You are on a bit a tangent here. It is still only alleged that they lied because no judge has since convicted them of this accusation.

Surely you recognize that difference, so I won’t belabour it.

What happened to Mr D ( I don’t want to write out his full name) was unacceptable and will forever be hard for Canadians to understand. These four men, for their reckless use of a weapon if nothing else, should all be reprimanded and perhaps spend time in jail.

A valuable lesson I learned as a teen spotting for a friend during a bench press-- those with the biggest guns have the biggest shots.  The police in this case called the biggest shots.

But the police are a reflection of society – these aren’t soldiers out fighting some war outside of their own society. They live and eat and breathe with us everyday. Most of their realities are our realities. And so to read that some of these guys are crooked does not destroy my belief in them. Lack of punishment for terrible actions does.

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You don’t need to be convicted of lying in a court of law to be a liar.

As always, wikipedia has an excellent starting point:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dziekański_Taser_incident

For example, here are some clear lies:  

Before the video was released to the public, the RCMP repeatedly claimed that only three officers were at the scene. There were actually four officers at the scene.[12] The RCMP also said that they did not use pepper spray because of the risk it would have posed to bystanders. The video, however, suggests the incident occurred in an area separated from bystanders by a glass wall.[12] An RCMP spokesperson also stated that batons were not used,[16] which was also contradicted by the video.

Nobody needs to be convicted of lying in a court of law.  But the fact remains that the RCMP has been lying about this case, and probably are still lying about it.

If you’ve been following the Braidwood inquiry, you’ll know that it’s clear the 4 officers lied in their notes following the incident, lied to investigators, lied to the inquiry.  In fact, the 4 officers asked the BC Supreme Court to rule that Braidwood didn’t have the authority to point out that they lied.  

Think about that for a second.  

They didn’t deny the lies and the coverup – instead, they literally asked the BC Supreme Court to rule that they were above the law.  They wanted the Court to rule that Braidwood didn’t have the authority to point out the obvious.  Of course, the Court ruled that “findings of misconduct could be made against them, relating to their conduct at the incident as well as their notes taken afterward and statements made to investigators, and testimony at hearings of the Inquiry.”

So yeah, they lied.

If you think that the conduct of the RCMP with respect to the Dziekański affair is a reflection of society, then we have one very sick society.

Personally, I think it’s a reflection of the RCMP.  It’s an organization full of members who will not (or legally cannot) criticize the organization.  It’s an organization that is so obsessed with “protect our own” and “circle the wagons” that they’ve let 4 bad apples point out how rotten the whole cart is.

I know the majority, the large majority of RCMP officers aren’t goons, they’re not corrupt.  I honestly can’t think of a negative interaction I’ve ever had with a Mountie.  Every single time I’ve called the police they’ve been excellent.  Even when I’ve been on the other end of the interactions with the RCMP, they’ve been perfect.  But where are these perfect RCMP officers when 4 officers kill an immigrant?  

These perfect officers are silent.  

And some of them even helped with the coverup (and yeah, the Inquiry has made that perfectly clear too).

The organization is sick, it’s corrupt, and it needs fixing.  I think most RCMP officers would agree with that.  They would just not say it publicly, since they’re legally not allowed to.  That’s a part of the problem.

Perhaps a good first step is to unionize, then maybe regular members will have the balls to overturn the legal gag on criticism.  Then maybe get the RCMP out of community policing unless they’re going to have civilian (ie: Provincial) authority and oversight.

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Yes, anyone can lie outside of a courtroom. However, Mr Rosenbloom was appearing at an inquiry for the Polish government. This is not the same as a court of public opinion and allegations within this courtroom, to me, are far more serious than the CPO.

They could unionize if they so chose to. However, there has never been a serious attempt in recent history to suggest that this is forthcoming.