To the editor,
I am concerned about the excessive force I saw from the police officers arresting protesters July 4 during the Chebucto Road widening protest. What I saw was unarmed, 20-year-old men whom, once they were already subdued, were subjected to some extra bashing of their heads on the ground, against a tree and so on. If an unarmed, 20-year-old man is underneath two police officers with his hands pinned behind his back, it is not necessary to "subdue" him any further.
If you have his hands pinned and his face pressed to the ground and he is not moving, it is not necessary to bash his face into the ground a few more times for...for what? Why did the officers do that? At this point another officer pulled his nightstick to join the fray. Scary.
Aren't police officers trained to diffuse violence, not amplify it? What do you do when you're standing on the street and officers are hurting citizens? I wanted to call someone, but can you call the police on the police? What a scary feeling. I thought Canada was a civilized, developed and democratic country.
Can someone explain to me whether or not these officers have any limits on the physical violence they are allowed to exercise? What are these limits? Where can I read about them?
By ---Tara Smith
