Cops exceed their authority all the time. They do it because we let them and because they can get away with it. Much too often cops can be dishonest, biased and bullying. When we catch them at that sordid business, we should expect their superiors to intervene to protect society from their abuses.
Well don't expect that in Medicine Hat, Alberta. You've undoubtedly read at least something of the accounts of a 13-year old girl from there recently convicted of murdering both her parents and her younger brother. By all accounts she got what she deserved.
What the girl didn't deserve was the mauling she received from the investigating officer once she was taken into custody for questioning. She was badgered and intimidated. She was shamelessly manipulated and pressured despite repeatedly asking to see a lawyer. No matter what she did, that is unconscionable abuse of police powers.
The judge at the trial found the tapes revealing this conduct inadmissible and the conduct of the interrogator reprehensible. The judge was plainly right. So what happens?
Medicine Hat police chief Norm Boucher ignores the judge's scathing indictment that the cop's tactics were "utterly deplorable" and instead defended the rogue cop. Boucher admitted that the girl repeatedly requested a lawyer but said she kept talking.
Wait a second. The kid was 13-years old. If a 13-year old suspect asks for a lawyer the damned cop shuts the hell up until she gets one. It's bad enough the detective didn't know that, it's an indictment of Medicine Hat and its police force that its chief can treat the matter so dismissively.
The girl got what was coming to her. Now it's time the errant cop and his delinquent chief got a taste of what they deserve - dismissal in disgrace.
1 comment:
Where the hell's the Justice Department when you need them.......oh wait. This is Alberta isn't it? The home of Accountability? The home of Hillbilly Law?
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