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Sudden Death [The Police Murder of Ian Bush from Houston, BC]
Contributed by macdonald on Sun, 2006-04-30 20:18.
In sections:
[UPDATE: RCMP Officer Won't be Charged after Man Shot in Head in B.C. Jail]:
http://mostlywater.org/node/5303
Sudden death [The police murder of Ian Bush from Houston, BC]
Six months ago today, a young mill worker was arrested while attending a hockey game in his northern B.C. town. Twenty minutes later, he had a bullet in his head -- and his family, friends and neighbours still have no idea why it happened. GARY MASON reconstructs the night Ian Bush died
GARY MASON
Globe and Mail, April 29, 2006.
HOUSTON, B.C. -- here was never any doubt about what Ian Bush and his buddy J. R. MacInnes would be doing that Saturday night back in October. It was the Luckies' home opener, and the corrugated-metal walls of the Claude L. Parrish Arena in this mill town where the Bulkley and Morice rivers meet in northwestern British Columbia would be sweating from all the people jammed inside.
In the afternoon, the two headed over to the arena to watch their friend Clayton Poznikoff referee a midget game. Afterward, all three went to the beer and wine store for a few cold ones to knock back before the Luckies, favoured to win the championship of the Central Interior Senior Men's AA Hockey League, took to the ice.
They probably knew three-quarters of the nearly 1,200 people at the game that night. Ian had spent all of his 22 years in Houston; there weren't many of the town's 4,000 residents he hadn't crossed paths with at some point.
During the first period, he sat beside the local manager for Canfor, the forest giant that runs the mill where he and J.R. worked as labourers. He also spotted a couple of his old teachers from Houston Secondary School, as well as the guy who owned the local gas station, where he had once worked, and a teller from the bank.
Between the second and third periods, quite a crowd assembled outside -- smokers needing a fix and people after a little fresh air. Before long, J.R. looked over just as Ian was getting into the back of a cop car, so he went to see what was going on.
Ian had been holding a beer that Clayton had handed to him so he could take part in a friendly wrestling match. Minutes later, Constable Paul Koester had wandered over and approached Ian about having an open beer in public.
When the constable, just five months out of RCMP training school, asked for his name, Ian smirked and claimed to be Clayton's brother Tyler, another close friend. His buddies all laughed, and the young officer quickly surmised what was going on. He failed to see the humour in it.
While Ian sat in the squad car, Constable Koester consulted a more experienced Mountie on the scene. When he returned, he got Ian out of the car again, informed him he was being charged with obstructing an investigation and frisked him. Then he asked him to place his arms behind his back so he could be handcuffed.
Witnesses said that the young policeman seemed agitated. He yanked Ian's ball cap down on his forehead and then, as he put him back into the squad car, the hat was accidentally knocked off. Ian displayed his first sign of anger. "This is fucking bullshit," he barked.
Up to that point, he seemed to have taken the whole thing in stride, laughing as his buddies stood outside the car poking fun at him. Few could believe that he was really being busted for holding an open beer and giving the police a friend's name -- like that hadn't been done a zillion times by smartass kids his age.
At 9:30 p.m., Ian was taken away, and an auxiliary officer told J.R. that his buddy would probably be released after the game. So an hour later, when the Luckies had defeated the Kitimat Ice Demons 3-2, J.R. and a couple of friends walked the half-block to the detachment. They saw an ambulance parked outside. They noticed police officers who were not local. Still, they didn't think much of it when they were told to come back later.
But when they came back the second time, they again were told to leave -- and not to come back that night. Something wasn't right.
J.R. went to a party at the curling rink, and then to Idywild, one of Houston's two bars. He and a girl he knew decided to go joy riding in his pickup in a meadow outside town. They got stuck and were forced to spend the night in a snowmobile shack.
The next morning, they walked 10 kilometres before they could get cellphone reception, and the girl could call her boyfriend to come and pull them out.
"Al wants to talk to you," she said, handing over the phone.
eah, I bet he does, J.R. thought. I just spent the night out in the woods with his girlfriend.
But the friend said: "There's a rumour going around that Ian's dead."
"That's impossible," J.R. told him. "He was at the cop shop."
"J.R., that's the rumour."
After getting his truck out, J.R. headed straight for the home of Ian's 25-year-old sister, Anni Patrick. If anyone would know what was going on, she would.
As soon as he turned the corner and crossed the railway tracks near her home, he could see a bunch of cars parked outside. "Tell me it's not true," he begged Anni. "Tell me it's not true."
All she could do was cry.
"He was such an easy child," says Linda Bush, sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner at her daughter's home, two-year-old granddaughter Emily on her lap. "He was so easy to get along with. He was just one of those kids that people loved the moment they met him. He was the perfect son."
A hand goes to her face. She begins to sob. A few seconds -- it's about as long as she can talk about her son before she falls apart.
There are photographs splayed out across the living-room carpet. Ian fishing. Ian snowmobiling. Ian mooning someone. Ian smiling. He was always smiling. Ian, as a young boy, being cooed over by his older sisters. Ian, as a young man, being cooed over by his sisters.
It was just the four of them. Dawson Bush, the kids' father, had left the home when Ian was 4, and then left town. Remarried, he returned to Houston recently to work as a trucker.
In single-parent homes, the kids often grow up a little faster and depend on each other a little more. They are often much closer in adulthood as a result. "It was the three of us kids against the world," says Renée, the oldest.
Anni remembers the time Renée accidentally gave Ian a black eye. When their mother came home from work, she asked him what had happened. "I slipped on the floor and hit my head on the table," he fibbed.
If Ian got in a scrap at the local bar, it was often because someone had said something about Anni or Renée. When Renée, seven years his senior, decided at 25 to go to university in Prince George for a nursing degree, no one was prouder than her brother. Whenever she needed a few bucks, Ian, making good money at the mill, couldn't open his wallet fast enough.
"The bank of Ian," she said, laughing. The only bank that didn't expect loans to be repaid.
According to his sisters, he acquired none of the macho tendencies boys often develop as they grow into their teens. Even when with his buddies in a bar or at the mall, he would still stop to give a sister a hug or call out, "I love you," across the street.
He did the same when he saw his 14-year-old cousin, Leeza Eggers. She would blush with pride. Athletic and strong, Ian Bush had the kind of hot looks girls Leeza's age will chat about for hours. If Houston had a Moondoggy, he was it.
The sequence of events in the early-morning hours of Oct. 30 are still a bit of a blur for everyone.
About 3 a.m., the phone rang at the home of Kate Eggers -- Leeza's mother and Linda Bush's sister. Her husband Mike answered. It was the police, looking for Linda.
Mr. Eggers said she was in Prince George, 307 kilometres east of Houston, visiting Renée. Unnerved, he hung up and told his wife: "I think we just got one of those calls."
The Eggers live right next door to Anni, and Kate phoned to alert her to what was going on. No sooner had Anni begun to call the police herself than a couple of cruisers arrived in her driveway. When she answered the door, one of her former high-school teachers, now a victim-services representative for the RCMP, stood there with a couple of officers.
"You should sit down," she was advised.
When she did, an officer said: "Your brother is dead."
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"Your brother is dead."
Anni started crying and screaming. She called the police liars. Her husband, Kelvin, asked what happened. Was it a car accident? No it wasn't, the police said. But that's all they could say.
It was 4 in the morning.
Anni gave the police Renée's address and phone number, believing that they would have someone from the Prince George detachment go and break the news to her mother. When an hour passed with no call, Anni said they couldn't wait any longer; someone had to tell Linda. But no one wanted to make the call.
"We all chickened out," Anni said later.
By then, her father had arrived. He said his wife, Margaret, also happened to be in Prince George. He would ask her to go over to Renée's place.
But when Margaret found the townhouse, rang the bell and knocked on the door, there was no response. Pounding harder, she yelled until she finally heard Linda say, "I'm coming, I'm coming."
"Linda," Margaret said, as soon as the door opened. "Ian's dead."
She threw her arms around Linda, who began to wail. And then to throw up. Margaret called for Renée, who collapsed when Linda told her the news.
"It was sheer horror," Margaret said later. "It was sheer horror."
Later that morning, they loaded Renée's car for the nearly four-hour trek to Houston. Linda lay in the back, curled up in a blanket, her face buried in a pillow. She cried for most of the trip. Occasionally, Renée crawled back to comfort her while her boyfriend drove. She remembers badly needing to make a pit stop, but every location had some connection to her brother.
"Like the KFC," she says. "He worked at one, and I thought that would hurt my mom if we pulled in there, so I said, 'No, keep going. Find someplace else.' "
Eventually they arrived at Anni's place, which was crawling with friends. Renée remembers "everyone having that look on their face" as she walked toward the house. They all soon cleared out, leaving Ian's family alone with their tears.
Linda would have to be placed on medication to deal with the shock.
This is what the people of Houston now know for sure.
Ian Bush was arrested at 9:30 p.m. on the evening of Oct. 29 for obstructing an investigation, taken to the station nearby and, 20 minutes later, was dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
What took place in those 20 minutes has been the subject of much speculation. The police have yet to say anything since the day of the shooting. There has been no coroner's inquest. But thanks to information gleaned from those close to the investigation conducted by the RCMP's major-crime unit in Prince George, a picture begins to emerge.
When Constable Koester and Ian Bush arrived at the detachment, sources say there was no one else there, even though Howard Rubin, the Vancouver lawyer who represents the Bush family, says he was told other officers were on the scene.
Toxicology reports have shown conclusively that Ian was not on drugs of any kind, but had a significant amount of alcohol in his system. He was taken to the station's interview room, where a small couch sits against a wall beneath a video camera. The camera was not turned on.
At some point, a violent struggle broke out. Contrary to some media reports, the fight did not result in a hole in the wall with blood on it. But Constable Koester was injured -- he was punched in the face many times, and cut.
And a bullet from the gun he was wearing hit Ian from behind.
A key part of the police investigation, and certain to be a primary focus of a coroner's inquest, is the "blood splatter" the shot produced. It can tell investigators a lot about where the two men were in relation to each other when the gun went off. For example, says Shane DeMeyer, acting coroner for B.C.'s northern region, an execution-style shooting in which a shot is fired into the back of an unsuspecting target's head usually causes a significant amount of blood to "blow back" on the shooter.
Investigators have determined that the bullet struck the centre of Ian's head, travelling on a trajectory that would have seen it exit just below his forehead, although for some reason it did not. The shot is likely to have generated a significant amount of "blow back," and would appear to rule out a scenario in which a victim has physical control of his assailant.
The RCMP recently completed its investigation and sent a report to Vancouver, where, the Bush family has been told, it likely will be reviewed by another agency, in this case the police force in neighbouring New Westminster.
How long will it be before the results of the investigation are made public and any action is taken?
Calls to the commanding officer of the Houston detachment have not been returned. Judy Thomas, who oversaw the investigation by the unit from Prince George, referred all questions to the RCMP's media department in Vancouver, where Constable John Ward confirmed that the investigation is complete and that discussions about what will happen next are under way. He also said it could be months before the public learns what happened and whether any charges are to be laid.
But he refused to discuss the RCMP's policies and procedures for handling prisoners, such as whether an officer should be armed when alone in an interview room with a suspect, or whether a video camera should be turned on before an interrogation begins.
Asked whether the public has a right to know about such policies, Constable Ward replied, "The public doesn't have a right to know anything."
He also said the force would not speed up the process because of pressure "from the media." And, contrary to most reports, he said Constable Koester has not been suspended. He is working in another B.C. detachment and has never been taken off the payroll.
Winter has come and gone since Ian Bush died -- Kitimat won that league title the Luckies wanted so badly -- but life in Houston isn't the same as it used to be.
The people here are honest and hard-working -- raised to respect authority, to believe that the police are always on their side. Now, they're not so sure.
Heather Marren-Reitsma was Ian's English teacher when he was in Grade 11 and for part of Grade 12. It has been four years, but she has kept a poem he wrote that is entitled Missed Memories and speaks to the apprehension and excitement he felt about leaving high school.
"My graduation is a waterfall," he wrote. "It's going to be the ride of my life."
"He really had a sensitive side," Ms. Marren-Reitsma remembers. "There was a spark to him. Sure, he was like most boys his age, there was an indifference there about school, but his disinterest never took on any form of defiance or disrespect. I'd call it happy apathy.
"I really loved that boy."
Her husband, Leroy, a supervisor at Canfor, is anxious to have all the facts come out, although he just can't understand how Ian ended up dead.
"Regardless of what happened in that room," he says. "It should never have gotten to that point. We're talking an open beer here. I mean, how does someone end up dead over that?"
Dennis Hotte, the Canfor manager who sat with Ian at the game just before he died, says the town has lost "one helluva kid" and he has lost one of his best workers.
"I guess I have to be a bit careful about what I say because of my position," he adds. "But it's not right what happened. There's no words to describe it. It's not right, and justice needs to be done."
J.R. MacInnes sits in Happy Jack's pub, wearing his Team Canada hockey sweater and a perpetually sad expression that his friends hope will go away. Talk to him and it's apparent that won't be any time soon.
"I've thought about leaving town," he says. "But then I think of Ian's mom, and think, 'How would she feel?' I'm like an adopted son to that family. But I don't know. . ."
His voice trails off. Tears well up in his eyes. He used to do everything with Ian.
Linda Poznikoff, mother of Clayton and Tyler, says Ian was at their house all the time. She and her husband, Paul, loved him like a son. Now, she looks at her boys and can't help notice the toll his death has taken. Tyler remains especially bitter; often when Ian's name comes up, he'll scream: "Ian's dead. Get over it." Then he leaves.
Dennis Ramanda isn't over it, either. Ian was often at his place too. The gang would often assemble in the shed Mr. Ramanda built next to his trailer, using scrap wood from the mill. Basically a kids' fort for grownups, it has a fireplace -- and now Ian's neon green Arctic Cat snowmobile as well. The night of the funeral, many of his friends gathered here to toast their lost friend. They cried like babies.
"There won't be another one like him," Dennis says. "He loved my little daughter, Brooke. He'd play with her for hours.
"I never want her to forget him, so I'll often bring a picture out of Ian, and say: 'There's Ian. Remember Ian? Remember how he played with you?' "
Then the wiry, ramrod-tough mill worker bows his head to compose himself.
What happened, says his sister, Dipper's Deli owner Sandy Lokken, has "screwed up a bunch of people's lives -- not just Ian's family. Everybody loved Ian in this town."
Renée Bush sits in Sandy's deli, worried sick about her mother, who has aged, she says, 10 years in five months. "I don't know how you recover from something like this. All my mother does is cry all the time. She can't stop."
She, too, cries every day, and when she does, she wants to pick up the phone and call Anni. But "what if she's having a good day? I'd just ruin it."
She cries because Ian won't see her graduate from nursing school next year or be at her wedding. She cries when she thinks back to the last time they saw one another, a few weeks before his death.
Renée was home for the weekend. It was early morning, she was still in bed, and he was leaving for work. He came into her bedroom, kissed her, gave her a hug and told her to drive safely. Just as he had every other time she had come home to visit.
"I love you," were the last words he spoke to her -- and the last she spoke to him.
Sitting in Anni's living room, Linda Bush has regrets of her own. Ian often told friends that he stayed with his mother because he wanted to, not because he had to. But after losing her job as an accountant's helper, she needed help to pay the mortgage. And he knew that.
She last saw her son as she was getting ready to leave for Renée's place. She told him she might not be back in enough time Monday to make his lunch for work. She made sandwiches most people couldn't get their mouths around.
"Don't worry about it, Mom," he said. "I'll be fine."
She never believed that he wouldn't be.
After getting back to Anni's house the day after he died, she wanted to see his body but couldn't. It lay on the floor of the police station for 17 hours while the area was inspected by a team of investigators and forensic specialists.
Then the body was tagged, placed in a coffin-shaped metal canister and shipped to Kamloops, more than 800 kilometres away by car, for an immediate autopsy. Again there was no time, so she never did see her son again.
"Renée and others said I wouldn't want to see Ian after the autopsy," Linda now says. "But when I learned that the bullet didn't exit his head, I wished I had."
Today marks six months to the day since Ian Bush was killed. The 29th is also the day people gather for a monthly candlelight vigil outside the Houston RCMP detachment. The first one, held six days after his death, attracted 400 people, and last month's drew about 30 on a cold and windy night.
J.R. showed up. And Dennis Ramanda. And Sandy from the deli. A steady stream of people came up to give Linda a hug. They didn't say much, as RCMP officers came and went without looking over at the burning candles and the memorial set up in Ian's honour.
"Rotten bastards," Dawson Bush said as a police car pulled into the driveway. "They're a bunch of rotten bastards."
The detachment wasn't happy about the memorial -- a constant reminder of what happened inside. A few months earlier, the police had removed many of the flowers, saying it was out of respect because the cold weather was killing them.
But they also said they would like the whole thing removed at some point. "Not until we get some answers," Linda Bush said. "This is not coming down until we know what happened to Ian."
But it did come down. Two weeks later, she returned to find everything gone -- the candles, the pictures and the flowers. The RCMP denied being responsible and said it would treat the matter as a theft.
"We'll likely never find out what happened," Linda now says. "It just seems awful fishy. I just can't believe someone in town would do this, you know?"
Meanwhile, Mr. Rubin, the lawyer, is almost ready to file a lawsuit against the RCMP and the officer involved, seeking money to cover the contributions Ian would have made to his mother's mortgage in the years to come. Because the suit is against the police, the family can't ask for more.
As for the investigation, the Bush family and many others in Houston are frustrated at the slow pace. The police said it might be six weeks before they knew what happened to Ian. It has been six months, and they still don't have a clue.
And there are those for whom the gregarious young man lives on.
During last month's vigil, as people huddled to keep warm, Anni's seven-year-old son Brian seemed oblivious to the cold. His cheeks were crimson, his jacket open.
"See this snowmobile," he said, pointing to a bright green plastic toy sitting among the glass-encased candles and flowers.
"That's mine. I gave it to Uncle Ian to borrow."
Gary Mason is a columnist with The Globe and Mail's British Columbia bureau.
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Police Surveillance by Remote Cameras
Peter Carson
604-805-6541
cansteel1978@yahoo.ca
May 25th 2006
Dear Mssrs Skulsky, Morierty, Guggi, Dawson, and Ferry
Province Newspaper
Vancover BC
Thank you for yours of May 23 2006, A18, relative to Chief Grahams police camera surviellance proposal. I am in full support of Chief Graham's view, and personally beleive it is a great idea to monitor certain areas and groups of people 24/7 356 per annum, for the purpose to reduce and eliminate crime, provided our Mayor Sam Sullivan, Chief Graham, his Union President Stamatakis, and all members who are actively on duty, are placed on a streaming live internet feed, 24/7, 365 per annum, such that the rest of us commoners can learn from those who openly use the media to express their views of what exactly is the proper and correct way to live our lives, and hold themselves out as exemplary models, such that we might too become enlightned by demonstrations from our leaders. Surely the Chief of Police, his Union president, and our Mayor of Vancouver have nothing to hide, and will have no problems demonstrating how the buck stops in their shoes, so long as they each serve as pillars in this community. As men in public life, each committed to serve as shining examples of honor and probity, each man sworn to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and to act with morals ethics and integrity as defined by Oxford, not a political bootlicker in the judiciary, each has nothign to worry about or hide, RIGHT ???
I agree wholeheartedly in seamless transparency, please bring on the cameras and point one at Graham, another at Stamatikis and a few at Mr Sullivan, so that everyone on the internet can learn by example of leadership in motion, such that we can all become elucidated as to exactly how to live the good life and precisely what are correct and healthy social, moral, and community values, from inside their respective glass houses. It would only seem fair and reasonable that if we commoners are to have cavity searches every time we walk out doors, with our personal biometrics collected as we walk through malls and parks, that similar information must also be available to scrutinize those who are enforcing the intrusions, to be sure we are all playing by the same rules. It would seem reasonable to suggest that a trial be given for at least a 2 year unfettered surveillance on all policemen, politicians, lawyers and accountants, so that they can refine the process before unleashing it on the rest of us, and such that we can learn how to ammend our wayward behavior by following the demonstrations of our community leaders. Once we commoners know for sure that the laws will be enforced seamlessly, regardless of political appointments, then it would seem timely to hold the laity as accountable to similar standards. In terms fo common sense, that which is good for the goose, must also be good for the gander.
It would seem a moot academic point without argument that the men in the top slots of the Vancouver Police and Mayors seat, must be leading exemplary lives as shining pillars of how every person in our Vancouver community should live, act, talk, and conduct themselves. As all of these men have many times commented publicly on such matters, it would seem only reasonable for Chief Graham and Stamatakis to elucidate this feat of their notable accomplishments, along with Mayor Sullivan in tow, by vollunteering to place themselves under the same form of scrutiny as they are planning to place all of us under. With Graham, Stamatakis, and Sullivan each carrying a portable digital camcorder on their person during each and every minute of every day, we common Vancouverites can learn by watching and listening to a streaming live 24 hour feed over the internet from anywhere around the globe, to see and hear exactly how the "good life" is led. Obviously if internet screening, wire-tapping, and video surveillance is supposed to be good for the Goose, it must be even better for those who wish to Gander, and I have no problems with it, so long as i get to see and hear what is going on inside leadership scums.
Furthermore, I fully advocate for a mandate to place each and absolutely every police officer to carry a personal camcorder and or at least a voice recorder as well. In doing so will certainly assist those parties who have an interest in such matters to answer many of our quetions without the costs attached to public hearings and courtroom dramas with police officers lined up to perjure themselves in defense of another officer fallen from grace. I fully support as many cameras in Vancouver as the chief wants to see installed, so long as we also get an unfettered view of the VCP Chief, Union president Stamatakis and all his underlings, whom we can rely upon to reinforce the values they emulate on a daily basis, 24/7, so that like minded people can be reinforced in their personal grooming and grownth by following the example of highly trained experts in the top roles of leadership.
In my opinion I believe this information will be very valuable to all people in Vancouver for us to garner the nuances of everyday life at home with the Chief and Union President, what they say at the Police Athletic Club after a few beers too many, and of course during all those heated situations they routinely encounters on nearly a daily basis, to include ; the Clancey Commission and trial of the Stanley Park 6, Jeff Berg, Frank Paul, the man whose teeth were smashed out at the Guns and Roses Concert, etc etc. etc,,,, etc.
With Mayor Sullivan, Chief Graham, Stamatakis and all their boys and girls in blue under monitored scrutiny 24/7, any questions of trust and integrity of the Vancouver City Police will be answered absolutely, and especially when questions arise about counselling suspected police officers to lie under oath during public inquiries such as the Clancey Commission where dozens of Vancouver City Police officers were actively engaged in a scandalous cover-up, and who aided and abetted in a well documented conspiracy to cover-up and bury a scandal which was only given light by the honor of one policeman named Cst Troy Peters. Without Cst Peters courage and integrity to report on the criminality of members within the Vancouver City Police, none of us would have ever learned of the facts residing just on the other side of the Wall of Blue, Code of Silence which shrouded and attempted to cover-up numerous acts of common assualt, assault and battery, aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm, abandonment of an injured person, threats of further violence, death threats while pointing a loaded weapon in the face of a suspect, various other types of weapons offences, unlawful confinement, misuse of discretionary police powers, forgery, knowingly, intentionally and willfully conspiring to file falsified general occurance reports, tampering with the public record, and each of whom then went on the stand with Bible in hand and committed outright perjury under the tutalge and guidance of Union president Stamatakis and 2 lawyers.
I personally attended on 5 days of the Clancey Commission, and was never so disgusted as to watch police officers cavalierly perjuring themselves on the stand under oath, while fully backed up to do so under the personal guidance of their union president. It was a real party. My favorite part was where counsel for the police rolled out the criminal records of the 3 men who were handcuffed while they were punched in the face, kicked on the ground with steel toed boots, beaten on the torso and abdomen with night sticks, and spat on while being given death threats at gunpoint from loaded weapons thrust in their faces. According to Mr Butcher, as lying scumbag lawyer on behalf of the police, these three men had an aggregate of almost 100 General Occurance Reports in their combined lifetimes, and each had served time in committal for petty crimes. Therefore, concluded Butcher, none were entitled to any protection from the Charter or Criminal Code due to their unsavory lifestyle and choices. What Mr Butcher neatly sidestepped was the fact that not including any of the dozens of Vancouver City Police officers involved to aid and abet in the conspiracy and coverup, but just to review the activities fo the 6 immediate rogue officers themselves, an aggregate of more than 135 criminal and civil violations were committed in just 2 hours of one shift. Admittedly, my tally might have crested 200 offenses, but it was not composite because I did not include tennets from the Universal Declaration, Constitutional and Charter offenses, breaches of the Motor Vehicle Act, violations to the Police Act, and or misuse of property belonging to the City of Vancouver, or the Operations and Procedure manuals of Vancouver City employees which all of them were.
Additionally, none of the petty crimes committed by any of these 3 men came anywhere close to all of the criminal acts committed by each of the Vancouver City Police. And strangely not one policemen went to jail or lost a dimes pay ?
Because so many police officers are in favor of camera surveillance, I believe another 3 locations which need absolutely perfect security surveillance are; in each and every police station, every motor vehicle operated by any person authorized to conduct police business, and on each and every police officer as similar to their sidearm, which must be carried while they are on duty. Had there been cameras installed and compulsory voice recorders mandated for all police officers to wear while on shift even 6 years ago, there would be virtually no questions of eactly what transpired on each and every occassion when a commoner made claims of police brutality, or was inexplicably discovered to be dead shortly after being incarcerated by police. There would be no 5 year delays, no misunderstandings or unanswered questions for ; Ms Julie Berg, the family of Ian Bush and community of Houston, relatives of Frank Paul, Phillip Fergusson, or any of the people who were beat up by police at the Guns and Roses concert, including the one man who had over 20 teeth smashed out of his mouth with a steel pipe by a new VCP recruit. With a camera built into the bullet proof vest of every police officer, literally hundreds of people who claim to have been brutally mistreated by police officers on a daily basis, would be resolved and eliminate hundreds, if not thousands of questions from being given rise from families who mysteriously "lost" members who had been incarcerated and were then reported dead without any answers for months or years, only to be later discovered with a bullet hole entering the backside of the skull, or whose frozen body was discovered to have severe injuries on either wrist from handcuffs, or with an exploded testivcle or two, or with skull fragements in their brain cavity from a blunt trauma injury whiel in police custody.
With each and every police officer carrying a voice recorder and camcorder built into their bullet proof vest, and with everyone available to watch live streaming video feeds, we could also ensure that all of the drugs and drug money apprehended and confiscated by police officers on a raid, will actually end up in proper storage of the courts, not in the arm, nose or briefcase of a group of police officers. I beleive the camera would serve to bring the same justice to those in their ivory towers as to those down at the street level, where police officers will beginu to be held held accountable to the same standards, if not higher standards, as those to whom they are sworn to serve and protect.
Certainly this would be a great advantage for all individual police officers such as the unsung Vancouver City Police hero, Cst Troy Peters, that he and those of similar integrity, would quickly be able to rely on their streaming real time data to prosecute any and all criminals, regardless of status as officers of the court. Any and all allegations of unprofessional, disreputable or unlawful conduct will be a simple as replaying the feed, end of story.
Every person applying to become a policeman was compelled to pass not only a battery of physical tests, but a rigorous screening of their family history, personality, IQ, and of those to whom they had intimate personal relationships to ensure they are upstanding and law abiding citizens. In theory, only those applicants deemed acceptable to these criteria went on to receive a highly sophistocated regime of legal and police training before being issued a sidearm and a license to use deadly force. It would seem academic that anyone who has passed all these levels of scrutiny and become licensed to use deadly force at their sole discretion, would only be too pleased to demonnstrate their provwess under the same burden bestown upon all common Canadians, to abide by all Federal laws, Charters, Statutes, Civil Acts, the Criminal Code, and unique provincial annomolies thereto. Each police officer willingly and knowlingly recited an oath and signed their names as a written testimony to their words, which also includes a further burden to abide by each and every clause of a Professional Conduct Handbook, operations and proceedures manuals, as well as the Police Act or RCMP Act. Naturally it stands to good reason that anyone with all this training and competency in legal matters, sworn to uphold the same standards as all who are not trained or sworn, would easily pass any and all surveillance testing on a minute to minute basis. As well, the cameras will produce a side bennefit to eliminate questions of criminal conduct by police officers themselves, and assist in weeding out those scurilous lying theiving brutal scumbags wearing police uniforms, and whose sexual proclivities, drug addictions, and zeal for to committ assault, battery, manslaughter, and or murder under the auspice of police jurisdiction, will no longer be mistaken under political determinations of "reasonable force".
As long as we commoners get to watch in on every Policeman, Police Union President and Chief Constable regardless whether they are on duty or off, I am all in favor of security monitoring for everyone else, most especially in the homes and offices of every officer of the court, which includes all members of legal and accounting Societies, members of the judiciary, and all politicians.
Insofar as Mr Delay of Chicago, unless I am mistaken, was it him or another Chicago Mayor who was re-elected after being busted for possession of cocaine about 10 years ago ?
Sincerely
Peter Carson
604-805-6541
cansteel1978@yahoo.ca
and they wonder why we have
and they wonder why we have no respect for cops...
Cop Who Killed Ian Bush Won't be Charged
Officer not charged in death of mill worker death
Ian Bush was killed by an RCMP constable during a violent altercation at police station
Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
HOUSTON - No charges will be laid against a rookie RCMP officer who fatally shot a 22-year-old mill worker last year in Houston, B.C., the criminal justice branch announced Tuesday.
The Crown found that the actions of the officer, RCMP Const. Paul Koester, amounted to justifiable self-defence.
The case will automatically go to an inquest for a public airing of the details leading up to the shooting death of Ian Bush last year.
Last Oct. 29, Bush was arrested after he was caught with an open beer outside the Houston hockey arena between periods.
He jokingly gave the officer a friend's name instead of his own and was arrested for obstruction of justice.
Bush was dead 20 minutes later. He was shot in the back of the head.
Police said earlier that Bush was shot during a violent altercation at the police station, where the officer was the lone officer on duty at the detachment.
Bush's mother, Linda Bush, said she was disappointed by the Crown's decision not to charge the officer.
"I'm disappointed but it was absolutely what we expected," she said in a telephone interview from Houston, located about 300 kilometres west of Prince George. "It's hard to hear when it's made official."
She said she was contacted Monday and informed of the decision by the criminal justice branch, which is responsible for prosecutions in B.C.
She added that her two daughters, Andrea, 25, and Renee, 30, were also "sad and disappointed" with the Crown's decision not to charge the officer and the finding that he acted in self-defence.
Linda said she can't see how her son would have been involved in a fight with the officer.
"He was a very peaceful sort of person; he was very intelligent. I can't see him assaulting the officer and the officer being afraid for his life."
She added: "I don't know what happened. We weren't there."
But Linda said she is looking forward to hearing details emerge at the coroner's inquest, which will be held in Houston. She plans to have her lawyer, Howard Rubin of North Vancouver, attend the inquest to question witnesses.
She said she was told that the officer is now is working at the Kamloops detachment.
Linda, 54, has filed a civil lawsuit against Koester, 30, was assigned to the town four days after he finished RCMP training.
She is also suing B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and Solicitor-General John Les, claiming the cabinet ministers were negligent in their handling, administration and supervision of the RCMP's investigation into the death of her son.
The fatal shooting of Ian Bush was investigated by the RCMP's North District Major Crime Unit. The results of that investigation were sent to the New Westminster police department for an independent review.
The results of the RCMP investigation and the New Westminster police review were forwarded to Crown counsel on June 26 this year.
Crown counsel sought and received additional investigation follow-up from the investigators on Aug. 8, when senior Crown from Prince George and branch headquarters in Victoria conducted a detailed examination of the evidence to determine whether the officer involved in the shooting committed any offence, including culpable homicide.
Prior to initiating a criminal charge, Crown counsel must be satisfied there is a substantial likelihood of conviction and that the public interest requires a prosecution.
The criminal justice branch is an arm of the attorney-general's ministry responsible for prosecutions in B.C.
The branch's policy on charge assessment says: "A substantial likelihood of conviction exists where Crown counsel is satisfied there is a strong, solid case of substance to present to the Court. In determining whether this standard is satisfied, Crown counsel must determine: 1. What material evidence is likely to be admissible; 2. The weight likely to be given to the admissible evidence; and 3. The likelihood that viable, not speculative, defences will succeed."
Branch spokesman Stan Lowe said Tuesday: "As the circumstances surrounding the shooting will be examined during the coroner's inquest, it would not be appropriate for Crown counsel to make any further comments on the details of this matter at this time."
nhall@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Ian Bush
I have been following this story in the Globe and mail.
How typical of the RCMP to allow a fellow member who is under suspicion, to keep working in the community.
I suppose it furthur proves their point that they know what happened. I also have to ask what the seniour officers were doing that night when they left the rookie with something he decided to solve with a gun.
Murder for a bottle of beer in your hand is not acceptable in this society. The scuffle, like many on the street, was not fair. One had a pistol.
I feel so bad for Ian Bush's family. The boy did not deserve to have his life ended by such an incident. There is a wide desparity between what was going on and the result.
Admit it, RCMP that there must have been something wrong with the eway the incident happened , if only, so another life will not be taken. Perhaps one of the RCMP's children. They drink and scuffle too, you know.
Lately, the RCMP by association do not exactly show a good reflection of peaceful, honest living.
I also have to ask what Koester did with the interview tape he turned on? Is it common to not have a tape in the recorder. They had 3 days to get rid of it. If you were going to lie, you would get the tape first. Especially if you turned it on just before.
Hard to swallow all that!
Indiscriminate & unwarrented use of Tasers by the RCMP
Indiscriminate & unwarrented use of Tasers by the RCMP is a far to common event....
Castlegar, British Columbia, Spring of 2007
A young friend of mine was Tasered by an RCMP Officer for refusing to stand up from a sitting position when ordered to by an RCMP officer. This young man was already in
hand-cuffs, he had not been armed and was not armed with a weapon. He had not acted in a violent, or threatening, manner prior to being Tasered, nor did he do so after being
Tasered. He was Tasered simply because he was not complying with verbal comands to get on his feet.
This boy was not Tasered just a single time, he was Tasered repeatedly, until the Taser battery was depleted and the Taser no longer servicable.
I was not on the sight of the Tasering, however, I did personally observe the burn damage on his body, which consisted of at least 10 fairly deep, looney sized, craters
well into the flesh of his shoulders and back. Three days had passed since the Tasering and still, he had difficulty getting up and walking as his whole body was racked with
mussle pain as well as the pain of his many deep burns.
There were witnesses to this Tasering, it did take place, but it didn't hit the NEWS, because this young man did not die as a result of the Officer's unwarrented attack
against him. These Taser attacks are far more common than one might think, but they go unnoticed except where the victims lose their lives and notice cannot be held off.
In my estimation, there is no call for any Taser use what-so-ever, in any situation, where the person who is to be the potential target of such action, has not brandished an 'actual weapon' and made a threat to use it in a deadly fashion against the Police Officer(s), or other near by person(s).