|
Of all the police brutality stories I've read on this G20/G8 thing, this had to be the worst one of them all. The way police have handled this event is truly appalling, especially the way they allowed so much carnage to happen and then they arrested many innocent people like this gentleman in violation of whatever-the-laws-and-common-sense that you can think of.
Police state it was, for this event. Sad that there is little criticism of the way police have handled things with Israeli-style brutality.
Kinda puts a dent on Canada Day celebrations, the ugly stories like this really put a damper on the already chilly day.
http://www.thespec.com/News/article/799797
TTC worker caught in G20 police sweep
| quote: |
July 01, 2010
Carola Vyhnak
A TTC fare collector spent a “terrifying” 36 hours in custody after being arrested in uniform on his way to work during Saturday’s G20 summit protests.
Benjamin Elroy Yau, 37, said he was walking along College St. to the Queen’s Park subway station before his 6 p.m. shift when two police officers “tackled” him to the ground and yelled at him to stop resisting arrest.
“I told them I wasn’t resisting arrest, that I was on my way to work. I was in full uniform with TTC shirt, pants, full ID, my employee card, everything,” Yau said on Wednesday. “They said, ‘Really? Well, you’re a prisoner today.’ ”
Moments before, another man had run into him but kept going, Yau said, adding that man was also arrested. There was no protest in sight and not many people in the street, he said.
Berating Yau and swearing at him for being an “embarrassment” to the TTC, officers dragged him half a block in handcuffs and shackles and threw him into a paddy wagon, he said.
After a TTC supervisor arrived to vouch for him, he thought he’d be released but was sent to the Eastern Ave. detention centre instead.
“I was petrified, I was shocked. I was essentially arrested for going to work,” said Yau, who is still traumatized by the experience. “It was just martial law. I had no rights.”
In custody, he went through “sheer terror” as he listened to other prisoners screaming and tried to sleep on a bloodied concrete floor. He was denied a phone call and fed only a “disgusting” cheese sandwich that he used for a pillow, Yau recalled. His hands were cuffed the whole time.
Four charges that included resisting arrest and obstructing justice were dropped before he was released at 2 a.m. on Monday, a day after the start of a week’s vacation, he said.
The booking sergeant told him he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time,” said Yau, who’s worked for the TTC for three years and never been in trouble with the law
TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE |
___________________
Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture
|
