Don't think abusive and wrongful arrests are just a U.S. problem

National Post, 29 May 2020

The day after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, a documentary about merciless beatings by Toronto police in 2010 had its world premiere.

“George Floyd (died) face down on the street under the knee of a police officer in Minnesota.”

That’s the mightily reserved way Barack Obama described what police officer Derek Chauvin did during the arrest in Minneapolis on Monday. I would prefer to simply say that Chauvin killed him. A criminal investigation will determine the legal nature of that death: murder, negligent homicide, manslaughter or justified use of force. Given that the Minneapolis police charged Chauvin on Friday with third-degree murder and manslaughter, it appears that no one believes that the conduct of lethal arrest was justified.

The day after Floyd’s death, I watched Toronto police giving out merciless beatings in the process of arresting demonstrators at the G20 summit in 2010. That footage opens the TVO documentary The Arrest, which had its world premiere on Tuesday.

That police and prosecutors abuse their power to convict the innocent has been a regular theme of my writing for more than 10 years. Some readers have asked why I write about it so often. I do because so few other Canadian columnists write about it often enough. It stills amazes me that society at large appears largely untroubled by the fearsome power of the state turned against the innocent.

The TVO documentary, made by veteran journalist and war correspondent Martin Himel, reminded me of a lacuna in my own columns. I have written dozens of them about the wrongfully convicted; I have neglected to point out that the abuse of police power can begin with the arrest.

Continue reading at the National Post:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-dont-think-abusive-and-wrongful-arrests-are-just-a-u-s-problem?video_autoplay=true