RCMP Constable Geoff Mantler will go on trial for kicking Buddy Tavares in the face.

That’s great news.

The only down-side?  It will be well over a year from now before that trial starts.  The trial will begin on November 26, 2012, and for reasons beyond my comprehension, they say it will take three weeks to decide whether or not  Mantler is guilty of assaulting Buddy Tavares.

The judge will not be from Kelowna because of the number of Kelowna RCMP members scheduled to testify in the case.

Using logic only a lawyer can put forth with a straight face, Mantler’s lawyer had the audacity to say this:

“It’s a notorious case. We’ve all seen the video ad nauseam,” McDougall told Judge Ellen Burdett in a pre-trial conference. “What I want to know is, ‘What were you knowing? What were you thinking?’ . . . Then you go to reasonableness.”

Seriously?  Reasonableness?  I don’t care what standard you want to use, there was nothing “reasonable” about Geoff Mantler’s actions that day.

Who gives a crap what he was thinking?

The guy was caught on video putting Buddy Tavares on his knees on the ground, and then brutally kicked him in the face.  Tavares was fully compliant with every demand Mantler made.

That didn’t stop Constable Geoff Mantler from acting like a thug, did it?   Can you imagine if Buddy Tavares had actually done anything?

This guy is a menace to any citizen in his path and he should never be allowed to carry a badge and gun again.

But before he goes on trial for assaulting Buddy Tavares, RCMP Constable Geoff Mantler must first go on trial for assaulting another man, Manjit Singh Bhatti.  That trial is scheduled to begin next July.

Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Hourihan has pubicly expressed concern over Mantler’s alleged actions.

“This type of behaviour, if substantiated, is extremely concerning for me. It’s disappointing, at a very minimum.  It’s behavior that falls well short of any expectations that I or any of our officers or (RCMP) members have in that regard.”

Then why isn’t the RCMP doing anything about out-of-control constables like Geoff Mantler and others like him?

Kelowna RCMP Staff Sergeant Owen Wlodarczak punched his own wife in the face 8 times and then stuck his service pistol to her head, all while his children watched in horror.

RCMP Constable Jack Cunningham beat the crap out of Les Lattery last year and has never faced charges for it, despite a judge being so thoroughly disgusted with Constable Cunningham’s actions that he tossed all charges against Mr. Lattery.

Why isn’t the RCMP forcing these men to get treatment for their obvious anger management issues before more members of the public are brutalized?

Sadly, that’s a question nobody in the RCMP will touch with a ten-foot pole.