The Edmonton Police Service showed they weren't about to let the RCMP or Toronto Police Service show them up when it comes to police brutality; that they could hold their own against any police force in the country when it comes to beating the crap out of the citizens they are supposedly there to protect.
Sammy Sobieh released video that he claims shows members of the Edmonton Police Service merrily engaging in a round of police brutality.
"I need these guys to be punished as thugs, as any thug that assault somebody -- because it wasn't called for."
Sobieh, a 60-year-old business owner, was arrested and charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon and uttering threats after his beating at the hands of Edmonton's Finest.
The video showing him at the time of his "incident", as the Edmonton Police refer to it, shows he is not armed and is attempting to be compliant with the police constables' demands.
As he turns his back they swarm him, take him to the ground and then beat him.
The video does not show Mr. Sobieh resisting in any way or showing any aggression toward the constables that could explain their sudden attack. During the entire incident one constable has his weapon aimed at Mr. Sobieh. The only sensible thing the video clearly shows is that the constable's finger was NOT on the trigger.
Thank God for video cameras! If it weren't for the video of this "incident", there wouldn't even be an investigation into the actions of police.
It all started when Mr. Sobieh confronted a man behind his business who had assaulted one of his workers a few days earlier, according to the note at the top of the video posted to LiveLeak.com.
Apparently unhappy with being confronted by the business owner, the person called Edmonton Police and claimed he was threatened by Mr. Sobieh.
Edmonton Police responded with guns drawn.
The president of the Edmonton Police Association, Sergeant Tony Simioni, said the video tells only one side of the story.
Such a typical response from police mouthpieces when their own are caught on tape acting like thugs. The RCMP said basically the same thing when Constable Geoff Mantler was caught on video kicking Buddy Tavares in the face, if you recall.
Police Brutality Stock Answer #1: We don't care if you have video, it wasn't us!
Sgt. Timioni went on to say:
"Different levels of force are required depending on the information we have going in. And depending on the level of resistance shown by a particular suspect."
Well, once they had their suspect on the ground, I wasn't able to see anything that showed a reason for pounding on Mr. Sobieh that the video shows with stark clarity.
He was not resisting. He was handcuffed as far as I can tell before the beating started.
The Edmonton Journal report has Sgt. Timioni speculating about what happened even after admitting he hadn't seen the video.
Gotta love that Fat Blue Line and all that goes with it...
Naturally, police charge that Mr. Sobieh was "resisting arrest" and without actually putting it into these words, implied he got what he deserved.
“You don’t see a person resisting, necessarily. All you see is what appears to be some violent actions,” Simioni said. “And I can tell you from experience that sometimes, unfortunately, those violent actions are necessary for our own safety.”
I'm astounded once again that the very people sworn to uphold the law just can't seem to tell the truth even when they are confronted with video evidence of their own misdeeds.
RCMP Constable Geoff Mantler claims to this day he did nothing wrong.
The three constables involved have not been named and the Blue Wall of Protection appears to be surrounding them.
That is, in a word, disgraceful.
The lone voice of reason actually appears to be coming from Edmonton's top cop himself, Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht. That's rather interesting given his recent push to ban knives within Edmonton City Limits. I would never have expected a sensible thought to come from him after that lunacy, but here it is:
“If I had my way, I think I’d have all investigations involving police officers taken out of our hands and put to an independent agency. I think it’s good for public confidence in the police, I think it’s good for the members because we’re taking a step back, the organization takes a step back, it’s good for the complainant, it’s good for everybody. You’re getting that total independence and that’s what you want in incidents involving police officers.”
It would seem common sense rears its head in the strangest of places...
I'm just grateful when it rears its head at all, and that it's coming from the police chief actually gives me hope.
Yeah. I actually said that.
Can hardly believe it myself.
:)
Which one of these police takedowns in happening in a 3rd-world country?
Hello Christopher, people where I live have videos of police quite a few doing similar violent acts against citizens. Another man in Victoria said that a news paper delivery man in Vancouver got beat up . This man delivers for times columnist .There is a large group called cop watch and they monitor the police and RCMP. The RCMP are seen 6 nights a week at Tim Hortons having a good time at tax payers expense about 800 feet from an ongoing crime scene. this is well documented.
with regards to cops and other issues, Suman Virk, mother of Rena has spoken with me about that and also Nancy Dawson who relayed to me about the fact the the cops perjured themselves , breach confidential information and falsified reports on the death of her only son Anthony Dawson in the year 2000. Anthony was in Medical distress and running down the streets of Oak Bay when he was spotted by officer Lawrence Hemstad and 3 of his cronies, they chased Anthony down like a pack of wild dogs off a leash and kicked and beat him laughing the whole time, held his face down until he suffocated and went into cardiac arrest.
I have a 45 page report on it and there were a lot of witnesses to report what the cops did. Nancy called me several times to share this with me and warn me about the wall as she calls many others have done the same. Jeff buziak and I spoke he is in Calgary his daughter murdered and he complained about saanich police, and their mishandling of the so called investigation. He wants support for special crimes unit to do it. Last but not least Lucia Proctor mother of Kimberly proctor called me as she has been informed by a man that her daughter was tortured and murdered and this could have been avoided if RCMP had done their job as people tried to report the 2 teens that did this prior to thier crime against kimberly a lovely teen who had a bright future but the RCMP did not bother and Kimberly’s fate was sealed for that reason. Fro details and perosn who know this contact me privately if you want more for this story . I have thiese people on tape as I do a city planners wife who called me for help with regards to offences committed against her brother who was in care of someone we both had a problem with will disclose later. I have RCMP and police on tpase etc and we are going to make copies and send them everywhere
The main political dilemma facing ordinary people is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical, for they have proven to be mean-spirited, freedom-sucking parasites when left to roam without restraint and are capable of destroying rather than protecting our liberty, as Christopher has clearly documented countless times in his articles.
“Apparently unhappy with being confronted by the business owner, the person called Edmonton Police and claimed he was threatened by Mr. Sobieh,” he wrote in the above piece. “Edmonton Police responded with guns drawn.”
So, the armed Edmonton police, like all other cops of Canada, don’t question anybody before they leap in for a “kill”; reverse onus applies to the accused; therefore, everything is a high-risk take-down based solely on the accuser’s word which is probably not worth spit!
All the police need is the unfounded accusation from a willing accuser, who alleged Sammy Sobieh had a weapon and had threatened the accuser who was hanging around in the alley–doing what? Innocently waiting for meat scraps to be tossed his way like for a hungry stray dog?
No, the accuser sounds like he was loitering in the alley, laying in wait for one of Mr. Sobieh’s employees. And the accuser “felt threatened” because Mr. Sobieh was trying to protect his employee–from what? Violence? Pestering? Panhandling?
I don’t know. Yet from where I sit, something is dreadfully wrong with this picture. And observers who have a need to know don’t know the flip side of the untold, uninvestigated story because the cowering police are mum.
Is the accuser a paid police stoolie who can ring up anytime and his badge-bearing buddies come running? Men in uniform see nothing without stoolies.
Or is the accuser someone who stands to gain cash from anonymously reporting a “crime”?
On flimsy “he said evidence” the police take brutal action, beating the defenseless accused until his skin is blue? This is obscene, not to mention unprofessional! At least this type behavior used to be unprofessional. These days it seems to have become commonplace policing.
The cops could have cuffed the accused standing up. While one or two cops held him to make sure Mr. Sobieh wasn’t going any place, another cop could have searched him for a “weapon”–gun, knife, ice pick, meat cleaver or whatever. I hardly think the accused could hide a meat hook on his person, despite what the accuser said!
Then what do these stupid cops charge Sobieh with?! Resisting arrest! Is that the best these boneheads can do? Was he resisting arrest? I don’t know. I wasn’t there.
But the police are the ones who perpetrated the commotion. It was the game they play that gave them license to accuse Mr. Sobieh of “resisting arrest”; all he was doing was instinctively trying to protect himself from harsh blows. It’s human nature.
However, it is certainly unfair, definitely unnecessary play when a man is cuffed and defenseless for a gaggle of Soviet-style thugs to beat on him for their night of fun. To paraphrase a child’s ditty to emphasis fair play: “Three against one/Is unfair fun.”
In giving thanks for some blessings, at least the uniformed thugs in this specific incident didn’t sound as though they used their power to gang rape or cannibalize their helpless prey.
Again, where is the accuser in this police-instigated debacle? What’s his name? Where does he live? On the streets? In alleyways? In jail cells at the police station? Is he kin to or friends with one or more of these policemen?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. So as not to encumber police with nuisances and not to clutter up the court dockets and judges’ precious time with such pesky things as natural law and due process, in today’s unlawful, politically-correct world it is always the accused who is guilty simply by virtue that an anonymous accuser did the accusing.
“I felt threatened,” is all the accuser has to whine, words taken directly from the police’s own mantra manual. That’s all the police and the courts need in order to find an accused person guilty of sin.
It’s sick. But, hey, it makes the farcical Kangaroo Justice System, patterned after Stalin’s Justice System, so much more neat and tidy and simple for the Marxists who want complete command-and-control over the slaves.
This man showed contempt toward the police. He then turned his back with the intent of disrespect and proceeded to walk away. They did the right thing and took this man down. He then struggled on the ground and they made him comply. They did what I would have done. They did a good job…yes, Toad, a good job. Maybe in Africa you can turn your back when the police ask you a question! Be fair or join the man on the ground! A police officer should not have to approach you like he was your priest!
Although you are right, they didn’t need to beat him in the back, they needed to pull his arms behind his back to handcuff him. There was SOME risk when he was on the ground, but not enough to warrant hitting him in the back a few times. The one guy light kicked him a couple times, but not too violently.
This situation is just not smart on anyone’s end and could have been handled A LOT better on the shop owners and police’s side.
I watched the video and what I observed is a man not listening to the police . He turned his back to them and walked away . When they took him down he should have put his hands behind his back which i’m sure they instructed him to do . He chose not to comply and therefore they had to use physical force. I agree with “people” , police officers are not preists and thank god for that !
I would also like to add that I find “Diane’s” comment about the police officers chasing down Anthony Dawson like wild dogs ridiculous! It just so happens I witnessed that event and that is not what I observed . What I and many others observed was a very dangerous,out of control large naked man running down the middle of the street who to me was obviously on a large dose of mind altering drugs . I also observed a police officer struggling very hard trying to control this man “Anthony” who was yelling and fighting viciously ! This man was completly out of control and it took a alot of police officers to get a grip on him . I did not see any police laughing and beating him as said by Diane . It is unfortunate that this man died but it was not because of how the police handled the situation. This man “Anthony” was still yelling and trying to fight even when he was placed in the ambulance so how is it they suffocated him ? The police should be commended. I and others who witnessed this event thought the police handled it very well .
Thanks Joan