It only took seven years for some small measure of justice for Timothy Ferguson.
Alberta's Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) has ordered Edmonton Chief of Police Mike Boyd to charge Const. Aubrey Zalaski with unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority for applying a level of force inappropriate for the circumstances.
The LERB concluded "that an objectively reasonable person might not consider the Tasering of the appellant reasonable given that it was deployed four times while the appellant was being held down by several large male officers, was handcuffed, was wearing a spit mask, and was displaying symptoms of excited delirium."
Really? Imagine that...
This isn't Zalaski's first run-in with criminal charges for using excessive force.
On August 9, 2004 Const. Aubrey Zalaski used excessive force when he arrested Paul Cetinski for jaywalking. He tazered Mr. Cetinski.
Provincial court Judge Brian Fraser ruled Const. Aubrey Zalaski was not justified and used an “excessive” amount of force when he used his Taser on Paul Cetinski Jr., 35.
“The clear fact to me is that the accused overreacted which resulted in an unnecessary, gratuitous use of force,” said Fraser, a judge from St. Paul.
“I have concluded that the accused had no lawful authority to arrest Cetinski on Aug. 9, 2004, and that the use of force was unjustified in law,” said Fraser.
Zalaski was admonished prior to this for another incident, this time for using excessive force when hitting a 17-year-old girl in an incident on Edmonton's Whyte Avenue.
For the excessive force conviction in the jaywaking incident, Zalaski has received a conditional discharge, and specifically was NOT prohibited from owning firearms so he could continue his career as a police officer.
Fantastic. Just the kind of cop I want to have a gun.
"We're absolutely fed up with the lack of respect out there. "It's never been to this level before."
-- Const. Aubrey Zalaski
Then maybe you should try acting like an actual police constable, instead of a thug, sir.
Seems that Zalaski is seen as some sort of "rising star" in the Edmonton Police Service, hence all the special treatment.
On the bright side, he was ordered to take an anger management class and provide a DNA sample to the national databank.
So if/when he kills someone, at least we will be able to prove that he did the crime.
I love this country.
