In Custody Death - Calgary Police Service

[CaptainCrunch]

Everything that I've heard here and elsewhere states that the Violent crime division was involved which points to a violent death. So again, I might be going out on a limb as well

[Cowboy89]

I anticipate there being a deep investigation. If this person turns out to be native expect the usual band outcry for an 'inquiry.'

[Flame On]

Wasn't there another case of this not too unrecently?
Not saying that means anything, just asking if I remember correctly.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by peter12

Racism is always brought up so casually, like it's something so natural that we are all guilty of.

No one brought up racism. The poster said, off hand, that the guy was probably native. I don't see anywhere where anyone has accused anyone else of racism in this thread. The victim's last name makes it pretty obvious that he may be...

That may be the case, however, I take issue with what you have said. I don't believe any Calgarian really and seriously values one "race" over another "race" that much that they would mourn the life of one more significantly than the other.

Fair enough... my opinion is that thats amazingly naive and idealistic. A wonderful notion, but probably not true (again, my opinion).

If the 20 year old white kid died drunk on the floor of his cell, you would have just as many skeptics. Same if Mr. Threesuns had been sober. The poster who brought up race did so unnecessarily in my own opinion.

Maybe, maybe not. I bet native groups get involved if the guy is native, so that right there means race will have something to do with how this plays out... if it was a white kid, native groups probably wouldn't care. This happens to come at a time when native-Canadian relations seem to be worsening, I don't see the problem with assuming that this incident might have broader connotations.

Obviously this is all speculation, but as I said above, if we all knew all the answers, what would there be to talk about? Message boards are built around rumour and heresay, take the starch out of your underwear.

Same if Mr. Threesuns had been sober

Funny, I don't see it written anywhere that he was drunk...

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Funny, I don't see it written anywhere that he was drunk...

I saw it on the news this morning.

Woodrow James Three Suns, 41, had been arrested on outstanding warrants and public intoxication around 7:35 p.m. Saturday at the Southland C-Train station.

I'm not sure if other news sites just missed out on that fact or what.

[Lawrence O'Shane]

Originally Posted by Lanny_MacDonald

I think that is inaccurate. LAPD is highly regarded, but has a major problem with their reputation because of an attitude developed by their force as being elite and untouchable. The problem with LAPD is internal leadership in the chain of command, a systematic failure in training of their officers, a complete lack of civilian staff, and a disengagement from the community they serve. Some of these problems are not unexpected for a force that services such a huge metropolitan area with such a diverse cultural makeup. Many of the problems are well known and will be addressed in the next decade. Leadership is the most important factor in this failing, and that will be changing in the next two to three years.

Poor leadership is always looked to by by those unwilling to understand that the job itself attracts far too many cowboys asseholes and flakes.

In this instance we do not know what happened but we do know that previous instances of abuse of prisioners by certain local police have been covered up ... over and over again. I have been waiting for more then five years to learn why and who wearing the blue attacked an 82 year old man who was taken into Calgary police custody to "prevent a breach of the peace". The 82 year old man's arm was visabily broken at about 9:30 am by a police officer who believed that he should be able to move faster then he could and when he complained that his arm was fractured he had his shirt pulled over his head and he was kicked in his arse so that he fell down while other police officers present laughted. The attack only stopped after a staff sergeant saw it on the cctv screen and come down to the cells to stop it. The 82 year old man was then held without medical treatment for his arm until the change of shift at about 3:30 pm. The attack took place on police cameras within the cell area at a district office and the tapes "disappeared". General community outrage was non-existant and the Calgary police can be very proud of themselves for preventing an 82 year old man from recycling community waste. It is my position that any young policeman who attacks any 82 year old man because he thinks he should be able to do so in the circumstances of this or any other case should suffer banishment to the extreme north of our country rather then continue to recieve his paycheck from the taxpayer ... regretably, it'll never happen.
Lawrence


I agree with what you're saying, but having Professional Standards involved usually means that an internal process is being evaluated and that anything considered out of the ordinary would be investigated by Internal Affairs (or equivalent for CoCPS). I think the book is being followed by the letter so there is no appearance of impropriety.

The book is for image protection and not for protection of the public from over aggressive police officers.

Lawrence

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I saw it on the news this morning.

Woodrow James Three Suns, 41, had been arrested on outstanding warrants and public intoxication around 7:35 p.m. Saturday at the Southland C-Train station.

I'm not sure if other news sites just missed out on that fact or what.

Fair enough, I didn't see it in the thread.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Lawrence O'Shane

The book is for image protection and not for protection of the public from over aggressive police officers.

Lawrence

I have a fairly good idea who the officer is and as with any situation there are two sides to the story - in this case according to the officer I talked to (in person getting a better idea of the story than someone reading the Calgary Sun), stated that the individual while elderly actively resisted arrest at which time he became aggressive towards the officer. After that standard procedure was used and at least according to the officer it was more due to the age of the subject that the individuals arm broke. It wasn't as though the officer went out and started to beat on a random old man. I hadn't heard about what happened afterwards in lockup but really there are two sides to every story and I am sure what you heard was likely as biased as what I heard and the truth is somewhere in the middle... it is actually suprising that more incidents like this don't occur when you consider the crap that the police have to put up with day after day.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Even if the cops did nothing to cause his death, they are responsible to help prevent it if they can.
I'm not saying that they could have in this case, but my guess is the inquiry will be looking into that. Perhaps they could have gotten him to a hospital sooner, perhaps they couldn't... who knows?
RIP