News around the Hammer

The last while the news from the Hammer has been coming in fast and furious and has covered everything from a  cop in a deep state of denial, city tax payers picking up the check for a councilors fines, to a man with a novel idea for a gift for his wife. Hang on, strap yourself in and lets start the ride, I will meet everyone back at the end for a trip to the obscura  gift shop, enjoy.

Hamilton man charged in oprah ticket theft story
A Hamilton man beat himself up - literally - and claimed he had been mugged after failing to get seats for a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago on Tuesday.

(You didn't win a car!!!)

Police officer in dixon civil suit denies concocting arrest events
A Hamilton police officer, named as a defendant in an $180,000 civil lawsuit stemming from a wrongful arrest, was evasive, argumentative and confrontational on the witness stand Thursday. Oliver Mann admitted under cross-examination that he changed his testimony.

Early the morning of Aug. 15, 2003, Mann and fellow officer Christian Beaulne responded to a call that a short white man wearing light-coloured sneakers was breaking into a John Street South jewellery store.
Around the same time, Dixon had gotten off a GO bus and began walking. The two officers ended up arresting Dixon at gunpoint in a parking lot along Hunter Street. He spent three days in jail and waited nine months before the Crown withdrew the charges.

 Under cross-examination, Mann rejected Zbogar’s suggestion that he concocted his version of events to support the arrest. Dixon, a black man, claims the officers discriminated against him on the basis of race despite witness descriptions of the robbery suspect.

(Sadly, there's no litmus test for the police system to use to weed out these type of blatant racist ignoramuses so we as citizens are forced to pay for a broken chain of command)

*May 28 Update*
police have learned lessons chief

Superior Court Judge Kim Carpenter-Gunn ordered the police board, along with Mann and Detective Constable Jason Leek, who conducted a formal video interview the night of the arrest, to pay Dixon just under $80,000 to cover his legal bills. Beaulne, who died in 2009 of a medical condition, was exempted from the cost ruling.
Earlier this week, Carpenter-Gunn ruled the police board and the officers had committed false arrest, false imprisonment, negligent investigation and Charter rights of liberty and security of person, and called the officers inept, arrogant, closed-minded, lacking experience and suffering from tunnel vision.
She awarded Dixon $54,000 in damages, including prejudgment interest, which will be paid by Hamilton taxpayers as per Police Services Act rules.

Links to my original posts following the whole story
http://theeternalkenaz.blogspot.com/2006/12/hamilton-police-black-and-blue-in-2006.html
 http://theeternalkenaz.blogspot.com/2008/09/michael-dixon-wronged-by-hamilton.html

 Let the records show spring has sprung a leak
It’s official. The latest cloudburst pushed us well over the brink of what we actually needed to break a record this spring. With 27.2 mm of rain Wednesday, this spring is Hamilton’s wettest.

(Duck soup anyone?)

Whiteheads language malicious demeaning defamatory
City taxpayers are footing the bill for $15,000 in damages after Councillor Terry Whitehead lost a defamation suit filed against him by a deamalgamation advocate.
Justice James Turnbull ruled that Whitehead libelled Free Flamborough chairman Roman Sarachman when the councillor called Sarachman a “destructive, mean-spirited, irrational liar that does not deserve the time of day” in a May 2008 email copied to council.

“It is not in the best interests of the city that councillors address taxpayers in such derogatory and unfair terms,” Turnbull wrote in a judgment handed down Monday morning. “It is incomprehensible that an email with such comments fell within the scope of his duties as a city councillor.”

(Here's the kick in the groin by a bunch of clowns.

City solicitor Peter Barkwell says Whitehead’s costs are being covered because his case comes within the terms of the city’s indemnification bylaw. That means the city’s legal department and insurers feel Whitehead was acting within the scope of his duties as a councillor and acting in good faith when he sent the email. But in his judgment, Turnbull says Whitehead’s words did not meet either of those criteria.

(Tax payers get clowned again. We got three new councilors who have decided to join the good old boys club and stick it to the voters who voted for change)

*But wait there's more!!! May 28*

The city must cover all legal costs incurred by a Waterdown resident and deamalgamation advocate who successfully sued Councillor Terry Whitehead for defamation. In a judgment handed down Thursday, Justice James Turnbull ordered the city to pay $28,188.75 for Roman Sarachman’s legal costs.
That fee is on top of the $15,000 Turnbull awarded Sarachman in general damages at the end of the two-day libel trial that wrapped up in mid-May. Turnbull had reserved a decision on Sarachman’s legal costs until this week. The city is also covering the cost of Whitehead’s lawyer.

Walkerton compensation tops 72-million
Ontario has now paid out more than $72 million in compensation to victims of Walkerton's tainted water tragedy.
(The Spec's open comment policy brings out all sorts of misinformed ideas from people who must sit around all day making tin foil hats. Re:Comments from "Churchill" Friend of this guy?)





One last stop before we end the tour, welcome to never-never land where Hamilton's activists hang out stroking their egos and listening to Gary Wright's  "Dream Weaver" whilst insulting anyone who challenges the legend of an internet hero. Some good points are made in this post, but one glaring omission is obvious who's paying? Cheers! have another.

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/1376/the_future_of_west_harbour_and_barton-tiffany

Gotta go, off to the new "Centre on Barton" to look at some new walking shorts, I'm as optimistic that the sun will rise as I am that Hamilton can rise from the ashes and shed this "what a dump" attitude our neibours and some Hamiltonian's have.

Later,
Kenaz

Michael Dixon wronged by Hamilton Police Board

Update from a post from 21/10/06,

A man stepping off a bus and grabbed by two cops and thrown in jail for doing nothing wrong. If I hadn't read the bi-line that read "Hamilton", I would have easily thought the story was from Beirut or Kandahar.

The man in question is Michael Dixon. A break-in occurred during the Aug. 14, 2003, blackout. Hamilton police were looking for a Caucasian suspect. Dixon is black.

Dixon begged the officers who nabbed him to check with the driver of the bus he had just exited on his way home from work in Toronto. They wouldn't. He sat in jail for almost four days; for nine months he lived under strict bail conditions. Three times, an assistant Crown attorney demanded the two arresting officers interview Dixon's alibi witnesses. That never happened. All charges were eventually dropped.

Dixon tried to file a complaint but a staff sergeant refused to give him the forms. He pursued the complaint and a police internal affairs investigation exonerated the officers. He complained to the Ontario Civilian Commission for Police Services; Peel police were ordered to investigate and concluded serious misconduct had occurred. The OCCPS ordered Hamilton police to lay charges. The two constables pleaded guilty. Their sentence was three days' lost pay. That's less time than Dixon spent in jail.

Hamilton’s police board says two officers who pleaded guilty of misconduct in the wrongful arrest of a black man did not commit criminal obstruction of justice.

The Hamilton Police Services Board says an OPP investigation has concluded Constables Oliver Mann and Chris Beaulne did not criminally obstruct justice by making false statements to internal affairs investigators. As a result, the board has decided there is no evidence of misconduct in terms of false or misleading evidence in their arrest five years ago of Michael Dixon.

I'm dumbfounded, what constitutes obstruction of justice if this doesn't? Two cops who happened to be white who where desperate to find a quick resolve for a crime tried to pin it on the nearest man they thought looked suspicious. That happened to be a black man coming home from his work at the CNE. No matter how you cut it this smacks of racial profiling and racial bias. I'm not insinuating this a department wide problem but their is a few bad apples on the Hamilton Police force and you know what they say about bad apples.

Later, Kenaz

For whom the bell tolls

The bell tolls for you Acting Hamilton Police Chief Tom Marlor. Why? Because of his incredible lack of leadership.

This year hasn't been a great one for this cities cops. Accusations of corruption and abuse of power have caused enough doubt in many peoples minds as to second guess the ability of many of those who are paid to serve and protect. This could lead to serious problems in public relations and general trust between the public and officers.

The latest incident involves a man stepping off a bus and grabbed by two cops and thrown in jail for doing nothing wrong. If I hadn't read the bi-line that read "Hamilton", I would have easily thought the story was from Beirut or Kandahar.

The man in question is Michael Dixon. A break-in occurred during the Aug. 14, 2003, blackout. Hamilton police were looking for a Caucasian suspect. Dixon is black.

Dixon begged the officers who nabbed him to check with the driver of the bus he had just exited on his way home from work in Toronto. They wouldn't. He sat in jail for almost four days; for nine months he lived under strict bail conditions. Three times, an assistant Crown attorney demanded the two arresting officers interview Dixon's alibi witnesses. That never happened. All charges were eventually dropped.

Dixon tried to file a complaint but a staff sergeant refused to give him the forms. He pursued the complaint and a police internal affairs investigation exonerated the officers. He complained to the Ontario Civilian Commission for Police Services; Peel police were ordered to investigate and concluded serious misconduct had occurred. The OCCPS ordered Hamilton police to lay charges. The two constables pleaded guilty. Their sentence was three days' lost pay. That's less time than Dixon spent in jail.

Dixon is yet another victim of shoddy police work. Another honest citizen denied his basic rights which include the right to file a complaint. And yet another incident in which an internal investigation has draped the thin blue curtain around a case in an effort to cover up and silence a complaint that would clearly point to substandard police work, and possibly racism.

If the Hamilton Police where a sports team the coach would be fired and every member of the team would be forced to go back to basics. In this case, back to the classroom for more sensitivity training and hands on training in public diversity awareness.

Simply saying I'm sorry and dismissing the claims of race bias is not enough. It's another cop out, and leaves everyone with a bad taste in their mouth. The tarnished brass face some serious ethical questions that include racial bias and shody investigating. I'm sorry, but this time the situation cannot be swept under the rug as Marlor is attempting to do.

Chief Brian Mullan must show his metal and address Dixon's complaints in a straightforward manner or risk being drowned in the flood of popular opinion that could sweep the city if he doesn't scrutinize the integrity of internal investigations and seriously consider that a police service should not investigate itself.

And he must ensure that all police officers -- whatever their rank -- are doing their jobs fully and properly. If he doesn't than he should be out of work.

Later,
Kenaz