Sergeant Darcy Taylor. A Sergeant with 21 years on the force had an assault conviction but was given an absolute discharge in Vancouver provincial court on Friday.
A widely-distributed surveillance video showed him running across the street and striking innocent bystander Justin Wachtel in the head and knocking him over.
Defence counsel Kevin Woodall told the court it happened during an "adrenalized" moment brought on by a "chaotic" situation. The judge agreed: "The circumstances must be taken into account. He was attempting to control an unruly, aggressive crowd. For a few brief moments he lost control.
This is absolutely insane. Full of adrenalin is not an excuse. It's a bad rationalization like the other cops who assaulted and robbed an innocent civilian in an unprovoked attack who said they had ten and twenty drinks each. All that means is that they are drunks as well as criminals.
It's a good thing Taylor isn't a soldier. I can see it now: We were engaged in a firefight with the enemy and I ran across the street and shot an innocent civilian in the head. I was swept away with adrenaline of the moment. If that happened in the military he'd be court marshaled.
The whole point of police training is to be able to diffuse situations not inflame them. Clearly that is not being taught any more in their training. Clearly they need to fire their use of force trainers and send new ones to be trained under the retired VPD Ninja John McKay.
At first I though absolute discharge meant he was fired from the VPD but he doesn't get a criminal record. That was fair I thought. But no. Absolute discharge means he gets sweet fuck all. That decision is a slap in the face of public interest. And the people said... absolutely nothing. They just bowed their head in shame while David Pendleton and Darcy Taylor just pissed on a good soldiers grave. Lest we forget.
They say the truth will set you free. Well I'm not seeing it. Not with our judicial system.
Agent K:
ReplyDelete"...who said they (VPD officers) had ten and twenty drinks each. All that means is that they are drunks as well as criminals."
Agent K brings up, for the first time I've seen in print, something I thought about, and perhaps other citizens thought, when reading this; "ten or twenty drinks" (?).
Even for a guys' night out on the town; the Officers were surely not "social" drinking; twenty drinks is about one whole 26'er of hard alcohol, a huge amount for any of us even to attempt to drink. As a teetotaler myself, I don't use it, but even normal drinkers would be surprised @ this real evidence of "binge", alcoholic-style drinking. It's just not normal even for a usual drinker, is it? One has to ask, is this anything like the "normal" drinking of the VPD off-duty? Surely, a person(s) who does this, has not done it here for the first time, this is learned behaviour. I can't believe that this is the only incident of their wild-style boozing, and in public; why not buy the booze & do this @ home, out of the public's view & harm's way?
I, myself, am a highly-ranked Wildfire Fire-Boss (B); with decades of experience, that has landed me as an "essential service" to the Province; I understand stress and life-threatening work. I've crashed twice in helicopters, I'm in the Aviation Wildfire world. I've seen the "work hard, play hard" mentality too; I've been part of it. And I've seen the results; the recourse to alcohol all the time, the addiction it brings, the wrecked families & homes & lives. Alcohol's no way to go, no way to relieve stress, its "help" is a fake devil's bargain, like all drug use.
These VPD officers, as Agent K pointed out, may well already be alcoholics; who else drinks that way? It's a real danger, to them & the public; as folks who abuse drugs always cross the line and end up partially drunk on duty.
I feel for them, and wish the Courts would order counselling; one can only hope they have. But its also necessary to shine a spotlight, as has been done here, on what may be fairly widespread drug-abuse by VPD officers. Although, I must be careful not to over-step criticism here.
The Police are in a tough job, and need stress-counselling and addiction-counselling, that should be free, and leave no stain at all on the Officer's career and advancement.
Being open about all this is the crucial first step towards recovery. I wish the concerned Officers the best.