00400_n_7ab88k78v2136 (cc) Lars Ploughman (flickr)
The violent arrest of a student last night on the UWO campus is receiving a lot of interest and attention from students, the general population of London and people across Canada this morning.
Last night around 5pm a disoriented young man was brought to the attention of campus police after reportedly following another student around and acting in a strange manner. The suspect was also reported to have attempted to enter offices on the 7th and 8th floors of the Social Science Centre.
Campus police were called on several occasions and when two officers arrived on the 7th floor the suspect reportedly charged the officers from the office he had barricaded himself in. The officers were unable to subdue the suspect, who fled. The suspect was confronted on the first floor of the building by London police officers as well as campus police. The suspect is said to have resisted arrest.
Fellow students recorded the arrest and posted it to youtube. You can see from four to six officers on top of the suspect during the video. One officer yells "stop resisting arrest" repeatedly and can be seen clearly hitting the suspect multiple times. A second video shows the suspect with police outside of the building.
The suspect continued to resist the officers. According to Western News:
I've spoken to some people who were on campus when this happened. They talked to the suspect before anything happened and noted that he seemed confused (he asked for directions) but they didn't feel he was dangerous or threatening. A short while later police were telling everyone to lock themselves into their offices and they were stuck inside for about half an hour. Apparently the suspect was a student who was looking for a professor to discuss his grades and he is rumored to have gotten increasingly more agitated as he wandering the building.
The presence of police on campus is always a contentious issue, with some students feeling it represents a military state and others feeling that police are good to have around when something bad happens. Many students have never given any thought to the police presence on campus. Perhaps this incident will spur a dialogue.
http://communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/violent_suspect_arrested_20091015444984/
http://www.londontopic.ca/article.php?artid=16516
No Tweets
Last night around 5pm a disoriented young man was brought to the attention of campus police after reportedly following another student around and acting in a strange manner. The suspect was also reported to have attempted to enter offices on the 7th and 8th floors of the Social Science Centre.
Campus police were called on several occasions and when two officers arrived on the 7th floor the suspect reportedly charged the officers from the office he had barricaded himself in. The officers were unable to subdue the suspect, who fled. The suspect was confronted on the first floor of the building by London police officers as well as campus police. The suspect is said to have resisted arrest.
Fellow students recorded the arrest and posted it to youtube. You can see from four to six officers on top of the suspect during the video. One officer yells "stop resisting arrest" repeatedly and can be seen clearly hitting the suspect multiple times. A second video shows the suspect with police outside of the building.
The suspect continued to resist the officers. According to Western News:
"The individual has been charged with mischief, resisting arrest, assault, and escaping custody.Londontopic.ca was the first media source to cover the story. The comments pertaining to the story range from disbelief to anger to a sentiment that the suspect should have known better than to resist an officer. Some see this incident as an example of police brutality and excessive use of force.
Our officers and London Police officers were dealing with a disoriented and violent young person who clearly required help,” said Gitta Kulczycki, Vice-President, Resources & Operations at Western.
Our officers did what they needed to do to ensure that he and others around him were safe.
As always, we will examine our actions and will work with London Police to ensure that use of force was appropriate,” said Kulczycki. "
I've spoken to some people who were on campus when this happened. They talked to the suspect before anything happened and noted that he seemed confused (he asked for directions) but they didn't feel he was dangerous or threatening. A short while later police were telling everyone to lock themselves into their offices and they were stuck inside for about half an hour. Apparently the suspect was a student who was looking for a professor to discuss his grades and he is rumored to have gotten increasingly more agitated as he wandering the building.
The presence of police on campus is always a contentious issue, with some students feeling it represents a military state and others feeling that police are good to have around when something bad happens. Many students have never given any thought to the police presence on campus. Perhaps this incident will spur a dialogue.
http://communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/violent_suspect_arrested_20091015444984/
http://www.londontopic.ca/article.php?artid=16516
No Tweets
Comments
I wrote more about this here: http://phronko.blogspot.com/2009/10/response-to-accusations-of-police.html
(out of curiosity ... anyone know who got thrown out of their office and whose office he barricaded himself in?)
When campus police approach things like this I'm sure they're aware of the possibility of a major tragedy unfolding. The fact they told people to lock themselves in offices suggests they've prepared for that possibility.
But Phronk makes a good point that further force didn't seem to be necessary -- but then again the alternatives aren't much more appealing: Taser? Trying to "contain" him while he keeps posing a threat (including to himself), damaging property, effectively shutting down that part of the building and keeping police from other things?
It's tough to know so it's great to see such a variety of sources of information and articulate discussion on this -- Great to see citizen journalism.
FML
anyway, basically:
1) westerngazette.ca probably beat london topic
2) context
3) ppl jump to conclusion
4) no "punches to head" — those were to the shoulder and arm
5) context!
6) police protected people
if you care to read, full context and legitimate sources (witnesses) quoted here: http://www.westerngazette.ca/2009/10/16/six-officers-needed-to-take-down...
LondonTopic.ca had the story up the day this happened. I'm not sure when the westerngazette.ca first posted about it.
To clarify Ruby's sources: Ruby works in the building this happened in so a few of her fellow coworkers were the witnesses she gathered reports from. Before the student in question had an altercation with police he actually was near Ruby's lab while she was absent but of course a few of her coworkers were present.
I think westerngazette has done a comprehensive job of covering this event. I personally find the event to be so multifarious that I'll refrain from sharing my perspective of the event specifically until more details become apparent.
The Gazette knew about it at like 8 p.m. and posted it online at around 10 p.m. online and to its social media.
I've spent a lot of time listening and thinking about it, and watching the video, and people need to temper their comments as much as they expect the media to if they want fair comment on the situation.
Consider your criticism's accuracy.
I agree that context is required, it always is. I have purposely kept my sources unidentified and unquoted because they are speaking with investigators and don't want to be contacted. However several of them witnessed much of the entire episode, from the incidents on the 7th floor (where they spoke with the student) to what transpired at the end. The day following the incident my entire floor was buzzing with discussion because several people had interacted with the student and were shocked about what happened afterward. I've talked with those people as well as people who were on the main floor during the altercation.
For me personally I am less interested in what happened during the video and more interested in what created the situation. I am often working in my lab alone into the night and thus have a vested interest in having a safe environment.