Video of UWO arrest causes stir

Accusations of police brutality are being leveled at city police and the University of Western Ontario’s campus police after a video surfaced on YouTube showing six officers beating a suspect during an arrest.

But city police and university officials say the “disoriented and violent” suspect “was combative and resistant” after campus police tried to arrest the 22-year-old who had barricaded himself in an upper floor office of the Social Sciences building.

City police were called to assist in the arrest around 5 p.m. and the student was eventually subdued and taken to hospital for observation before being charged with mischief, resisting arrest, assault, and escaping custody.

The video, shot by an unknown student, shows the suspect being kneed at least five times, struck with a telescopic baton at least six times and punched by one officer at least 27 times.

The one minute, 32-second video shows four officers trying to subdue the suspect, who appears to be resisting and not complying with an officer’s demand to “stop resisting . . . give us your arms . . . stop resisting.”

Thirty seconds into the video, two other officers arrive and join the others in trying to put the suspect in handcuffs.

The suspect does appear to be resisting at times and police keep asking him to give them his arms.

Students who viewed the video on YouTube expressed shock and disbelief, although others defended the police saying the suspect shouldn’t have resisted arrest.

However, a senior university official said campus and city police did their jobs.

“Our officers and London Police officers were dealing with a disoriented and violent young person who clearly required help,” said Gitta Kulczycki, UWO vice-president, resources and operations, in a press release.

“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.”

In the release, the university says a student complained to campus police about being followed by another student “acting in a strange manner.”

A short time later, campus police received calls about a “disoriented and threatening individual” trying to enter offices. At one point, the university says, the student tried to force the occupant of an eighth-floor office to leave before barricading himself in an office on the seventh floor.

“Two campus officers arrived on the scene and the suspect came out of the barricaded office and charged the officers in a violent manner,” the release states. “Other persons on the floor fled for their own safety and some locked themselves in their own offices. A third officer arrived and the three officers attempted to subdue the suspect, but he was able to break away from officers and fled.”

The suspect was eventually stopped by a campus officer on the main floor “and a confrontation took place as the suspect attempted to flee.”

That’s when city police arrived.

The university release says the suspect then “continued to fight violently and would not allow himself to be handcuffed” and continued to fight after being handcuffed and led outside.

“The resistance continued after the individual was transported to hospital.”

Many students who commented on the video conceded they don’t know what happened prior to the video footage being taken.

One person who commented on YouTube who claimed to witness the arrest said an officer appeared injured.

“I was there, it was mostly London cops and one of the cops had a massive swollen right eye. Not saying this is right, but if you punch a cop in the face, you’re usually gonna get a beating like this or worse.”

One viewer said “nothing” justifies the use of force displayed.

“They were beating him mercilessly and he was massively over powered. Any justification you can provide is a farce and an excuse.”

The video:

Source: Free Press

Highly educated women more likely to have kids in their 30s and 40s: StatsCan

By Lauren La Rose (CP) – 3 days ago

TORONTO — The ranks of older mothers with preschool children have swelled in the last 20 years, with the rise in later-in-life motherhood apparently linked to the pursuit of higher education, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

Britain’s most avid reader, 91, has borrowed 25,000 library bookshttp://threewisemonkeys.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

A pensioner has laid claim to the title of Britain’s most avid reader after it was disclosed she is on the brink of borrowing her 25,000th library book.

By Simon Johnson
Published: 2:53PM BST 29 Jul 2009

Louise Brown, 91, has read up to a dozen books a week since 1946 without incurring a single fine for late returns.

PMO Iqaluit gaffe draws smiles, frowns

Tue, August 18, 2009
By THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA — An unfortunate blunder by the Prime Minister’s Office has residents of Nunavut alternately chuckling and cringing.

A news release sent out Monday outlined Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s itinerary as he began a five-day tour of the North.

‘Moon the balloon’ protest planned in Sarnia

Willing participants invited to public park on Aug. 15 for a co-ordinated mooning of craft that carries a surveillance camera being tested for possible sale to U.S. Homeland Security

Suspected drunk driver stops at random house, uses washroom, continues driving

Fri, July 17, 2009
By JOE BELANGER, LONDON FREE PRESS

Police say a suspected drunk driver in Lambton County arrested Thursday stopped at a stranger’s home and went inside to relieve himself as two teenagers home alone fled running.

New poll shows cracks in immigration support

Thu, June 25, 2009
By ELIZABETH THOMPSON, Sun Media

OTTAWA — The number of Canadians who say immigration has a positive effect on their community has dropped “noticeably” over the past two years and is now at the lowest level since the government started tracking attitudes in 2004.

A public opinion poll conducted for the immigration department earlier this year found there is still strong support among most Canadians for immigration and most Canadians consider immigration beneficial. But it also showed signs that support might be slipping.

Study blames alcohol for half 1990s Russian deaths

Thu, June 25, 2009
By DOUGLAS BIRCH – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW (AP) — A new study by an international team of public health researchers documents the devastating impact of alcohol abuse on Russia — showing that drinking caused more than half of deaths among Russians aged 15 to 54 in the turbulent era following the Soviet collapse.

The 52 percent figure compares to estimates that less than 4 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by alcohol abuse, according to the study by Russian, British and French researchers published in Friday’s edition of the British medical journal The Lancet.

US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic “shrink to survive” proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.

By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan
Published: 6:30PM BST 12 Jun 2009

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

Animal Farm still hits raw nerve for Poles

Tue, June 9, 2009
The production at London’s Polish school underscores totalitarianism that threatens freedom in the world today
By KATE DUBINSKI

In the darkened school gymnasium, as the teenagers shout “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” with Polish communist songs interspersed in the background, it’s hard to know who finds the moment most significant.

Is it the watching parents, who remember being forced to sing those songs in school, who immediately, unconsciously, sit a little straighter when the drum starts to beat?

Is it the teens on stage, most born here in Canada but who hear stories about the forbidden play their parents weren’t allowed to read?

Or is it the teacher who remembers the years before coming here, when teaching George Orwell’s Animal Farm in Poland wasn’t even an option?