(Vancouver Sun) - A Metro Vancouver RCMP officer has been charged with assault with a weapon after allegedly pepper spraying someone during an off-duty fight at a Burnaby gas station.
According to an RCMP news release, Const. Aubry Bacchus allegedly used his pepper spray during a “physical altercation” while off duty at a Chevron Station at 6138 Kingsway on August 13, 2007.
Bacchus made his first court appearance on March 14, 2008.
The news release said Bacchus is stationed in the Lower Mainland but did not identify which detachment he works out of.
In addition to the criminal charges he is facing, the release said, Bacchus will also be subject to an internal investigation by the force.
3 responses so far ↓
1 chilled // Mar 19, 2008 at 00:35
With all the thugs, druggies, wannabees, posers and general degenerates living in Vancouver how can a healthy physically fit man NOT get in a scrap?? Does anyone believe this cop just randomly pepper sprayed someone? He was dealing with one of the many A-holes in the Lower Insaneland. Ever lived there? Benefit of doubt to the cop in this situation, I’d bet on it.
2 CstBentonFraser // Mar 20, 2008 at 03:32
“living in Vancouver how can a healthy physically fit man NOT get in a scrap??”
Now there is an interesting comment that is connected to the very neighborhood I grew up in and have intimate knowledge of for well over 40 years. I know that gas station well.
Having worked in the DTES and having worked in South Burnaby I know what you speak of “chilled”.
I don’t have to carry pepper spray nor do I scrap at my local gas station and haven’t for over 40 years.
When a person is truly justified and and acting decently when a situation occurs whether at a gas station or the nearby Metrotown skytrain station (where I have terminated a “scrap”) there is no need for pepper spray. Do you know why?
It’s because the person you are having the altercation with could gain control of your weapon ( in this case pepper spray ) and use it either on you, which would put you at a distinct disadvantage, or they could use it on any assistance that onlookers might be able to offer.
So, in other words, if it was I, and I know that gas station and neighborhood well, I would have judged what actions or words would have been appropriate to avoid the altercation from happening in the first place.
Then, after making the correct choices, I would have neutralized the offending individual with the appropriate amount of resources, could be a combination of gas station staff, customers nearby, onlookers or even RCMP nearby. Phones are handy things and can be more useful than handcuffs or firearms.
The other issue this event raises are the RCMP staff levels in Burnaby. You, like many others feel that scraps are inevitable in the Lower Insaneland because in large areas, where the RCMP police, they have staff levels that have been affected by lower than requested officers.
It has been mentioned in the media that BC is short a large number of the police officers that have not been supplied as per requested. The atmosphere you perceive and the prevailing consenus is that; the city and our streets are out of control.
Whose fault is that? Who has intimate and first hand knowledge on what the staffing numbers really should be to make our streets safe? Who could alleviate our feelings of unsafe streets? Who knows what the policing levels should be to gain control over the chaos that everyone now feels is what Vancouver represents?
Why are they so silent?
3 chilled // Mar 20, 2008 at 21:00
Hi Cst Fraser,
It seems you are both agreeing and disagreeing with my post, for that I thank you and suggest you are NOT the typical Vancouverite politically polarized twit.
Firstly, you immediate suggested that the use of pepper spray is inappropriate since it “could be used against *you* or those rendering assistance.” If your position is absolutely correct, based on your personal experience at the Skytrain station, shouldn’t we simply ban the use of pepper spray by the police? Some might say yes, but unfortuanately I have witnessed the police using pepper spray appropriately. (In situations, had I been the cop, I would have shot the idiot, no doubt)
Secondly, you suggest “judging words would have decided the appropriate response.” WTF? This is exactly what is wrong with the criminal justice system today, psychoanalists and criminolgists playing armchair crittic vs those who simply know right from wrong and act on it in immediate situations. Has this “kindler, gentler” approach made things better in the last 40yrs???
Finally, I never raised the issue of police staffing levels in the Lower Insaneland, this cop was off duty, this is irrelevant. You could have a cop on every corner and this would only impact and interfere with the lives of us law abiding citizens.
What the Lower Insaneland needs is one regional police force and regional government. Leaders with the fortitude to ignore the squeeky wheel. Less wannabee fiction writers working for the Canwest Global propaganda machine. An elected judiciary. (I know that is scarey, welcome to America stuff, but look at what the judges are doing, it’s nuts.) Certainly, police held accountable for wrong doing. Harm reduction programs that MAKE the user comply or get locked up indefinately. I could go on for pages here, but to close, with these implementations, we would have a more decent society and less chaos.
After this, would an off duty cop even have the opportunity to get in a physical confrontation while buying gasoline??
I wasn’t there, nor were you, but after living in the Lower Insaneland for 9yrs and seeing peoples behaviour on a daily basis, I still support the cop, unequivocally.
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