Williams Lake, B.C. (Canadian Press) – The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says three cellblock videos from the RCMP’s detachment in Williams Lake show Mounties abusing First Nations inmates.
Group spokesman Robert Holmes says the detachment also did not apparently investigate a business owner’s complaint about racism and cut off a media outlet that tried to report on problems involving police treatment of aboriginal people.
Holmes says the videos show a First Nation man tied to a chair for hours while several officers tackled another prisoner who was sitting on a bench and that a Mountie punched a third man for refusing to immediately respond to commands.
But RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen says the public should reserve judgment in each case before they know the full story and that using force is sometimes a reality of police work.
He says a management review of the detachment in May included interviews with the community’s First Nations who provided positive feedback about police response.
Holmes says his group has written to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, the solicitor general and the head of the RCMP in B.C. with its concerns.
Recent Comments