Ben Christopher (TheTyee.ca) – Seventeen-year-old Jamie Haller was repeatedly punched in the face while in the custody of the Williams Lake RCMP, says the girl’s mother.
But the detachment’s commander disputes the claim, asking that the public “remain open-minded until the full story comes out.”
“My daughter…was punched and beaten by Cst. Yung, while her hands were cuffed in the back of a police car,” writes Martina Jeff, Haller’s mother, in an official complaint filed with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (CPC). “I witnessed this while other officers stood around.”
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is calling for an independent investigation into the September 10 incident.
According to Jeff, her daughter called the police on the night of the 10th, claiming that she was being chased by a local gang and asking the RCMP for assistance. Jeff, having also received a call from her daughter, drove to meet Haller and found her surrounded by a number of police, handcuffed and lying facedown on the ground.
In her written complaint, Jeff describes what took place upon her arrival at the scene:
“[T]wo officers grabbed her and threw her roughly into the cop car. They shut the doors. She started kicking the windows and yelling ‘mom,’ ‘mom’…Two officers then opened the car doors, one of each side. I heard one say ‘keep kicking and you’ll see what happens’. The officer on the passenger side door was Cst. Yung. He put his whole upper body in the car and started punching.”
Haller was released the next morning without charge.
But in a conversation with The Tyee this morning, Sgt. Warren Brown, Detachment Commander at Williams Lake, says that Haller will be charged with assaulting a police officer and that reports of the incident filed by the officers present a “dramatically different version” of what took place.
“I’m trying to remain as neutral as possible,” says Brown. “But I’ve seen the report written by the police. Let’s say that there are certainly very different views of what happened.”
Brown has formally requested that a neighboring RCMP detachment conduct an investigation into what took place.
According to the BCCLA, this is not the first allegation of excessive force filed against the Williams Lake detachment of the RCMP.
“We keep getting called about the Williams Lake RCMP,” says BCCLA executive director David Eby. ” I don’t know what’s going on there but, I do know that there’s a long history of conflict between Aboriginal communities there and the RCMP.”
In September of last year, the BCCLA called for an investigation into the Williams Lake detachment for three separate incidents of alleged excessive force involving three Aboriginal men. An investigation is currently underway.
Both Jamie Haller and her mother are Aboriginal.
The BCCLA’s press release, which includes links to Martina Jeff’s official complaint and photos of Haller taken after the incident, can be found here.
[Source]
RCMP officer accused of beating 17-year-old B.C. girl
CTVNews.ca Staff
Sept 28, 2011
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling for an independent investigation after a 17-year-old Williams Lake woman said she was handcuffed and beaten by RCMP when she asked the officers for help.
Jamie Haller told CTV B.C. she was being chased by gang members on Sept. 10 when she stopped a passerby and asked her to call police.
The officers quickly arrived on the scene, but instead of helping Haller, she claims they quickly placed her in handcuffs, “roughed” her up and placed her in the back of a police cruiser.
Haller admits she became angry and started kicking the cruiser’s window.
“One guy jumped in and was holding my legs down, the other guy was holding my upper body and he was punching me in the face, I know he must have punched me more than six times,” Haller told CTV British Columbia.
She added: “I felt so afraid of the cops, more than I was of the people who were chasing me.”
Haller’s mother, Martina Jeff, said she arrived on the scene during the incident and was shocked by what was happening.
“I stood there helpless, I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Photos, purportedly taken after the incident and provided to CTV, showed Haller with a black eye, cut lip, and significant swelling and bruising on the left side of her face.
Haller was released by police the day after the alleged incident, without charge and without having received any medical attention, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said.
Haller said she missed a week of school and work due to the injuries she sustained.
The BCCLA is calling for an independent probe into what took place in the northern B.C. town.
“When I think about an allegation involving a 17-year-old girl, the allegation was she was handcuffed at the time, it leads automatically to the question ‘was that force necessary?’ And that will be the core question of this investigation,” said David Eby, executive director of the organization.
The BCCLA said in a statement that the public’s trust in the RCMP has been broken, and immediate efforts are needed to restore that trust.
“If wrongs were committed, the public wants to know that they will be dealt with in accordance with the law — whether those involved are employed as law enforcement officers or are members of the public,” said Robert Holmes, Q.C., president of the BCCLA.
“The community needs to trust that when someone calls 911 for the police, they will be treated with respect and not end up in hospital because of injuries sustained due to police actions.”
As of Tuesday night, the RCMP was not commenting on the incident.
Would this be the same constable Yung with anger management issues who, in drunken fury after fighting with his ex-girlfriend, fired his weapon into the ceiling of a hotel room? http://www.rcmpwatch.com/drunk-mountie-fired-gun-at-hotel-ceiling/
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B.C. teen’s family claims she was punched by Mountie while cuffed in police car
Vancouver Province
September 27, 2011
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling for an independent investigation into a Williams Lake RCMP officer over allegations by a B.C. family of unreasonable force.
The mother of 17-year-old Jamie Haller says she saw her daughter get punched in the face by a constable Sept. 10 while handcuffed in the back of a police car after the girl had called police for assistance, BCCLA said in a press release.
“I saw Jamie on the ground, crying and handcuffed,” Haller’s mother, Martina Jeff, was quoted saying in the release.
“I got out and ran toward her. She was having a panic attack. She is very small and has never been in trouble with police before.”
Jeff said she was forbidden contact with her daughter, who was put into a police car. Once in the car, her daughter began kicking on the windows and yelling for her mother, it said.
“I heard one [officer] say, ‘Keep kicking and you’ll see what happens’ … He put his whole upper body in the car and started punching.
“When I looked in the car I saw my daughter. Her face started swelling really bad. There was blood coming down on each side of her mouth. She was handcuffed, with her hands behind her back.”
The BCCLA is calling for an immediate and independent investigation of the incident by, at a minimum, a senior officer from outside the Williams Lake RCMP detachment.
“The community needs confidence that these serious allegations will be investigated fully, promptly and as impartially as possible under our current system,” BCCLA president Robert Holmes said in the release.
“If wrongs were committed, the public wants to know that they will be dealt with in accordance with the law — whether those involved are employed as law enforcement officers or are members of the public.”
Haller was released the next morning without charge, and without having received any medical attention, claimed the release.
She said she was unable to work at her part-time job at a fast-food outlet because of the bruising on her face, and had to take a week off school due to injuries to her eye that affected her vision.