This is sadly another in a long line of violent police officers abusing their duty to violate innocent citizens and getting away with a mere wrist slap. Worse yet, this appears to have been an act of racism. The cop was initially charged with robbery. His excuse? He was drunk and can’t remember a thing. Yeah.
VANCOUVER — A young West Vancouver cop who shocked the public with an unprovoked assault of a newspaper delivery man in January 2009 will not be fired.
On Friday at the public hearing into the actions of Const. Griffin Gillan, police complaints adjudicator Harry Boyle had the power to end Gillan’s policing career. But Boyle accepted a joint-proposal for lighter punishment including a 30-day suspension and one-year demotion, made by public hearing counsel Michael Tammen and Gillan’s lawyer David Butcher.
Gillan, 24 at the time, attacked newspaper carrier Firoz Khan outside of the Hyatt in downtown Vancouver after a binge drinking session with two fellow police officers.
Gillan is just the tip of the iceberg of a heinous crime. He should not just be fired but jailed for a long, long time.
Constable Gillan, massively impaired after a night watching hockey and hopping among bars in West Vancouver and downtown with two fellow officers, drunkenly thought he was making an arrest when he attacked 47-year-old Mr. Khan, Mr. Keefer told the court.
The officer walked up to Mr. Khan, delivering 75 newspapers to the Hyatt, asked for directions, and – dissatisfied at the slow response – grabbed him by his lapels and kneed or kicked him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground where he continued to assault him, Mr. Keefer said.
When Mr. Khan asked “why are you hitting me?” Constable Gillan replied because “you’re under arrest,” said Mr. Keefer, noting the officer also told Mr. Khan to put his face on the ground with his legs crossed and not to move.
“This is a typical police command affecting a forceful arrest, as you know, except here the officer was off duty, drunk and targeting a completely innocent civilian minding his own business,” Mr. Keefer said.
With his foot on the back of Mr. Khan’s head, Constable Gillan called two officers he had been out with earlier in the evening – Blair Tanino of the Delta police force and Jeffrey Klassen of the New Westminster force – but had become separated from.
He told them he needed “back up” at the Hyatt, Mr. Keefer said, quoting from an account provided by Mr. Khan.
The two officers flagged a cab from nearby Granville Street, came to the scene and joined in the struggle to varying degrees, with Mr. Khan yelling for spectators to call the police while Constable Klassen, according to one witness, said “We are the police.”
At one point, Constable Tanino was kicked in the mouth by Constable Gillan.
A Vancouver police officer, only two weeks out of training, arrived on the scene and recognized Constable Tanino as his “use of force instructor” at the regional Justice Institute the previous fall. After conducting witness interviews, the three off-duty officers were arrested.
Stephen Harper’s Canada. Where you fear the police more than the criminals.
