I really don't understand why, I've lived all over North America and I've never seen it as bad as here. I've lived in Manhattan, Atlanta, east coast, west coast, cops here are worse than anywhere else I've ever been. I have to share this story for just how ridiculous it is.
June of 2016 I was heading to see a client at 7:30am and thought I'd stop at Sunridge Starbucks since it was on the way. As I was pulling in on the far side of the lot, I could see police lights flashing by Starbucks and thought that was pretty odd. Just as I get close enough to see, the lights turn off and I see 2 cops just stopped in the middle of the parking lot roadway, partially in a space but mostly on the road. There are zero other cars around so I could take the first or second spot but don't want to park directly behind / in front of the cars so I move one over to not be such a jerk. I am so afraid of cops here that I don't even look in their direction, I get out, look at the ground, turn around and walk away. I hop up onto a concrete divider, then down the other side onto a crosswalk to get across to the Starbucks. As I step into the crosswalk I notice the 2 cops are coming around to cross the crosswalk I just stepped into. I again don't even look their way, just look straight ahead and walk across the crosswalk.
I think I walk normally but people tell me I walk a little strangely, I don't even notice it if I do. It's likely due to the fact that I exploded my ankle and broke my leg in 3 places a few years prior and my leg is held together by a drawer full of metal and screws. I have a total of 10 degrees of flexion in my ankle. Anyway, I thought I was walking normally but if I wasn't, that's why.
So in this diagram I pulled up and parked near the cops. They had just turned off their flashing lights as I was pulling up.
Then I walked through the concrete divider which they drove around behind me, to come around and cross through the crosswalk to leave.
To pick up where I left off in the story, the 2 cop trucks (depicted by cars in these diagrams) sat there waiting while I crossed at a regular pace. I have no desire to give cops a reason to beat me. At this point I still haven't looked their way and I hear, "HEY, TAKE YOUR TIME!" I couldn't quite tell what it was that was said at first but I knew someone was shouting something towards me so I looked behind me and nobody was there, so I thought maybe it was one of the cops that said something.
I still didn't quite know what was said so I stepped back 2 steps so I could see into the second truck's window and said, "What?" The cop sticks his head out and yells, "MOVE, DUDE!" At this point I realized what it was that he said at first and I was just frozen in shock, like I was in disbelief that a police officer had just yelled at me because I wasn't crossing a crosswalk in a manner to his liking. Is this real life?
After about 2-3 seconds of just staring in disbelief, I figure I'm going to get beat down so I just turn and start walking to get out of there. As I do that, the cop behind that was yelling at me flips on his lights and just floors it around the cop truck between us. Immediately I think, "Oh here we go, he's going to ask me for my identification and hold me up for 20 minutes." So at this point his lights are flashing, I couldn't show that in this diagram.
I figure he's going to ask me for my identification and search me so I just stop and wait for them both to get out and ask me. To my surprise he doesn't stop at all, he stops just short of me and then uses the push bar on the front of his truck to physically push me out of the crosswalk. I had to put my hand up on the bar to stop it from hitting me and then push myself off to the side so I didn't get run over.
After I'm out of the way, the cop with the lights on roars off as fast as the truck will go and then the other cop that wasn't involved in any of this takes off right behind him. Aren't cops supposed to stop when there's a pedestrian struck in a crosswalk? He just left.
I was shocked. Then as I look across the road there was a girl coming across the crosswalk so I ask her if she saw that and she said yes, those cops were jerks. So I got her contact information figuring it would be great to have that witness to back everything up.
I got the numbers from the sides of the vehicles and called in a complaint to the police department and what happened? I got a call a little while later saying they would look into it. Then I got regular calls and letters to remind me they were still going through some procedures and reviewing the evidence. Finally earlier this year I get a call from the officer reviewing the case and they tell me I should just drop if because if it goes to a formal investigation I would likely lose and nothing would happen. WTF? Is this good advice? Just convince the person to forget about it? I stuck with it and told them I would do whatever it took to restore my faith in the justice system that the proper outcome would be achieved.
So what happened? Did the cop go to jail for a hit and run? He at least went to court right? Now for sure he must have gotten a ticket for breaking the traffic laws and leaving the scene. No............NOTHING HAPPENED. I got a letter in the mail stating they reviewed what I said, they spoke with the witness and they reviewed the dash camera which showed the whole event, the officer did nothing wrong and they decided there was no problem with his conduct. This is just a normal day for a police officer and how they're allowed to act.
I called the officer reviewing the file and asked how this could possibly happen and they asked me what I would have liked to see happen. I told him I wanted to see exactly the same thing as if I had yelled at a cop in a crosswalk and then pushed him out of the way with my car and drove away. I can guarantee you they wouldn't think about that for 7 months, they would hunt my ass down and hit me with enough fines and jail time that I'd never be driving again. That's insane the 2 outcomes can be so different, it upsets me just to think about it.
Let me quote some of my favourite parts from the letter I received and comment on them.
Okay, I'm obviously going to choose the stall closer to the door if every single one of them are empty. I even moved over 1 or 2 so that I wasn't right in the way of a vehicle that was parked right IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING ROAD. Jesus, you don't get to park on the road and then complain about someone that actually used a stall. I could have pulled through to the stall in front of mine and been nose to nose with his truck, I didn't want that.Constable A said while he and Constable B were parked discussing the call they had just dealt with,
you parked your vehicle directly in front of his police vehicle effectively blocking him. He said there were hundreds of other parking stalls for you to choose from.
Really? There was plenty of room to move around me, or you could have easily backed up, there was a whole stall behind you. That's ridiculous, if I want to get harassed by the cops I'll walk around downtown for 5 minutes.Constable B said he and Constable A were parked door to door to their respective police vehicles after clearing a call at Sunridge Mall. Constable B said you parked directly in front of Constable A's vehicle when there were many other stalls you could have chosen. Constable B believed you had either done so to have conversation with the officers or to be rude and intentionally cause inconvenience for Constable B
Bullshit, he didn't turn on the lights until after he yelled at me. Also, it clearly states here that he was able to easily pull around my car. So he had to turn his wheel? Whoopty fuck, at least I left him enough room like a decent human.ICDV footage showed that Constable A activated his overhead emergency lights and steered his vehicle around your parked car as he was unable to pull straight forward.
Even the way this is worded sickens me. A calm and quiet voice? I was there, he was not calm, can you even imagine someone saying those words calm and quietly? It wouldn't even make sense. It's like they know they can't outright lie but they can word it a certain way to make it seem a little better in their favour.Constable A stopped before turning left and commented in a calm, quiet voice, "Take your time", "move bud" and "go quickly" before making a wide left turn to approach the crosswalk. At that point he said, "Move Go,
go, go, go, go."
Yes, that's what you do when someone says something to you and you ask them to repeat it. Do you just ignore them and walk away? That's rude.You remained in the crosswalk. You slowed, faced the police truck and then continued to cross slowly in front of it.
Oh, well then, case closed. He said he didn't do it, better shut this one down. I know cops have never lied about any criminal offences before, especially in Calgary.Constable A denied your allegation and stated he was unaware of making any contact with you.
Wow, so they're effectively telling me not to even bother trying again, their word is final and there's nothing I can do about it. They answer to no one.There is insufficient evidence to prove officer misconduct. The matter is therefore "Dismissed" pursuant to section xxxxx of the Police Service Regulation.
Please be advised that pursuant to section xxx of the Police Act, any decision concerning the allegation is final.
i.e. there is no avenue to appeal.