RSS FeedUWO Student’s Charges Stayed…
In an interesting twist, the Crown has decided to stay all charges against fourth year UWO student Irnes Zeljkovic.
Zeljkovic’s incident involving UWO Campus and London Police made national headlines late last year when he was arrested in what some described as nothing more than police brutality. I qualified the arrest both here and on CFRB 1010′s Jim Richard’s Show by saying that I thought all aspects minus the baton strikes were acceptable.
Although no details were released about what transpired in court, Zeljkovic’s lawyer, Phillip Millar of Cohen Highley plans on talking with UWO officials first about his client’s reinstatement and then one can only assume about a potential settlement regarding the arrest.
Also last year, UWO officials hired former OPP Commissioner Gwen Boniface to investigate the incident. To date, no information has been release with respect to her independent investigation.
Podcast: UWO Arrest and Campus Police Use of Force (Episode 24)
In October of this year, Irnes Zeljkovic was arrested at the University of Western Ontario by the UWO Campus Police. The arrest was caught on tape by at least two bystanders, who posted videos of the arrest to YouTube. In the videos, the six officers appear to strike Zeljkovic repeatedly with fists, knees, and a metal baton. The incident has raised questions about whether the Campus Police used excessive force in the arrest. The University has now hired a former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner to review the incident.
On today’s show, Omar Ha-Redeye discusses the Zeljkovic arrest with Phillip Millar and Ryan Venables. Millar is an associate with Cohen Highley LLP in London and is counsel to Irnes Zeljkovic. He is also a former Crown prosecutor and served in the Canadian Forces. Venables is a former police constable and currently a first-year law student at the University of Western Ontario.
Law is Cool Nominated in the Canadian Blog Awards
Law is Cool has once again been nominated in the Canadian Blog Awards. This year, we have been nominated in five categories including Best Blog Overall, Best Blog Post, Best Group Blog, Best Podcast, and Best Professional Life Blog. The preliminary round of voting concludes on December 12th, and the final round of voting takes place from December 13th to 19th. If you enjoy the podcast, please take a moment to vote for Law is Cool.
Former OPP Commish to Review UWO Arrest…
The University of Western Ontario has hired former Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner and lawyer Gwen Boniface to review the violent arrest of Irnes Zeljkovic according to a London Free Press article and from UWO Communications.
The arrest garnered an overwhelming response from the students at UWO and media alike:
(This version of the video was used because the original has been flagged for violence and there are issues posting it here. For an opportunity to see the original, go to the link at the bottom of this post for my original article).
The review seeks to answer the following questions:
- Whether the situation was preventable.
- The training and resources available to campus police.
- Procedures for securing areas where an incident is occurring.
- Campus police co-ordination with London police.
It is also expected that students will be gathering at 4 p.m. at the University Community Centre once again to protest the treatment of Zeljkovic.
It has also been revealed that the London Police Service is conducting it’s own review into the arrest.
For a review of my original take of this article see this Law Is Cool article.
UWO Arrest: Justified Arrest or Abuse of Power?
After learning of the arrest of University of Western Ontario student Irnes Zeljkovic on Wednesday October 14, 2009, I looked up The Toronto Star article which led me to two videos on YouTube. The comments there, unfortunately, like always, are quite polarizing. On one side, there are those who think that the police were well within their rights to arrest an actively resisting suspect, and there are those who feel that the police are overstepping the boundary and are assaulting Mr. Zeljkovic. After looking at all the available information, I am firmly in the middle of these two views.
I am fortunate enough to be able to dissect this video from the perspective of a former police officer.
After viewing the video a number of times, it is quite plain to see that Mr. Zeljkovic is actively resisting, and on more than one occasion the police give the command of “stop resisting” while also saying that he is under arrest. While the desired effect of telling somebody to stop resisting should in theory provide a warning (if you will), the end result is usually that both officer and suspect are both entrenched in their positions.
I would like to strongly state that the following is only MY view of the video. However, what people who post comments on YouTube often fail to understand, is that when a problem has escalated to the point where physical intervention is necessary and the videos start rolling, they have missed some of the most crucial parts of deescalation that officers have at their disposal. The head of UWO Campus Police, Elgin Austen stated that the officers are trained in accordance with the standards of the Ontario Police College, which is true. Having been a graduate of that institution myself, I have a pretty good idea of what is taught there. When it comes to physically intervening with a suspect, a “use of force wheel” is referenced and the officer will make an appropriate (not always though) decision.
(This use of force wheel is from The Braidwood Inquiry which was launched in connection to the death of a Polish Citizen via RCMP officers who used Conductive Energy Weapons (CEW/Tasers) at the Vancouver Airport.)
After having viewed the video, and from my experiences and past training, I see NO REASON why one of the officers applied force to the middle and upper portions of Mr. Zeljkovic’s back and neck with his asp baton. Officers are trained to specifically NOT to use this hard impact weapon on areas where significant damage could be caused (i.e. neck, forearms, and head) because of the risk to the suspect. While an actively resisting suspect is a very dynamic situation, in my humble opinion this exceeded the appropriate options available to this officer.
In the end if there is an investigation regarding the officers actions that will be remain to be seen. However, what needs to be taken away from this situation is not what led to Mr. Zeljkovic’s arrest, and not the actions of police in general, but the actions of one officer, and what can be learned from the situation to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
