Paul Everest reports that police allegedly used excessive force against an anti-poverty in Halifax. I include an excerpt:
The Halifax Coalition Against Poverty plans to file an “excessive force” complaint against police after coalition members were pepper sprayed and allegedly roughed up during a protest in Halifax on Thursday night.
Three coalition members were arrested as more than 30 protesters and Halifax police clashed outside the World Trade and Convention Centre during a Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia fundraising dinner.
Coalition spokeswoman Susan LeFort said the group will be discussing legal options and whether a complaint is warranted during their general meeting next week.
She said they certainly have grounds for grievance, as police and security guards were “manhandling” protesters half their size.
“Most of them are women, quite petite,” she said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “I mean the cops were 250 pounds, big mega-cops with pepper spray and Tasers in hand.”
Unsurprisingly, the two sides disagree on what happened. The police claim that the anti-poverty activists behaved aggressively and that the police behaved reasonably to protect themselves from unreasonable aggressors. The anti-poverty activists claim that the police behaved aggressively and that the anti-poverty activists behaved reasonably to protect themselves from unreasonable aggressors.
Without direct knowledge, I find it easier to believe the anti-poverty activists. In my personal experience, police seem like aggressive bullies with an inferiority complex who over-compensate by abusing their power. In contrast, anti-poverty activists usually act peacefully and kindly. Nonetheless, those generalities cannot actually tell us what happened in the specific incident at Halifax.
I hope that the facts come out in an objective investigation, and if it turns out the police used excessive force I hope that they pay the consequences.