Pubdate: Tue, 31 May 2005 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 The Province Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Andy Ivens Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) VPD OFFICERS' CONDUCT DUBBED 'VIGILANTISM' 'They Have Taken The Law Into Their Own Hands' Two Vancouver police officers were accused yesterday of taking the law into their own hands. "That's what these officers have done," police complaints commissioner Dana Urban told adjudicator Donald Clancy. "They have taken the law into their own hands for their own purposes." Urban began his final submissions in the case of Const. Gabriel Kojima and Const. Duncan Gemmell, who are fighting for their jobs after pleading guilty to assaulting three Granville Street drug dealers in Stanley Park two years ago. After a closed-door hearing in 2004 in which no witness was allowed to testify, Vancouver Police Department Chief Jamie Graham ruled Kojima and Gemmell should be dismissed for their parts in the assaults of the three victims. Twenty-five days of testimony have left Clancy with a clear choice of whom to believe -- either rookie Const. Troy Peters and the three assault victims who described severe beatings, or Kojima, Gemmell and their four fellow constables who detailed a verbal dressing-down with minimal physical contact. "These officers swore to uphold the law," said Urban. "Police officers are expected not to strike back in anger or in vengeance. "People who do not meet this [high] standard [of conduct] do not meet the standard of being police officers." Grant Wilson, Jason Desjardins and Barry Lawrie all testified that they were beaten by the officers at the Third Beach parking lot on Jan. 14, 2003. "All three are addicted to drugs," noted Urban. "None is a contributing member of society. "They are what they are -- criminals. They are also human beings, citizens of this country and as entitled to the rights of this country as anyone else. "The courts of our land are bound by the rule of law. So are the police." If the account of Peters is believed, the officers' conduct "amounts to vigilantism," said Urban. Phil Rankin, who represents the three victims in an unresolved civil proceeding, said: "This was not just a technical assault -- it was a beating." He called Peters "the only honourable man" at the scene. Rankin said the officers felt they had a "just cause" to take back Granville Street and followed a fictional "Ways and Means Act" to get around the law and give the three "what they deserved." The hearing continues. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom