Pubdate: Thu, 10 Apr 2008
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2008 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Jason van Rassel, Calgary Herald

POLICE BRUTALITY CLAIM WILL GET FULL REVIEW: CHIEF

Officers Will Remain on Job While Investigation Ongoing

Calgary's police chief promised a thorough investigation of
allegations of excessive force against four officers Wednesday, as
others questioned the credibility of the store owner making the
accusations.

Professional standards investigators are conducting an internal probe
of a Feb. 16 incident when police officers were called to 115 7th Ave.
S.W. to remove some alleged drug users from the property.

Aftab Hussain, whose convenience store occupies the ground floor below
the apartments where police were called, alleges an officer threw one
of the trespassers down a flight of stairs.

He provided the Herald with surveillance footage depicting a portion
of the incident.

A copy of the footage is now in the hands of police, and Chief Rick
Hanson said Wednesday it will form only part of an investigation that
will also involve talking to Hussain, the officers involved and the
people who were kicked out of the apartments that night.

"I'm going to await the outcome of the investigation and we'll look at
all sides of the story on this one," Hanson said, adding the officers
will remain on duty in the meantime.

The head of the Calgary Police Association praised Hanson for "not
rushing to judgment," and said the evidence will ultimately show the
officers acted properly.

"I believe the officers will be vindicated, and I believe it will be
determined they exercised an appropriate amount of force," said John
Dooks, whose association represents the police service's 1,600
rank-and-file officers.

Dooks said there are several troubling aspects about how the video
came to light.

One of the four people police encountered that night was charged with
possession of crack cocaine.

Dooks said officers approached Hussain about using surveillance
footage of the arrest as evidence against the man and he told them
there was no way to make a copy.

Yet, two months later, Hussain went to the media with DVD copies of
the incident and allegations of police brutality.

"There appears . . . that there may be some ulterior motive by the
person presenting the video," Dooks said.

The video shows officers in an upstairs hallway with four suspects
seated on the floor.

One of the officers picks up one of the men by the collar of his coat,
pulls him to the top of the staircase and makes a slight kicking
motion while still holding onto the man.

Dooks said the man was "passively resisting" officers by refusing
commands to get up, and the kicking motion simply brought the man to
his feet.

The man then disappears from view and the officer quickly follows him
down the stairs and out of sight.

The video doesn't clearly show how the man descended the stairs, but
Dooks said he did so under his own power.

"He was not pushed down the stairs, as was alleged. He descended down
the stairs on his feet," Dooks said, adding the man in the video did
not file a complaint against police.

"The individual on the staircase was not injured. He was not harmed in
any way and following this incident, he walked away," added Dooks.

Hussain is one of nine people from four businesses charged by police
last year with selling drug paraphernalia to drug addicts in the city
core.

Police alleged Hussain's store, Canadian Convenience and Gift, sold
glass tubes and steel wool knowing cocaine addicts were using the
otherwise legal goods to fashion crack pipes.

At the time of the February incident, Hussain was being paid by the
building's owner to manage the apartments above his store.

Dooks said it was Hussain who called police that night to throw out
the trespassers -- a fact Hussain doesn't dispute.

But Hussain said Wednesday that officers asked him to destroy any
recordings of the incident, and that he was initially scared to come
forward with his allegations.

"I don't think they're going to investigate fair," he
said.

Hussain has pleaded not guilty to selling an instrument for illicit
drug use. He is scheduled to go on trial next Jan. 5.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake