Poison Impunity
by C. L. Cook, guest columnist

There's a a newspaper cutting affixed to my refrigerator. It's from the front page of my city's sole daily, The Victoria Times-Colonist. The fridge magnets frame a photograph of a Victoria City Police officer; he's showing off an innovative pair of handcuffs, designed to manacle elderly law-breakers without breaking the surface of their fragile, old skin. And, as is most often the case, the "gran-acles" were an invention of necessity.

The brain trust down at city law enforcement were inspired to develop the padded nylon straps by the case of 87 year-old first-time criminal, Arthur Pegler, nabbed red-handed in a blatant contravention of the province's Motor Vehicle Act.

Thankfully, Pegler's despicable slide into lawlessness was caught by an alert deployment of another recent police department innovation, the coordination of local traffic police with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a federal, para-military force, heretofore restricted to rural detachments.

How do the actions of George W. Bush effect your life?

In Pegler's case, cops on foot walking along Oak Bay Avenue, where the normally very slow moving traffic really crawls as it transits a veritable gauntlet of crosswalks, were whistling down drivers spotted not wearing their seat belts. The stepped-up traffic enforcement is just one of the troubling signs of an overall authoritarian trend in Canada, a trend reflected in both the country's domestic policing, and its foreign policy.

But poor old Arthur Pegler probably hadn't been keeping up with current events, (and he can't be faulted for this, if he depends only on Canadian corporate and state media; both have been largely silent on this issue) and believed he was still living in the Old Canada. Harangued and humiliated by a disrespectful public servant, Pegler spoke back.

And, that's when the trouble really started.

Arthur Pegler was arrested, shackled so tightly his skin was broken, and the tendons of his wrist damaged. A local, bi-weekly newspaper displayed photographs of the aftermath of the arrest, his bloody hands eliciting public outrage. Despite at least one citizen complaint of police abuse filed by an eye-witness, Pegler did not pursue the case, police charges against him were dropped, and police reprimands against the officer deemed unnecessary. The coordinated traffic patrols continue unabated, though there is now the promise that the new handcuffs will be field-tested soon.

Though Arthur Pegler will live out the rest of his days pained for his run-in with the RCMP, at least he survived. Ian Bush was not so lucky.

Bush was standing about outside the Houston, B.C. hockey arena in this small town. Though technically illegal - public consumption of alcohol outside designated areas - it's a common practice for locals to sneak a few beers into weekend games, and to drink them outside with a smoke between periods. In this case, Bush was actually not drinking the beer, but holding it for a friend who was larking about.

Spirits were high, and the young Bush and his friends were laughing and joking around when the RCMP approached them. The new cop in town, a young RCMP officer, anxious perhaps to make a name for himself in his new detachment, demanded names and id's be shown. Ian Bush gave a phony name in jest, the group still not taking the rookie seriously. Constable Paul Koester didn't think Bush funny, and arrested him for "obstruction of justice" for the phony name.

An incredulous Bush was cuffed and put in the squad car, while he mugged for his friends. He'd be dead in less than half an hour, shot in the back of the head while in custody, with the only witness, Constable Paul Koester, claiming self-defense.

The RCMP are not unique in Canada insomuch as they are not subject necessarily to outside scrutiny. In this case, Bush was deemed by RCMP internal investigators to be the aggressor, who they say, attempted to choke the constable. Koester claimed Bush got the drop on him, grabbed him from behind and was choking him, when he managed to take his weapon out, reach behind Bush's head and fire.

From merry prankster at the rink to homicidal maniac, attempting to murder a policeman, in less than a half-hour.

That's the official story; the story being told the coroner's inquest into the death in custody. It's one that never washed with Ian Bush's parents, and friends, who say Ian was just not the kind of guy to behave as Koester testified. Speaking of her son, Linda Bush says;

"He was such an easy child. He was so easy to get along with. He was just one of those kids that people loved the moment they met him. He was the perfect son."

And, hers is a doubt widely shared in the small town, where vigils in front of the RCMP detachment occur nightly, as they have since the event became publicly known; the shrine of flowers and cards left in remembrance growing annoying enough for the RCMP officers still on duty there to destroy it at one point. When the vandalism was discovered, it stoked further acrimony between the detachment and the people they are sworn 'to serve and protect.' The shrine reappeared, bigger than before.

As of writing, Joe Slemko, a "blood-spatter" expert, retained at Linda Bush's expense, has testified: photographs of the scene of Ian's death, his body position, blood-staining patterns, (and the other gruesome minutae necessary for his testimony to be deemed expert in this sort of case), did not jibe with the official version of the events surrounding the night Ian was killed.

Outside the inquest, an RCMP spokesperson reiterated Mountie support for Constable Koester, refusing charges will be brought, and discounting Slemko's testimony, as the RCMP counsel questioned his credibility.

Slemko told the inquest;

"It's my opinion that the version of Mr. Bush on top of Constable Koester's back, choking him, is not possible.”

As the Houston detachment would have the tokens of remembrance to the popular young Mr. Bush removed, and the case more quickly forgotten the better, today's testimony in Houston will likely resonate in other places in British Columbia, both rural and urban.

Places like Sechelt, B.C. where another newcomer RCMP officer used his authority to arrest a victory celebration of a young, mostly native, soccer team. For the crime of allowing his team stand in the box of his pick-up, while doing a victory lap of the field, the coach/driver was arrested, handcuffed, and pepper-sprayed in the face, as was his wife and infant child.

Shannon Phillips, mother of one of the infants sprayed and wife of Troy, the coach facing charges, said of the tournament-ending police riot;

"They pepper sprayed him and when I went to say, 'What are you doing?'  they turned around and pepper sprayed me and Kaden — quite a few times, actually."

It was a democratic process really; a liberal spraying was given everyone within range. Fully 15 among the soccer tourney crowd were reported medically treated for pepper spray exposure, two being under 2 years of age. All caught on video.

But will the RCMP admit to a problem?

Way back in the halcyon days before George W. Bush, a meeting of regional corporate and government fellow travellers was set in Vancouver. It was called APEC  '97 (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), and was to star Indonesian dictator Suharto. The opening shots of the War on Globalization were fired there by the infamous "Sergeant Pepper" of the RCMP - also caught on tape and played and replayed on the national networks.

Speaking of the over-liberal use of gas against the protest, then-prime minister Chretien brushed the scandal off, dismissively saying, "Pepper? Pepper is something I put on my steak." Har, har.

Sadly, joker Jean is gone now; sadder though than his political demise is the example he left for one devoted fan of the Chretienian easy way with the truth, and disdain for the people. Jean Chretien earned one of George W. Bush's rare sincerities, a compliment;

"He's a real political animal."

The RCMP make appearances in George's world too, of course, (RCMP agents are central in "training" exercises for Haitian, Afghani, and Iraqi "security forces," three of the least democratic democracies in the world) but it is the sense of official, disregard for the hoi polloi that really connects them.

Whether pepper spraying toddlers, shackling and roughing up octogenarians, or shooting young smart alecks in the back of the head in the station house, it is the refusal of those claiming office to claim too with the power of position the responsibility to serve the public first that rings most familiar.

From wars of conquest and the pervasive, and as yet unpunished, lawlessness of the Bush regime, down the line of authority figures at gateways and roadblocks, George W. Bush as philosophy figures increasingly large in all our lives, and will for years to come; his hallmark disdain of justice at the top finding its way inexorably down to infect the attitudes of the armed and dangerous men and women patrolling our streets.

Whether the storm sirens of New Orleans, or the traffic whistles in sleepy Oak Bay, every day the rot of civilization creeps further, spreading from the flyblown head, threatening the entire body politic.

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