Academies
of Assassins
Neighbours mourn man who died after 'disturbing'
arrest by Ottawa police
Neighbours are in shock after Abdirahman Abdi ended
up on life support after his arrest in Hintonburg.
It’s time that the society must
understand the police are committing daily the most heinous crimes to
vulnerable citizens across the country. Their psychopathic minds and state of
terror involving brutality and assassinations are causing people to live in
fear, not to mention also the police forces that should serve and protect us.
By: Haley Ritchie Metro,
Emma Jackson Metro
Published on Mon Jul 25 2016
Community organizations are moving in
to help Hilda Street residents cope with the violent loss of a 37-year-old man who
neighbours described as “peaceful” and a familiar face around the
neighbourhood.
On Sunday, police received a 911 call
at 9:30 a.m. from the Bridgehead coffee shop on Fairmont Avenue and Wellington
Street West, where a man was reportedly causing a disturbance and touching a
female patron.
Witnesses said Abdirahman Abdi got
scared when police arrived and ran to his home – just three blocks north to an
apartment building on 55 Hilda Street, where he had been living since arriving
in Ottawa from Somalia in 2009. Witness
'shocked' by Ottawa Police arrest
Neighbours – many of them friends and
family – then watched from their balconies as Abdi was forcefully arrested.
Witness Shukri Samater said people were
yelling as Abdi was handcuffed and hit by officers on the stone steps just
outside the building’s entrance.
“That was the most disturbing part of
it all, what happened after he was handcuffed,” Samater said. “He was bleeding
from the back of his head. He didn’t have a weapon, he wasn’t violent.”
Samater described him as “not well” and
said mental health issues and a language barrier may have prevented him from
understanding what police were saying.
Nimao Ali, friend of the family, called
Abdi a "beautiful soul."
"He is a beautiful person. He was
not 100 per cent healthy like us, he had a mental illness," she said.
"He was the kind of man that when
you walk into the elevator he will hold the door for you, always had a smile on
his face."
A 27-minute video recorded by a
neighbour who lived upstairs has been published online, showing Abdi handcuffed
and bleeding on the ground before paramedics eventually arrived. The video
begins after the arrest and alleged beating.
Another neighbour said he recorded the
arrest but is not making it public out of respect to the family.
“He is very much a very present figure
on the street,” said Leslie Emory, executive director of OCISO immigrant
support services. “He walked a lot.”
Abdi was a frequent client of Emory’s
organization. OCISO is helping arrange crisis councillors for witnesses and
neighbours who have been traumatized by Sunday’s events.
– With files from Emma Jackson and Joe
Lofaro
WHAT IS THE SIU?
The Special Investigations Unit is a
civilian-led law enforcement agency that investigates incidents of death or
injury between police and civilians.
It has jurisdiction over 53 police
forces across Ontario, covering about 26,000 officers. It can lay criminal
charges.
When does the SIU step in?
When a civilian dies or suffers a
serious injury while in contact with police, the SIU takes over the
investigation to determine if there was any wrongdoing on the part of the
officers.
“Serious injury” could include
everything from a broken bone to vision or hearing loss, and includes sexual
assault.
The SIU is usually called in by the
police force involved, but it can also be notified by members of the public.
The unit doesn’t deal with other
complaints about police conduct, like racial profiling, harassment or
corruption.
Who has to talk to the SIU?
Subject officers – the officers under
investigation – don’t have to submit to an interview or hand over their notes,
similar to a criminal suspect’s right to not self-incriminate. But witness
officers are compelled to co-operate, and must submit their notes, too.
In this case, two subject officers and
five witness officers have been identified.
How long will the investigation take?
Every case is different, but they can
range from a few weeks to many months, according to SIU spokesperson Jason
Gennaro. In this case, since the chase took place over a few hundred metres,
there’s a lot of ground to cover and many witnesses to canvass.
How often does it lay charges?
The SIU investigated 266 cases across
the province in the 2014-2015 fiscal year and criminal charges were laid in 13
cases, a rate of 4.9 per cent.
Several Ottawa Police officers have
faced charges in recent years. Two officers were charged with assault after a
man in custody was injured in May 2014. Another was charged with dangerous
driving after a high-speed car chase sent a suspect to hospital in February
2015.
And three officers were charged with
criminal negligence and breach of duty after three paramedics were seriously injured
during a training exercise in Kanata in June 2014.
Police Brutality in Canada Clay Willey Hogtied and Tasered
to Death
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of Assassins
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