Thursday, February 16, 2012

Update on "Excessive Force" Story


There are new developments the case of a Canadian police officer accused of using excessive force on a sick, deaf man in the small Alberta town of Red Deer. The policeman involved has been fired. We told you last month about Bill Berry, an elderly deaf man, who was trying to pay a ticket at the city courthouse. Officer Thomas Bounds told Berry he had entered through an exit door and would have to go back out and come in again, through the proper screening entrance. Bounds ignored Berry's attempts to communicate that he is deaf and didn't understand the order - and couldn't speak because Berry had his larynx removed because of cancer. You can see what happened in the video below. When Bounds forced Berry outside, he knocked out a tube in Berry's neck through which Berry breaths. The investigation by the Solicitor General Office's Law Enforcement and Oversight Branch in Alberta found that "Sheriff Bounds use and level of force against Mr. Berry was unjustified, excessive."