Latest insanity:
http://ottawa.cbc.ca/regional/servle...omalis20040204


Oustanding moment from the archives:
http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/01/21/police_woman030121


When will these geniuses figure out that beating up civilians in public places is bad PR?

 

yeah welcome to Ottawa - I've been harrassed by police on 3 seperate occasions here and I'm white...no minority.

- At the police station none-the-less in the parking lot, we're walking back to the station (I showed up to show them I had fixed my car's light). It's the police officer, my friend and I...he tells me I would have to come back again (after I had been there now twice) so that he could beat the "**** out of me" as he put it...after I looked at my friend and ignored him and about 2 mins passed (while walking back inside) he said he was just joking (or maybe waiting for my reaction?)

- Another time the cops pulled me over in a stock Camry and drew guns on my friend and I and told us to put our hands out (mine on the wheel, my friend's on the dash)...then proceeded to ask if I had any warrants outstanding and kept asking if I was lying...? Then they wouldn't say why we were even stopped.

- Then, two summers ago when I first got my FD there was the DMV strike and I was permitted to have a temporary license plate for 2 months or so (it's only supposed to be 3 weeks). There was a cop downtown, he was turning from a side street so I'm curtious and let him in to traffic but he doesn't want to go...of course he doesn't...he's waiting for me to move up so he can pull me over for no reason. He pulls me over in the middle of a busy downtown road and proceeds to ask me why I'm driving with the temp license plate. I tell him about the strike and he proceeds to tell me how it's a bullshit story and that he's going to have my car towed. I stick with my story and laugh because it's so rediculous and he gets even more angry. Finally he goes back to his car with my license plate (piece of paper) and calls it in...oh what's that?...turns out it was ok? yeah that's what I thought. He gives it back to me, no appology for all of the **** he just put me through and says I can go.

I can't complain enough about the police here in Ottawa. Sometimes you call 911 and get a busy signal (different story). The police are racist, prejudist and rude... I've heard of friends being beaten or people they know have similar stories to mine. It's disgusting. On the other hand, I've met one nice cop who was very nice and curteous to me (and coincidentally enough, that was the cop who gave me the ticket to fix my light in the first place).

If any others of you have any bad/good stories, I'd love to hear them and hope I'm not the only one with this bad luck.

 

Aside from knowing one guy who had his *** beaten with rubber hose and phone books (place book on suspect, punch book as hard as you can, remove book from suspect and note absence of bruising) in the basement of Toronto's 52nd division, I haven't heard anything about Ottawa cops except when they **** up and make the news.

It's enough to make a man drive the limit on the 417...





Nah, **** that.

 

God, every single ticket I've ever gotten from a cop here, from a burnt out headlight to speeding has always been followed by a seriously condecending attitute problem.

I've been called assinine, stupid, idiot, liar, "kids these days" (and I'm 28!), etc etc. Give me the ticket and move along! I'll never forget the day a cop started scratching up all the tint on my side window with his keys because it was too dark. Interestingly though, the ride program cops have always been nice to me and my passengers.

 

It's funny, I always hear about ******* cops. Not just in Ottawa, but Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Sherbrooke, Kingston, Sault Ste. Marie, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Kamloops, Vancouver, and all over the states. Hell, a few posts down is Cosmic's account of an ******* cop in the GTA. This is a widespread problem - not one localized to one city. You hear about it quite often. Problem is that they are like plane crashes - you never hear about the safe trips, only the one that end in a firey impact.

The thing is that the job can breed a "power trip" type of personality. Most of these "bad cops" are just looking for a reason to go off - and they'll find one too! But I have found that these Bad Cops are the exception rather than the rule.

I have also found that the majority of the police officers who have this chip on their shoulder are "City" cops. From what I have experiences, the RCMP, OPP and QPP seem to be alright. It's only when you start dealing with the local police forces that things start to get a bit strained.

FWIW I used to be a smartass to cops when I felt they were busting my ***** for no reason. That was until one nice old sargent from Montreal pulled me aside and had "a word" with me. In a calm quiet voice he lectured me for about 5 minutes, and then said "I want you to try this: next time a police officer pulls you over, answer his questions honestly and don't talk back. Just try it once." 2 months later I was pulled over (in ontario) for doing 80 in a 50 zone. When the cop walked up to my window, his first words were "where's the fire? Do you know how fast you were going?" I said Yes sir, I was doing 80kph. I got off with a warning.

I'm not saying that people who get harassed or beaten up by cops deserve it - but I have found that half the bad cops out there wont be bad cops unless you bait them. The other half however... that's a different story.

 

I've only ever encountered one cop in Canada who didn't cut me a break on a speeding ticket. And I have never encountered a cop who was anything less than professional, unless you consider 'friendly' to be less than professional conduct...


The K-W city cops have all been good (aside from being completely ioncompetent at solving real crimes.) No, I haven't met all of them, but enough to notice.

 

They obviously know you better than we do...

 

Well im not saying every action by every officer is correct. However, if cops werent ******, if society in general didn't fear cops, how would we act? They have to ******, most of the time, and have to dominate the situation at hand from the get go, otherwise they would have no control, and we need that control.
BTW, that woman probably deserved what she got. I followed the story, apparently she had a very long list of convictions, as well as the weekend after the video incident, she was arrested again for assault and being drunk in public. Since then she has been arrested 4 mores times. She isnt a sweet inocent angel.

 

There is a difference between being in a position of authority and abusing authority. And it seems that line gets crossed more and more.

Cops do not need to be ****** to be in control because they have the law behind them.

Most people respect the law.

A perfect example, is the cop that came by the outdoor rink, when we where playing hockey and had some open beers.

He told us to put them away, without being an *******. We respected that, and did as he wanted. Being an ******* would have not helped him or us in that situation.

 

I am considering buying a little handheld recorder to keep in my car. Then if i get pulled over ill turn it on and let it record the entire conversation. Theres a good chance that could bail me out of a ticket. But is it illegal to do if the cop is unaware he is being recorded??

 

Everyone complains about the police until they need them. Then it's "oh Mr. Nice Officer, please find the person who broke into my house/stole my car/etc.".

Yes, there are some bad ones like anything else. You can have a bad police officer, you can have a bad Canadian Tire employee...And you NEVER hear about the thousands of "friendly" police encounters that happen everyday.

 

You guys keep generalizing that there are some good police and you just never hear about them. This is true but here in Ottawa things seem to be really bad. As I mentioned I have at least a 3:1 bad cop to good cop ratio going on here. If there were more good cops I wouldn't have mentioned it. There needs to be some attitude adjustments and general investigations into the dealings of the OPP here in Ottawa anyway.

 

ITS FUNNY HOW I COULD ALWAYS DRIFT IN A PARKING LOTS AND HAVE A POLICE OFFICER COME AND JUST TELL ME TO MOVE IT, WHILE WHEN I DROVE LEGALLY I ALWAYS GOT PULLED OVER.

 

I hope you arent talking about the service dept, because "a" insinuates only one or a few

 

what happens if you're driving in downtown ottawa and you get chased by the cops, you cross over to hull. Can they write you a ticket in hull? or the other way around if you are chased in quebec and cross into ontario.

 

The police can give you a ticket anywhere. Not only will an ontario cop give you a ticket in quebec - but he'll put your *** in jail for running as well!

The whole "make it to the state line" thing is for the movies.

 

Not if you make it to Mexico!!!!

 

just got to get 3 cars in front of him at the line-up at the border crossing.

Or "general lee" the river...

 

Nope, recording is public is ALWAYS LEGAL as long as the camera isn't hidden and you tun it off at upon request.
And of course you can't use it for public dispay without the consent of everyone on the tape.

I've thought about putting a dash mounted digital camera on my car too.

 

Most of the Halton Reigonal cops I've met are nice.

I've gotten breaks on tickets, and they never ticketed me when I used to drive with my G1...

 

ttt. ehehe. ottawa cops suck royal shitballs.
and even then they dont hold a candle to hull popo...well at least it USED to be that way.

 

I really think most cops are good people when it comes to non-traffic offenses. I've had a disporportionate amount of experience with them (and no I've never been arrested ) and I only have good things to say. The worst case scenerio would be that a couple were merely adequate. Some really went above and beyond.

I think a traffic situation is different because it's usually pretty petty. You take people who could otherwise be good at their jobs and waste their time with offenses of a caliber that they normally wouldn't even look at. The weird part is that they don't seem to get the difference and for some reason an aftermarket exhaust is considered as bad as gang activity, etc.