Those were the words of Justice Elliot Allen as he sentenced two Toronto police officers to one year of house arrest for beating a Cabbagetown man in 2009. As is the usual practice when one of their own is under judicial scrutiny, the courthouse was packed with brothers and sisters in blue. Whether this had the effect of intimidating Justice Allen is unclear; he cited understaffing and overcrowding as reasons he didn't sentence them to a penitentiary term, saying their security couldn't be guaranteed. One wonders why protective custody wouldn't have provided that guarantee, since they would then have been segregated from the general prison population and permitted one hour of carefully monitored exercise per day.
Even though the sentence includes a prohibition on firearms' possession for 10 years, one wonders if the lack of a jail sentence means they get to keep their jobs.
No comments:
Post a Comment