From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. Carl Schurz

Friday, February 3, 2012

No Justice For Clayton Willey

In 2003 Clayton Willey was arrested by RCMP officers in Prince George for causing a disturbance a few hours later he lay dead. A coroners inquest in 2004 ruled his death was the result of a heart attack brought on by a cocaine overdose. This despite the fact that Clayton was pepper sprayed, beaten dragged through the detachment striking his head several times off the cruiser, the concrete floor and more than one door jamb plus he was tasered multiple times while laying face down his hands cuffed behind his back and his feet hogtied.

The inquest discounted the tasering as a contributing  factor. The first witness in the inquest, Dr. James McNaughton, said high cocaine abuse contributed to Willey's death and not anything the police did. The pathologist noted Willey suffered a severe heart attack 20 minutes after he was hit with a Taser on the day he died. McNaughton says a shorter interval of time between the two incidents would be needed to make a connection. 

We have since learned that he was in fact tasered simultaneously by two officers which to this laypersons mind anyways puts the coroners ruling into question even though the The Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP just yesterday re-affirmed the coroners ruling although they did say cops did fail to treat Willey with decency. Watch this video and make up your own mind

2 comments:

  1. For a more complete version of the the 16:38 minute video...

    After it was removed from the internet, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association reposted it here.

    "The CPC’s report in the Willey death prefers the version of events from an officer who was disbelieved by a judge in a matter where a prisoner was Tasered twenty times, and who has a previous criminal conviction for assaulting a prisoner, to the version of events put forward by civilians at the scene of the Willey death," noted Robert Holmes, Q.C.

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  2. Thanks Alison The CPC is clearly engaged in a whitewash. It is telling that they switched cameras in the parking bay going from a shot that would clearly show his removal from the vehicle to one obscured by the cruiser. Footage that according to the family once existed.

    Police oversight in this nation is but an illusion

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