While You Were Out for Beer, Justice Took a Break
by C. L. Cook
Canadian State broadcaster's (CBC) television news flagship program, The National tonight featured a lengthy piece on today's scheduled "Beer Summit" at the White House.

 

 

The "casual" meeting between wounded parties in the infamous, l'Affaire Crowley/Gates is Barack Obama's attempt to smooth the waters, water roiled further by a presidential press conference remark he made about the case.

If you recall, Henry Louis Gates is the Ivy League professor arrested on his stoop a couple weeks back by Sgt. James Crowley, a Cambridge police officer responding to a suspected break and enter 911 call made by one of Mr. Gates' neighbours. When Crowley challenged Gates for his ID, (which was duly provided) words were exchanged, tempers flared, and Gates was run in for "disorderly conduct."

 

Gates was later released with charges dropped, but media interest in the arrest found its way into Obama's Health Care press briefing, where an inquiring reporter had to know Obama's opinion.  

In the days since its simple beginning as a local and too routine instance of a police/civilian interaction gone wrong, the story has transmogrified, becoming, if some of the breathless press reports are to be believed, emblematic of race relations across America.

 

 

 

While U.S. press reports featured by The National focused only on the inane details of the so-called 'Beer Summit,' surprisingly, The National chose to downplay the suds, emphasizing instead the obvious fact of race: Gates is African American, Crowley is just plain old American (a normal, white guy), and the president the perfect hybrid; Obama, peacekeeper in a dangerously divided age. (The online CBC did provide some boxscores for the Rose Garden sit down, writing: "Gates, who is said to be partial to Red Stripe from Jamaica, instead ordered a Sam Adams Light, while Crowley had a Blue Moon, a Belgian-style beer, made by Coors, which is owned by British conglomerate SAB. Biden opted for a nonalcoholic Buckler. 911 caller not invited.")  

What both the CBC's race angle, and the U.S. corporate media's "White House Kegger" narrative miss is the essence of what this story is really about, and how what happened one sultry night in Cambridge actually is an incident emblematic of our times.

In Vancouver, news of the beer cordial at the White House shared space with the results of the trial of local Constable Griffin Gillan. Last year, a booze-sodden Gillan accosted paper delivery guy, Firoz Khan; throwing him to the ground, gang beating him with the aid of a pair of drunken colleagues, threatening arrest, and finally stealing his money.

 

Khan merited this treatment, it now comes out in court, because he too-slowly responded to shit-faced Griffin Gillan's bawled order that he come hither to his better's aid forthwith.

The Vancouver Sun's Neal Hall fills in some of the courtroom colour;

"Gillan, 25, began drinking in West Vancouver while watching a Canucks hockey game on TV with two other off-duty officers that night: Jeffrey Klassen, 38, of the New Westminster police, who was also a use-of-force instructor for police training at the Justice Institute of B.C.; and Blair Tanino, a Delta police officer.
The trio later went to Vancouver and continued drinking at two clubs on Granville Street.
After consuming 25 drinks, Gillan hitched a ride from the Roxy nightclub and confronted Khan outside the Hyatt.
"Buddy, I need to know how to get to Broadway and Cambie," Gillan told Khan, 47.
"Give me a second," Khan said, trying to balance a stack of 75 papers on his shoulder.
"You f---ing come here right now," Gillan ordered, grabbing Khan by the lapels, kneeing him in the stomach and taking him to the ground.
When Khan asked why Gillan was hitting him, Gillan replied, "You're under arrest."

When Pacific Free Press covered Khan's assault back in January, we too decried the racist elements of this attack, but most troublesome about this story is the gross degree of impunity these officers felt confident they enjoyed. As though the badge was not a vow to serve, but a license to randomly and violently prey on the citizenry; it became their license to commit. More on Gillan's sentencing later.


"Stupid is..."

Obama's criticism of the Cambridge PD, in the context of Dr. Gates' arrest, and his saying of the case it was handled "stupidly," as seen through the media lens, is entwined in false premises, and invented polarities. Dave Lindorff is unconvinced, and writes for http://thiscantbehappening.org;

"President Obama said that this arrest, made after Gates had shown the officer both his Harvard faculty ID and also his drivers license, showing that he in fact lived in the residence in question, was stupid, but in truth it was much worse than that. It was a blatant abuse of power--one that has become all to common, and accepted, in today's America, where every cop's a "hero."
Sgt. Crowley, a large man with the power of arrest, armed with a gun and the authority to use it, was never physically threatened by the 5'8" Gates, a 58-year old man who walks with the aid of a cane. He simply didn't like being called names and yelled at by an irate citizen, and so he slapped on the cuffs and dragged the offending perp downtown for booking."

 
   
Justice Serviced

The sentencing, as heard in a Vancouver court of law: For his part in the multiple assaults visited on the hapless Khan, (not to mention the racist slurs, impugning of the reputation of the West Vancouver Police constabulary) it seems Gillan will receive three-weeks home arrest, with a proviso he not venture from his pad between the hours of 10:00pm and 06:00am. The court recommends too drugs and anger treatment for Constable Gillan, who for his part has said he's given up drinking.

The Sun's Neal wraps up;

"When Khan called for help and asked bystanders to call police, Klassen allegedly said: "We are the police." The off-duty Delta officer was not charged and is expected to testify as a Crown witness against Klassen.

The court was told the arresting officer, identified only as Const. Jaswal, who had graduated from the police academy only two weeks earlier, recognized Klassen as his instructor at the police academy [use-of-force instructor for police training at the Justice Institute of B.C.].

Jaswal was asked to arrest Khan, who was referred to by one of the off-duty officers as a "shit rat," and he handcuffed Khan. But witnesses at the scene complained that Jaswal had made a mistake and that Khan was the victim, not the perpetrator.

Jaswal uncuffed Khan and took him into the lobby of the Hyatt, then conducted further investigation, eventually arresting the three off-duty officers. Gillan became belligerent and kicked Jaswal's police car and spat on it. Gillan said he had no memory of the assault and his subsequent behaviour.

In imposing the three-week sentence of house arrest, the judge ordered Gillan to be in his residence between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. each night, and to attend counselling for anger management and substance abuse during a six-month probation period. Crown prosecutor Ralph Keefer had asked the judge to impose a jail sentence of up to six months for Gillan's crime. The defence asked for a conditional discharge or a suspended sentence.

Gillan is still facing a disciplinary hearing by the West Vancouver police. He is suspended without pay, has lost $35,000 in wages and is destitute, the court was told. Khan is also destitute and unable to work, his lawyer, Mobina Jaffer, told reporters outside court."

Gillan, 25, began drinking in West Vancouver while watching a Canucks hockey game on TV with two other off-duty officers that night: Jeffrey Klassen, 38, of the New Westminster police, who was also a use-of-force instructor for police training at the Justice Institute of B.C.; and Blair Tanino, a Delta police officer.




West Van officer gets 21 days of house arrest for drunken assault
by Neal Hall
 
Cops Gone Wild
by Dave Lindorff