** Warning: Graphic and Violent Content **
It seems that we have heard a lot of complaints lately about the police and the way that they are treating others. Many of these videos that have surfaced only show one side of the story but on occasion, we get to see the entire story and it makes us angry. That is what happened recently when a video of a 19-year-old First Nations woman was shown in a video after being picked up by community safety officers near the Northern Inn in Thompson. They suspected her of being drunk and decided to take her in.
Genesta Garson is the woman who was taken to the RCMP detachment in Thompson, Man, and a security video caught the footage that is shown below. Despite the fact that the footage was seen on camera and it really tells the tale of what was taking place, she withdrew her complaint against the officers. Now she is saying that she was bullied into removing the complaint, and at least one former police watchdog is asking that a full probe be given into the incident. There is a lawsuit that alleges she was discriminated against because of her indigenous heritage, as she is a member of Tataskweyak Cree Nation.
The original plan was for her to go into a holding cell, where she would sleep it off on a concrete pad or a concrete floor. Rather than being able to sleep it off, however, she was taken away to a cell after being knocked out cold by one of the security officers.
It occurred when Genesta Garson was being held at the detachment in Thompson, Man. on Jan. 6, 2018. After the incident, she told CBC news that she doesn’t feel safe around those officers anymore. She said: “I was knocked out. They dragged me into the cells. My body was shaken up from being hit hard in the head.”
Although she admits that she had a few beers that night, it seems that she got irritated and uncomfortable when she was asked to strip down to one layer of clothes. She had on several layers because of the weather and even asked her to remove her bra for safety reasons. In the video, you see three officers, including the female RCMP officer.
She takes off her belt and moves away when one of the safety officers moves in her direction. She said: “I felt very uncomfortable when they asked me to take off my bra.” She then takes off the belt and throws her toward the female officer.
That is when one of the officers strikes her in the face and she hit her head on the wall. She also instrumental the ground as she falls to the floor. As she is unconscious on the ground, the female officer removes one layer of pants and the two male officers dragged her into the jail cell.
About 15 minutes later, paramedics come and take her away on a stretcher.
“I am lost for words on this case. I really am, I’m lost for words,” said her lawyer, Rohit Gupta, as he watched the video. “That is a person that’s clearly in pain, who came into this detachment standing on their own two feet and left in a stretcher.”
According to hospital records, she “struck the officer with her belt, so got punched in the face.”
According to terms of the Manitoba’s Police Services Act, an individual can be detained as they are thought to be intoxicated. The police watchdog, however, investigates what an officer causes death or serious injury and this may not fall under their jurisdiction.
Howard Morton, who ran Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit in the past said that it was a clear case of excessive force and there should be a full investigation. He said: “When he punches her in the face, it’s the matter of retaliation. It’s not a matter of defending himself against further assaults.” He also said that there were three officers present, so she could not escape.
“But using a punch to the face as self-defence … seems to me clearly way out of proportion to what is permitted under our law,” he said.
Her case is not unusual. Some 27,000 individuals have been arrested under the province’s Intoxicated Persons Detention Act (IPDA) within the past five years. People from the north are detained under that act six times more than those in the capital. The law allows anyone who is believed to be intoxicated in public to be detained.
After Garson left the hospital, she was charged with assaulting a police officer. The charge was later removed and a formal complaint was filed against the RCMP. Eventually, that complaint was withdrawn after a number of RCMP officers came to her home and asked her to withdraw it.
She claims that she was bullied and pressuree and just wanted to be left alone, so she signed it.
“They kept coming to my house, and to where I worked here in Split Lake until I signed the paper,” Garson said. “After that, they left me alone. I do not remember how many times they came to the house, I lost count.”
The city of Thompson was not able to speak about the case. Neither of the community safety officers appeared to be in the positions any longer and only one is still employed by the city, although the city manager would not say which one.