The OPCC to the rescue?
Cop-cover-up king Stan Lowe and his corrupt crew of ex-cops
will review the cop-on-cop investigation into the cop shooting
of Alvin Wright. But maybe this time...
Nov. 14, 2011
The news is supposed to be reassuring: Stan Lowe and his Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner will review the Vancouver police investigation into the Langley RCMP shooting death of Alvin Wright.
But Lowe, deputy police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods, and possibly several other OPCC characters are corrupt. They make their living helping police cover up misconduct and criminal actions. They’re extremely complacent about their corruption because they answer to no one — absolutely no one at all.
As his response to Robert Dziekanski’s Taser-related death shows, Stan Lowe is possibly Canada’s most outspoken supporter of gratuitous police violence and lethal police force. In addition, Lowe fully supported the Vancouver police cover-up into VPD Constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a handicapped woman. Lowe most probably took part in the cover-up himself.
Deputy police complaint commissioner Rollie Woods is a liar and corrupt ex-cop who used to head VPD Professional Standards. Under his direction, VPD investigators covered up evidence that supported police complaints, covered up the most important aspects of police complaints, used heavy-handed interrogation techniques to try to intimate complainants into changing their statements, arrived at their decisions before interviewing complainants and interpreted the Criminal Code in an obviously dishonest manner.
So these guys are going to review the cop-on-cop investigation into Wright’s death?
Well it’s possible that they’ll act more cautiously on this case. This is a sensitive time, with the creation of the new Independent Investigations Office supposedly underway. Everyone from the BC Liberals to Lowe and his ex-cops — and probably including B.C.’s police lobby — want to encourage public confidence in our system of cop accountability, especially if it’s misguided public confidence.
And the media are watching this one.
They don’t know dick about how our police accountability system works. But in this case the media will likely ask tough questions if the final cop-on-cop investigation fails to provide credible answers. That just might prompt the OPCC to take a blue-moon approach.
The priority in the Wright case should be to find out how and why the police killed him. That might or might not happen.
The overall priority should be to create a credible system of police accountability that takes all investigations seriously. In B.C., that will never happen.
March 21, 2012 update: B.C. police complaint commissioner Stan T. Lowe exonerates the three Mounties, saying their deadly actions were “reasonable and necessary.” More...
“Reasonable and necessary?” Where have we heard that before? More...
“The job of the police complaint commissioner is to protect the police.” A March 22, 2012 statement from Allan Wright, father of Alvin Wright. More...
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