Handcuffed for "stealing" my own bike by the RCMP

lower the odds of the one in a whatever chance there is a psycho. yup. can't blame a cop for wanting to go home safely to his family.

bet you don't think you need condoms cuz YOU'LL never get AIDS and you don't use an anti-virus cuz hey - one in a million. smoke another joint and bow to mao

Well you might as well move here then as you're the one promoting a hyper paranoid police state where every single person should be viewed as a potential threat.

If a cop pulled you over and accused you of stealing your own car would you hold your hands out for them in preparation for the immediate cuffing? Y'know..just to make the procedure go a little more smoothly?

I would hope in a case like that a fine law abiding citizen like yourself would have the opportunity to be taken to the police station in some semblance of dignity until the matter was resolved.

Anyone would be pissed off if they were cuffed for doing nothing wrong. Sure it was an accident but you've got every right to be annoyed by what happened.

this.

He said last weekend, which would have made it the 28th Sept.It pissed rain all afternoon that day, I know, I was working on a roof in the downpour!

Police have the legal right to apply handcuffs for the following reasons;

- for officer's personal safety
- for public safety
- for subject's safety
- to prevent flight.

If the officer was given no reason to assume any of the above, then the officer had no legal right to use the handcuffs. That's it that's all.

Either the story is incomplete and there is more to it than we're hearing, or the officer was a dick acting with undue force. If the latter, a letter should be written identifying the time, place, description of incident and the officer's name if known. Send copies to Whistler council (this is how your local arsy empy's are treating visitors), local news rags, local RCMP headquarters and maybe even national RCMP complaints desk. Cops need to know there can be ramifications for bad behaviour at any time.

If you were aggressive, impolite, rude or looked like you were going to bugger off in any way, then the officer pretty much did what he needed to.

Oh … and for gods sake …

PARAGRAPHS!!! It was damn near impossible to read that blotch of text!

Kn.

Thanks for the response Ken. As for reasons to use cuffs it was obviously his intent the minute he began "pursuing" me. I was near the library pedaling back to my room when he came up behind me, pulled me over and told me to get off my bike and on the hood of the car with my arms behind my back and then on came the cuffs. I didn't resist short of wanting to set my bike down (which he didn't let me do).

Once I was able to talk I told him (and the other 2 cops present) that I had my serial number written down in a notebook in my room a block away. They didn't seem to care about that though.

I realize in the grand scheme this was a tiny blip (and i certainly wouldn't try and compare it to what happened to the First Nations man mentioned above) but I thought my fellow mt. bikers might find it interesting and I was curious if anyone else had had something like this happen to them.

i don't think the cops owe people an apology for following up on leads or tips. they're just doing their job. the handcuffing does not seem like a big deal. why shouldn't they handcuff suspects? because the suspects don't like it? gimmie a break. if they had hurt you, or held you for any length of time, that would be different.

i'm glad to hear the cops are serious about bike theft.

Why were you cuffed in the first place? I'd find it hard to believe you didn't do anything wrong…

Because Calgary city cops(notorious rednecks)

I was a victim in a car accident……and guilty of being very young.

i don't think the cops owe people an apology for following up on leads or tips. they're just doing their job. the handcuffing does not seem like a big deal. why shouldn't they handcuff suspects? because the suspects don't like it? gimmie a break. if they had hurt you, or held you for any length of time, that would be different.

i'm glad to hear the cops are serious about bike theft.

Idiot.

Kn.

i'm glad to hear the cops are serious about bike theft.

As am I, but not if it means that we're all suddenly targets of aggression and mistrust similar to what heckler13 was subjected to. I'd like to see something like this happen to a guy like LeeLau who has the certification, knowledge and power to use the law to protect his own rights.

Whistler RCMP can be real assholes at times. I know the mountain is a resort town, but really, what the hell do they have to do up there? There's no real crime, so instead they hang around the lift and hassle kids riding their bikes in skier's plaza.

"Those who would give up rights and freedoms for security deserve neither"

Kn.

Whistler RCMP can be real assholes at times.

RCMP in general, across the country, have shown themselves to be chock-full of assholes and top management is rotten to the core. New top dog parachuted in to clean up the RCMP's image has pretty much turned out to be a "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" situation. Too bad, because there are very good, dedicated cops out there and they get painted with the same brush as the assholes.

For these reasons, I tend to believe the OP's version - that excessive force was used when a few simple questions would have sufficed.

Kn.

Well said.
Even looking at the RCMP advertising over the years, "WE SEE ALL, WE KNOW ALL, YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM US" seems to be their M.O. I used to laugh when my German father in law would compare the RCMP to his days back home, but I'm starting to think he had more vision than insanity now.

"Those who would give up rights and freedoms for security deserve neither"

Kn.

Ah yes, the wise words of Chuck Norris.

did your head explode yet?

:D

Idiot.

Kn.

care to explain your excellently made point just a little bit more clearly?

a couple posts later, you say the cops used excessive force, and that a couple questions would have sufficed.

let me break your utopian vision down to a realistic situation.
1) asking questions would suffice:

if the cops ask our innocent suspect questions, and he happens to be a good liar, or a repeat thief, and know what questions they will ask, he could walk away free. so, obviously the cops need to check things over for themselves. because you can't possible be actually suggesting that cops should trust suspects to always tell the truth?

2) excessive force
if you have a suspect in your custody, do you not think you would always cuff them to protect yourself? who says that a suspected thief might not have a few other warrents out for them too? suddenly, he becomes pretty likley to run.

but in your world, the cops never deal with dangerous people, have no need to look out for themselves first, and asking people "are you innocent?" is a good investigation.

now, would i be annoyed? yes. would i (hope) to be understanding? yes. you think im an idiot? your point of view is laughable.

ps: the context of the quote "Those who would give up rights and freedoms for security deserve neither" is about whole societies, not individuals, so it dosent even really apply.

eg: a bike was stolen, arrest everyone with a bike vs arrest the guy who has a bike that is a good match for the stolen one.

Ah yes, the wise words of Chuck Norris.

Um, Benjamin Franklin, actually.

care to explain your excellently made point just a little bit more clearly?

No. I thought about putting a more explanatory post initially, but realized that it's a waste of time trying to explain human rights, abuse of force by police and legal arrest procedures to an idiot.

You've clearly settled into your idiot view of your idiot world and have no inclination to be swayed by such niggling issues like facts and reason. Your subsequent post simply reinforces this.

Kn.

"Quebexican" Don't insult our amigos to the South as they actually bathe.