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The video of a shooting in a Maniwaki courtroom shows a series of stages where court security could have taken control and avoided a shooting, says a former U.S. police officer who now teaches law.
But the court guards let those chances go by, and conflict escalated out of control, says Seth Stoughton, who offered his analysis when reached by this newspaper.
An 18-year-old man, identified as Steven Bertrand by Quebec media, is in the Hôpital de Hull, where Quebec’s police watchdog says he is out of danger. He was shot once in the head Wednesday in a courtroom fight that began at about 1 p.m. when he had just been sentenced to a jail term but wanted to step outside for a smoke first.
Related
A special constable who was also injured in the brawl was described as being in stable condition.
Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendentes, the provincial body charged with investigating incidents involving police, has taken over the investigation, sending eight investigators up to the northern Quebec community.
The BEI’s Esther Tremblay said investigators left the courthouse scene at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday after more than 12 hours on the scene and the inquiry was now seeking witnesses around Maniwaki.
“What I saw in that video was multiple officers in that area, not effectively controlling — physically controlling — the situation,” said Stoughton. He’s a former Tallahassee policeman who teaches criminal law and police policy at the University of South Carolina.
Stoughton points to the periods of time where several court guards are standing back, looking uncertain.
“In this particular case, officers could and should have sought to control the subject’s arms, particularly the one behind the officer’s back that other officers had easy access to.
“They could have approached and sought to get control of the subject’s legs, particularly … the right leg, which again is behind the officer which means other officers have access to it.
“It did not appear, in the little snippet of video that I saw here, that the number of officers on scene were all handling this conflict effectively.”
But Franck Perales, president of the union of special constable in Quebec courthouses, insisted the shooting is a result of understaffing.
“If there had been enough staff, we would not be talking today because the constables would have controlled this individual, handcuffed him and handed him over to prison authorities,” he said in a radio interview.
Stoughton also said there was no effective crowd control.
“There are five officers that look like they are in a relatively small room. That is plenty for one of those five officers, who is not involved in the physical component, to … just back folks up. That is potentially safer and also reduces the stress that the officers who are involved in the physical confrontation are under.
“That’s just part of good teamwork, good co-operative policing. None of this is rocket science.”
He also said the officers only began to help as the two struggling men were jammed in a doorway. That’s a hard place to help, because the doorway is a tight space and other people can’t really do much.
Many police forces get “totally inadequate training on using force as a co-operative group,” he said.
“One officer and one subject — the fight can go in any direction. But when you have three or four officers, there are definitely tactics … that one officer by himself cannot use.
“For example you bring the guy to the ground, and you have one officer controlling his upper body and one officer controlling his lower body.”
In a group, one officer could cause a sharp but non-dangerous pain, such as hitting his leg with a baton, until he gave up. Another approach is to pull his legs out from underneath, and three officers climb on top of him.
“He can’t get up… He might be fighting to get up but he can’t because they are on top of him.”
This group work takes training so that officers don’t get in each others’ way and “so that they don’t just freeze and try to figure out how to deal with this situation.”
There’s usually no single moment that causes a use of force, but rather “multiple exchanges back and forth between the subject and the officer. And things can go bad at any one of those iterations,” he said.
An officer’s starting approach is one key, he says. Stoughton does a classroom exercise: He asks students to help him with a silly exercise, if they don’t mind. When he asks this way, he can get them to stand on one foot, imitate Batman, and more. When he shouts at them to stand up, they won’t co-operate.
“It’s not what I’m asking them to do, it’s how I’m asking them to do it … A demand for compliance can be quite off-putting. It can create resistance.”
In the Maniwaki situation, just talking gently with the young man might potentially have defused the situation from the start, he believes. (The video doesn’t show how the confrontation began.)
Once there is a conflict, it’s still possible to “de-escalate,” he said.
“De-escalation might be bending or compromising in some way” — offering the man a chance to have a smoke later even though he can’t have it right away.
“At that point you take a tense encounter and try to reduce the tension. And sometimes de-escalation means taking a step back,” either physically backing away or letting the man get something he wants.
“Why not let the guy go outside and smoke? Is there actually a rule to say no you can’t do that? … Maybe go outside and stand with him” to keep him from escaping.
Stoughton noted that courtroom security officers mostly have less experience in this kind of physical confrontation than regular police do.
In an interview with a French radio station, the victim’s mother, Julie Bertrand, said Thursday that her son is improving in the Hull hospital.
“He is stable. Everything is going well,” she said.
He felt cold and appeared pale Wednesday but now looks more pink and is warmer as well, she said. “They say he is going to get through this. He is strong.”
She said the confrontation began when her son wanted to go outside for a cigarette. The courtroom door was open but when he tried to go out the guard told him he could not go, she said. She said her son was defending himself, but was hit with a guard’s baton before the video started.
When the shot was fired “I saw my son all bloody,” she said. “He was still conscious.”
She said she has first aid training and wanted to help him, but she was not allowed to.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
But the court guards let those chances go by, and conflict escalated out of control, says Seth Stoughton, who offered his analysis when reached by this newspaper.
An 18-year-old man, identified as Steven Bertrand by Quebec media, is in the Hôpital de Hull, where Quebec’s police watchdog says he is out of danger. He was shot once in the head Wednesday in a courtroom fight that began at about 1 p.m. when he had just been sentenced to a jail term but wanted to step outside for a smoke first.
Related
A special constable who was also injured in the brawl was described as being in stable condition.
Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendentes, the provincial body charged with investigating incidents involving police, has taken over the investigation, sending eight investigators up to the northern Quebec community.
The BEI’s Esther Tremblay said investigators left the courthouse scene at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday after more than 12 hours on the scene and the inquiry was now seeking witnesses around Maniwaki.
“What I saw in that video was multiple officers in that area, not effectively controlling — physically controlling — the situation,” said Stoughton. He’s a former Tallahassee policeman who teaches criminal law and police policy at the University of South Carolina.
Stoughton points to the periods of time where several court guards are standing back, looking uncertain.
“In this particular case, officers could and should have sought to control the subject’s arms, particularly the one behind the officer’s back that other officers had easy access to.
“They could have approached and sought to get control of the subject’s legs, particularly … the right leg, which again is behind the officer which means other officers have access to it.
“It did not appear, in the little snippet of video that I saw here, that the number of officers on scene were all handling this conflict effectively.”
But Franck Perales, president of the union of special constable in Quebec courthouses, insisted the shooting is a result of understaffing.
“If there had been enough staff, we would not be talking today because the constables would have controlled this individual, handcuffed him and handed him over to prison authorities,” he said in a radio interview.
Stoughton also said there was no effective crowd control.
“There are five officers that look like they are in a relatively small room. That is plenty for one of those five officers, who is not involved in the physical component, to … just back folks up. That is potentially safer and also reduces the stress that the officers who are involved in the physical confrontation are under.
“That’s just part of good teamwork, good co-operative policing. None of this is rocket science.”
He also said the officers only began to help as the two struggling men were jammed in a doorway. That’s a hard place to help, because the doorway is a tight space and other people can’t really do much.
Many police forces get “totally inadequate training on using force as a co-operative group,” he said.
“One officer and one subject — the fight can go in any direction. But when you have three or four officers, there are definitely tactics … that one officer by himself cannot use.
“For example you bring the guy to the ground, and you have one officer controlling his upper body and one officer controlling his lower body.”
In a group, one officer could cause a sharp but non-dangerous pain, such as hitting his leg with a baton, until he gave up. Another approach is to pull his legs out from underneath, and three officers climb on top of him.
“He can’t get up… He might be fighting to get up but he can’t because they are on top of him.”
This group work takes training so that officers don’t get in each others’ way and “so that they don’t just freeze and try to figure out how to deal with this situation.”
There’s usually no single moment that causes a use of force, but rather “multiple exchanges back and forth between the subject and the officer. And things can go bad at any one of those iterations,” he said.
An officer’s starting approach is one key, he says. Stoughton does a classroom exercise: He asks students to help him with a silly exercise, if they don’t mind. When he asks this way, he can get them to stand on one foot, imitate Batman, and more. When he shouts at them to stand up, they won’t co-operate.
“It’s not what I’m asking them to do, it’s how I’m asking them to do it … A demand for compliance can be quite off-putting. It can create resistance.”
In the Maniwaki situation, just talking gently with the young man might potentially have defused the situation from the start, he believes. (The video doesn’t show how the confrontation began.)
Once there is a conflict, it’s still possible to “de-escalate,” he said.
“De-escalation might be bending or compromising in some way” — offering the man a chance to have a smoke later even though he can’t have it right away.
“At that point you take a tense encounter and try to reduce the tension. And sometimes de-escalation means taking a step back,” either physically backing away or letting the man get something he wants.
“Why not let the guy go outside and smoke? Is there actually a rule to say no you can’t do that? … Maybe go outside and stand with him” to keep him from escaping.
Stoughton noted that courtroom security officers mostly have less experience in this kind of physical confrontation than regular police do.
In an interview with a French radio station, the victim’s mother, Julie Bertrand, said Thursday that her son is improving in the Hull hospital.
“He is stable. Everything is going well,” she said.
He felt cold and appeared pale Wednesday but now looks more pink and is warmer as well, she said. “They say he is going to get through this. He is strong.”
She said the confrontation began when her son wanted to go outside for a cigarette. The courtroom door was open but when he tried to go out the guard told him he could not go, she said. She said her son was defending himself, but was hit with a guard’s baton before the video started.
When the shot was fired “I saw my son all bloody,” she said. “He was still conscious.”
She said she has first aid training and wanted to help him, but she was not allowed to.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
