Bully Cops and Citizen Journalism

Ottawa's Finest?

Bank Street Bully:

An undercover officer,
in his undercover disguise.

As a rule, I don't post links to local issues on my site and in my newsletter because I'd quickly be swamped with requests to link to special local causes from all over Canada.
Sometimes, however, I have to break the rules, even my own.
Even it if doesn't have anything apparently related to Canadian social policy issues.

On December 15, my friend Zoom was "asked" to delete the photos she'd just taken of 3-4 Ottawa police officers standing over an unconscious, bloodied, handcuffed woman on Bank Street in Ottawa. They were waiting for an ambulance to take the woman away, and Zoom heard a few bystanders speaking about the excessive force that one of the officers had apparently used to bring the small woman down to the sidewalk, so she (Z.) snapped a few photos of the scene for her blog. Upon noticing the camera, one of the officers came over to her and aggressively demanded that she not only stop taking photos, but also that she delete those she'd taken, because “I work undercover and I don’t want my picture anywhere.”
She refused.

* Read Zoom's original (Dec. 15) Bank Street Bully posting (+124 comments as of Dec. 20) on Zoom's blog.

* Read Bank Street Bully December 18 update from Zoom

My two reasons for posting these links and the above photo:

1. I don't support police intimidation, and I DO support responsible Citizen journalism.
* Good on you, Zoom!

2. I want to share what I just learned about
My/Your rights as a Canadian photographer

[Gilles]