Comments on: Toronto cop who arrested drunk-driving off-duty officer harassed by co-workers

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:09:00 +0000

You can tell it’s Canada because the cop who wasn’t driving drunk kept his job.

By: Anon_Mahna

Anon_Mahna — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:09:00 +0000

Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men.. /Special Agent Dinozzo

By: ScytheNoire

ScytheNoire — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 02:53:00 +0000

Toronto Police Department is the most corrupt in Canada. It’s needs a house cleaning.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:57:00 +0000

Only if someone goes to the effort of actually making a report and following up on it.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:54:00 +0000

You pay taxes. Your elected leaders make these decisions for you. They tend to react when you point out they can be recalled or voted out of office.
All it takes it showing the corruption in the system to the public, and getting them motivated.
Millions vote for American Idol, a cop breaks the law and its covered up should be just as important to people.

By: Jeremy Eades

Jeremy Eades — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 01:29:00 +0000

Or raspberries. Man, those things go off quick.

By: Sigmund_Jung

Sigmund_Jung — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:22:00 +0000

Besides that:

“Last year, Little pleaded guilty to one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act.Little chose “to disregard his professional obligations and embark on a course of retaliatory action against a colleague performing his sworn, lawful duty,” Supt. Robin Breen wrote in his ruling.”It seems the system supports Vanderburgh.

By: Ryan Lenethen

Ryan Lenethen — Thu, 31 May 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Not to take away from what he did but I think one of the important facts here was the guy was a rookie cop.

Which tells me they are training them right, but once hired, the system, or the job, changes them from doing the right thing, to something else.

Maybe he isn’t so much a good cop, only that hasn’t turned into a bad cop yet.

Anyway I know I am being pretty pessimistic here, but really just like a DUI should not be tolerated, but harassment for doing the right thing is just as abhorrent, and should be hammered.

I know I have had nothing but good experiences with cops (other than when they want to give me speeding tickets, but I don’t begrudge that really), and I have known a bunch, and they all seems like pretty stand up people. I’ve also heard that the job itself over time can really change some people (with all the BS, much of it repetitive, that they have to deal with).

By: bjohndook

bjohndook — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:58:00 +0000

You say this like a normal “regular” person wouldn’t harass and intimidate the new guy that rats on their co-worker of X years, and get away with it. ( I think they would. )

By: dlelash

dlelash — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:46:00 +0000

May I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no cannibalism in the British Navy. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new ratings are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find toothmarks at all anywhere on their bodies, they’re to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up. And, finally, necrophilia is right out.

By: Lexica

Lexica — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:31:00 +0000

People have forgotten that the full saying is “One bad apple will rot the whole barrel.” As you say, if there’s a bad apple you need to get rid of it, ASAP.

By: miasm

miasm — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:06:00 +0000

yp.
“We must destroy our public image in order to protect it!”

By: Rich Keller

Rich Keller — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:49:00 +0000

An uncle of mine had been in a street gang and eventually became a police detective. Basically, he just switched colors.

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:16:00 +0000

Sounds fair to me; if I am caught breaking the law the police will dock me a few days’ pay, right?

By: Matt Popke

Matt Popke — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:08:00 +0000

It’s easy to focus on the negative aspects of this story, the corruption and collusion of “bad cops”. But let’s take a moment to celebrate the good part of this story. I am not Canadian, but I’d still like to thank Andrew Vanderburgh for doing the right thing. I hope that Constable Vanderburgh remains strong and principled. I hope that he remains a member of the police force. I hope that the constant harrassment from his peers does not drive him out of his position. And I hope that the public’s perceptions of police as thugs and bullies does not also drive him out of the force.

It must be very hard to be an honest cop when everyone thinks you’re a thug. The dishonest cops think you’re a thug because you “turned” on one of them. The citizens think you’re a thug because of the uniform you wear and the fact that they don’t know you are the one guy who stood up for the right thing. You just look like another cop to them.

What a thankless position to be in. I doubt he’ll ever read this, but I’d like to thank him anyway. Hopefully someone in Toronto will too.

By: Westfakia

Westfakia — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:03:00 +0000

I am comforted slightly by the fact that at least the Halton cop had his car impounded for a few days after he failed the breathalyzer. That’s a mandatory outcome of “blowing over” in Ontario, though it wasn’t mentioned in the report.

Normally I am against punishing people for crimes without due process… There is also a mandatory impound law associated with Ontario’s street racing and “Stunting” legislation, which includes a large fine as well. Cops charge someone they don’t like, take their car for a week and then a very large percentage of cases are later lost in court because they should not have been charged under that law in the first place.

But in the case of a DUI, I can see the wisdom in it, no question.

By: Manuel Smirnoff

Manuel Smirnoff — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:45:00 +0000

“Maybe just maybe if we held them more accountable than we do now, or even on par with “regular” people we could get change.”

The problem is that “we” don’t get a chance at all to do this–they have their own private “legal” system, Internal Affairs, whose job is to sweep stuff like this under the rug and protect the bad majority. It’s exactly like criminals having their own separate court system. It’s a joke, and we’re the victims.

It’s a scam, and no one asks us what we think. Just this once, the system worked the way it’s advertised–one can only imagine what went on behind the scenes for that to happen!!

By: Upbeat99

Upbeat99 — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:12:00 +0000

They’re a legal gang here in Tampa Bay. Same process, complaints ignored, evidence lost, rule by intimidation. No surprise there is a strong “No Snitch” code here and a very high loss of officers. Sadly it appears they were very good officers.

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:22:00 +0000

One suspects that prosecutors, DAs, and the like know that meeting the ‘scumbag menaces taken off the street’ quota required to eventually run for elected office is so much easier when you maintain good relations with the police…

By: realityhater

realityhater — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:22:00 +0000

Finally an officer of the law that takes the job of PUBLIC SAFETY seriously – too bad he’s in Canada……

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:14:00 +0000

As a naval officer I abhor the implication that the Royal Navy is a haven for cannibalism. It is well known that we have the problem relatively under control, and that it is the RAF who now suffer the largest casualties in this area.

By: Westfakia

Westfakia — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:54:00 +0000

The Star neglected to mention that the Halton cop is going to get off Scott free, thanks to the unreasonable delay in due process. Come February the case will be thrown out, and he will have no record of the incident.

I know this is the case, having been subpoenaed as a witness to a DUI case where the same thing occurred. Somehow case records were misfiled TWICE and the subpoena was never issued until 9 months after the incident. 4 months later I show up in court, and the case is promptly thrown out for undue delay.

These guys know how to play the system, that’s for sure.

By: Roger Green

Roger Green — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:36:00 +0000

I assumed it was “A Few Good Men.”

By: Glen Able

Glen Able — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:13:00 +0000

This story with its “No snitching!” message kinda helps to paint the cops as just another gang.

By: edgarhjelte

edgarhjelte — Thu, 31 May 2012 09:42:00 +0000

Make the shit visible and show support for the good cops. The internets will improve things, but it’s a slow process.

By: James Watson Pollock

James Watson Pollock — Thu, 31 May 2012 09:20:00 +0000

Is sociopathy a Job prerequisite? At least one psychologist has noted striking personality similarities between cops and career criminals.

By: TheMudshark

TheMudshark — Thu, 31 May 2012 08:37:00 +0000

There is a normal cop out there, it´s just all the bad apples that make him look good.

By: Shinkuhadoken

Shinkuhadoken — Thu, 31 May 2012 08:13:00 +0000

It’s true what they say: No good deed goes unpunished.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:03:00 +0000

only costs 10 vacation days to pepperspray women inside a containment fence who are unarmed and following police instructions.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Thu, 31 May 2012 07:02:00 +0000

The whole “brotherhood” mentality run amok.
There are assholes in every subset of society, it is how that subset deals with them.
With police it has devolved to an Us vs Them mentality, where if a cop does something wrong they close ranks to protect the public image… but the truth is every time they do that they add to the reasons no one respects or trusts them anymore.
The people charged with upholding the law need to meet and exceed the same rules everyone else is supposed to follow.
A cop drunk driving needs to face the same treatment as everyone else. It might be a 1 time thing (we all make stupid mistakes sometimes) or it might be a sign of something more serious. But to try and coverup the event, and refuse to uphold the law because of who committed the crime destroys faith in the system.