This is the true story of Alan Benton, formerly of the Toronto Police, and how he knowingly destroyed the life of an innocent man in order to protect himself from a traffic violation. First of all it should be noted that in the Constitution Act 1982,
under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, all Canadians are granted the
right to freedom of speech, and that right includes the right to freedom
of the press. The constitution is the cornerstone upon which every law
is based, and therefore no law, article of due process, corporate
policy, or even contractual agreement which contradicts the constitution
is enforceable. I have absolutely, the right to publish this story
including the names of everyone involved. Any attempt to block, or to
remove this story from this site will be seen as an attack on my
constitutional rights and will be dealt with accordingly.
On July 26, 1996, I was riding my bicycle in “The
Critical Mass” which still happens monthly to this day. It was early on
in the life of the Critical mass, it had only been happening monthly in
Toronto for about 3 years at that time, and the police still claimed to
be unaware of it. These rides were happening at the time to gently
protest the Toronto Police’s unwillingness to enforce the many laws
which exist to ensure cyclist safety, and to make a statement to
motorists, that we are here and are traffic too. The ride had a cheerful
and positive energy and the riders were looking forward to having fun.
As I am sure you know, the Critical Mass is always a pleasant and
peaceful event.
In this particular ride there were approximately
300 cyclists. We had been riding for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, when we
came to the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Sts. At that intersection
many of the cyclists decided to “cork” the intersection, by riding
around in circles in the middle of the intersection, thereby stopping
traffic in all directions. I did not participate in this activity, as my
brother is a police officer who, at that time, was with the Town of
Collingwood Police, and as such, I did not feel it was appropriate for
me to participate. Instead, I stopped my bike by the side of the road,
on the north east corner of the intersection, in front of the Hudson’s
Bay Tower, and waited until the “corking” was over and a new direction
for the ride was established. The corking never lasts long, it is only
done briefly to make a quick point and not to interfere with traffic
very much.
Once the cyclists stopped corking and began moving
again, the new direction was southbound down Yonge Street. As I had
been waiting at the north side of the intersection, I obviously ended up
at the back of the pack of cyclists as we collectively travelled
southbound, using up both southbound lanes, ringing our bells in unison.
We were not breaking any laws in doing so, in Canada we do have the
right to peaceful protest, and the purpose of the event is merely to
point out that we are traffic too. We remained in the southbound lanes
only, but took them up entirely as there were so many of us. While we
continued to travel south, there was suddenly a police car behind us
making that quacking sound a police car can make that is not a siren,
right behind me. It was moving fairly quickly, and we all had to get out
of the way in order to not be hit. No lights were flashing that I
noticed, but again the car was behind me. I tried to get out of the way,
but there were other cyclists in my way so I was unable to move over in
time when the police car HIT ME from behind. The sound of all the
bicycle bells jingling had been sufficiently loud enough to drown out
the sound of the police car. None of us heard it coming. About 4 seconds
before the collision someone shouted that a police car was coming. We
were scrambling to get out of the way, but due to the sheer number of
us, I was unable, there were other bikes in my way.
I was almost knocked from my bike, but I managed
to stay up, the car stopped and I put my feet down. Now the car was
beside me, he had hit me with the front right corner of the car, due to
the fact that I was actively attempting to get out of the way. I shouted
obscenities in the open passenger window of the car, and then I
attempted to resume the ride. But I could barely go, the back axle of my
bike was broken, and the rear fender was folded up binding against the
tire, and now resembled an accordion. (I also got whiplash from this)
The police officer driving the car, jumped out of
the car, ran up to me and tackled me from my bike, pulling me onto the
ground and ripping my shirt almost in half, Then he slammed me down
against the hood of the car, handcuffed me and forcefully shoved me into
the back seat of the cruiser amid shocks of horror from the crowd. A
new film (ironically) “Supercop” was opening that day and there was a
crowd of two hundred people, lined up on Yonge Street in front of the
Uptown Theatre waiting to see it, who also all witnessed the incident.
[Combined with the (aprox.) 300 cyclists, there were (aprox.) 500 people
present at the time of the incident] few of the cyclists saw this
happen though as they were all in front of me and were still blissfully
jingling their bells, oblivious to the rogue police car, but word spread
though the crowd like wildfire. There were however a few witnesses, one
of whom I am still in contact with today. I am also still in contact
with several people who were in the ride and remember the atmosphere of
joy and how it was quickly disrupted.
Cyclists and movie goers alike were horrified by
this event and a small riot broke out. Some people were surfing my
mangled bike in the air over their heads while shouting for my release.
Others were rocking the police car back and forth trying to overturn it,
with me inside. (I remember being both pleased by this show of support
and also afraid that if they did manage to roll the car over with me
inside of it, I would not be able to brace myself as I was handcuffed
and not wearing a seat belt.) Hundreds of people were booing and
shouting at the police. Officer Benton, had single handedly, taken a
peaceful event and turned it into a riot. Is that what Toronto Police
are trained to do? I thought they were meant to keep the peace.
Apparently, so he claimed afterward, he was angry because he had been
stopped in the traffic, 3or 4 cars back from the intersection, caused by
the cyclists who were corking the intersection. In other words, he had
road rage. Once traffic was moving again, he chose to deal with his
anger by using the cruiser as a battering ram against the crowd of
cyclists. He is lucky nobody was killed. Ironically if the police had
actually been willing to enforce the laws which are there for cyclist
safety, (i.e. charging motorists who violate cyclist safety) none of
this would have happened. Critical Mass began because of a need by
cyclists to be seen, heard and respected.
After I was arrested, a second police car showed
up from the south and stopped on an angle blocking off the entire
street. Hundreds of people were shouting. One man, Joao Rolo, was in the
crowd innocently standing beside his bike watching the turn of events.
He was not involved in the rioting in any way. A police officer from the
other car went up to him and him alone, and told him to get off the
road. He moved over, but was unable to go far, because there were so
many other people around, and the police car angle parked across the
roadway blocking all traffic. He made it to the edge of the road, but
the police officer followed him and again told him to get off the road.
(He did not tell anyone else to get off the road, only Joao.) At this
point Joao asked, “Why?”
The police officer grabbed him and threw him onto
the back of the car I was in, (I witnessed this) handcuffed him, and put
him into the second police car which was angle parked across the
roadway, blocking the street. The charge against Joao was, blocking
traffic. The only one blocking traffic was the police themselves.
Northbound traffic had continued to flow freely until the second police
car had come along and angle parked across the centre of the roadway
thereby blocking all traffic in all directions. Southbound traffic had
been flowing too, albeit, at the reduced speed of the crowd of cyclists,
until officer Benton created the riot. The traffic obstruction was
entirely the fault of the police.
I was brought to 52 Division, strip searched, and
placed in a holding cell where I was kept in the cold, without food,
water, or even the ability to pee from 7:00 pm till 11:30pm. My shirt
was also half torn off of me. Why was it so cold in there? How come
no-one brought me any supper?
I can remember needing to pee. I had been left
alone in there for a long time. I could hear conversations on the other
side of the door clearly. (One even commented about my shirt in a
mocking way like I had intended to go out in a shirt which was nearly
torn in half.) I began to knock on the door. My knocks were ignored.
Eventually I began knocking louder, after a while someone on the other
side of the door, said, “He is knocking, should we answer him?” and the
other person said, “Just ignore him”. At this point I turned around
backward and began to boot my heel against the door as hard as I could.
After about 30 seconds of pounding and probably 20 minutes in total
since I first began knocking, they finally yelled through door all angry
with me for my rudeness. I said, “I have to pee! If you don’t open this
door and take me to the washroom by the time I count to 10, I am going
to pee under it!” Then I began counting… By the time I reached 6 the
door was opened by a very angry officer who was intent on intimidating
me. He tried to tell me that no one could hear me knocking. I said,
“Don’t lie to me!!! I can hear every word you say out there!!! If I can
hear you, then there is no reason that you can’t hear me!” He told me to
wait a minute and someone would come to help me. Interestingly it was
Officer Benton who came. Strangely, he had been the one playing “Good
Cop” in the good cop/bad cop ritual all along and yet, he is the one who
hit me.
While I was in the holding cell, occasionally a
cop would come in and be nothing short of mean to me, talking down to me
and intimidating me, like he was intentionally trying to make me
angry,then a few minutes later another “good cop” usually officer Benton
himself, would come in and be all nice to me.This happened continually
for the first hour or 2 of my holding, and continued at a diminished
rate during the remainder of my time there.
Eventually I got to go home, but I had been
treated really badly, most of the cops were rude, unnecessarily
forceful, and intimidating to me. The reason that they had left me in
the holding cell for so long, I later found out, was because a couple
hundred of the cyclists and moviegoers who had seen this had all
followed the police car to 52 Division and were holding an impromptu
demonstration outside the station for my release. In the Toronto
Police’s ultimate arrogance, instead of realizing and accepting that the
people were right and letting me go, the Police had decided to show a
strong force of solidarity and not release me at all until the last of
the people had left. This is probably why they were so hard on me
throughout the entire time, They are afraid that if they actually admit
wrongdoing in a situation like that then people might stop respecting
them, when the exact opposite is true. They made many people disrespect
all of them forevermore, that evening, including me;
It takes a lot of bravery to admit you are wrong
and to make amends. To do so is highly honourable. I guess it can be
concluded that few of the Toronto Police have that kind of bravery or
honour. And then they wonder why they are not respected, and why their
jobs are so much more difficult than necessary. Toronto Police treat
people like shit as a general rule. (The G20 last summer was proof of
this, it was not new behaviour,but rather a concentration of typical
behaviour, which by its concentration became more obvious to the average
person.)
After I was released, I had to face the serious
embarrassment of being on the front page of the Toronto Star the next
morning. My grandmother called me at 7:30 in the morning and asked, “Is
this you?” Later that day, I got a phone call from someone who had
witnessed the entire event, saying he wanted to meet with me. As a
result of that meeting, the advocacy group, ARC (Advocates for Respect
for Cyclists) was formed. They have become a powerful force in this city
providing legal guidance and financial assistance to cyclists like me
who are wrongfully arrested. And still exist to this day. (Something
good came out of it)
The charges against me were; Failure to Stop (for
what?), and Mischief Under. The cop claimed that I had “approached the
police car while kicking it”. This was absolutely not true. No kicking
had happened at all, from anyone. I have the original synopsis of events
written by the police the day in question and it is so full of lies
that it doesn’t even make sense. They are trying to say that when they first approached us, we had been a violent and angry mob of cyclists.It
was Critical mass, critical mass is never violent or angry; it is a fun
happy event to promote bicycle awareness which continues to happen
monthly In Toronto, and most major cities, on every continent,in the
entire world. They also say that we were continuing to circle Yonge
Street, while riding southbound, blocking all north and southbound
lanes. Say What? How is it that we were circling Yonge Street and
riding southbound at the same time? That is not even possible. I think
that speaks volumes, as being a falsehood. Even if it were possible, it
was Critical Mass; Critical Mass is about being “traffic”, not about
being a public nuisance. Even though they do “cork” intersections at
times, that is a relatively benign inconvenience to traffic at best. I
also did not condone or participate in the corking. If the entire ride
was about being a nuisance, I would not have taken part in
it.Furthermore, how is it even possible to kick a car while riding a
bike, especially a car which approaches the cyclist from behind? The
entire synopsis is nothing but fabrications like that, which are not
even physically possible.
Critical Mass, (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically
held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the
world. While the ride was originally founded in 1992 in San Francisco
with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to
cyclists, the leaderless structure of Critical Mass makes it impossible
to assign it any one specific goal. In fact, the purpose of Critical
Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set
location and time and traveling as a group through city or town streets
on bikes
Critical Mass rides have been perceived by some
as protest activities. However, Critical Mass participants agree that
these events should be viewed as “celebrations” and spontaneous
gatherings, and not as protests or organized demonstrations.
Critical Mass differs from many other social
movements in its rhizomal (rather than hierarchical) structure. Critical
Mass is sometimes called an “organized coincidence”, with no leadership
or membership. The routes of some rides are decided spontaneously by
whomever is currently at the front of the ride, others are decided prior
to the ride by a popular vote of suggested routes often drawn up on
photocopied flyers. The term xerocracy was coined to describe a process
by which the route for a Critical Mass can be decided: anyone who has an
opinion makes their own map and distributes it to the cyclists
participating in the Mass. Still other rides decide the route by
consensus. The “disorganized” nature of the event allows it to largely
escape clampdown by authorities who may view the rides as forms of
parades or organized protest. Additionally, the movement is free from
the structural costs associated with a centralized, hierarchical
organization. In order for the event to function, the only requirement
is a sufficient turn-out to create a “critical mass” of riders dense
enough to occupy a piece of road to the exclusion of drivers of
motorized vehicles. (Never the entire road though, but only the lanes
which go in the direction of the rides travel)
Because Critical Mass takes place without an
official route or sanction, participants in some cities have sometimes
practiced a tactic known as “corking” in order to maintain the cohesion
of the group. This tactic consists of a few riders blocking traffic from
side roads so that the mass can freely proceed through red lights
without interruption. Corking allows the mass to engage in a variety of
activities, such as forming a cyclone, lifting their bikes in a
tradition known as a “Bike Lift” (in Chicago this is referred to as a
Chicago hold-up), or to perform a “die-in” where riders lie on the
ground with their bikes to symbolize cyclist deaths and injuries caused
by automobiles, very popular in Montreal. The ‘Corks’ sometimes take
advantage of their time corking to distribute flyers.
Critics argue that the practice of corking
roads in order to pass through red lights as a group is contrary to
Critical Mass’ claim that “we are traffic”, since ordinary traffic
(including bicycle traffic) does not usually have the right to go
through intersections once the traffic signal has changed to red.
Corking has sometimes led to hostility between motorists and riders,
even erupting into violence and arrests of motorists and cyclists alike
during Critical Mass rides.
Critical Mass rides have generated considerable
controversy and public opposition. Some critics claim that Critical
Mass is a deliberate attempt to obstruct traffic and disrupt normal city
functions, asserting that individuals taking part refuse to obey
traffic laws. Altercations with police and motorists have occurred.
(Riders ascertain that the only reason those individuals are upset is
because they and the Police, do not accept that the road is as much for
bikes as it is for cars. As such this opposition merely encourages the
rides to continue.)
Some bicycling advocacy groups have expressed
concern that the “subversive” nature of Critical Mass and altercations
with motorists could weaken public support for bicyclists. The San
Francisco Bicycle Coalition credits Critical Mass with spotlighting
bicycle issues and aiding their efforts in advocating for cyclists.
Later I had to go for the set date for my trial.
They kept giving me set date after set date after set date. They would
set a set date simply to set another set date, etc. This game went on
for many months. I had to keep taking time off of work for these phoney
set dates only to be given yet another set date, (working as a Freelance
Graphic Designer as I was at the time,this resulted in the loss of many
“gigs”so one set date could result in the loss of a week or even a
month of work.) One time I asked why I was only getting another set date
and the judge said, “We never set dates on a Friday”; meanwhile, my new
set date was also set for a Friday. Always was the threat that if I did
not show up each time, I would be charged. What was that harassment
about? That judge came very close to having a complaint filed against
her with the Law Society of Upper Canada.
When my lawyer, Brenda Nichols, had her first
meeting with the crown attorney, she was offered a plea bargain. I had
filed a complaint against PC Benton. The crown attorney offered that if I
dropped the complaint, the charges would be dropped against me. This
confused my lawyer as the 2 things are not supposed to have anything to
do with each other, but whatever, this was the offer on the table, and
so under my lawyer’s insistence and against my better judgement, I
dropped the complaint.
Once the complaint was dropped, the Crown,
represented now by a different lawyer, said that the first lawyer had no
right offering such a bargain, and refused to hold up their end of the
deal, excusing it by saying the first lawyer for the crown, was young
and inexperienced. I had been coerced into dropping the complaint
against the police officer. Once a complaint has been dropped it cannot
be re-instated. I would not be at all surprised to find that some
arrangement had been met between the police officer and the first crown
attorney.
During this time, I was working in a career as a
freelance Graphic Designer. The stress and anger from this incident, and
the lost work from all the bogus set dates, affected my career so badly
that I lost all of my clients, and freelance agents. I had learned that
there was the possibility of 4 years in prison because the alleged
attack was against police property (the car) and attacks such as that
against police property always get higher sentences. No-one had kicked
the police car though, or anything else. This was all made up by some
cops who were trying to cover up for a mistake (road rage) made by one
of their own. I was completely innocent. I had learned that the cop, PC
Alan Benton (3773), had a perfect record and as such had a high position
and (allegedly) taught classes at the Police Academy in Aylmer. (I’m
not sure if the teaching part is true, but I did hear that somewhere) He
had a huge reputation to protect and was doing his utmost to protect it
no matter how badly he hurt me. He knew he was in the wrong for hitting
me with his car, and it might have affected his career badly. I can’t
help but wonder which is worse:Hitting me and owning up to it, or what
he actually did. I can tell you, if he had owned up to it at the time, I
would have forgiven him. Everybody makes mistakes. It is his inability
to own up to it that caused so much harm to me, and why you are reading
this now, 17 years later.
PC Benton’s partner was PC Denise Williamson
(4648), (no longer with the force) she kept herself uninvolved from the
proceedings, but she didn’t try to bring any real justice either. She
just let PC Benton do whatever he wanted and hardly said a word herself.
This makes her guilty by way of her non-action.
I became depressed and filled with despair. I was
naive I guess. I could not believe that something so horrible could
happen to someone who was completely innocent. This is Canada after all.
I was raised to believe that Canada is the best country in the world,
and to know how lucky I was to have been born here; that the Police are
there to do good by helping good people. Now I was horrified to find out
the truth. I could not help but think about all the innocent people who
were rotting in prisons around the world, and worse, right here in
Canada. I felt unified with them and my heart went out to all of them. I
felt betrayed by all I believed to be good in this world, I wanted to
die; I could not live in a world where such terrible things happen to
innocent people. What I didn’t realize was that I had developed a severe
case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
Post traumatic Stress Disorder, (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder
that can develop after exposure to one or more traumatic events that
threatened or caused grave physical harm. It is a severe and ongoing
emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma.
This stressor may involve someone’s actual death, a threat to the
patient’s or someone else’s life, serious physical injury, an unwanted
sexual act, or a threat to physical or psychological integrity,
overwhelming psychological defences.
In some cases it can also be from profound
psychological and emotional trauma, apart from any actual physical harm.
Often, however, incidents involving both things are found to be the
cause.
PTSD is a condition distinct from traumatic stress, which has less intensity and duration, and combat stress reaction, which is transitory. PTSD has also been recognized in the past as railway spine, stress syndrome, shell shock, battle fatigue, traumatic war neurosis, or post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS).
Diagnostic symptoms include re-experience such
as flashbacks and nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the
trauma, increased arousal such as difficulty falling or staying asleep,
anger and hyper-vigilance. Per definition, the symptoms last more than
six months and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or
other important areas of functioning (e.g. problems with work and
relationships.)
I was so traumatized by the experience,
disillusionment that an organization I had been raised to believe in as
good and to always be respected, had been found to be so corrupt as to
be willing to send an innocent person to jail simply to cover up for the
poor judgement of one of its officers. That was too much for me to deal
with, along with the simple injustice of it all; I was innocent of all
of this that was happening to me. “How dare he press charges against me,
I didn’t do anything wrong!” I now understand why so many people
mistrust the police, and I totally see how such behaviour from the few
make the jobs of the many so much more difficult. Since that time I do
not trust any Toronto Police officer and consider them all to be
corrupt. I feel safer that way, at least that way I am not placing trust
in someone who could potentially not be trustworthy. And if they are
trustworthy, well too bad, so sad, I have no way of telling them apart,
best to simply assume them all to be corrupt. I’m sure all of their jobs
would be way easier if more people trusted them, but it is easy to see
why so many don’t.
All of this trauma had me so angry about
injustice, that I became a very angry person, I would yell at anyone for
the slightest injustice. Store clerks, waiters, people blocking
escalators, and even my clients, bosses and freelance agents, no-one was
exempt from my PTSD induced wrath. As you can see, this made it very
difficult to keep employment, or even friends and relationships. This
made me so financially poor that I lost my home and became homeless. I
slept on sidewalks and in parks. My entire life fell to pieces as a
result of the actions of Officer Benton. The anger however was the only
thing that kept me going and kept me from killing myself. It gave me a
purpose, and I was vigilant in it. It became a mask for the deeper
despair I had from it all.
I remember the trial of Joao Rolo, where we had a
dozen witnesses as to his innocence, but the police brought in a few
witnesses, who strangely, no-one even remembered as having been there at
the time. They all gave identical stories of Joao’s guilt and the Judge
chose to believe the cops over the witnesses. This was a judge with a
reputation for always siding with the police no matter what the
circumstances. He was clearly biased in placing his sentence against
Joao. He said that Joao was “guilty of preventing motorists from their
‘right’ of driving their cars”, (that is not a right, it is a
privilege). After that joke of a trial, I was even angrier than before,
because I was even more terrified than before. (Later, Joao Rolo, won a
appeal with a different judge, however the entire experience cost him a
lot too. He no longer resides in Canada, having returned to his native
Portugal)
When my own trial came, my brother and father
drove down from Collingwood, to show support for me. When we arrived
outside the courtroom in Old City Hall, there were 6 uniformed Toronto
Police officers waiting there to be witnesses. (Funny, there were only 2
cops in the car that hit me, and 2 more in a second car which showed up
after my arrest, but 6 here as witnesses? That’s pretty funny.)
The other officers were, Det. James MacKrell
(6909), P/C Paul VanSeters (2439), PC Phillip Chung (4096), and PC
Adelio Alamag (89). None of these four were present at the time of the
incident, or my arrest; however the last 2, Chung and Alamag, are
credited with my arrest along with PC Benton, I assume that they are the
officers who were in the second car which arrived after I was already
arrested. D/C VanSeters, is credited as the investigator; I think this
means that he played the role of “Bad Cop”, but I am not entirely sure.
All I know is that none of these cops were there at the time and yet
here they were as witnesses. I have no idea who this Det.
MacKrell was. Or what role he had in it, if any at all. This suggests to
me that he was prepared to commit purgery.
About 5 minutes before the doors to the courtroom
opened my lawyer Brenda Nichols came up to me with great news. She had
informed the crown attorney that if they did not accept the original
plea bargain, that we would be pressing criminal charges against the
crown for “Improper Procedure” the crown had, under, this new light,
decided to allow the plea bargain as originally offered, and the
mischief charge was going to be dropped, under the provision that I
agree to plead guilty to the lesser traffic offence of “Failure to
Stop”. (Stop for what? there was nothing to stop for. We were in the
middle of the block. This charge was completely made up too, but OK.) So
I did just that, the judge however put the fine for the traffic offence
up to $500.00 and then I had to pay another court fee on top of that. I
was pretty angry about that. After all I had already lost, and all it
had already cost me, to have to pay such a large fine and fee too.
I attempted to contact Officer Benton about a week
after the court date. I wanted to talk to him about what he did to me
and see if I could get him to apologize. Instead I barely got a few
words out of my mouth and he told me that if I contacted him again, he
would make my life very difficult. A threat! Considering how he was so
able to twist what had happened and press false charges against me, I
felt that the only thing I could trust about him was his ability to
manipulate the law in his favour and make anything up in order to
protect himself. Officer Benton is a deceitful intimidating liar and
nothing can be put past him. He cannot be trusted. This was one of the
reasons why I never bothered to do anything about this for so long; I
was afraid of him. The other reason was the PTSD itself.I was so messed
up that I was incapable of attempting to bring these cops to justice.
After that time, I spent 8 years, 1998 to 2006 and
close to $20 000.00 in therapy. I was incapable of holding down any
sort of a job at all during that time. My skills as a Graphic Designer
became very obsolete and I have too much trauma around any of that to
ever work in that field again. I am in need of complete re-training in a
new field. Now that I am over the PTSD, and able to think straight
about it without anger or despair, I am now not qualified for any sort
of work. I am working right now as an Artist Figure Model, but that
can’t be forever. It is only seasonal, so there is no money in it to
re-educate myself in a new career. I have spent the last 5 years trying
to move ahead with my life, but I have no skills to move ahead with.
In consideration of the legal expenses, the lost
work, the fines, the lost home, the therapy, pain and suffering, I have
decided that I need closure, and that the Toronto Police Services, and
the officers involved, owe me. I would like to sue for 1 million dollars
in damages. I believe that this is both reasonable and fair. My goal is
not to hurt anyone, but rather to achieve closure and bring my life to a
level of where it would be now if none of this had happened to me. Alan
Benton, and the other officers who were willing to lie to cover for
him, acted in a very unprofessional manner which has put the reputation
of the Toronto Police Services in jeopardy.I lost my home,my career, and
many thousands of dollars in lost work and therapy. There is also pain
and suffering to consider.
So far as I have been able to find out, there is a
statute of limitations of 5 years on this and I am way over that time.
Considering that I was left psychologically unable to deal with the
issue for all these years, and the threat I was under from Officer
Benton, I don’t believe that this statute is fair. It should be
overlooked in my case, in the same way that rape victims are able to sue
private schools and the Catholic Church often as much as 50 years after
the fact. I have come to serious harm as a result of this incident, and
was prevented from getting the justice I deserve.
I have only recently come to understand that I had
the right to sue, and to no longer be afraid of Officer Benton’s
threats so I could speak out and tell my story. I am also aware that
with proof of psychological conditions having been what prevented me
from pursuing justice within the legal time frame that the statute can
be overlooked.
I have attempted to contact the Toronto Police
Services regarding this issue and request a meeting with Police Chief
William Blair, but as of April 7th 2010, that request has
been met with refusal from Sergeant Chris Blackman (4207) who insists
that (even though I am innocent of all charges and have been forced into
poverty by this issue), I am only allowed to proceed according to due
process through the legal system, at my expense. How wonderfully
convenient for them. It is unfair that I should be prevented from
seeking justice due to financial hardship, especially when my financial
hardship is the fault of the defendants, the Toronto Police and Mr.
Benton. Furthermore; I really don’t feel that the police have the right
to any requirements of process or procedure after what they did to me.
I have sent this to the Ombudsmen at all 3 levels
of government and every political figure I can think of. I just want to
have a comfortable life from now on, I lost my home because of this. My
wish is not to hurt the Toronto Police in any way, but to finally be
able to move my life ahead and stop living in the shadow of this
incredible wrongdoing.
I would be willing to take this to court, but I
require the Toronto Police Services or some other institution to pay for
a lawyer of my choosing and all court expenses, as it is the fault of
the Toronto Police that I am too poor to pay for it myself. It seems
incredibly wrong that he only thing keeping me from garnering justice
for this is the financial burden it created. This would go a long way to
show some level of responsibility on the side of the Toronto Police,
because the provision for me to incur such out of pocket expenses when I
can’t afford to, speaks quite loudly of a conspiracy to keep me from
garnering such restitution. On the one hand they ruined my life, and on
the other they prevent me from doing anything about it.
I have attempted to contact lawyers about this,
but they tell me that I only have a limit of 2 years to launch any
action. That is clearly is unfair considering the magnitude of this and
its serious effect on me. And especially because of the threat I was
under from PC Benton. I was to terrified to do anything.
Today I am back on top of my life,and building a
new career,but it is difficult as I am 50 years old now and am currently
attending college through the second Careers program to finally build
some marketable job skills after more thank one and a half decades of
poverty. I need to be re-educated and I am doing the best I can to
overcome this. It is bad that 17 years later I am still dealing with the
aftershock of this event and even more of a shame that the poverty I
have experienced as a result of this event is the one thing which keeps
me from getting any justice. I can’t afford a lawyer and there is
nothing more I can do in that area. Life is building now to something
wonderful and it is happening because I worked hard to overcome the
harm. And I did it all myself. I am still seeking justice in this event
however and will soon post the latest judicial trauma in my quest for
justice.
Sincerely,
Derek Birch
Alan Benton 3773, is now Sergeant in Forensic Identification Services
James MacKrell 6909, is now Staff Sergeant at 41 Division
Phillip Chung 4096, is now Detective with the Fraud Squad
Adelio Alamag 89, is still a Police Constable with 52 Division
Paul VanSeters 2439, is also still a Police Constable with 52 Division
Denise Williamson 4648, is no longer with the Toronto Police Services and I have been unable to locate her.
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