Is there something in the BC water?

[silverdoctor]

Even security guards are getting violent

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...heelchair.html

Security guards only have the power of citizen's arrest.





CBC News has obtained video of another violent takedown by private undercover security guards, this time at Vancouver’s Pacific Centre Mall.

The shaky cellphone video shows a man who appears to have one leg, in an electric wheelchair, surrounded by three undercover security guards who suspect him of shoplifting.

One of the guards starts swearing, before knocking the man out of his wheelchair with a blow to the head.

"I'll f--kin' throw you on the ground and f--k you up!” the guard is heard saying on the video. “Don't f--k with me ... On the ground! On the ground! On the ground! You're so stupid — on your chest!"

One eyewitness who doesn’t want her name used because she works nearby sent the video to CBC News. She said the incident was witnessed by up to 50 people, many of whom demanded the guards stop and called police.

Doug King of the Pivot Legal Society says even if the suspect was physically resisting arrest, nothing justifies the violent takedown.

“I wouldn’t even call that an arrest — I’d call that an assault,” he said. “There’s nothing in the law that authorizes you to strike somebody like that.”

King says it’s unlikely the guards seen in the video were doing what they were trained to do.

“The language really stands out — it proves that this wasn’t even an arrest, it was an act of violence,” he said.

“It’s an example of when security guards get a little too emotional in situations — just because someone commits a criminal offence, it doesn’t mean they don’t have any rights, and they have the right not to be assaulted by people.”

The B.C. Ministry of Justice has launched an investigation, Minister Shirley Bond said in a statement late Wednesday.

“I have seen the video and I find it very troubling," Bond said. "The investigation will determine if there was any inappropriate action on the part of these security workers."

Bond said there is a range of sanctions available to the registrar of the Security Services Act, "from warnings and violation tickets to license suspension or cancellation."