Disabled man beaten by police

[Dick Tator]

A disabled man says he was beaten on the steps of his rooming house by two Toronto police officers who accused him of being a racist.

“I was scared to hell,” John Moore testified Tuesday.

Consts. John Cruz and Edward Ing pleaded not guilty Tuesday to one count each of assault causing bodily harm.

Moore, who is on disability payments for numerous health problems, testified that he was finishing up a pre-bedtime walk around 10 p.m. on April 24, 2009, when he passed two bicycle police officers dealing with a man on the ground on George St., near Gerrard and Jarvis Sts.

Their bikes were lying on the sidewalk, blocking his way, so he walked around them, he said.

As the 59-year-old former offset printer walked past, he said he commented to the officers: “This used to be a nice area to live in.”

Then he heard the two officers yelling at him. “I said, ‘Are you yelling at me.’ They said, ‘Yes, you are a racist and a motherf----r,’” Moore told Crown prosecutor Philip Perlmutter.

The officers put their hands on their guns and started moving toward him, so he ran for his life to his rooming house, near the corner of George St. and Gerrard St., he said.

He got half way in his door, when his glasses fell off, Moore told provincial court Justice Elliott Allen.

“One of them grabbed me by my hair,” he said. “I was flipped in the air and landed on my right shoulder with my neck bent.”

The officers then kneed and stomped on his head and body for about 10 minutes as he fell in and out of consciousness, Moore testified.

He was bleeding profusely, he said. “I was yelling at them that I had Hep C,” Moore testified, explaining that he was warning them so they would not get infected.

The officers gave him a ticket for public intoxication, he said. But Moore said he took the precaution of asking for a blood test at St. Michael’s Hospital, where he was taken for treatment after the incident, and he was shown to be clear of alcohol. He said he has not drunk alcohol for years.

The charge was withdrawn, court heard.

Defence lawyer David Butt suggested to Moore that he might have taken Temazepam and Amitriptyline — drugs Moore said were prescribed to help him sleep — before the incident.

Moore said he was pretty sure he hadn’t and in any case the drugs didn’t make him dopey or drowsy. “I don’t wobble,” he said.

He said he had a broken finger, and numerous other injuries from the beating. He is suing the officers for $3.35 million.

He denied making any racist comments.

But Ing testified that he and Cruz were dealing with an intoxicated man on George St. when Moore, who was walking by, became inexplicably belligerent and shouting profanities. “He said to me, ‘Rich man’s army. Why don’t you leave him alone?’” Ing testified.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you pick on some real gangsters.’”

Ing said he thought Moore was probably intoxicated and, as the man was walking toward Gerrard St., was in danger of being run over on the busy road.

Ing said he tried to block Moore’s exit to protect him from an accident, but the man ran to a nearby house on Gerrard.

Ing said he felt Moore was losing control and he had no choice but to put him under arrest.

He and Cruz, who have brown skins, struggled to subdue him and tried to tug at his arms to handcuff him as he yelled and screamed racist slurs and profanities, Ing said.

Moore pulled away from the officers and fell, after which the officers landed on him, Ing said. “At no point did we strike or punch the male,” he said.

At one point, Ing said, Moore told him: “I have hepatitis. I hope you and your family get it and you die.”

Under cross-examination by Perlmutter, Ing agreed that he did not report Moore’s case to the Special Investigations Unit, an outside agency that probes cases of serious injuries allegedly caused by police. Ing said he didn’t think the injuries were serious.

Two ambulance workers who tended to Moore testified that he was aggressive, swearing and uttering racist slurs.

“He was threatening,” paramedic Sean Cook testified. “I though he might be intoxicated.”

Paramedic Michael Vocilka concurred, saying Moore called both he and Cook “faggots” at one point. “He was swearing at everybody.”

The trial continues Wednesday.

[Mendoza Line]

Canadians are so violent.

I hope the guy gets his money.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Mendoza Line

Canadians are so violent.

I hope the guy gets his money.

I don't know--seems to me the EMTs backed up the cops' story.