Thursday, March 06, 2008

Charges Dropped Against Rally Organizer

Pete McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM

A second man charged after a clash with authorities at a Vernon peace rally last summer, won't have to face criminal charges. The Crown has agreed to drop a charge of obstructing a peace officer against Neil Magnuson, providing he makes a $250 donation to a local charity. Crown counsel Howard Pontious expects the actual stay of proceedings will be entered in court March 12. A similar charge against co-organizer Jack Elliman was dealt with the same way two months ago. Magnuson tells KISS FM, the whole case was ridiculous and he's planning a civil suit against a city bylaw officer, and the RCMP. "That was something that seems to be happening far too much in our society here in Canada these days, the law enforcement people using far more force than they should in trying to bring peace to a situation." Magnuson was pepper sprayed during the incident last August in Polson Park, which was sparked by a parking violation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

An utter disgrace that two individuals were assaulted by police officers and a bylaw officer- pepper sprayed and handcuffed!!
No one deserves such thuggish treatment for a traffic infraction!!

I hope that Magnusson takes that bylaw officer to court and that she gets fired by city hired as our employees

The citizens of Vernon are not going to allow their city to turn into a police state

People entrusted with applying laws and bylaws need to understand that they operate under the law and the civilian authority entrusted to council by the taxpayers

They are not going to be allowed to behave as a law unto themselves