Courage and Character

Glad I'm a woman. Would have to think twice about being happy if I were a black woman, though. As though being a woman isn't enough of a punishment in a male-centered world. I remember when I was a young girl - and that was an awfully long time ago - wondering what it would be like to be a boy, and then making an effort to walk like a boy, and to be tough like a boy. It felt good for a while, and then it got boring and I missed being a girl so I reverted to femaledom.

Only a few years later I met a boy, was friends with him for years, and still am. Wish all men were like him. But then, if they were, what would make him so outstandingly different to me? People are imbued with their own idiosyncrasies, their inborn and inherited and nurtured and acquired characteristics. And biases, and perspectives. And talents and propensities. And then there's the darker side of character; those who are sociopaths, for example.

Those are the kinds of people - either male or female - that should be kept out of certain professions. Especially those who slop over from sociopathy into psychopathy. They make life a misery for everyone else. They're the bullies on the block, in the schoolyard, at the workplace. And although their humanity is often called into question, as long as they don't slip over the edge into the infliction of violence upon others, they take their place in society.

One might think that police forces have good reason to be especially vigilant that they do not afford entry to these types of personalities within their ranks. But one also supposes that it is not always readily apparent when screening appropriate candidates, to distinguish personalities that may at some future date unleash their venomous attitudes and physical abuse on the public.

Stacy Bonds, a 27-year-old woman on her way home on foot from a late-night party, was accosted by Ottawa police in 2008. A lone woman out walking alone in the wee hours of the morning might be encouraged to see police in evidence, assuring her safety. But these police had other thoughts; they stopped her to determine whether there was anything amiss about her being there; whether she posed some kind of threat.

Just a young woman walking on her own on Rideau Street, a main downtown Ottawa thoroughfare, on her way home. She identified herself, they ran her name, found nothing untoward and indicated she could proceed. She had the audacity to back up and ask why they had stopped her to begin with. Authority does not take well to being questioned. They arrested her. For public intoxication.

Took her in to the police station, where she was exposed to a scenario straight out of a Kafka novel. None of it made any sense, which was probably what made it all the more terrifying. She was physically manhandled, and sexually probed. The only time she attempted to defend herself was when a male officer slide his hand inside her pants toward her inner thigh.

And that's when she was slammed to the floor, her shirt and bra cut off her body, and after another few physical slugs for good measure, left in a prison cell half naked for almost four hours. That certainly taught her a lesson. Uppity young black women go around assuming police are there to ensure their security at their own risk.

Her human rights were violated, she was humiliated and left to wonder what kind of world she inhabited and had taken for granted. And she was charged with public drunkenness and assaulting a police officer. The public prosecutor was adamant that she was charged for good reason, even though a video was available illuminating the entire disgraceful scenario.

The charges against her were put into intelligent focus by Justice Richard Lajoie, who reached the conclusion that she had been assaulted, her dignity abraded unconscionably, and there was no justice in this young woman having had to undergo such a dreadful ordeal. If adversity is good for building character, it looks as though Stacy Bonds has an abundance of super-charged character.

Leaving Ottawa Police Chief Vern White with a deplorable mess he will have to clear up. Clearly, the offending police officers, particularly Sgt. Steve Desjourdy who has been seriously implicated in previous human rights offences against women, has no place on the Ottawa police force.