The following is in answer to an email from a reader whose brother's life was taken by two Sheriff's Deputies:

Greetings Kristopher,

What happened to your brother - death by police brutality - is happening to many people in Canada and the United States as we move farther down the road to "1984". You may have read some of my website articles on the subject, thus your reason for sending your story.

COPS WHO KILL BLAME VICTIMS and COP CHARGED FOR TASERING TEEN and COURT GUARDS KILL TEEN and CANADA COPS UNLEASHED and POLICE STATE OF THE UNION and POLICE WATCHDOG WARNS and ANIMAL FARM DOGS

Soon - just as Orwell warned in "1984" - life in our Oceania will be no different than life in Eastasia (China) and Eurasia (Russia after absorbing Europe). See 6.Superstates and 7.Systems of Thought and 38.Cellars and 34.Ministry of Love (Torture).

I notice in the police report you sent (in which I replaced identifying criteria with *asterisks) the police name themselves as "VICTIM" and not your brother. That's a perfect example of Orwellian "doublethink".

And it's also Orwellian the way police (not just in San Diego) give their organization the name "Crime Stoppers" and their telephone number spells out "TIPS". See 21.Crimestop and 20.Thought Police & Snitches.

In Canada recently a police officer shot a 22-year old male in the back of the head after throwing him in jail for having an open can of beer outside a hockey rink. A subsequent investigation - done by the police themselves - found the cop innocent of any offense - claiming he was acting in self defense. He's been transferred to a desk job in another town where he receives full pay. The dead man's parents plan to sue the Attorney General, Solicitor General and Police Department, although they are having every obstacle put in their way, with the government passing it off as "not their responsibility" and hoping to have it settled by yet another police committee.

All the best in pursuing justice for your brother,
Jackie Jura

Cop will appeal getting jail for murder ("If he gets away with it, the jails should be empty. Everyone should go home."). TorontoStar, Sep 27, 2006

Cop gets prison for 1999 manslaughter ("police not above the law"). CBC, Sep 26, 2006

COP-CUSTODY DEATHS (arrest-death probes too slow; public has no confidence in police reviewing their own conduct). Vancouver Sun, Sep 20, 2006

JUSTICE BLINDLY BELIEVES COP (Attorney General tells odd story in young man's death by police). Globe & Mail, Sep 11, 2006

Mother of RCMP shooting victim quesitons self-defence claim
by Terri Theodore, Canoe News, Sep 12, 2006
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/09/06/1807791-cp.html

VANCOUVER - The mother of a young man killed during a confrontation in a Houston, B.C. police detachment says the police officer's claim her son attacked him doesn't ring true. Linda Bush said Tuesday the officer's description of the language and actions supposedly made by her son doesn't sound at all like her son, even if he was drunk, as B.C.'s attorney general has said. Ian Bush, 22, died last October after being arrested for having an open beer outside a Houston hockey arena. Just 20 minutes later he was dead, shot in the back of the head.

His mother has launched a civil suit, but a statement of defence filed by RCMP Const. Paul Koester claims Bush suddenly punched the officer when he was asked to sign a document promising to appear in court. The court statement said Koester was being choked from behind and "Bush told Const. Koester to take his last breath." "No. No, it just doesn't ring true for us at all," Linda Bush, 54, said Tuesday in reaction to hearing the statement. "We just don't think it's the way Ian would have behaved at all." The Bush family's lawyer, Howard Rubin, told a news conference Tuesday that tests done on Bush's body after the shooting show a "substantial" amount of alcohol in his system, but no drugs.

But Bush said her son wasn't a violent man and instead acted playful and "goofy" when he was drinking alcohol. Bush had given the officer a different name, which Linda said was a typical example of her son's humour. "I think he thought the officer knew his name," she said. "He was just being silly, joking around as he always does."

The Crown decided last week that no charges would be laid against the rookie RCMP officer.

Because there will be no trial, Bush said she isn't sure her family will ever know what really happened. "No one else was there and they had no video or audio or anything like that on. There's just what the officer tells us, and of course Ian can't tell us," she said.

A coroner's inquest will be held into the shooting death, but no date has been set.

While they wait for the inquest, both the Bush family and their lawyer will be lobbying the provincial government for a separate civilian body to investigate similar police shootings. "There is a groundswell of public and media support for a change in how violent police confrontations resulting in death are investigated," Rubin said. He said his office has been inundated with calls of support since the decision not to lay charges against the RCMP officer. Bush said getting that change is behind everything her family is doing.

She said it's not fair to the victim or to the investigating police officer to have police investigate police shootings. "Because I don't know how you could be that impartial when it's somebody that's. . .your fellow officer that you're investigating." Bush wants the changes to prevent the same thing from happening to someone else. "If changes had been made before October 2005 maybe Ian would be here," she said.

B.C. Solicitor General John Les said a special unit is unnecessary because every in-custody death is investigated by the coroner and those testifying do so under oath. "So I think what everyone needs to do is let the coroner's inquest proceed," he said. "And lets re-evaluate the situation then."