For those who haven't followed the Windsor, Ontario news, Detective David Van Buskirk is a Windsor Police Department officer who just pleaded guilty on assault charges against a Dr. Abouhassan.
Detective Van Buskirk was responding to a call from his daughter that she was being harrased by a person near Jackson Park. Her father, then proceeded to the scene where Dr. Tyceer Abouhassan was jogging. Detective Van Buskirk proceeded to question and threaten Dr. Abouhassan, and then started to physically assault the doctor, who suffered a broken nose, bruised ribs, torn eyelid, and a detatched retina, requiring emergency surgery. All of this happened, despite the fact that Van Buskirk had a description of the person who harrassed his daughter, and that description did not match Dr. Abouhassan.
So you would think the usual happened. The officer was reprimanded for disorderly conduct and charged with assault.
Nope. Not for Detective Van Buskirk. Instead, Dr. Abouhassan was arrested for assaulting a peace officer. To be honest here, no one would have questioned things. The area was never taped off, and several officers offered events that coincided with Detective Van Buskirk's version of events.
If it weren't for a security camera, a great injustice would have been done. But there was a camera. A camera that showed that Dr. Abouhassan clearly did not attack the officer, but instead was brutally and savagely attacked, and only fought back after he had already been struck several times by Detective Van Buskirk.
So what is my opinion? Well, let me start by saying that I support the Windsor Police Force. I have great respect for the WPD, and for all "boys in blue". That said, as with all professions, there are some bad apples, and some of the upstanding officers have bad days.
Apparently, Detective Van Buskirk was having a bad day. Rather, a bad month. Recently divorced, and with several other personal issues surrounding him, Detective Van Buskirk made a lapse of judgement when he attacked Dr. Abouhassan.
Fair enough. We've all had bad days. We've all made bad decisions and regreted them later, but we have to face the consequences of them. If Detective Van Buskirk was only guilty of assaulting Dr. Abouhassan, I would have said fine. Let him do some time for that, and then put him back on the force, perhaps in a lesser capacity.
But then there is the other charge. That is, the fact that not only did Detective Van Buskirk attack Dr. Abouhassan, but he then tried to cover it up, lied about the situation, and even tried to pin the blame for the encounter on the doctor. He was only caught when the video footage showed the truth. Detective Van Buskirk not only made an error in judgement, but he was going to force an innocent man to go to jail for assault for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is what makes this situation unacceptable.
Detective David Van Buskirk needs to be discharged from the Windsor Police Department. He not only has shown poor judgement on several occasions (this is not his first incident), but he has shown a willingness to conspire and plot to force innocent people to take his punishments for him. This is NOT an acceptable trait in a Police officer.
Now, of course, there is the question of the other officers involved in the charging of Dr. Abouhassan. I honestly believe that many of them simply did not know the entire situation, and went along with their fellow officer. After all, they did not know Dr. Abouhassan, but they are familiar with the Detective. However, this is for the courts to decide.
My opinion: Throw Van Buskirk behind bars, and fire him. He has abused the public's trust too far.
