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Frozen
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Saskatoon to LA, people are resisting police abuse
Darrell Night
Darrell
Night, 37, who was dropped off by police at the edge of town
in Saskatoon to freeze.
Left for dead in a Saskatchewan
winter
A survivor's story exposes
police abuse of indigenous Canadians
By DeNeen L. Brown, THE
WASHINGTON POST
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Nov.
22 - Two white policemen picked up Darrell Night outside
his uncle's apartment one January before dawn. There had been
a quarrel, and Night, who had been drinking, was shouting obscenities.
NIGHT, a member of the Cree
Nation, recalls thinking the cops were going to throw him in
the drunk tank, but they drove straight out of town. They took
him to an isolated spot three miles outside Saskatoon.
"Get the [expletive] out
of here, you [expletive] Indian," he recalled one officer
saying, and they slammed his face on the hood of the trunk, took
off his handcuffs and left him standing alone on a riverbank.
"I'll freeze out here,"
he yelled. "What's wrong with you guys?"
A voice echoed in the cold:
"That's your [expletive] problem."
Night watched the car drive
off, its lights trailing out of sight. The wind was whipping
on the night of Jan. 28, 2000, in Saskatchewan, where there can
be sudden blizzards and temperatures may drop to 40 degrees below
zero. He was wearing a T-shirt, jeans, a jeans jacket and running
shoes.
"I thought I was dead,
but something told me, don't give up," he recalled. So Night
started walking.
Night said he would have been
"one more dead Indian," a victim of what had become
known as the "midnight blue tour," a body found on
the outskirts of Saskatoon, with no witnesses and only a dead
man's story to tell. But he managed to walk several miles to
the Queen Elizabeth power station, where a watchman let him in
from the cold.
Night's account of his survival
transfixed Saskatoon and opened a window on what some have called
the dark side of the city's police force, which may have imposed
its own death penalty on the wind-whipped prairie. Over the years,
at least five frozen bodies of aboriginal men have been found
in the same area. There were always rumors the police had dropped
them off, but there was nothing to prove it until Night made
it back alive.
CALL FOR INQUIRY
Over dozens of years, native
Canadians had complained of mistreatment by some police officers.
Many people were outraged,
and Night began receiving death threats. Since then, hundreds
of other aboriginal people from across Canada have called the
Native Law Centre the University of Saskatchewan to tell their
own stories of abuse.
"It's a very old practice
to get rid of the Indian who was inebriated or mad," said
Sakej Henderson, the director of the Native Law Centre. "If
it wasn't for Darrell Night, we would still be muddling around.
We knew the people died suspiciously, but we could never get
enough connecting evidence to say why they died. But with Darrell
Night, all of a sudden the pattern was there. We could see it
clear. Clear enough the province has said we need an inquiry."
In Night's case, constables
Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson of the Saskatoon Police Service were
convicted of unlawful confinement in September 2001 and sentenced
to eight months in prison. The maximum sentence for an unlawful
confinement conviction was 10 years. They are now free.
Over dozens of years, native
Canadians had complained of mistreatment by some police officers.
About 75 percent of the male prison population and 90 percent
of the female prison population is aboriginal, according to government
statistics. Government commissions were set up to address these
concerns. Henderson said aboriginal advocacy groups began pressing
for changes, calling for community relations programs aimed at
reducing the number of arrests. The Native Law Centre also made
an effort to educate aboriginals on the law and encourage them
to become lawyers or to work to defend civil rights. Henderson
said he believed that as a result of these changes, certain police
officers decided to deal with "problem Indians" by
their own methods.
"When we started correcting
the problem by creating advocates for aboriginal people,"
Henderson said, "the police started taking things into their
own hands, feeling they could just drop them off and not book
them."
'PATTERNS OF
POLICE ABUSE'
In 2001, the international
human rights organization Amnesty International issued a report
criticizing Canadian police for "patterns of police abuse
against First Nation (Aboriginal) men in Saskatoon." First
Nation is the way the aboriginal people identify themselves.
The case has now triggered
questions about others who had been found frozen to death on
the edge of town.
"There were reports that
members of Saskatoon City Police had for a number of years had
an unofficial policy of abandoning intoxicated or 'troublesome'
members of the indigenous community away from the population
centre of Saskatoon, thereby placing them at great risk of dying
of hypothermia during the winter months," Amnesty International
said.
During the trial of Hatchen
and Munson, the officers testified that they didn't break any
laws and that Night was never assaulted. But individually, they
gave different accounts of what happened that night.
William Roe, Hatchen's attorney,
said the officers' defense during the trial was that Night asked
to be dropped off on the edge of town. "He was in the back
of the police car," Roe said. "He was well-known to
the police who had dealt with him before. His line was, 'Look
boys, drop me off anywhere. Just don't take me in and charge
me.' That was their defense in a nutshell."
Why near the power plant? "My
client's explanation was they decided to drop him off but he
would have to walk a ways. That particular area just happened
to be where they were at the time."
Morris Bodnar, Munson's attorney,
denied the drop-off was motivated by racism. "There have
been other individuals around Saskatchewan who said they have
been dropped off by different police forces," he said. "Some
are aboriginal. Some are not aboriginal. I have my doubts that
race was a factor."
Prosecutor Bill Burge argued,
"They deviated from what the criminal code tells them what
to do and did what they wanted to do. At that point, the confinement
of Darrell Night became unlawful because they're not taking him
to the police station."
The Saskatoon Police
Service fired the officers after their convictions. Saskatchewan's
justice minister, Chris Axworthy, ordered a review into the treatment
of native Canadians in the justice system.
Police Chief Russell Sabo apologized
to the aboriginal justice reform commission in June, saying the
two officers "failed to live up to their oath of office."
Sabo said the department was shocked and distressed by the facts
in the case. "I can assure you our department and the community
of Saskatoon have paid a heavy penalty," he said.
Sabo said in a recent televised
interview that the abandonment of aboriginal men by Saskatoon
police "happened more than once, and we fully admit that
and, in fact, on behalf of the police department, I want to apologize.
It's quite conceivable there were other times. I think it's important
we take ownership when we do something wrong and correct the
behavior."
The case has now triggered
questions about others who had been found frozen to death on
the edge of town.
One day after Night's ordeal,
the body of Rodney Naistus was found shirtless in the same area
on the edge of Saskatoon.
On Feb. 3, 2000, the body of
Lawrence Kim Wegner was found near where Night had been dropped
off. Wegner, who was found wearing a T-shirt, socks and jeans,
was last seen alive early on the morning Jan. 31. Both Wegner
and Naistus appeared to have frozen to death. By some accounts,
they died within hours of being released from police custody,
according to police investigations and public inquests.
'INCONCLUSIVE'
INQUESTS
Saskatchewan's minister of
justice ordered inquests into those and other deaths. Inquests
do not determine guilt or innocence but are held to establish
where and when a death occurred and the medical cause of death.
They are open to the public, and evidence is heard by a six-member
jury, which also makes recommendations on how similar deaths
can be prevented.
The inquests into the deaths
of Naistus and Wegner found that the circumstances were "inconclusive."
The report on Wegner said that he was found in a field and the
cause of death was hypothermia from prolonged exposure, "by
what means: undetermined." The jury recommended the development
"of a standing order requiring police officers to record
in their notebooks the names of individuals they take into their
police vehicles for whatever reason."
Lloyd Dustyhorn, 53, was found
frozen to death in Saskatoon Jan. 19, 2000, the day after he
had been taken into custody by police for public intoxication.
A jury decided in May 2001 after an inquest that his death was
caused by hypothermia.
D'Arcy Dean Ironchild, 33,
died Feb. 19, 2000, after he was taken into custody for public
intoxication on Feb. 18. The Saskatchewan Justice Department
said Ironchild was released around midnight and sent home in
a taxi. The inquest jury said Ironchild's death was accidental
and the cause was an overdose of chloral hydrate, an old and
rarely used sedative most famously combined with alcohol surreptitiously
to make a Mickey Finn. In June, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
began investigating a 25-year-old case in which Saskatoon police
allegedly abandoned a woman on the edge of town.
PERSISTENT
QUESTIONS
The recent cases have led to
a new inquest that began Sept. 8 into the death of Neil Stonechild,
17, found frozen Nov. 29, 1990 in a field on the outskirts of
Saskatoon. The inquest will examine how the police conducted
their investigation into Stonechild's death.
Stonechild's body had been
found with one shoe missing. After three months of investigation,
the Saskatoon City police concluded that he had died while trying
to walk to an adult correctional center when he was overcome
by the cold. Police have denied that Stonechild was abandoned
by officers.
No charges were ever filed,
but Stonechild's mother, Stella Stonechild-Bignell, kept asking
questions. She said she had never believed the police story about
the correctional center, particularly after a friend of Stonechild's
told the family he had last seen Stonechild in the back of a
police cruiser, bleeding and cursing and yelling, "They're
gonna kill me." In addition, she has asked how he could
have walked anywhere in the cold wearing only one shoe.
At the new inquest, she testified
that when Stonechild didn't return home that night she thought
her son, who she said had been in confrontations with the police
before, was in custody. She called the city police. "I remember,
in fact, I'm positive, it was a lady that answered, and she told
me a car had been sent out to look for Neil. So I asked her,
'Did they pick him up?' And she said, 'Well I can...patch you
through to the cells.' " The call was sent to a guard who
told her that her son was not there.
Later that week, she heard
something on the 6 o'clock news about a frozen body being found.
That evening, there was a knock on the door and a plainclothes
policeman asked whether he could talk to her about her son. "That's
when he told me that Neil had died," she said. Police soon
closed the investigation.
But questions persisted, and
were asked again at the new inquiry. Stonechild's aunt, Debra
Mason, testified that at the funeral home, she and Neil's sister
noticed that he had bruises on his face. "There was a cut
across the bridge of his nose that extended to his cheek, and
makeup didn't hide, couldn't hide, the bruises," she testified.
It was obvious, she said, that he had been beaten up.
Gerry Mason, Neil's uncle,
testified he noticed bumps on Neil's head, and skin missing on
his wrists, thumbs and hands. Mason thought the scratches came
from "pulling at handcuffs."
Police reported no signs of
foul play, and the Saskatoon coroner said he had examined the
body but did not notice any scratches on the face.
'HOW CAN ANYBODY
SURVIVE?'
On a Cree Nation reserve about
90 minutes west of Saskatoon, Mary Wegner, the mother of Lawrence
Wegner, still weeps. She remembers Stonechild, Naistus and Night.
She has a theory about Darryl Night and his ability to survive.
"The reason I think Darryl Night got out of there is he
grew up in Saskatoon. He knew the area. Lawrence didn't know
where to go. . . . Darrell Night got dropped off Jan. 28. Lawrence
went missing Jan. 29."
Not long ago, during the government
inquiry into Wegner's death, Mary Wegner retraced her son's steps
on just as cold a night. "When we were out there dressed
in a T-shirt and jeans and no boots, you start to wonder whether
your legs would carry you," she said. "How can anybody
survive with a T-shirt and socks?"
No criminal charges have been
filed in Wegner's case. "When they found his body, they
never treated it like a homicide," she said. Investigators
left their own footprints in the snow, she said. Saskatoon Police
Sgt. Bob Peters later admitted the crime scene had been contaminated
because of investigators' "curiosity" and lack of training.
Mary Wegner said she remembered hearing on the radio that they
had found a body at the power station. "Then my husband
phoned me and said, 'This is not good. I think Lawrence is dead.'
I didn't believe it," she said.
She folded into tears. She
said Lawrence was wearing boots and an expensive jacket the night
he disappeared. "They took his jacket. Only they know what
they did to him," she said.
"This is a human being,"
she went on, speaking of Night. "I don't know if they can
sleep today. I read that one police officer who dropped off Darrell
said his family was suffering. What are we? Stones? Do we not
suffer?"
"I just want to find out
why they don't know this is people they are hurting. That person,
somebody loves them, cares for them. Maybe in their eyes that
person is no good. I wouldn't let anybody walk on a road when
it is cold out, minus 28, biting wind. It's cold when it is cold
here."
Police said they did not believe
Lawrence Wegner's death was suspicious.
NIGHT'S STORY
'I don't
feel safe in the city. It's the cops I'm worried about, not the
people.' -DARRELL NIGHT
Darrell Night has moved back
to the Saulteaux First Nation reserve. He says he is afraid to
go into Saskatoon now. He says he thinks someone is trying to
kill him. "I don't feel safe in the city. It's the cops
I'm worried about, not the people. It shouldn't be like that."
The last time he went into the city, a car hit him. He is on
crutches.
He tells the story of his ordeal
again, as if he has told the story many times before - the words
just spill out of his mouth. He recalls how the police threw
him out of their car. They didn't give him a chance to lower
his head, he says, and he hit the edge of the car, hard.
Night said he hoped the policemen
would have pity. But they slammed his face on the frozen hood
of the car, took off the handcuffs and drove away.
He walked about two miles,
hoping to find a pay phone, before reaching the power plant.
He doesn't know how he made it. "It felt like 50 miles,"
he says. When he finally reached the power plant, he kept banging
on the door. Then he saw a face. A man inside wanted to know
what he wanted. Night motioned that he wanted to call a taxi.
"He opens the door
and said, 'What the hell you doing here? It's 5 o'clock in the
morning.' " Night told him the story.
The man said, "Get out
of here, the cops would not do that."
"I said, 'Honest.'
" The night watchman let him in, then called a taxi. "I
said, 'Thanks for opening the door. You probably saved my life.'
"
At the trial, the night watchman
and the taxi driver were witnesses. Night said he asked the taxi
driver to drop him at his sister's house. When he got there,
he told the driver he didn't have any money, but he would run
upstairs. The driver didn't trust him, so Night gave him his
jean jacket and health card as security. When he returned with
the money, he paid the driver and snatched his jean jacket. But
he forgot the health card.
The taxi driver kept the health
card, which later helped prove Night was telling the truth, placing
him in the taxi the night he was left out in the cold. It was
a crucial piece of evidence in the trial.
Eventually, Night met a police
officer who convinced him to tell other police his story.
Night recalled asking the policeman,
"How do I know you don't want to take me out of town and
shut me up permanently?" The officer persuaded him to go
to the police station and report what had happened. Night agreed
to go, but only if his uncle went with him. "I tell the
whole story," Night said. "And bang, next thing: headlines
all over the city and all over Canada."
© 2003 The Washington
Post Company
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
