But even if the officers didn't intentionally cause Uh's death, the fact is that more care should have gone into his detention. And we've seen multiple times when civilians are cruelly mistreated or neglected while in custody.
There was the very public case regarding Nestor Vasquez Jr, who was put into a cell with a violent and mentally ill detainee, who killed him. And we've also heard many others who've complained of being beaten or starved in custody.
Today, we asked the Minister if more attention should be put on this to change what appears to be a sadistic culture.
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"What I can say something that we've observed since our administration has taken office is that there has been less instances of abuse and that is primarily due to the fact that we have a zero tolerance approach. In the past, that was something that was either ignored or swept under the rug and so you certainly have seen a drastic decrease in the number of abuse instances. I'm not saying it has been totally eradicated, but we deal with those officers who have been found to be neglectful or who have been found to be abusive, we deal with them instantaneously many times resulting in their dismissal, in charging them at a tribunal level. We need to totally transformed this culture that has been in place for decades and I'm not just blaming the last administration, I'm saying that this has been a habitual culture that has to change and it just so happens that some officers will learn the hard way that this is not something that we will tolerate, so in answering your question, yes, whenever we identify instances of abuse or neglect, we must certainly deal with the officers as the situation arises."
