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Police brutality alleged
Father concerned about the way he says RCMP treated son with brain injury

Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Thursday, April 2, 2015

INUVIK
An Inuvik man is concerned about the treatment he alleges his son - who had previously suffered a traumatic brain injury - received from two RCMP officers last month.

Gerry Petrin said his son Jesse was arrested on March 21 after someone complained he was causing a disturbance.

Gerry said Jesse suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2008, leaving him seriously disabled and with partial paralysis.

While Gerry wasn't home to witness the incident, he said his wife Dianne was, and he later spoke to the two officers involved and the detachment commander, Craig Peterson, about his concerns.

Gerry said his 32-year-old son was in no shape to be to be interviewed following the incident.

Jesse has lived in town for almost a year now, after being persuaded to move closer to his father and step-mother so they could help look after him.

Since his brain injury, Jesse has developed an intense dislike of the police and has showed some erratic behaviour, Gerry said.

That's why he made a point of speaking with one of the former detachment commanders about his son when Jesse moved to Inuvik last year.

He's been living in a trailer on his parent's property since he arrived. That gives him some independence, Gerry said, while being close enough they can assist him.

Gerry said he briefed the officer, whose name he couldn't remember, intensively on the situation, giving him a "head's up" on what might be expected with any interaction between Jesse and the police.

On the day in question, Gerry said Jesse was standing outside their home on Inuit Road, "yelling and swearing at the weather."

Jesse has had a difficult time adapting to the prolonged winter here in Inuvik, Gerry said, and has come down with a dose of what's colloquially called "cabin fever."

"He hasn't been able to get out during the winter," Gerry said. "It's really bothered him."

Apparently, someone was concerned enough about his behaviour to call the police.

Two officers arrived, and tried to take Jesse into custody.

The arrest

His step-mother Dianne, who didn't want her last name used, was standing at the front window of their home.

In an interview March 27, she said she didn't see the officers make any attempt to speak to Jesse. Instead, she said they forced him to the ground and began trying to handcuff him. Since the paralysis affects one of his arms, which also has a pin in it, it's not easy for him to place his hands behind his back.

Dianne said one of the officers began punching Jesse in the head. She said she ran outside, seeing two or three punches, and yelled at them to stop hitting him in the head, because he had a brain injury.

The officer desisted after hearing that, but they continued to struggle to handcuff Jesse.

Dianne said one of the officers told Jesse that "he'd break his arm" if he continued to struggle.

Dianne said she pleaded with them to stop, because of his arm injury, but they eventually succeeded in cuffing Jesse and took him to the detachment to be charged.

At no point did she see Jesse seriously try to resist the officers, she said.

She called Gerry, who had been at work, and he went to the detachment to find out what was going on.

He spoke to the arresting officers, and wasn't happy with what he heard.

"They said they were just keeping the town safe," he said. "And they just shrugged when I asked them if two young, strong, fit police officers couldn't handle a disabled man any other way."

A few days later, Gerry said he spoke to Peterson about the incident, and received an apology.

Jesse is facing charges of resisting arrest, Gerry said. Jesse was released that day taken to the hospital for treatment of some injuries and is now back at home.

Gerry's highly critical of the way the RCMP interacted with a disabled person, and bitterly disappointed that his efforts to brief the police on his son's situation seemed to be "waste of time."

RCMP didn't respond to request for comment by Inuvik Drum's deadline.

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