When Police Commit Vandalism
'They smashed it out, just to smash it.'
Part 1: Nothing Made Sense
Clayton engaged in peaceful civil disobedience by laying down in the snow in front of the police line toward the end of the trucker protest in Ottawa. After he was arrested, he was told he'd get his pickup truck and trailer back the next day. But that's not what happened. He had to wait seven days before the authorities released them from impound - after he paid $1,400. Before that happened, his truck was vandalized.
Clayton was arrested around noon on Friday February 18th, the first day of the police crackdown. By that afternoon officers were actively preventing the public from reaching the downtown core. (Martin, a Quebec farmer, describes the situation here. He himself saw them inspecting the occupants of an ambulance.)
By Saturday afternoon, Wellington Street was a bleak wasteland of cops and checkpoints. On Sunday morning, Clayton was watching television news. He says he saw footage of officers marching past his truck, apparently the only remaining vehicle on that block of Wellington. He says he saw them smash his back window as they went by.
For no reason at all. They knew the truck wasn't occupied. Moreover, the key to that vehicle was in the possession of the police. It had been removed from Clayton's key ring before they released him from custody.
This was a case of gratuitous vandalism. By the cops. Against the private property of a 28-year-old Canadian who had spent the past three weeks peacefully protesting government policy.Â
As his truck sat in the impound lot for a week, snow accumulated inside. When he got it back Saturday, February 26th, he told folks on Facebook "it had a ton of snow in it. 1 window completely smashed out and another hit."
More than a year later, when I interviewed him, Clayton pointed to his vehicle,
The back one, and my driver's window. You can still see it. That dent in between is from their baton. They smashed it out, just to smash it.
I want to say it was three, four days before I was even told where my truck was and how long it was going to be. When I got it back there was 10 inches of snow and ice inside. So I drove right to a vacuum. I figured before the snow melts, I can vacuum it out. And I had to get all the glass out.
Then, because my truck had idled for 500 hours straight, my DEF system [diesel exhaust system] blew up. So I had to get that fixed, and I ended up having to rent a car.
The windows cost $300 each to repair. But the financial penalties weren't over yet. Although no one connected to the police or the impound advised the protesters that this was the case, Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation had "come in and stripped everybody's licence plates," says Clayton. "They didn't actually take the plates off. They just unregistered them all. And we didn't know."
Weeks later, he heard about someone being pulled over for this reason. That's when he contacted the authorities and learned he needed to "pay another hundred and something bucks to reinstate my plates. And not only that, I had to do that on the trailer. Every which way they could nickel and dime us for something, they found it."
Numerous items were missing from his trailer, he says:
There was some stuff that they left in there, but there was a lot that was taken out. There was fuel taken out. There were barbecues taken out. There was a generator that was missing. All of my propane tanks. Now, I don't know if I should give the benefit of the doubt [to the tow truck company]. Cuz can they transport it with all that fuel and propane? I don't know.
Read other accounts of police smashing windows here, here, and here.   Â
next installment: Did I Do Anything Criminally Wrong?      Â
That truck if your business, and the place many live while away from home. Such complete disrespect is very un-Canadian. I asked my self through the convoy: who are Canadians now?
And Clayton will be one of so many to be victimized in this sadistic way. I am glad you have this on the record Donna.