Sarah dreams of beansQuestion for #journalists -- do you avoid naming cops even when their names are available?
I know police departments rarely release names of police, even when they get fired for misconduct. But then sometimes I wonder whether the names were available and just left out of news stories?
Like this is an article about a court finding that RCMP violated people's rights. No RCMP are named, but several protestors and the judge are fully identified.
The baseline level of secrecy around police makes it confusing as a reader, for me at least. Does this mean the court didn't know any names either, or that the finding was about "the RCMP" as a group, or just that the journalist left out the names?
https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/02/19/RCMP-Violated-Charter-Rights-CGL-Arrests/
Greg Johnston@beandreams I have not followed this case so lack good context. But maybe the names of the offending officers were sealed by the court, or they were not identified in the proceedings, because the case is not against the officers but rather against the protesters, who made this motion for acquittal based on the cops' conduct. I would hope they now file a case against those cops, in which presumably they'll be named. This is a huge issue in US now as well, after murders of protesters in Minnesota.
Ms. Que Banh@GPJohnston
There was a large class action lawsuit filed against RCMP that was held up for review during covid. It wasn't allowed to proceed. There's another class action lawsuit against RCMP with almost same people but I'm unsure of the status of that one.