Who Pays?

According to reports in the St. Catharines a St. Catharines photographer Michael Farkas suffered serious injuries after an altercation with a Niagara Regional Police officer. (Photo from Facebook)

Crown attorney Ian Bulmer said a discharge would not be in the best interest of the public as a harsher sentence would send a strong message to the law enforcement community that such actions will not be tolerated by the courts.

When he refused to stop taking pictures, court was told, Zarafonitis "took control" of Farkas.

The 31-year-old St. Catharines man says he suffered serious injuries after the incident, including a broken nose, cheekbone, orbital bone and ribs.

As is often the case it was the victim Farkas who was charged with assault following the melee. That charge was withdrawn by the Crown Attorney's office in November 2012.

Farkas launched a $750,000 lawsuit over the incident after criminal charges against him were dropped.

The lawsuit claims general, special and punitive damages for negligence, assault and breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The civil matter is still before the courts.

The extraordinary aspects of this case has got to be that a full sized and fully trained police officer has to break bones and cause serious injury in order to subdue a 120 pound photographer for refusing to stop taking pictures of police brutality!

The question that has yet to be clarified is the matter of ‘who pays’ to satisfy any possible lawsuit.

Is this, once again, a matter of the taxpayer footing the bill for someone else’s crime or should the cost and expenses be borne by those who committed the crime?