FEATURED HEADLINE
Constable Brad Hartridge of the Kelowna RCMP removed a homeless farm worker from an A1 agricultural property after the man left tent city and the drugs and tried to work.
The man came out of tent city. He was homeless. He took a job and worked hard every day. He put his tent on agricultural farm land so he could sleep where he earned money instead of in the city camp. Hartridge came onto that farm and kicked him off the property. He sent the man back to the drugs and tent city. He treated a tent on farm land as if the only lawful place for it was city property, the fenced official site, not a farm where the man was trying to work and make money.
Hartridge used residential dwelling language on A1 land. A1 is farm land, not a residential zone. A personal tent is not the temporary farm worker housing the city bylaw actually permits. That bylaw calls for a permit, demonstrated farm need, and a defined structure. This was a homeless man in his own tent, working. Hartridge emptied that arrangement anyway and pointed him back at the same tent city he had crawled out of.
While I was filming this, Hartridge ordered the camera off. I told him I would not stop filming and that he was not allowed to shut it down. He lunged at me in an aggressive manner, reached out, and pushed me. I told him not to assault me. He pushed me again. I told him to stop assaulting me. He pushed me a third time. Then he arrested me, put me in the back of a police car, and clamped the handcuffs so tight my arms were marked and bruised.
Inside the car the windows were up. Heat was on. It was about 40 degrees. I was wearing a hoodie, completely covered in sweat, and I told him I could not breathe and how hot it was. Hartridge said nope you are good.
When he told me he was going to release me he said he would let me out but first I had to delete the video of him. I told him let's go to jail then. He then let me out of the car.
The city talks about work, housing, and cleaning up the streets. Hartridge took a man who was working on a farm and put him back into the camp built around drugs, garbage, and tents on city land. He then turned on me for recording it, used force, locked me in a hot car, and tried to bargain my freedom for a deleted video. That is not public safety. That is an officer closing the record of his own conduct.
A police file records the incident. The file number, the civic address, the date and time, the exact words Hartridge used on tape, and medical photos of my wrists belong in the next version of this copy. Hartridge collapsed the one step a homeless farm worker had taken out of tent city, sent him back to the drugs, and tried to bury the video of how he did it.
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