Newsgroups: tor.general
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Toronto Police
Message-ID: <1989Jan23.185817.8423@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <157@aimed.UUCP> <4674@hcr.UUCP> <1989Jan20.201648.20385@lsuc.uucp> <89Jan22.092537est.38021@neat.ai.toronto.edu>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 89 18:58:17 GMT

In article <89Jan22.092537est.38021@neat.ai.toronto.edu> lamy@ai.utoronto.ca (Jean-Francois Lamy) writes:
>...What I would like to know is under what circumstances it would have been
>possible for a) a person admitting to pulling the trigger to a gun that killed
>not to be charged at all and b) the same for a policeman on duty, if they are
>any different...

(Disclaimer:  I'm not familiar with the details of the local laws, this
comes from general knowledge.)  With the *possible* exception of a policeman
on duty, shooting someone will pretty much invariably result in criminal
charges.  The police are not in the business of deciding whether the
shooter had adequate legal reasons; that is a court decision, although
in a sufficiently clear-cut case of self-defence, charges might perhaps
be dismissed without a full-blown trial.

The possible exception for policemen on duty arises because this sort of
situation is somewhat predictable for them, and it's worth having preliminary
procedures to decide whether the hassle of formal charges is likely to
be justified.  (This is not to say that such procedures can't be abused,
just that their existence is not without reason.)
-- 
Allegedly heard aboard Mir: "A |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
toast to comrade Van Allen!!"  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu