'It is some justice': Vancouver police officer convicted in violent 2018 jaywalking arrest

A Vancouver police officer has been found guilty of assault with a weapon for tasering a young, Black man who had been stopped for jaywalking.

Const. Jarrod Sidhu was convicted in a provincial court on Monday. The charges stemmed from the arrest of Jamiel Moore-Williams, who was 22 at the time. The former UBC football player was stopped for crossing against a red light in the Granville entertainment district in February of 2018.

Moore-Williams testified he told police he was jaywalking to get away from a woman who was throwing rocks at him. While he asked officers to go after the rock thrower, it was Moore-Williams who was arrested.

When Moore-Williams was on the ground, deployed his conductive energy weapon on him three times in rapid succession.

Judge Emmet Duncan said a video of the arrest was crucial in proving Moore-Williams was surrounded by other officers and not a threat when Sidhu tasered him repeatedly

"I do not accept that the CEW was a proportionate, necessary or reasonable tool to effect compliance. I do not believe Mr. Sidhu's evidence on this point," Duncan said when handing down the guilty verdict.

Donna Turko, the lawyer who is representing Moore-Williams in both a human rights complaint and a civil suit against the city and the police department, says the verdict will likely bring a measure of relief to her client.

"It is some justice, for sure," she said, adding that the taser could have killed Moore-Williams and that she thinks existence of video evidence and growing awareness about issues of systemic racism in policing likely played a role in the verdict.

"Years ago this may not have happened.”

Azuka Nduka-Agwu, a Vancouver-based organizer with Black Lives Matter, says the verdict validates Moore Williams’ experience.

“For so long, it was unclear if anyone would acknowledge the harm that was done to him for crossing the street essentially,” said Nduka-Agwu.

The judge did not address Moore Williams’ belief that the decision to arrest him that night and the excessive force used against him was motivated by race, and he was treated differently by Vancouver police because he’s Black.

“Race definitely played a role in this,” said Nduka-Agwu.

“The most recent data shows how much more Black and Indigenous men in particular are criminalized.”

The role of race will feature prominently in the human rights complaint that Moore-Williams has filed against the VPD.

“The declaration that this was discriminatory is very important to Jamiel,“ said Turko.

Sidhu remains on the force. But now that he’s been convicted of a crime, the VPD says it is assessing his status going forward.

In an email, Constable Tania Visitin wrote: “A police act investigation will be resuming as it was suspended during the criminal trial. As such, it would be inappropriate to provide any further details.”

Nduka-Agwu doesn’t think Sidhu is inherently violent, adding: “I think it’s the police and the culture there and the lifestyle that has led to this kind of action.”

While he’d like the criminal conviction to lead to change at the department, he said he's Hopeful but not confident" that change will come.

Sidhu will be back in court Feb. 21 to set a date for sentencing.