A Vancouver Police officer who was convicted of assault after punching a cyclist in the face more than two years ago has now been sentenced.
Vancouver Police Cst. Ismail Bhabha was charged with one count of assault.
Following an independent investigation, Bhabha has been given a conditional discharge and six months’ probation. He will not have a criminal record.
The incident took place in March, 2013, when Yaletown resident Andi Shae Akhavan said he was riding his bike home and was stopped by police.
He said the officers asked if he noticed that he just went through a red light.
Akhavan said the police then told him they were going to write him up, and proceeded to get out of the car. “They started to write me up, and I basically said ‘don’t you guys have anything better to do? I’m only a block away from my house, I was only you know, just cruising home real quick’, and at that point, I guess, because I asked them if they could be doing something better than arresting a bicyclist, or writing up a ticket for one, they decided to put cuffs on me.”
He said the police didn’t read him his rights before putting handcuffs on him, and what followed from there was caught on video by a passerby. That video has now been viewed more than 64,000 times.
“They’re putting the cuffs on me, he’s yanking my arm pretty tight, both hands are held back at this point, I turn around to say, and he winds up and hits me in the face.”
The force so strong it actually broke his tooth, piercing his lip. He ended up at the ER to get it checked out.
“At that point, beyond getting punched in the face and being stunned, I just realized he had done something wrong, and that, you know it was just completely out of line,” said Akhavan.
“I was surprised but in the same sense I wasn’t surprised that a police officer was, in this sense, taking advantage of their power.”
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