Last week Harrison Sutherland - known in the streets as "Dr Sutherland" - was arrested for a strange charge - carrying a 5 gallon water bottle on his bicycle. While there may be such a law in place, he explained that he was helping an elderly woman.
After seeing him on 7News, the ComPol took to social media to declare that Sutherland should not have been charged and that he will be withdrawing it. Today Williams explained that in such cases, discretion has to be used.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"The issue with Harrison Sutherland is one that again outrages the public and while I can say categorically that I do not act on public outrage but I act based on what is reasonable and just and while there is a law indeed that speaks to the fact that you're not supposed to carry articles or load on a bicycle that disallows you from being able to properly maneuver the bicycle, that law did not contemplate a 5 gallon bottle of water, or grocery bags that you go to the store and buy and have to come riding with those items on your bike. One of my favorite judge when I was at law school reading cases is Lord Denning and Lord Denning said that the law is not an ass, in the sense that the law does not punish good deeds. We have to look at, even in the absence of the good gesture that Mr Sutherland was performing, to arrest a person carrying a 5 gallon on a bicycle is not reasonable and I think as police officers we have to apply our best judgement. I'm not going to ridicule the police, he was doing his job, but certainly I think it would have best served if he had sought advice on the matter before proceeding with the charge. I wouldn't want to see a society where every time someone tries to do something good we punish them because then what kind of society are we going to be promoting? When it comes to our senior citizens, we all have elderly people in our family and if someone is out there helping my grandmother or my mother or my grandaunt or something and they're punished for it then how does that make me feel? So on that basis, the fact that the law did not contemplate a 5 gallon water bottle which we see everyday when we go anywhere in the country, we're not so fortunate all of us that we have a vehicle. The bicycle is what made people use as their mode of transportation and the law itself as I said to my commander this morning was to deal with those who you see carry a fridge, carry a chest of drawers, carry maybe large piece of lumber extending out that impedes traffic, things like that the law contemplates dealing with."
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