We wonder if outside sources may be telling the Vancouver police department to just let the whole hockey riot investigation wrap up and 'just let it go man, just let it go'.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/stanley-cup-riot-probe-could-take-two-years-say-vancouver-police/article2203778/
“This could take a year or two years to investigate fully,” Inspector Les Yeo of the department’s riot investigation squad announced during a news conference Monday.....
But Robert Gordon, director of criminology at Simon Fraser University, raised an eyebrow at the length of time it might take for some of the rioters to be charged.
“It’s inconceivable to me that justice would be delayed as long as that,” he said.
There is something called 'delay of due process' and it is meant to make sure that charges are laid in a short amount of time and that after charges are laid, is the defendant is given speedy access to trial(time between charges laid and time to trial).
For leaving very long delays between the criminal act and justice being served, is people(the police have done this method when one of their officers is avoiding trial) get charges thrown out due to the memory of the event becoming vague and possibly riddled with error's of what happened at the crime. Sure there are pictures in this case, but do those pictures show 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' that the defendant did do the crime and was not just posing with a riot in the background.
What may happen is the Vancouver Police Department may finally identify the defendants and forward an initial charge of 'participating in a riot'(the small amount of people for initial charges were sent back for more data being needed). Then if the Crown Prosecutor accepts that meager charge, will the police be able to gather more convictable evidence for the eventual trial.
Due to the major delay in the BC court system, and if charges might take 1 year at least to be filed against the defendants, and then possibly a two year wait(or more) for the trial, there may be a tendency for the Judge to throw out the charges at the trial date. It would also be possible that the Crown Prosecutor would throw out charges before the court date as well, knowing that due to the delay of justice, why waste valuable court time and money on a case that will be declared void by the Judge.
This is the reality people. It may take ten years to remove this delay in the courts, based on a major hiring blitz 'now', of new Judges, plus their support staff. Meanwhile people keep walking away free and without a record of conviction, due to the delay of due process.
