Charges DROPPED against Alberta teen farmer after police brutality video goes viral, Rebel News, September 30, 2020 I'll provide a summary of what's in the video. A young man, 18 years old, was driving a tractor in a rural part of Alberta, Canada, when he was stopped by sheriffs, and dangerously ripped out of the tractor by his neck. He was punched in the face, bleeding out of his nose, and still bears scars from the incident. The tractor is elevated, so pulling him out could have lead to a more severe injury. The sheriffs were conducting an alcohol screening checkpoint on the road. The young man did not realize they were performing an alcohol screening checkpoint. He approached a line of about 8 or 9 cars with lights ahead. His family's field was just down the road a little bit, so he decided to drive the tractor along the ditch on the side of the road, getting around the line of cars. If he had continued along the ditch it would have led him to his field. As he continued driving along in the ditch, he noticed a check stop sign on the road. He kept driving the tractor. When he got to a crossroads, there was a sheriff waving him to stop. He was not going to stop in the ditch because there is a steep slope there, he judged it would have been too dangerous. He drove up on top of the crossroad and was going to stop there. He had barely driven up onto the crossroad when a sheriff's slammed into the fender (presumably to prevent the tractor from being able to continue or escape). The sudden jolt scared him and made him mad. He stopped the vehicle and the tractor rolled to a stop. He opened the door to the tractor and asked the sheriff what he wanted. The sheriff was wearing a face mask (due to the coronavirus pandemic) and because the tractor was still running, he had a hard time hearing what the sheriff was trying to say. From a video recording later, the sheriff said "This is a mandatory alcohol screening check stop." But the young man was not able to hear that at the time. The sheriff was still too far away at the time, his voice was muffled by the face mask, and the tractor was still running so there was too much noise for the young man to hear. The sheriff then finally came up to the door, where the young man could hear him better. The sheriff asked him to shut the tractor off. The young man said no, because he would have had to put the park break on then give it a few minutes to cool. This would be to safely avoid the possibility of causing damage to engine parts. Some of these parts can get very hot, and if the cool-down is too sudden it can cause the metal to warp, leading to cracks in the exhaust manifold, which would have been costly to repair. This is fairly common with diesel engines in tractors. The young man did not really explain all this, and it is possible the sheriff officer did not know. The sheriff then asked him to do a breathalyzer. The young man says he did not realize it was for alcohol. He thought it was for the Covid virus because they were all wearing masks and gloves, with the pandemic being in the news. He had never seen an alcohol check point before. Out in that rural area they were not common. The officer told him to do the breathalyzer again one or two more times, but the young man said no. Right away after that the sheriff said he was under arrest and immediately climbed into the tractor really fast and started grabbing him. The park brake to the tractor was not even off and the tractor was still running. The young man was concerned that the heavy tractor could roll and that it was dangerous. So he was holding onto the steering wheel and the seat, refusing to get out of the tractor in that situation. Another sheriff came up from behind the first sheriff and hit the young man in the face. That's when blood began flowing out of his nose, because the sheriff had hit his nose and side of his face. The sheriff then pushed his face to the ground, then got on top of him. Finally they let him get up but yanked him out of the tractor very fast. Which is dangerous because the driver's seat is up on an elevated platform. Then a sheriff grabbed his neck and pulled him down onto the ground. He hit the ground and then they handcuffed him. When he the side of his head hit the pavement, that is how he got the scar on his forehead. They then arrested him. They are blaming this on having a police force made up of individuals who have lived all their lives in the cities and are out of touch with how things work in rural areas. Many of the officers have been shuffled around from other provinces. It turned out that the tractor the young man was driving in was not subject to the same laws as regular vehicles driven on the road, but the law enforcement officers did not know that. You don't even need a driver's license or license plate to be able to legally operate a tractor in Alberta. Recently in Canada they passed a draconian (civil rights violating) law that allows patrol officers to legally demand a breath sample without probable cause. For example if someone is stopped for running a light, a bad lane lane change, speeding - they can demand a breathalyzer. Failure/refusal is a criminal offense. The law was passed during the Trudeau Administration, it was hidden away in their cannabis legalization legislation. The young man was charged with refusing to provide a breath sample and resisting arrest. The charges against him were finally dropped. He had been afraid to talk to the media for a while, while there were criminal charges against him, he was afraid he would say something that would incriminate himself. The young man's name is Jeremia Leussink, he was 18-years old, in Alberta. He farms a field with his family.
If this had taken place in America they'd have probably shot him dead when he went past the first line of cars. "He might have have been smuggling opioids, besides that tractor was big and scary, we were afraid he'd run us over" That being said I don't really accept that he couldn't shut the engine off so he could hear better. And why was he refusing a COVID test if he thought that's what they were doing?
I already explained that in the opening post. Turning off the engine would require a cool-down period of several minutes, where the engine has to be left running for a while in park. One could of course just suddenly turn off the engine, but if you make it a habit of doing that, or do it too many times, it can lead to having to do some costly and labor-intensive repairs. It's not that uncommon with big diesel engines for a tractor of that size. It is perfectly reasonable and understandable why the driver did not want to suddenly turn off the engine. The sheriff stopping him may not have really understood or believed that, if he was not actually from that area and had never worked on a farm.
