Police Brutality–Caught on Tape

See It For Yourself

OpinionsPierre Chauvin — Published September 13, 2011

The incident—which occurred last Wednesday—shows a couple of young men arguing with police officers. The police officer hits one of them with a baton, while another gets pepper sprayed.

Then, a woman intervenes by trying to help the man blinded by pepper spray. Without warning, an officer grabs her and pushes her into a parking pole, and she falls to the ground.

Patrick Lalonde, head of the Service du soutien aux operations policières at the SPVM, justified the officers’ actions, claiming that the police were simply trying to “decontaminate” the blinded person by washing out their eyes.

He added that the police officer asked the woman three times to move. “We’re going to check with our experts […] to see how all of his happened,” he said.

“When we’re at the point where four policemen are trying to restrain a man […], where people are throwing objects [at the police], the situation is degenerating,” said Lalonde, when asked about a possible loss of control on the part of the officers.

While St. Laurent may be a difficult place for police officers late at night, some questions need to be answered.

Why did an officer shove an unarmed woman directly into a metal pole? Why did police feel the urge to use violence against this woman when the two young men they were arguing with had been restrained and the situation seemed to be under control?

A person who’s been pepper-sprayed, as the police admit, requires assistance, and as far as I know, helping someone rinse his or her eyes out is not a crime—yet.

A similar incident happened in March during student demonstrations. A woman on her way to go shopping found herself surrounded by riot police, and was was violently pushed into a mailbox, striking her head.

Watch the videos, read other articles and get informed.