The brutal arrest of a young black man in Quebec last weekend continues to arouse outrage. This is not the first time that a police intervention has caused so much talk. Here are five other arrests that have sparked controversy.
• Read also: Mamadi Camara reacts to the muscular arrest in Quebec
• Read also: Muscular arrest at the Jean-Talon metro station: STM agents used “reasonable” force, according to report
• Read also: What we know about the muscular police intervention in Quebec that everyone is talking about
Arrest at the Jean-Talon metro station
Last April, agents from the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) intervened with a user at the Jean-Talon metro station. The latter had crossed the turnstiles without paying.
A video of the intervention posted on social networks has been viewed more than 64,000 times, scandalizing many people, including the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante.
In an independent investigation report requested by the board of directors of the STM for transparency purposes, lawyer Marco Gaggino concludes that the agents used “reasonable, necessary and compliant” force to try to control the culprit.
Strong intervention in Outremont
At the beginning of November, agents from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) intervened in the borough of Outremont, to subdue a man in crisis.
In a video relayed on social networks, we can see a man surrounded by four agents who end up spraying him with cayenne pepper and pointing a Taser gun.
Victim of racial profiling in Repentigny
In July 2017, Leslie Blot was inflating toys for her children, using a pump plugged into the cigarette lighter of her friend’s car, in front of her residence in Repentigny.
A car patrol then made three round trips before calling him out and asking him to identify himself. The reason given: his car was registered in Laval.
“They pushed me around. I had a sprained foot. They gave me tickets. Then they released me, ”said the man, who was handcuffed in front of his family and children.
Mr. Blot, who himself filmed the intervention, says he had already been arrested by the police in Repentigny.
Last summer, the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ) ordered the City of Repentigny to pay Leslie Blot $ 38,400 because he was the victim of racial profiling.
One knee on the neck
Last June, an SPVM agent was filmed apprehending a young black man using the same intervention tactics that killed African-American George Floyd in May 2020: a knee to his neck.
In an interview with TVA Nouvelles, the SPVM said it was concerned about the images, “but what you have to say is that you have to take a step back and realize that you don’t have all the information. on this video because it is partial ”.
Number 728 and the “guitar strummers”
This story is dated, but you have surely not forgotten it. In the middle of Maple Spring, a video of the former policewoman Stéfanie Trudeau, better known as Matricule 728, had caused a lot of reaction.
We saw her arrest a man, Rudi Ochietti, while he was drinking a beer on the sidewalk, in front of the residence of her friend Serge Lavoie, in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough. She had grabbed him by the neck and later called him “guitar strummers” and “red square ostia”.
Last March, she was finally dismissed by the Police Ethics Committee, more than five years after retiring.