Montreal police are opening an administrative investigation after a video showing a man mistakenly arrested and handcuffed went viral.
• Read also: No keys to free a handcuffed innocent
“We are sensitive to the upheaval and the emotion experienced by the citizen as well as the reactions aroused by the event”, wrote the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) on Twitter on Saturday.
The move came 24 hours after police said the investigation was now complete.
On Thursday, two car theft investigators approached a Honda CRV in the Central Market parking lot as it showed signs of attempted theft.
While their analysis was in progress, a man approached claiming it was his car, and he was handcuffed.
In a six-minute video that has gone around social networks, the citizen strongly denounces police practices.
Racial profiling?
“It’s because I’m black, what is it? [C’est] a vehicle that I bought and you come to tell me that it is a stolen vehicle “, can we hear in particular.
Although investigators quickly identified the man as the owner of the vehicle, he could not be released because the two investigators did not have the key to the handcuffs. Agents had to be called to come and carry the key.
“It was racial profiling that caused moral harm to my person, I was traumatized,” said the man in an interview with CBC who preferred to conceal his identity the day after the video was broadcast.
The head of public security on the executive committee, Alain Vaillancourt, had earlier asked the SPVM to shed light on these “disturbing images”.
“A situation like the one experienced by this citizen affects the feeling of trust between the police and our Montreal communities,” he said.
This reaction, however, aroused the ire of the Montreal Police Brotherhood.
“Elected officials should refrain from sharing their impressions of the character of a police operation until all the facts are known to them,” the union countered.