A police intervention in the Saint-François district of Laval following a call from a neighbour has been causing a stir since Thursday evening. It shows young people with their arms raised facing several police officers, weapons drawn. Filmed and widely commented on Instagram, the incident has rekindled the debate on racial profiling. The police deny any link to skin colour.
Posted on the Instagram platform, the video is particularly striking. It shows a group of young people with their arms raised, facing several police officers who are pointing their weapons in their direction.
Although the police ultimately did not make any arrests, the video of the operation generated nearly 24,000 reactions on Instagram in less than 24 hours.
How did we get here ?
It all started Thursday evening, around 8 p.m., in the residential neighborhood of Saint-François. The Laval Police Department (SPL) was alerted by a woman from the neighborhood who claimed to have seen young people running around in possession of a firearm.
Following the procedure provided for in this type of situation, the SPL therefore dispatched three vehicles to the scene, five officers in total, in order to arrest the group.
A plastic weapon
The search carried out by the police officers yielded nothing. The ten young people, all minors, were indeed in possession of a weapon… but it ultimately turned out to be a fake plastic weapon.
According to Stencia Feliz, 25, sister of one of the arrested youths and who filmed the scene broadcast on Instagram, it was in fact a water pistol.
She denounces what she believes to be a clear case of racial profiling, since all the young people arrested are part of visible minorities.
“BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK! They traumatized the children, they all came back to my house and many were crying… I understand that the police want to do their job, but we agree that if it had been a gang of young white people things would not have happened like this!”, she wrote in the text accompanying the video.
“Traumatized” young people »
In interview with The dutyStencia Feliz admits that she does not understand “this way of doing things” on the part of the police.
She believes her brother and his friends were treated “like they were a street gang.”
“When the police intervened, I couldn’t breathe,” she said. She was trying to film the scene, against the police’s requests.
“I don’t blame the work of the police, but their way of doing things. Go and see people, talk to them… There is another way of doing things. We can act in a less traumatic way.”
Mme Lopez also claims that several young people were traumatized by the event.
Many were even in tears after the police left, she told the Duty.
Police deny racial profiling
Asked by The dutythe Laval Police Department confirmed the sequence of events. However, it was unable to confirm whether it was a water weapon or a simple plastic weapon.
Through the voice of Geneviève Major, in charge of public relations, the SPL claims to have followed the usual procedure in this type of situation.
“We can’t take any chances,” she explains, defending herself against any racial profiling on the part of the police services.
The young people were therefore not targeted at random but because they were in possession of a plastic weapon. According to her, the police intervention was triggered regardless of their skin colour.
“We are sensitive to these issues. These young people were not targeted because of the color of their skin but because of the presence of a weapon.”