(Quebec) “They are supposed to protect us, not hit us,” says Pacifique Niyokwizera. The police intervention on the outskirts of the Dagobert early on Saturday traumatized him. The 18-year-old was pinned to the ground by three officers, grabbed by the throat and beaten up, according to his account.
“I can’t really move my jaw. I have pain in my ribs and knees. But things are better than yesterday, ”explained Pacifique Niyokwizera on Sunday afternoon.
Her face is still swollen, confirms her sister Jacqueline Niyokwizera at the end of the line in a muffled voice.
At around 3 a.m. on Saturday, when the bar on Grande Allée in Quebec City closed, an argument broke out. Security advised the occupants to evacuate the premises. Pacific, who claims not to have been directly involved in the confusion, but knows the person involved, was quick to go out with his group of friends. The police on the spot asked them to move away from the bar once outside. The group retorted that they were not doing anything wrong. The young adults were waiting for a friend to take them home.
“Some got angry, asked the police to explain why it was wrong to stay in the street,” said Pacifique Niyokwizera.
“They saw us in a gang and told us to get out. We were quiet waiting for our lift. We started filming them. Then they took out the cayenne pepper ”, maintains his friend Kalilou Barry, present that evening.
The tone rose. Pacific took out his cell phone to film a policeman arguing with a youngster. “He looked angry that I was filming. He said to me: “Come on, let’s talk.” ”
The officer pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him. The 18-year-old will end up badly beaten. “They were squeezing my throat. I couldn’t breathe anymore. ”
In a video provided by a witness, a police officer can be seen removing his cell phone and throwing him to the ground.
With a blistered face and blood on his left cheek, he was brought inside a patrol vehicle. The police then found his facial injuries and sore eye. “They saw my eye and they said, ‘Oh shit!’ ”
He was driven a few streets away, where he was asked to identify himself.
“They tell me: ‘Look, these things, go do this in Montreal. Go back to Montreal ”, continues the young man.
One of the police officers seemed surprised to learn that the young man had lived in the Limoilou district for eight years, explains the injured. His family moved to Quebec after fleeing a violent climate in Uganda.
The police released him. He found himself alone in the cold, without a coat.
“I didn’t have my cell phone and I lost my cards when they knocked me down. I didn’t know how to get home. ”
A chaotic scene
Malaurie and Raphaelle found themselves in front of a disturbing scene leaving the Dagobert, early Saturday. Their friends were crying and screaming, their eyes bruised with what appeared to be pepper spray.
“We just saw the group persisting with the police. They continued to spray the group of young blacks and it really pissed everyone off, ”Raphaelle explains. The two 18-year-olds prefer that their last name not be made public, for fear of reprisals. One of the witnesses filmed part of the intervention.
I am traumatized. I was afraid to see someone die.
Malaurie, witness to the police intervention
According to her, Pacific did not struggle once immobilized. “I said to him: ‘Let it go.’ The policeman told me to stop filming, that it was useless. In the video footage, which has been circulating on social networks, we can see a police officer kicking a young man while he is held down. One of them voluntarily covers his face with snow.
Further on, another teenage girl is immobilized by two officers, face down. A young woman begins to cry. A policeman tries to calm her down by telling her to “take it easy”, that there is no danger, says Malaurie. “But everyone was panicking. We were shaking and we were crying. ”
Investigation
The head of the Police Department of Quebec City (SPVQ), Denis Turcotte, pledged Sunday that the investigation into a muscular arrest involving young blacks be carried out “smoothly”.
A scuffle in a bar is at the origin of this police intervention, explains Mr. Turcotte. The argument continued outside, and in the face of the escalation, facility staff sought help from police patrolling the surrounding area.
He says he wants to get “clarification” on what happened that evening so that he can act if necessary.
According to the police chief, it is still too early to say whether sanctions will be taken against the police officers involved. “We are going to establish the role of each and every one. We will see everyone’s involvement. ”
The new mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, does not see the point of entrusting an investigation to another police force. “There are laws which govern in Quebec which investigations must be carried out by which police force”, he replied before reiterating his confidence in the SPVQ.
He repeated that he was shocked by the videos. He said he had a thought for the police officers who went to work the day after the outcry generated by the intervention.
For its part, the Fraternité des policières et policières de la Ville de Québec (FPPVQ) called on the public “to show reserve and wait until the full context of the intervention is known” before judging the actions of the police, in a statement.
“Such a montage only presents a short part of this police intervention, as is too often the case, ignoring all the events that required the presence” of the police on the scene, affirms the FPPVQ in the same document. .
Fear
Pacific Niyokwizera and his family want to forget the evening of November 26. But they also want justice to be done. “We are going to take legal action. He could have died, ”says his older sister Jacqueline Niyokwizera.
“I’m never going to see the police the same way again. It’s as if they’d put a label on me, as if I was dangerous, ”said the injured youngster, who added that he felt more fear than anger.
How can we justify the arrest of adolescents with such violence and such disregard for human dignity? A line has just been crossed.
Me Fernando Belton, who will represent the family in this case
Isidore Niyokwizera, 34, feared for his little brother last Saturday.
“I imagined him dead or in prison. We came to Quebec from Uganda as refugees. But since yesterday, we are afraid. I don’t know much about the police, but I know that is not normal. ”
Intervention denounced by the political class
“I have also taken note of the disturbing images of this arrest which are circulating on social networks. Light must be shed on this event, ”Prime Minister François Legault said on Twitter.
The videos of this muscular arrest “are difficult to watch,” denounced the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault.
The leader of the Liberal Party, Dominique Anglade, has called for an independent investigation.
“Everyone in Quebec, regardless of their skin color and age, has the right to be treated with dignity and respect by the police. This is not what I see in this video. Light must be shed on these disturbing events. Accountability and transparency, it starts now, ”said the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
“These images are disturbing. We must not tolerate that in Quebec. The Parti Québécois wants all of the light to be shed on this event as quickly as possible, ”declared Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
With Fanny Lévesque, Press