SQ

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

He might have a few bruises on him tomorrow. Have a good evening” an SQ officer allegedly said sarcastically and grinning to a distressed mother who just picked up her teenage son following an arrest.

The day started with Marco, 17, (fictitious name to protect his identity) volunteering at the Pincourt Firefighters day. It is an annual event where families from all municipalities on Île-Perrot island get together to celebrate alongside local firefighters. Marco is a player on a local football team, has no criminal record, and comes from a strict Italian family.

That day, he was in charge of peeling corn in the hot sun all day long in service of his community.

In an interview with The Suburban, Marco and his parents, visibly shocked days later, review the events of August 9.

“I was in constant contact with him throughout the day. I made an exception for him to stay out a little later for the fireworks seeing as there were police everywhere on that day for the festivities. I thought he would be more safe,” Marco’s mother explains. She pauses sobbing. “I was so, so wrong.”

Marco and his six friends were walking on a “safe” suburban street where many police cars were present nearby the festivities. Shortly before midnight, he touched base with his mother, who texted or called him about every 30 minutes throughout the day.

Just after midnight, Marco and his friends — while passing by some police cars on their walk — jokingly made hand gestures towards them that they saw on Tik Tok, a common gesture seen at many protests against police violence that shows one hand covering the other hand that “would have” the middle finger pointed up.

Marco was shocked when a police officer jumped out of the car suddenly to confront him. “She was a big lady and very aggressive, getting in my face, yelling, I could barely understand what she was saying,” he said to The Suburban. “I don’t really understand French,” he said to the officer at which point according to Marco, the officer got even closer to him in what Marco describes as a rage. “I just started to run because I thought she was going to hit me and I just wanted to get to a safe distance away from her so I can show that my hands were up. I was scared that if I did that while she was standing too close to me like that — she would have attacked me.”

A second officer with his taser in hand, along with the female officer, can be seen on video footage obtained by The Suburban, chasing after him across the street, dozens of metres from where he was confronted. Once he reached the other side of the road, Marco stopped voluntarily, putting his hands up. The male officer tackled him to the ground, and sat on his back while he proceeded to handcuff him. The female officer stuck her knee onto his neck and can be seen pushing his head into the ground. The force caused his glasses to break while he was wearing them. The male officer can then be seen bouncing on his back. “I was in so much pain in so many different places,” Marco said.

The video clearly shows that Marco voluntarily stopped with his hands up and did not resist the arrest.

Other officers rushed over to the group standing and filming, flashing their lights at their phones to block images being recorded. The male officer, after threatening to pepper spray the teens filming, tells a group of several officers to “Get this trash out of here”. Police told them to leave as they continued filming across the street, warning that if they did not, they would be given tickets for loitering.

At the station, Marco was allegedly told: “You are lucky we did not bring the K9’s out. They like blood.”

Originally, when Marco’s mother arrived at the station to pick him up, she was told by officers that he was simply arrested and that “nobody touched him.” She double-checked, just by maternal instinct. Feeling reassured, she left with her son. But as soon as Marco got into the car and felt safe to speak, he broke down, telling his parents, “They hurt me bad.”

One of the officers said they arrested him because they had to double check that he was not in a gang. He has no criminal record and goes to church regularly with his family where he also volunteers to help feed needy families.

Marco’s mother is left thinking, “What about kids with less support at home who rely on authorities to protect them? They see this and think they have no one to turn to for help. I can’t imagine what they go through.”

There was also a Black teen arrested at the scene for “Failure to identify himself.” Police did not believe the name that he gave them as it is a traditional Italian name. That teen’s father showed up at the scene, finding his son handcuffed in a police vehicle, demanding to have him released and succeeded.

The family spoke to the station commander on August 12, but felt their complaint was not taken seriously. On August 13, the family filed an official complaint with the Police Ethics Commissioner.

Meanwhile, the family waits to know if the crown will retain the report for fleeing police and whether or not he will be charged. At present, he has two tickets for insulting a police officer and for consuming alcohol.

“I had a couple of beers that day, much earlier on and I was not drunk or anywhere near being drunk,” Marco explains.

The mother of another teen present during what she refers to as “the attack” told The Suburban, “This will affect their trust in police for the long term. And ours. Things like this hurt everyone in the community.”

The Suburban reached out to the Quebec Provincial police (SQ) who stated that they we’re unable to comment before press time. n