Cops in Canada spent several minutes wrestling with a woman as several citizens stood around recording with their cameras, criticizing the officers’ aggressive tactics.
By the time they finally managed to stick the woman in the back of the car, around the 4:30 mark, one of the officers turns to the crowd and instead of demanding their cameras as evidence, gives a full explanation as to what just had taken place.
Surreal.
It was so unexpected, that the video so far has received more than 133,000 views since it was posted yesterday.
The officers were from the Hamilton Police Department in Ontario. The girl was being arrested for shoplifting.
She put up one hell of a fight, so be prepared for a continuous and annoying stream of shrieks throughout the first 4:30 minutes of the video.
Perhaps they did not want to receive the backlash that Montreal police received last month where a video emerged showing cops pouncing on a man because he had photographed their car as they were writing him a parking citation.
Whatever the cop’s reasons, it was a refreshing example of transparency rarely seen in the United States.
In fact, Hamilton Police Chief Glenn de Caire is receiving praise from all over the world.
According to the CBC:
With a crowd watching, Hamilton police officers Mark Morelli and Chantelle Wilson spend several minutes subduing and arresting a woman who is screaming and calling out about being hurt as they try to handcuff her. Once she’s in handcuffs and in the back of their police cruiser, the breathless officer then explains to the crowd exactly what he was doing.
“Our domestic policy is very specific. Without going into detail, this young woman has broken the law, and we were attempting to place her under arrest and she began to resist,” he said to the people watching. “I’m doing my best not to hurt that girl. Our mandate is to affect arrests while doing the minimum amount of damage to people as possible. And that’s what I tried to do.”
He explains that he only used “soft hand techniques,” so no punches, kicks or forceful throws to the ground were used to subdue the suspect.
“I’m not going to get into a long wrestling match with a young girl, because the longer she fights, the more likely one of the two of us is going to get hurt,” he said.
The man shooting the video questions the amount of force being used, but the officer reiterates again his approach.
“While it may appear to be very rough to you — and I apologize for you having to see that — but I have the lawful authority to arrest her and I am obligated to arrest her.”
Many people online praised the officers for the way they handled the situation.
Hamilton police Chief Glenn De Caire said he was “very pleased with the amount of communication from our officers,” and how the officers chose to restrain the suspect. He added “this is clearly a display of excellent training.”
De Caire said he first saw the video Thursday morning and that the Hamilton police department has received over a thousand calls and emails of support, some from as far as Australia, the U.S. and Europe.
Hopefully police will see that a little transparency goes a long way.
Here’s their contact info if you want to send them a message.
