Open in full screen mode Kane Niyondagara said Ottawa police shocked him with a taser during a chase. (Archive photo) Radio-Canada Voice synthesis, based on artificial intelligence, allows you to generate spoken text from written text. The heavy-handed arrest of an innocent Burundian mistaken for a wanted suspect has sparked outrage and warnings of the risk of a deterioration in relations within the Ottawa Police Service with various black communities, according to observers. The event also highlights the seriousness of split-second decisions made by police officers in unstable conditions, according to a former police officer. The president of the Alliance of Burundians of Canada, Martine Rita Sabushimike, calls for a public apology, better training and consequences for the officers who arrested Kane Niyondagara on February 16. He is traumatized, his family is traumatized, our community is traumatized, says Ms. Sabushimike. Kane Niyondagara said Ottawa police shocked him with a taser during a chase after he was punched and kicked. foot on the ground during his arrest. The police intervention was partly filmed, and a paramedical call report confirms several elements of his story. Loading ELSEWHERE ON INFO: Immigration and health: the PQ proposes a common front, the PLQ refusesLoading in progress ELSE ON NEWS: Immigration and health: the PQ proposes a common front, the PLQ refuses Ms. Sabushimike talks about racial profiling and another example in Canada that has similarities to the George Floyd case in the United States. Mr. Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes during an arrest. The president of the Alliance of Burundians of Canada, Martine -Rita Sabushimike, says her community is “traumatized” by what happened. The president of the black defense group North-South development, Roots and Culture Canada, César Ndema-Moussa, believes that the story of Mr. Niyondagara brings back questions the idea that Canada is welcoming to newcomers. I am outraged. We talk about fairness, but such events are part of a long list of scandalous acts committed against black people, their bodies and their minds, he denounces. . Mr. Niyondagara said police held his face in the snow while pinning him to the ground, making it difficult for him to breathe. Mr. Ndema-Moussa considers this to be a form of humiliation which adds insult to injury. Why push the person's face into the snow when they are already under control?, asks Mr. Ndema-Moussa.
Immigration and health: the PQ proposes a common front, the PLQ refuses
Immigration and health: the PQ proposes a common front, the PLQ refuses
Cesar Ndema Moussa, president of the black advocacy group North-South Development, Roots and Culture Canada (Archive photo)
The police provided little information to defend their actions, other than that they were responding to a report of a wanted person. She admits that the officers arrested the wrong person, but notes that Mr. Niyondagara got away. He was released unconditionally after police learned his identity.
The former Ottawa Police Service detective sergeant ( OPS), Gregory Brown, says it's important to keep in mind the level of threat officers would have perceived – even if wrongly – when pursuing a person wanted for a crime serious.
Although police did not confirm who they were looking for, Mr Niyondagara said police questioned him about the murder. a person named Gibriil.
Police were looking for Gibriil Bakal, another black man who had no connection to Mr. Niyondagara . Mr. Bakal is wanted for murder in connection with a January shooting.
It appears the police were looking for a murder suspect…presumably the person is armed and dangerous. When an individual flees, it is behavior which corresponds to that of a guilty person […], which would not fail to arouse the concern of the police and enhance officer safety considerations, said Brown, now an adjunct professor in the sociology department at Carleton University.
He acknowledges that it would be inappropriate to kick a person if they were lying on the ground, but adds that there might be others pieces of the puzzle that could explain why officers used force that morning.
Mr. Brown argues that Ontario's use of force model allows for the application of distraction blows, that is, causing pain in a certain part of the body, to divert the attention of someone who [resists arrest].
In the brief video of Mr. Niyondagara's arrest, an officer is heard shouting what sounds like put your hands up now!.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">I am not the sole judge of these matters, but in my opinion it would be entirely appropriate for an officer to kick someone who conceals their hands and refuses to ;obey [by refusing to show] his hands to the officer, argues Mr. Brown.
But others do not see no excuse for the way Mr. Niyondagara was treated. University of Toronto criminologist Scot Wortley says police are supposed to show restraint. The fact that Mr. Niyondagara ran makes no difference to this expert.
This may explain some of the behavior, but I'm not sure it justifies it. The excuse of the leak is no longer validated by the court. The police therefore cannot shoot at someone, hit them with [an electric shock gun] or hit them because they leave the scene, he says.
Mr. Wortley said there are relatively few studies on the role of ethnicity in police use of force. He is the author of two studies: one for the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the other for the Ipperwash inquiry.
Scot Wortley, criminologist at the University of Toronto (Archive photo)
He adds that all recent data suggests there is a gross overrepresentation of black people in police use of force cases. In Ottawa, 2022 police statistics show that about 25% of people against whom police used force were Black, while Black people make up about 8% of the city's population.
Wortley said some believe police officers perceive a higher level of threat when dealing with young black men, even though Recent events do not confirm this.
As a result, the use of force may be more rapid or sometimes unjustified. This is an important question: the existence or not of hyper-vigilance which can lead to forms of racism, he affirms.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">Mr. Wortley says there was a clear lack of transparency in cases of use of force.
I think we need to change the scenario if we want improvements to be made in the future, otherwise we will continue to have these two isolated and polarized groups.
A quote from Scot Wortley, criminologist at the ;University of Toronto
Acting General Counsel of the Black Legal Action Centre, Danette Edwards, notes that Niyondagara's experience puts highlights the systemic problems plaguing policing in Canada and elsewhere. According to her, it is not surprising that he fled the police.
When you are innocent, sometimes your instincts push you to act. I think that arrest after arrest, we learn that we can't trust the police, that we can't trust them to treat us humanely, she says.
According to Ms. Edwards, police violence creates trauma in black communities. They fuel distrust of black people and the differential treatment that black people, especially black men, face when walking down the street, she said.
Kane Niyondagara confided that the police held his face in the snow while pinning him to the ground, which which prevented him from breathing. (File photo)
Edwards says police should be better trained in de-escalation techniques and address systemic bias.
Gregory Brown, a former detective sergeant with the Ottawa Police Service, shares this opinion.
In my opinion, the training in Ontario is very insufficient, regrets he, describing the number of on-the-job training as negligible.
Mr Brown adds that this case provides an important lesson about how people should react when approached by police, even if they are innocent.
If the police ask you to do something, comply with their requests. If you are wrongly arrested by the police, you may spend a few hours in jail, but get a good lawyer, file a complaint, sue the police… but don't run away.
A quote from Gregory Brown, former detective sergeant with the Ottawa police
The OPS said late Monday afternoon that& #x27;he had no further comments to make on this matter at this time. The Ottawa Police Services Board, the administrator mandated to oversee the OPS, however, made a statement.
The Commission expects members of the Service to comply with all applicable policies and procedures when interacting with the public and to maintain the highest standards of professionalism, may read in a statement sent by email from the President of the Commission, Salim Fakirani.
It is a priority for us to deal quickly and transparently with incidents who do not meet these expectations in order to maintain public trust, he recommends.
Mr. Fakirani confirms that a board meeting scheduled for next week will be an opportunity to ask questions and obtain clarification from the OPS.
With information from ArthurWhite-Crummey, ofCBCNews