Two Black youngsters who allege Montreal cops kneeled on their necks throughout a violent arrest in June 2021 have launched a $150,000 lawsuit in opposition to the police service and accused the officers of racial profiling.
One of many police interventions was captured on video and circulated broadly on-line final summer season and drew heavy criticism from the general public and even Premier François Legault.
The assertion of declare, filed in Superior Court docket final December, claims damages on behalf of the teenagers and their households and accuses the officers concerned of utilizing “extreme and unreasonable pressure.” The 2 boys, who had been 15 on the time of the incident, can't be named due to their age.
The lawsuit reveals publicly for the primary time that there have been allegedly two cases of police kneeling on the boys’ necks in separate incidents close to the nook Rousselot and Jarry streets.
“When the plaintiffs left college that day they actually didn't count on to be unjustifiable assaulted by cops,” the lawsuit alleged.
“They anticipated even final that the Montreal cops could be kneeling on them in 2021 within the wake of the occasions surrounding the loss of life of George Floyd.”
Not one of the allegations within the lawsuit have been confirmed or examined in court docket.
Based on the lawsuit, within the lead-up to the June 10, 2021 arrests, one of many teenagers was strolling to fulfill a bunch of pals close to his college when he noticed an officer working after one other particular person after which grabbing him. The teenager plaintiff wasn’t concerned and was crossing the road when abruptly officers ran in his path, “brutally” detained him, and put him in handcuffs.
One of many officers allegedly put his knee on his neck whereas his bag was being searched. “Upon arrest, [the teen] didn't resist and made it clear to the officers that they had been hurting him,” the lawsuit alleged.
After a while, the officers put him in a cruiser and had been requested by the teenager why he was being arrested, to which one of many officers allegedly responded, “I don’t reply to morons.”
The teenager was charged with jaywalking and obstructing a police officer, all of that are nonetheless being contested in court docket.
In one other incident close by on the identical afternoon, cops pursued one other group of youngsters close to a bus shelter. Through the intervention, a police officer pushed a teen into the bus cease and began looking out his bag, the lawsuit alleged.
One of many teenagers didn't consent to having his bag searched and tried to drag it again when he was tackled to the bottom by two officers.
“For fairly a while and with none purpose, one of many officers held a heavy stress on the again of [his] neck whereas he had his face on the bottom” and the repositioned himself by “placing his knee on the again of [his] neck with nearly his full weight,” the assertion of declare alleged.
Law enforcement officials Samuel Lalonde, Simon-Pierre Lemieux, officer “Lacombe” (whose first identify was not revealed), and the Metropolis of Montreal are named as defendants within the lawsuit.
The lawsuit stated the ordeal has additionally taken a toll on the boy’s mother and father who're initially from Haiti and “by no means thought that by coming to Quebec their kids could possibly be victims of such an assault,” in response to the lawsuit.
Reached for touch upon Friday, the boys’ lawyer, Fernando Belton, stated the behaviour of the police concerned was unacceptable.
“White youngsters aren't handled that approach by cops. My purchasers need to get reparation for the hurt that has been finished to them but in addition ship a powerful message to the police and town that violence in opposition to black kids is completely unacceptable and so they have to be held accountable,” he stated in a press release to CTV Information.
“My purchasers are recovering from each their bodily and psychological accidents they suffered from that intervention.”
The kids are additionally searching for a everlasting injunction to forestall Montreal police from kneeling on the necks of minors to restrain them, “besides when the state of affairs includes a hazard of significant bodily damage or loss of life for any particular person concerned.”
Montreal police on Friday declined to touch upon the lawsuit because the case is earlier than the court docket.
In an e mail to CTV Information final June following the incident, Montreal police stated on the time that, “though the neck management approach isn't concerned on this state of affairs, it needs to be famous that it's a part of the Nationwide Use of Power Mannequin” that's taught at Quebec’s policing college, the École nationale de police du Québec (ÉNPQ).
“Utilized in a selected context and below particular circumstances, it permits for the management of a suspect with a vastly lowered threat of damage, in comparison with using some intermediate weapons,” the e-mail said.
With recordsdata from CTV Montreal's Selena Ross
A Montreal Police badge is proven throughout a information convention in Montreal, Monday, October 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
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