WARMINGTON: Was Toronto cyclist takedown good policing or police going too far?
· Toronto Sun
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When police officers tell you to pull over and you don’t, has it ever worked out well?
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Did this cyclist get what he deserved? Or did Toronto Police go too far in this dramatic two-wheel takedown?
There are different points of view. But one thing everybody understands is whether it’s on 18 wheels, four wheels, two wheels, or two feet, police are going to use their authority if you try to flee from them no matter what mode of transpiration you are using.
Trying to “flee” from police is what is being alleged here.
How many cops does it take to arrest a cyclist allegedly running a stop sign and also from them? A viral video on social media, captured in the Queen’s Quay and Bathurst St. area at 6:27 p.m. on Sunday, May 31 shows four.
Appropriate? Too many? There is no middle ground. People are entrenched in their views.
“We have video of what appears to be multiple Toronto Police officers tackling, pinning down, and arresting a cyclist during a TPS stop sign trap on the Martin Goodman Trail this weekend,” said the “Biking Lawyer” David Shellnutt, who so far is not representing the accused.
Shellnutt said that the cyclist asked, “What did I do wrong?”
An officer, he said, replied, “You didn’t stop.”
From there, the video shows three officers on top of the rider with a fourth officer assisting them. You can hear shrieks of discomfort. Officers will support each other when they are having difficulty gaining control of a person they are arresting.
Shellnutt, however, tells the Toronto Sun that if all of this was for a stop sign violation, “this is a grossly excessive use of force for a traffic infraction in an area that has a poorly placed stop sign and should be a yield” and “we call upon Mayor Olivia Chow and (local) Councillor Ausma Malik to look into this.”
What Toronto Police said
In an X post, TPS said , “P olice were conducting cyclist stop sign enforcement in the area of Queens Quay West and Little Norway Crescent. The Division had numerous community complaints regarding cyclists failing to obey the posted stop sign at the intersection. Officers observed a male cyclist travelling eastbound on Queens Quay West fail to stop for the clearly marked stop sign.”
TPS added that “officers directed the cyclist to stop. The cyclist proceeded through the intersection at a high rate of speed and shouted a profanity at officers as he passed. A second officer again directed the cyclist to stop; however, the cyclist refused and attempted to flee from police. The cyclist was subsequently arrested and issued three provincial offence notices.”
Const. Laura Brabant tells the Toronto Sun that the cyclist received citations under the Highway Traffic Act for “failure to stop, failure to identify, and disobey stop sign” but “we only name the accused if the charge is criminal, not provincial.”
It’s difficult for officers to make an arrest of someone on a moving bike. And while there has been no evidence shown so far that this particular cyclist broke any rules, certainly there are many people on bikes who routinely violate the law, plow through stops signs and stop lights, and express anger through profanity toward pedestrians and motorists.
This is why police were asked by the community to conduct this enforcement. Cyclists can be a menace and are used to having the law apply to them. This time it was. When police ask you to pull over — in a car, truck or on a bike or motorcycle — and you don’t do it, there may be action taken. Officers have a job to do and it’s not easy.
Was the arrest too forceful?
So, police doing enforcement is a legitimate pursuit. And maybe it’s time for a cyclist to face the weight of the law, which is tasked to make sure pedestrians and others are safe. That said, Shellnutt argues “using force in this manner to a hit a cyclist off their bike for a traffic infraction is incredibly dangerous and a possible example of excessive force.”
He added, “In Ontario, an officer cannot hit you off your bike unless your actions pose an immediate, severe threat to public safety, justifying the use of physical force. This does not appear to be the case here.”
It’s a great debate. This accused was not charged criminally with resisting arrest. Perhaps the good that could come out of this is the much-needed conversation about making all cyclists who use the roadways and bike lanes be licensed? There also needs to be discussion of banning unlicensed electric or motorist bikes and scooters from sidewalks, designated bike routes, and roads.
While Shellnutt , who is just doing his job as a lawyer and like the officers doesn’t deserve scorn for doing it, said, “Admittedly we can’t see the initial infraction but do receive confirmation the arrest was due to this person not stopping, nothing is said about officer or public safety. There does not appear to have been anyone hit by this cyclist.”
Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association, defended his officers’ actions.
“With the information we have, we believe our members were lawfully entitled to use the amount of force necessary to bring the situation under control,” Campbell said, noting cyclists need to obey the law, “which includes obeying all traffic signs and stopping when ordered to do by police. In this case, that did not happen.”
He added: “Our advice to all road users is simple: when an officer tells you to stop, stop.”
There are many loose ends. We just don’t know the full story. All perspectives deserve a fair hearing. It would also be helpful to find other camera angles. This could, perhaps, fill in the blanks of what we don’t see in the first video. Without that, it’s hard to make a decision if this was over-the-top policing or excellent policing. On cycling issues, it seems, there will be no convincing either side that there is any nuance.
But one thing that won’t change is that when the cops ask you to stop, it is never a good idea to not comply.