A biracial couple says they have video showing their violent arrest did not go down the way police said it did, and they're filing a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission and the Police Ethics Commission.
At around 10 a.m. on the morning of April 7 — a Saturday morning — Brian Mann and Tayana Jacques were walking along St. Laurent Blvd. near Roy St. when they were stopped by police officers in a patrol car, allegedly for talking too loudly.
Mann then asked the officers if there was a law against laughing and was told police determined what sounds levels were acceptable.
The confrontation degenerated badly after that.
"They came out and pushed me onto the car, asked me for ID. They just kept on saying I had drugs on me," Jacques, who is black, told a news conference Tuesday at the headquarters of the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations. "They went through me, they were going through my clothes and I asked them to get a female police officer but they refused to."
ADVISORY: Video contains strong language.
Several more patrol cars arrived a few instants later, and at least six officers moved in on Mann — at which point a bystander began shooting the video.
Police insist the couple were combative and uncontrollable, justifying the force used. But Mann and Jacques say the video tells a much different story.
"They started jumping Brian, six of them, just attacked him on the floor," Jacques said. "It was excessive. He was bleeding. His face was smashed into the floor."
They were each given $444 tickets by police for noise violations, and also face criminal obstruction of justice charges. They're asking prosecutors to have those charges dropped.