“Look at me. I’m a normal guy.” It’s a simple, gut-wrenching plea by a teen captured on video in February. They looked at him, but I don’t know what TTC fare inspectors and Toronto police saw. Part of the video of a violent takedown captured on YouTube shows 19-year-old John Doe crying desperately while pinned to the ground by three men in TTC fare inspector uniforms. “I’m hurting, I’m hurting,” and “I’ve done nothing wrong.” When Toronto Police officers arrive, they swarm the scene, keeping him down and then haul him up to take him to the cruiser and handcuff him. At one point there appear to be at least seven men piled on to him. Such excessive force. Why? Nobody knows. He was unarmed. He was already pinned down by three grown men. He wasn’t in any position to run. Why was he caught in the first place? Nobody knows. “Look at me. I’m a normal guy.” They looked, and perhaps they saw the “wrong” skin colour. A skin colour that translates into danger not innocence. Young John Doe, who is Black, certainly thinks so, which is why he and his mother launched a lawsuit this week, seeking more than $3 million in damages from the Toronto Police Services Board, the Toronto Transit Commission, two unidentified police officers and three unidentified TTC fare inspectors. The lawsuit alleges racial profiling, assault, unlawful detention and negligence among others. John Doe, a student of paralegal studies also working as a food courier, was just another guy on the 512 St. Clair streetcar preparing to exit at Bathurst St. when he was grabbed.“He was suddenly and without warning attacked and thrown to the ground by TTC fare inspectors despite crying for help, held there, not told what was happening,” said Hugh Scher, one of his lawyers. There was never any indication that the fare hadn’t been paid. And he had paid, Scher said. Nor was he charged with any ...
|
