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CALGARY – Calgary Police say officers were justified in striking an “extremely intoxicated” man who was resisting arrest in the city’s southwest on Monday afternoon.
Amateur cellphone video sent to Global News shows a number of officers repeatedly striking a man outside Jameson’s Pub at 1230 17 Avenue S.W. around 4 p.m. on Monday. Police say they were called by staff after two men failed to pay a tab of over $100 worth of food and alcohol. By the time officers arrived, police said one man had left and the other was sitting on a bench in front of the pub.
Calgary Police Acting Inspector Kyle Grant said officers approached him, let him know he was under arrest for meal fraud and attempted to place handcuffs on him. Grant said the man pulled away, clenching his fists and arms within his body. Police then deployed pepper spray, but say the man continued to resist arrest.
“He also began to verbally insult the officers, threaten the officers, at which time some approved strikes were used by our officers to try and gain compliance to be able to get the arms behind his back in an effort to handcuff him,” said Grant. Additional officers arrived and were able to move the suspect to the ground, where Grant said he refused to remove his arms from under his body.
“From a public’s perspective, it probably seems—I don’t want to say excessive—but that’s the word that I’m sure the public would use.”
He said the officers filed a report of the incident, which has been cleared by the review board, and believes the officers were justified in their use of force.
“Through our training it’s something that we do kind of hard and fast to make sure that the situation is as short as possible,” said Grant. “If the situation is as short as possible, that is the safest for everybody involved, including the individual being arrested.”
Grant said the man was verbally aggressive prior to officers arriving on scene. He said the approved strikes were on the “side of the face to neck area” where police are trained to hit in order to gain compliance due to the way it affects the muscle.
“Any time that you’re dealing with somebody who’s extremely intoxicated or drug-induced, a lot of times those can be ineffective or less effective than with a sober individual, and it just comes down to brute force that we need to apply to make things as short as possible,” said Grant.
“He probably did [receive] some scrapes or probably bruises from the altercation, but he dictated how that went due to his non-compliance.”
Grant said EMS officers cleared him medically on scene, and the man was charged with one count of meal fraud as well as resisting or obstructing arrest.
When asked if incidents such as this could be better captured by police-worn body cameras, Grant said they are “coming” and will be a “great tool” to add additional perspective, including multiple angles and audio of aggression from suspects or commands from police.
“In a lot of ways it will be helpful … but we are not seeing that as the be all, end all that will stop everything.”
Global News has contacted the person who submitted the video, and is waiting to hear back.
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