Montreal police (SPVM) announced they are investigating after a video of two officers began circulating on social media. The TikTok video shows one police officer apparently pushing a homeless man to the ground in a Chinatown alleyway on Thursday.
Bader Niang, the man in the video, nearly fell into a concrete block. He tells Global News he’s “lucky” it was a close call.
“If my head were hurt, maybe I’d be dead,” he said.
The 30-year-old homeless man often shelters in the Chinatown alleyway where a witness shot the video.
Niang moved to Canada from Senegal seven years ago for school. He said he stays on a mattress covered by wooden crates with other people from Senegal because it’s warm.
“I don’t like to be alone,” adding “I find people from my country, I stay with.”
He claims two officers woke him up Thursday and said it was time to leave.
“I take time for wakeup, put my shoes and go, but this guy starts to argue with me and the second guy, the tall one, came and hurt me,” he said.
Montreal police declined a Global News’ interview request. In a tweet they write they are aware of the video, and after preliminary analysis the SPVM is launching an investigation.
Despite the altercation, Niang said “I don’t hate police,” but added the two officers in question “are not good cops.”
“I have a lot of police who come here, talk to me like a friend, I talk to them. We have good relations with each other,” he said.
Welcome Hall Mission’s CEO Sam Watts said when he first saw the video he thought “this can’t be Montreal.”
The non-profit community organization partners with the police to help vulnerable Montrealers. Watts said the officers’ actions are an exception.
“They normally do a great job of seeking to understand and then working with us to help people who are in difficulty. So my first reaction was this seems completely out of character,” he told Global News.
Old Brewery Mission trains police cadets about the realities of homeless people. CEO James Hughes said the “appalling” behaviour shown in the video is contrary to what police are trained to do.
“They need to be approached and interacted with — with the kind of humanity and sensitivity that we would expect from all of us. And the police know that, the police are trained in that,” said Hughes.
According to Niang, he is still recovering from the altercation, mentally and physically, with scrapes on his knees to show for it.
He hopes his experience will teach all police officers to treat everyone with respect.
“Police have to help people, not hurt people,” he said.