Thr COVID Police State

Video of arrest at Calgary rink results in accusations of police ‘going overboard’

By Jill Croteau Global News

Posted December 18, 2020 7:27 pm

WATCH: A caught-on-tape encounter at a southwest Calgary rink is highlighting the stress and frustration around COVID-19. Police and bylaw officers came to disperse a group of young people they say were disobeying the regulations. As Jill Croteau reports, the situation exploded when one of the people involved was taken into custody.

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An arrest caught on camera has left one Calgary family wondering if police went too far. Twelve-year-old Rayan Sanoubar was skateboarding at a Southwood community rink and captured parts of the encounter on video.

It started on Thursday afternoon when bylaw officers responded to reports of 40-plus people crowding the Southwood community rink and skatepark.

“A peace officer came sat in this car and got out and… told skateboarders we have to go and [we’re] not allowed to be there and we all refused, and he called for backup for other police to come,” Sanoubar said.

The video shows one person down on the ground and several police officers around. The person in police custody is heard yelling profanities and said, “Where’s our freedom? These police are handcuffing me, we are outside.”

“They had him on the ground for six minutes, just frozen, cutting his skates off with a knife. They arrested him and threatened us saying, ‘We are going to give you tickets if you don’t walk away,'” Sanoubar said.

Corwin Odland, with CPS public affairs, said people refused to disperse from an outdoor skating area after being advised that they were violating public health orders.

“When our officers arrived, they spoke to the same people about the health orders and several left without incident,” Odland said.

“When told he was ticketed for not leaving, he refused to identify himself and skated away from the officers.”

Police said the individual refused to identify himself when asked to do so by an officer. He was charged with obstruction of justice.

>globalnews.ca/news/7531847/video-arrest-calgary-rink-police/