Lawyer says Regent Park youth were racially profiled by police

Jaywalking tickets issued by police in Regent Park are raising allegations of racial profiling, and a lawyer says part of an interaction captured on camera proves it.

“So I walked into a case of racial profiling, where the police followed a group of black kids and profiled them,” lawyer Selwyn Pieters can be heard saying in a video that’s been posted online.

The video was shot at the intersection of Dundas and Sackville Streets on June 17. Pieters said he approached the four teens, while their identification was being checked by police officers shortly after 10 p.m. because they “disobeyed the walk sign.”

“They’re giving the kids tickets for crossing on the red light and a group of white people crossed on the red light and nothing happened,” said Pieters.

“The police wanted to know who those young people know,” he said. “Basically, they wanted to card these young people, but the way they did it, they did it in a manner that completely violated their human rights code.”

It’s unclear what happened prior to the cameras rolling, but the teens and a few other witnesses can be heard making claims they had been followed.

“They’ve been following us since over there,” a voice can be heard saying.

The video also shows several police officers on bikes and a cruiser stopped at the intersection. What it doesn’t show is people of other races jaywalking, which Pieters say he and others clearly saw.

“The youth said they were followed by police and … that occurs frequently to them. So in this case the police followed them, as soon as police found an excuse to stop them and detain them, they did,” Pieters said. “White people were doing the same thing they allege that the youths should be ticketed for, and nothing happened to those people.”

The Toronto Police Service said officers have been patrolling the area as part of ongoing summer safety initiatives.

“The officers are tasked with creating a highly visible presence that deters violent crime, while engaging with those members of the community that are known to them. On this day, they were on patrol when they engaged with a group for disobeying the Highway Traffic Act. Three people were given Provincial Offence Tickets for crossing against the red light,” the statement read.

CityNews showed the video to the president of the Toronto Police Association, who said this wasn’t a case of racial profiling and posting the video is irresponsible.

“This is the problem that we have in policing. People come into an interaction between police and somebody in the public and they jump to these assumptions and they post video and call it racial profiling without understanding the context, the investigation and what is going on there,” said Mike McCormack.

Pieters tells CityNews the incident disappointed him, particularly because this could’ve been a more positive interaction.

“Those officers had a great opportunity to engage with two influencers who live in the community and who are black, he said. “From the video, they’ve left the wrong impression, that you can’t trust them to interact properly with people when the public relations lens is on.”