Hard takedown of rude 14-year-old for helmet & sidewalk riding violations
 

Welcome to Zero Toleranceland.

OK,,, so a take-down in the middle of the street seems bad enough for riding on the sidewalk with no helmet. But why was the cop just sitting on the kid?

While not using a helmet, and riding on the sidewalk, are both violations of the Motor Vehicle Act. That RCMP officer went way over top in their response. I was almost expecting the teen to be killed due to a serious head-injury from the RCMP officer's behavior.

I have a trip to Toronto planned for the family and I in two weeks. Good thing it's the middle of winter,,, no one will be tempted to ride any bikes.

RCMP do not have a presence in TO, and it is the RCMP who are the worst thugs in Canadian law enforcement, historically. RCMP are only around federal sites (like House of Commons in Ottawa) and in provinces where there is no provincial police force, and Ontario has the OPP.

And the injury would be blamed on not wearing a helmet. In fairness, if that's possible, I expect the violence was because the kid was rude, insolent and disobedient and not because of the actual violations. Lucky he wasn't shot.

We need to keep in mind that the "takedown" wasn't because of the violations, but because of what happened after the stop. An officer issuing a citation for an infraction is within his rights in insisting of your name and other identifying info. Refusal to provide that makes you liable to arrest.

This isn't to defend the cop, who clearly needs to learn about proportional response, and how to manage situations so they don't get out of hand. Rather than engage the youth in a physical attack, he might have called for backup, or at least called a supervisor for advice.

Sometimes cops need to be more creative when minor nonsense looks like it might spin out of control. In his shoes, I might have told the offender that is was no problem, I didn't need his name right now and he was free to go ----- without his bike, and he could reclaim his bike by coming to the station with his parents.

Years ago park police had a problem with mtn bikers riding in restricted areas and damaging trails in a large park. Citations didn't help, nor did frank conversations about erosion and the like and pleas to be cooperative and stick to the open trails. Eventually they came up with something that did work. The officers patrolled with enduro motorcycles and would stop offenders, and give them a choice of a big dollar fine or their front wheel, which was easy enough for them to carry back to the station, with a shoulder harness they had for the job.

It could be a long 2-5 mile hike, carrying your bike, to reclaim your wheel, which was cheerfully returned -- no citation -- and eventually the problem was solved.

Well that's a relief.

Not saying police are always right, but the are also not always wrong as it seems the sentiment is way too often here.

As usual we don't have the whole story and are still making rash judgements

Without the context of what happened before there is no way any rational judgement can me made. Did the kid swing at the mountie or otherswise provoke escalation?

How edited is the video? again we don't know, it could very well be edited to show a specific viewpoint.

There down with OPP [yeah you know me]

Nice to see Canada just as violent as the USA... well, they would have maced and beat the kid here. At least he gets some maple syrup in lockup.

This. Once again we have for the public a clip of part of the video that starts with the "perp" already on the ground with the cop attempting to restrain. We have no idea what led to the start of this clip that was cut out and shown. Sure gets all the uninformed in an uproar though.

It doesn't matter. There has to be a sense of proportionality to the underlying offense. Like you, I can't comment on the specific action because I don't know what happened immediately before. But even the official version says it started with a simple traffic stop over riding on the sidewalk without a helmet. Moreover the officer had to know it was a juvenile, so it's up to the police to explain how it got from A to B.

Just as we wouldn't condone a high speed car chase through downtown over a purse snatching, we need to be very wary of a traffic citation that ends up in a street brawl. Doesn't mean the kid is without blame, just that the officer has failed to manage a situation, which is part of his job description.

I don't know what happened before the video was started but from what I could tell in the video it looked like he was just restraining the kid, not excessive force in my opinion.

I don't disagree about what caused the RCMP officer's response. But to use an utterly strange analogy. In the movie 'Christine'(Keith Gordon, Harry Dean Stanton, Alexandre Paul). The car gets' revenge on anyone that has teased Keith Gordon's character. It seemed like, the RCMP officer was thinking, 'This kid is on bike. I can take him down. If he were in a car, I wouldn't have to'.

Even though the teen was was insolent and rude to the officer. The officer still went over the top. I have had to live with a brain injury all my life. But I wouldn't wish one on my worst enemy.

It's nice to know there are some people in law enforcement who can use their brains to solve problems and who are allowed to do so. I suspect they had a bit of fun with that strategy.

How can one form an opinion without the context of what prompted the use of force?

We're not in a position to do anything except voice an opinion. Nothing I say will affect the officer's job reviews, a possible civil award, or anything at all. Plus the officer and/or the PD can always provide their version of events and maybe provide the needed context or clarity.

OTOH - if nobody comments or raises questions, then there's no need for the PD to respond and provide the clarity the public is entitled to. So far we have the video shouting the outcome, and we base opinions on that. If/when more information comes out then we can adjust our opinions accordingly.

In all of this is the unstated preface --- Based on the facts as presented so far, I think.......

+1. There may be some other videos showing something else but all I saw was a calm officer sitting on a kid who allegedly wouldn't give his name and instead was verbally abusive.

If you don't want officers to sit on you, just give them your name when asked.

From what I've seen so far, any opinion of mine would be solely based on speculation, and my personal biases. I guess I rather look (and see whats really there) before I leap.

Personally, I've used more force to restrain a friend from getting into a bar fight, and the video looks like a mild event, but I'm seeing this from a ex-military and blue collar point of view.

Heh. The other day I saw a meme suggesting buttons that should be added to social media. One of those buttons was "They're."

This is a reasonable stance, but reason is never a significant factor in the court of social media fueled public opinion. Objectivity has given way to trendy outrage.

Given way? Was there ever a time that public opinion was formed through thorough and well informed analysis? Objectively, I don't think much has changed. We just hear more voices.

I think when media outlets were fewer we had an illusion of objectivity - the plethora of voices vying for our attention now seems to remind us that every one of them has their own agenda and perspective... reminds most of us, anyways - it is an easy trap for one to think that an information source that shares one's perspective is 'objective'.