Toronto police officer punched man he carded in a case of ‘street justice,’ judge finds

A Toronto cop doled out illegal “street justice” to a black man who’d done nothing wrong, a judge has found.

Superior Court Justice Frederick L. Myers censured the officer who stopped, carded, punched, searched and detained the innocent man.

Myers, in a decision released Thursday, said the officer violated the man’s rights and shattered his faith in the rule of law.

Myers awarded Mutaz Elmardy $27,000 in damages based on the 2011 incident in Moss Park.

Elmardy was walking alone with his hands in his pockets when Const. Andrew Pak and his partner, identified in court documents only as Const. Poole, stopped and carded him, Myers found.

When Elmardy refused to co-operate, the officer punched him, handcuffed him, searched him and, literally, “put him on ice,” leaving him on the cold ground for 20 minutes.

“One who is not being investigated for criminality is allowed to walk down the street on a cold night with his or her hands in the pockets and to tell inquisitive police officers to get lost without being detained, searched, exposed to sub-zero temperatures or assaulted,” wrote Myers. “It appears that none of Constable Pak, Constable Poole, or the other four officers who dropped by the scene knew this.”

The judge found Pak and Poole had no reason to suspect Elmardy of committing a crime and had no reason to arrest him. The judge found he was hostile and may have sworn at the officers, but, Myers wrote, that is not a crime.

“When one swears at a policeman, it is probably logical to expect a punch in the face.  Many would say that it is deserved.  But it is not,” he wrote. “The police deal with all manner of members of the public.  Each brings his or her own life and troubles, experiences and joys with him or her to each encounter.  Not all are polite.  No law says they have to be.”

But, the judge found: “Constable Pak took the law into his own hands and administered some street justice.”

Myers expressed “the court’s disapproval and shock” of the officers’ conduct in 2011, and their testimony during a trial earlier this year. He condemned the entire Toronto Police Service for the “contumelious disregard” of Elmardy’s rights.

The judge said he would make no findings about “the constitutionality or wisdom” regarding the process of “carding.”

“Whether carding is a useful policing policy or just serves to increase the risk of hostile interactions between police and innocent members of the public, as appears to have occurred in this case, is beyond my ken,” he wrote.

The judge said there was no evidence to prove that Elmardy had been racially profiled but did find the reason the officer gave for stopping Elmardy – the officer had a “hunch” that he was violating bail conditions, which was untrue – was “arbitrary at best.”

UPDATE: Toronto Police Service director of corporate communications Mark Pugash said Elmardy made an official complaint in this case, which was handled by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, the oversight agency responsible for complaints made about police in Ontario. The OIPRD investigated and found the was “unsubstantiated,” he said.

As for Myers’ judgement in the civil case, lawyers for the police are considering whether or not to appeal, Pugash said.

Original Article
Source: metronews.ca/
Author: Jessica Smith Cross