I am a witness to police abuse.
On Saturday afternoon between 5-6 (I didn’t check my watch) I was walking south on Avenue Road towards Bloor Street when I saw a line of riot police a few people deep formed in front of the ROM on Queen’s Park that extended all the way across the road. I overheard a passer by ask the police what was going on and he replied that there was a “riot” happening. I decided to follow this line of police as they slowly progressed down the street. I was among maybe 20-30 people who were not together in any sort of protest form and were not chanting or calling out to the police except perhaps in singular occasional voices, but just watching and following at a distance and very much separately from one another. As the police line came up to the West side behind Queen’s Park they stopped (which they had been doing periodically), but suddenly the police at the back of the formation turned and rushed the few people following closest to them. They managed to grab a couple of people, most of us got away. I focused my attention on the one person I could see clearly who was grabbed and thrown to the ground. The police beat him with a baton and kicked him repeatedly, then one of the police grabbed his pack sack, ripped it open spilling the contents on the ground and then kicked it across the grass leaving it there. They handcuffed the man on the ground and then dragged him off.
I then continued to walk around Queen’s Park on the East side and take part in the protest there where a friend was shot with a rubber bullet, and I saw another women lift up her shirt to reveal a severe bruise on the side of her waist from where she was grazed by a rubber bullet.
If the man who was arrested and beaten needs a witness I am willing to do that.