Ottawa police shocked, struck, kicked Black man in case of mistaken identity
Ottawa police shocked, struck, kicked Black man in case of mistaken identity
Kane Niyondagara was walking home from a Starbucks in Ottawa's east end when he heard the sirens.
"Get on your knees," he remembers one officer calling.
But Niyondagara, 27, hadn't done anything wrong. He dropped his hands and shrugged, as if to ask why. He looked at the sidewalk under his feet and said he was afraid of being "brutally arrested" against the hard concrete.
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) won't say much about that encounter or what followed, except to explain that it was all a case of mistaken identity.
Niyondagara, who is Black, said he was shocked with a stun gun, pinned down, struck in the face and handcuffed before police realized their mistake. Parts of the incident were captured on video by a bystander who shared it with CBC News.
It wouldn't be ethical, legal or really even feasible, but I wonder how long it would take for law enforcement to aggressively reform their methods and attitudes if some percentage of the calls they were sent to were "secret shopper" style tests involving important people.
Dispatched for reports of suspicious activity or drug dealing and it's some relative of the DA/mayor/governor etc. Make it part of the hiring process that relatives need to accept they might be unexpectedly used for that purpose and if they decline it hurts or prevents the official or officer's chances of being hired. Surely if there isn't any expectation of being abused there should be no concerns with having engagements with the police.
I'm sure in practice they'd work out secret handshakes and markers to identify themselves but maybe that could be exploited by the public like some do with police supporter bumper stickers.
EDIT: I recognize this didn't happen in the US, adjust specific terms and concepts as needed to localize :)
Let's do it undercover boss style, except the pigs go to jail when they fuck up.