Witness questions police tactics in Yellowknife arrest

Yellowknife RCMP have ordered a review of an incident in which an officer appears to strike a man while he is being restrained outside a gas station.

Video of the incident, filmed by John Louison of Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.,appears to showa gas station attendantand a second personrestraining a man who is lying on the ground. The man being restrained isyelling, crying, and swearing at the men to let him go, but is not physically resisting.

About two-and-a-halfminutes into the video, two RCMP officers arrive and handcuff the man's left wrist. Then one officer yanks his arm back at an awkward angle and tries to cuff the other wrist. An officerstrikes the man on the side of the head and says: "Give me your hand" before cuffing him.

The manis heard yelling: "Ouch, you're hurting my hand!" in the video.

"When the other officer clearly had the hand he just punched him in the face," said Louison, who works as a bylaw officer in Fort Good Hope and says he's handcuffed people "numerous" times."Then, when he did get his hand, he didn't bend it backwards like he should have. He just kept it forward and just bent it back completely out of shape."

In the video, the same officer then lifts the man up by the wrists, while the other officer supports his arm before they lead him away.

"It looked painful and it was painful for the gentleman, you can see it in the video," said Louison.

"They did it wrong.I don't know why.There was no rush."

Criminal defence lawyer 'appalled'

Tom Engel,an Edmonton-based criminal defense lawyer and chair of Alberta's Criminal Trial Lawyers Policing Committee, says the incident was "appalling."

"I think that the force that was used by that slap to the face was excessive force," says Engel,"and if police can't justify the use of force, that constitutes a criminal assault.

"They have to prove the force was not only reasonable, but it wasnecessary. First of all, this guy was not resisting. He's drunk, laying on the ground, you can see that when the gas station people are dealing with him he's basically just laying there. He's not taking any offensive action toward the officers, the officers were in no danger, they didn't have to protect anybody so without that, they have absolutely no justification in law for using force."

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor of criminal justice of Indiana University, says he's not surprised to hearthe details of the arrest.

"The use of force is not uncommon when individuals have resisted arrest, are displaying any kind of aggression, or even challenge a heavy-handed arrest," he says.

Owusu- Bempah, who istravelling, wasunable to view the video, but says"if the use of force is not justified, it's not something we should see as acceptable in a democratic society like Canada."

External investigation ordered

A witness says the man in the video was intoxicated andharassing customers, including bumping into them as they tried to pay for gas, which led to the arrest.

After CBC North provided the video to Yellowknife RCMP, managing officers have ordered an external investigation of the incident, which will be conducted by the Lethbridge Regional Police Service. Yellowknife RCMP also announced that they will be conducting a code of conduct investigation.

The officer involved in the incident has been placed on administrative duty for the duration of the investigation.

Despite witnessing the incident, Louison says he still has a great deal of respect for police, but "they could'vedone it right and they should've done it right."

"No matter what, no-one's above the law," he says. "I hope other members take something out of this. I know they will. RCMP's a great organization. They're a part of it, but they've got to uphold it. Just like everyoneelse."