Family demands apology after police caught on video mocking woman with Down syndrome
Police officers make disparaging comments about driver's disabled daughter during traffic stop
A Toronto family has demanded a public apology after two police officers were caught on dashcam footage mocking a woman with Down syndrome during a traffic stop, describing her as disfigured and something less than a whole person.
"I feel hurt;it really hurt my feelings.I was disgusted by what they said about me," said Francie Munoz, 29.
In December 2016, twoToronto policeofficers pulled overPamela Munoz, who had her two daughterswith her in the car, for allegedly running a red light.
Pamela Munoz said she believed the light was amber when she drove through an intersection. The officer whoissued the tickettold her the incident was recorded on video and that she could fight the ticket in court.
When Munoz received the tape as part of the disclosure prior to her court date in June, it was marked as havingno audio. But she soon heardthe officers on the video mocking her daughterFrancie, who had been sitting in the back seat.
One officer can be heard saying there are "two-and-a-half women" in the car instead of three and then goes on to describe Francieas"disfigured or different," with the other officer laughing and agreeing.
"Artistic.That's going to be my new code word for ... different," says the officer.
Pamela Munoz says shebelieves the officers were unaware their comments were being recorded.
One of the officers can also be heard jokingabout the women, who had a pizza with them in the car, saying, "They're [probably]nibbling on it right as we speak."
Pamela says thatat first she was simply upset about her demerit points, but listening to the tape changed everything.
'I was enraged'
"Obviously I was extremely upset.My blood was boiling.I'm still very upset, but at that moment I was enraged," she said. "These are the people we've told Francie to trust, to go to when she needs help."
She andFrancie asked the police officers to publicly apologize and go through training to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"I can't believe two officers would conduct themselves in this manner that they'd be this inhumane in their comments," said Pamela. "They don't respect, obviously, people with disabilities or people that are different than them."
Toronto police apologize
The president of the Toronto Police Association said he has spoken with the officers involved,who say the comments are out of character for them and not something they are known for in 22 Division.
"Theysay their comments were totally inappropriate and [they]will do everything they need to do, including an apology and sensitivity training to make it right," said Mike McCormack.
The Munoz family say it means a lot to them that Chief Mark Saunders, as well as Mayor John Tory, have both reached out to them.
Franciewould like to see police officers receive better training for dealing with people with disabilities, something she advocatesfor herself through the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
She appears in several campaign videos for CAMH, helping to educate people on what it's like living with Down syndrome.
"It's a teachable moment. Here is something we can all learn from how it feels for a person to be spokenabout in a certain way," said Yona Lunsky, a clinician-scientist at CAMH."When we're thinking about diversity, wethink about certain types of diversity. Disabilityis another kind of diversity that we all need to be better sensitizedto."
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With files from Shannon Martin
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