Watch These Cops Hold A Black Girl On The Ground Thinking She Was Someone Else

Surrey RCMP are investigating their own officers for mistakenly apprehending a black teenage girl and holding her on the pavement as she screamed that they had the wrong girl.

A four-minute video posted by Ash Hotti on Facebook shows the heated exchange, which took place April 28.

In the video, two officers are crouched down beside the girl, 16, who is lying on the ground with her face to the pavement.

"You're fucking putting me under arrest for something I didn't fucking do, you fucking cunt," she screams. "You have nothing to fucking do so now you're wasting your fucking spare time to do this shit on me. This is so fucking embarrassing."

The girl starts crying as the cops handcuff her and start looking into her purse. "My name isn't fucking LaToya you dumb fuck. Get the fuck off me these things are so fucking tight," she screams, seemingly referring to the handcuffs.

An officer asks if her ID is in her wallet.

"Yeah it's in there," she replied. "You want to look at all my shit. Just cause i'm fucking black you fucking do all this dumb shit. Fuck you. You and your fucking white people, fuck you guys."

The girl asks the cop "What's my fucking name? Read my fucking name out loud."

The second cop then turns to Hotti and threatens to seize his phone "for evidence."

"I know my rights," Hotti responds, then accuses the cops of using excessive force.
"You guys threw her down. There's two of you, there's one teenage girl… That's fucking wrong, be ashamed of yourself. You're supposed to help people out. People are afraid when they see you."

One of the cops can be heard telling the girl she's "high risk" and saying "I asked for your ID."

"You can't just walk up to someone and be like 'Give me your ID.' I didn't do anything. You explain to me what's going on before you throw me on the fucking floor," she replies. The officer tells her she was apprehended under the Mental Health Act.

The girl's father, Garry Auguste, told VICE his daughter was on her way to the mall to get a job when she was approached. He said the officers never asked for her name but assumed she was the person they were looking for. When she began backing away, "the officer grabbed her and took her down."

Afterwards, he said her hands were bruised and swollen, and her back hurt from where an officer kneeled into her to cuff her. He said she's getting migraines on and off and is emotionally disturbed by what happened.

He said they never called him or his wife nor did they give his daughter their badge numbers when she asked for them.

Auguste said he and his wife went to the police station, where they were "disrespected" by the officer who greeted them.

"He's just telling us he knows what happened and his officers were right," Auguste told VICE, adding he was trained to be a cop and believes the officers involved failed to use de-escalation techniques before resorting to getting physical.

"I asked them for a public apology because what happened is humiliating… I'm asking them to be human."

Asked if he thinks race was a factor, Auguste pointed to the cops' approach towards his daughter and the subsequent treatment of the family.

"They're trying to brush it off… We look like black people who don't know our rights and they're thinking we'll just be quiet and that's not who we are."

Speaking to VICE, Surrey RCMP spokeswoman Alanna Dunlop said the incident is being investigated following a public complaint. She would not comment on the specifics of the incident, including why it would be necessary to hold a teenage girl on the ground in the first place.

"The video may be just a piece of what happened with respect to this incident," she said.

She would not elaborate on the potential consequences to the officers if the investigation finds that they were in the wrong.

Dunlop said there are provisions under the Youth and Criminal Justice Act to contact parents when dealing with a minor, however she didn't say why that wasn't done in this case. She also said that while members of the public have a right to take videos of police, in cases where the videos could provide evidence in an investigation, cops can file for a production order to seize the recordings.

"However there is an expectation of privacy for these devices," she said.

In a press release, Surrey RCMP Superintendent Ed Boettcher, said "it is extremely unfortunate that this situation occurred and we are certainly mindful of her young age and how upsetting this was for her and her family."

Asked if Surrey RCMP receive anti-racism training, Dunlop said she wasn't prepared to answer that question. She said that there is a unit committed to outreach with different community members including "ethnic groups."

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