Two Fort McMurray RCMP officers have been cleared by the police watchdog after a violent arrest of Chief Allan Adam, which drew outrage from the indigenous community.
The incident occurred March 10, 2020, at the Boomtown Casino, and sparked claims of racial discrimination by Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, who suffered facial injuries during the arrest.
On Thursday, after a lengthy investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, the two officers who fought with Adam were cleared.
The ASIRT report said a lone RCMP officer noted a truck in the casino's parking had unregistered plates and pulled up behind it and turned on his emergency lights.
Police cameras then captured Adam approaching the officer while he was still in his cruiser. Adam tells the offer he is tired of being harassed by the RCMP.
"“You and I are gonna have a f-----’ problem, right here right f-----’ now," Adam told the officer, prompting him to radio for backup.
Adam gave his jacket to his wife, took off a ring and assumed a fighting position, prompting the officer to radio in an emergency backup call. Adam's wife got between the pair and the chief returned to the truck.
At this point, the officer attempted to arrest the wife for obstruction, with Adam leaving the truck yelling “hey, leave my wife alone." He again took up a fighting stance.
Adam and his wife returned to the truck, but he quickly exited as sirens can be heard approaching.
“What the f--- is going on?” Adam said as the officer took a hold of his left arm while stating “You’re under arrest.” Adam attempted to pull his arm away while saying, “Don’t fu-----’ bother me."
About this time, the backup officer arrived and came running to where Adam and the first officer was, with his right arm hitting Adam in the upper chest/neck taking him to the ground.
Adam was on his left side and you can hear the officers telling him to not resist.
“Don’t resist” an officer tells Adam. You can hear Adam say “F--- you” followed by another “F--- you.” “Don’t resist sir” is heard followed by a “F--- off.”
Almost immediately after this, while on the ground with Adam, the second officer delivered a single punch with his right hand to the head area of Adam.
His wife and another civilian approach the melle with one of them saying “Don’t f------ do that.”
The first officer disengages and tell the women to back off.20 to 150 times
After a 30-second struggle the two officers finally are able to put Adam's in handcuffs.
Adam then can be heard saying “…You white bastard you. Take this guy’s badge number.” He is then stood up by the officers and a bleeding cut under his right eye is evident. Adam continues saying “Take this guy’s badge number” as he his escorted to and placed in the rear of a police vehicle.
EMS was called to the scene but Adam refused to cooperate with them.
Adam, and his wife, also refused to cooperate with the ASIRT investigation, but he did tell reporters after the incident he knew the trucks licence had expired. he said the officer should have just let him go with a warning.
He further claimed he was hit repeatedly in the face and was never resisting.
Adam said what happened to him was not unusual or shocking, "as it happens every day to black, brown, low income and indigenous people across Canada." He said he had been stopped by police 120-150 times over the years.
As he sat in the police car, Adam said "You guys f------’ do this to me. I tried to f------’ reason with you, you f------’ bastard, you f------’ immigrants. You guys should f-----’ go back to your own f------’ country. Bring this f------’ Coronavirus to us you bastards. . . Go ahead call all of your f------’ pig friends. You f------’ beat me up you c--- suckers . . . You f------’ bastard man, you’re a f------’ prick you know that. Go back to your f------’ country… [Indiscernible] stuff to your own f------’ people. You come to our country and you f------’ rape and kill our f------’ people, that’s all you f------’ people do to us, you f------’ bastard. By the way this is goin’ on the f------’ press tomorrow. I guarantee it."
As he was bing driven to jail, Adam said: "I guarantee I’m gonna punch somebody when you guys take me outta this vehicle."
When asked by ASIRT if his actions were based on the visible race of the person he was facing, the first officer said, “Like this individual has claimed that I pulled him over based on race which I mean, last time I checked, I’m an Indian. My colour of my skin is brown, like race did not play a part of me conducting that traffic stop. I conducted that traffic stop based on a very lawful reason which was the registration was expired, something that I have been doing for the past nine months with or without my coach. I don’t pull people over, or whatever just because I don’t like the color of their skin. No. Like it should be pretty self-explanatory with when it comes to that kind of stuff.”
When the second officer was asked if he knew the identity of the male and whether the apparent race of that person affected his decision to use force he said “I did not know the identity of the male that was presented to me. It was my very first interaction with him. I did not know that the male was aboriginal before and during the intervention. In the time I had to make a decision the ethnicity, language, social economic background or religion of the person was not considered or even digested. Regardless, it would never influence a decision. What I saw on that day was a person who I believe posed an imminent assaultive threat to a member and a need to curtail an escalating situation that could have resulted in injuries to them.”
The ASIRT report concluded: "After a thorough, independent and objective investigation into the conduct of the Subject Officers, it is my opinion that they were lawfully placed and acting properly in the execution of their duties."
"There is no evidence to support any belief that they engaged in any unlawful or unreasonable conduct that would give rise to a criminal offence."
Further, there was no evidence to suggest that the initial investigation by SO1 of AP’s truck having expired licence plates was anything but bona fide. Having reviewed all recordings made of the incident there is no evidence that race played a role in this incident by any officer involved."
"(Adam) is obviously entitled to his personal beliefs however there is nothing in the available evidence that documents any overt language or conduct by the subject officers that would suggest racist treatment of (him.)
All charges against Adam where later thrown out.
