New Year in Quebec: He says he was beaten when he was arrested

A 24-year-old man with severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) filed a police ethics complaint alleging he was assaulted during an arrest in front of Dagobert on Grande Allée in Quebec City on the night of January 1st.

Quebec police deny the charges and say the man appeared drunk and resisted arrest.

It all started on New Year’s Eve, when Frédéric DuBois celebrated the New Year in bars with his girlfriend and a friend.

Later in the evening, he went outside to smoke a cigarette on the sidewalk, and he asked for police intervention to help Dagobert’s door, which was struggling to turn customers around due to heavy traffic around the bar this evening.

“A policeman said to me: “It’s none of my business” and I snapped back: “It’s actually a colon” […] From then on, five or six police officers simultaneously grabbed me and threw me on the ground like a toy, and they beat me,” says the young man, who admits to struggling amid the crisis. Panic.

“I’m the TSA, and I’ve tried to manage it, but it’s not always easy,” he admits.

When the man calmed down, police took him back to his home, where two citations were issued for disturbing peace and order.

The Quebec resident, who was not with his friends when he was arrested, is looking for witnesses to the event.

Descriptions from SPVQ

The Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ) confirms that patrol officers had to intervene with a man on Grande Allée from Saturday to Sunday.

The latter asked the police to deal with the crowd of a few hundred people, but after assessing the situation, there was no need to intervene.

According to the police, the apparently drunk man then began shouting insults at the police in their direction, and this, on several occasions, prompted the police to intervene as he was violating the municipality’s order of silence. Good order.

As the latter refused any cooperation and resisted vigorously, the police had to arrest him.

After about half an hour, the man calmed down and was released by police at his home after receiving two tickets totaling $400.

shocked

According to whose doctor’s report Newspaper Received a copy, Frédéric DuBois suffered a concussion and multiple injuries to the face, shoulder and wrist during the operation.

“They broke my glasses, I have a headache and bruises all over my body,” he says.

Since events are only a shadow of Frédérick Dubois himself.

She has filed an ethics complaint against the patrol officers involved, alleging that she was a victim of police brutality.

“I couldn’t sleep. I still see the pictures over and over again, and I’m traumatized by life,” he says.

His wife believes the police should have noticed Frederick’s particular condition.

“He has autism spectrum disorder, and sometimes he looks like a kid, he’s 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 155 pounds, he doesn’t scare anybody,” says Christelle Pichette.

The Brotherhood protects its patrols

Quebec City’s fraternal police officers came to the defense of its troops.

Asked by NewspaperThe president, Martin Fortier, confirms that the targeted patrol officers carried out their work according to the rules of art.

“They are experienced police officers. […] “Intervention reports are drawn up, crime reports, the entire intervention is properly documented,” he underlines right from the start.

The Brotherhood would like to remind you that the police must physically intervene with an individual when necessary.

It may have deteriorated

In the January 1 dispute, Ms. Fortier believes the situation would have deteriorated much more quickly if she had controlled the street.

“When you have a crowd on New Year’s Day, there are a lot of people, drunk, aggressive and misbehaving. The police cannot be idle […] You would be with a hostile crowd, like when we lived on rue Saint-Joseph,” he recalled.

The president was referring to an intervention on December 9 when he was leaving a bar, which quickly degenerated when a group of about sixty people surrounded peace officers and a 29-year-old man violently assaulted a policeman.

Some controversies

Over the past two years, SPVQ police officers have been involved in some controversies.

Officer Jacob Pickard was charged with assault and battery in two separate incidents in 2021 in the bar area of ​​Saint-Joseph and Grande Allée in the resto-bar district.

In 2021, then-Minister of Public Safety Genevieve Guilbault called for an independent investigation following the arrest of Pacific Neoquisera, a black youth, who was arrested for brawling while leaving Dagobert.

The SPVQ suspended five officers in connection with this critical arrest.

On the same day, another controversial intervention at the Portofino restaurant in Sainte-Foy made headlines.