Another incident of police abuse in Ontario is surfacing. Credible? It seems like these kinds of accusations of police misconduct are becoming more prevalent. Has it always been this way? Or has the ‘tough on crime’ agenda of the Conservative party given the police free reign to do as they please? Or is it that the police know the investigative units in their force will give them a pass?
A 60-year-old Brampton man is accusing Peel police of racial profiling after he says he was locked in the back of a police cruiser and “interrogated” last week.
Isaac Williams, who immigrated to the GTA from Jamaica in 1972 and speaks with a thick Caribbean accent, said he believes he was stopped and treated aggressively by police solely because of his skin colour.
“It’s the only explanation — there’s no other reason,” he said.
Peel police have opened an internal investigation into Williams’ complaint. The province’s civilian police watchdog, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), will oversee the probe.
Officers were investigating a break-and-enter at the time. Williams’ daughter, Michelle, said a Peel police detective looking into her father’s complaint told her police were searching for a suspect who was black, in his 20s, and 5-foot-6.
Williams, who was 20 in 1971, is 6 feet tall.
