Posted by 
Two Black men who tried to report a crime to Edmonton police — but instead ended up pepper sprayed, handcuffed and told they were lucky they hadn’t been shot — were victims of racial discrimination, a tribunal has found.
Late last month, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal issued a decision in the case of Yousef John and Caesar Judianga, who along with roommate Harry Lado tried to detain a woman they say threw a rock through the window of Lado’s wife’s car early May 5, 2017.
The three men — who are South Sudanese — went to confront the woman, with Lado, a bouncer, attempting a citizen’s arrest. When police arrived, however, one of the officers, Const. Jordan Steele, sprayed all three men with pepper spray, then ordered them to the ground, where they were handcuffed.
The men say they were given only cursory medical attention while the woman, who is white, gave a statement and received personal assistance from another officer, who later gave her a ride to a friend’s house. That officer, Const. Celia Frattin, also told the men they were lucky they had been pepper sprayed because they “could have been shot.”
Police did not take a statement about the damage to Lado’s wife’s car.
“The complainants in this case were angry and upset,” tribunal member Erika Ringseis wrote in the Aug. 29 decision. “They had witnessed property damage and chased the accused they knew had thrown a rock through the car window. They had called the police, expecting the police to arrive and bring justice to them, but were instead perceived as the perpetrators of crime.”
“The complainants experienced an adverse impact, they were treated as something less, in part because of the colour of their skin,” Ringseis concluded.
In a statement, an EPS spokesperson said the service is applying for a judicial review of the tribunal decision but declined to comment further.
The Edmonton Police Association, the officers’ union, also declined to comment.
‘Implicit’ bias
John and Judianga filed complaints against the Edmonton Police Service, as well as Steele and Frattin individually.
Ringseis dismissed the latter complaints after concluding Steele and Frattin were operating in their capacity as police officers. She found no evidence either deliberately mistreated the men because of their race.
Ringseis’s finding that the men were discriminated against hinged on the more subtle concept of “implicit” bias — which the tribunal defined as prejudices an individual holds without realizing “as they are unconsciously formed from information we are exposed to in society.”
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto criminologist called to testify by the complainants, said people in North America are more likely to associate Black men with criminality, danger and violence than white men.
Eric Hehman, a McGill University psychology professor who studies intergroup prejudice, testified that in stressful, ambiguous situations like the one the officers encountered, white police officers “will be more likely to interpret the situation according to stereotypes, such as Black males being aggressive and ‘bad,’” the tribunal decision summarized.
When Steele arrived on scene, Lado was holding the suspect by the shoulders. Judianga was holding a road sign, which he took from a woman who, along with another man, had brandished it at them before police showed up. The two witnesses rode off on their bikes before police could speak to them.
Ringseis said Steele failed to noticed John was on the phone, nor did he give a warning that he was going to deploy pepper spray, which is EPS policy. He sprayed first at Lado, catching the woman accidentally, then John, then Judianga. All this occurred within a minute of his arrival, Ringseis said.
All three men were then ordered to lie on the pavement and were handcuffed. Steele placed his knee on John’s back and pulled his ID from a jacket pocket, ripping it. They were eventually unshackled and given water to clean their eyes.
“The men were agitated and frustrated that they had been sprayed with (pepper) spray when their property had been damaged, and they were actually the victims who had called 911,” Ringseis wrote. “They accused the police officers of discriminatory behaviour.”
At that point, Frattin returned from helping the woman and “noted that they were lucky it was just OC (pepper) spray because they ‘could have been shot,’” Ringseis wrote. Frattin later admitted “the comment may have been unfortunate” in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was gaining traction around that time.
Ringseis concluded the remark “was likely not an innocent and unfortunate comment, but rather, one grounded in discrimination and bias.”
Ringseis also noted Steele, in his radio communications, repeatedly referred to the race of the South Sudanese men, without mentioning the race of the white woman.
“Const. Steele therefore acknowledged the race of the individuals at the scene, but only for the Black men. This demonstrates that the race of the complainants was salient and noticed by Const. Steele and provides indirect support that the race of the complainants played a role in his decision-making.”
The woman accused of breaking the window was never charged. She told police the man and woman on the bikes were responsible.
John and Judianga filed complaints with the EPS Professional Standards Branch, both of which were dismissed without a formal hearing. Steele was disciplined with a letter on his file and assigned remedial use-of-force training.
A hearing to determine what compensation John and Judianga are owed has not been scheduled.
Nnam Okoye, their lawyer, said they are pleased with the outcome, “although it took five years to get there.”
