Black Lives Matter Edmonton wants city to do more after excessive force used against teen by transit officers

Back on January 19, transit peace officers in Edmonton were caught on video detaining a 15-year-old black boy while he was apparently waiting for his bus, inside a waiting area.

The Black Lives Matter group in the city says the boy was asked to leave the area by two transit officers, who say he was loitering. The boy asked why and they told him he had missed two trains and had to leave.

The boy apparently started to walk away, when one of the officers grabbed him by the arm and pinned him up against a railing. The second officer joined in, and in the video, the boy is seen then being thrown to the ground, with both officers on top of him.

The group says the boy went to the hospital afterward with a head injury, several bruises and his glasses were broken.

Edmonton police are now investigating after the boy filed a complaint against the officers, but Bashir Mohamed with BLM doesn’t even know if the two officers are being suspended during the investigation and he thinks the City of Edmonton has to do more.

“It’s clearly unacceptable and the time has come for the city to take action, they can no longer ignore this,” said Mohamed, ” The first thing is the suspension of those two officers until the investigation is complete, and then the second thing is a full and independent review of this program, from our understanding there hasn’t been that, so there’s a lot of questions when it comes to transparency and accountability.”

The BLM group thinks transit officers have too much power, calling them”glorified fare inspectors.”

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