Person in Crisis on Whyte Avenue-A Conversation Transcription.

The below account has not been edited other than for anonymity's sake of the community partners. This account is a personal reflection based on lived experience and opinions. It is shared for the purpose of documentation, awareness, and critique of institutional practices. This story is not intended to incite harm or harassment toward any individual. Names and identifying details have been omitted or altered where appropriate to respect privacy and safety. All incidents are allegations not proven in a court of law, and the Archive does not investigate or vouch for the veracity of reported incidents.

But we have also encountered police violence like here directly as we were doing our work, one of the examples, and this one is actually on videotape as well, like it was featured in the very beginning of the safer for all documentary that was released recently put out by the John Humphrey center. And so we were here doing street outreach, and there was someone who was in crisis in the alleyways along white Ave, and they're very well known to the community. Everyone kind of knows this person and knows that, like, if they're not on their meds, or if they're having a bad day, they can be loud and, you know, difficult, but they're not a threat to anyone, like they have never hurt anyone, and they're just loud and sometimes wander out into the road, which is not the end of the world, right? And so, you know, three, one or two on one had been called, and like they tried to help, didn't want any help. Ambulance and fire arrived. Try to help, but, you know, they're not having a medical emergency. They're just having a bad day. And so they also, you know, they don't want to be incarcerated, in the sense of, like, they don't be dragged into the back of an ambulance and sedated, like it's just not something they're looking to do. And so they tell the ambulance drivers to fuck off. You know, they're aggressive and loud, but not violent. And I'm there watching all of this going on, and I'm like, There's no threat that this person poses. They just want to be left alone, and people are just not leaving them alone. And so we try to, like, intervene, and just try to be like, hey. Like, I will, like, you know, stand between, like, talk to people as you do as, like, a nice, white collar professional to other professionals. But someone calls the cops, and the cops arrive and they're just like, This person is causing a disturbance. Immediately tackle them to the ground and pull out, but do not deploy a taser, put this person in cuffs, and then start to, like, march them into a police van, and the person tries to, like, wiggle out, and the response from the police officers is to cut out their legs and slam them face first into the concrete in cuffs, like completely unprovoked, completely unnecessary violence, right? And and I was very glad that it's like we were here in the park at the time to, like, get that on video and make sure that it was recorded. But yeah, still just, like, really sticks out to me is like, one of the rare cases where it's like, oh, yeah, this like, firsthand experience of police violence as we're just, like, trying to be out here giving out food, yeah? And that's like, on the street in broad daylight, yeah, yeah. That's with cameras. Out that's with it was funny at the time we had, I think, about eight med students from the inner city health elective who were there also

Based on a transcription of an audio recording.
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Recording of conversation with harm reduction community organizer - includes description of multiple incidents and general impacts of police violence.

Edmonton Police Service

Whyte Avenue

Anonomous