Saskatoon police chief defends use of force in cruise weekend arrest caught on video

Saskatoon's police chief said he's watched videos of a Saturday night arrest and is defending his officers.

In the video, three officers can be seen pushing a man to the ground, amidst a crowd on McCool Avenue.

Taylor Dundas was the one behind the camera. She's concerned about the amount of force she saw police use.

"One of the cops, that had his knee on his back, was punching him in the face into the concrete," Dundas told CTV News.

"It was excessive. It was inappropriate."

Police said the incident started with the Air Support Unit.

Police ramped up enforcement over the weekend, the same time as Rock 102 Show and Shine downtown car show — known as cruise weekend.

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From the sky, the police plane noticed stunt driving and informed officers on the ground. Police said a large crowd began to form when they arrived to the scene.

Police said a 17-year-old boy in the crowd was combative and spat on an officer, and a 22-year-old man physically assaulted an officer by "attempting to knock equipment out of the officer's hand."

Dundas said she saw the 22-year-old "push a speaker away from his face."

Police were using a hailer, blaring an alarm noise in the crowd.

"This was not a fight between an officer, and an officer defending himself. This was an abuse of power," Dundas said.

"I'm incredibly disappointed with the Saskatoon police."

Saskatoon police Chief Cam McBride said officers were "doing the absolute best they could with a very difficult circumstance.”

"Any time there's an arrest, where there's a person who's violent or, you know, fighting back against the police, it never looks good, but that doesn't mean there's not restraint and that the force isn't appropriate," McBride said.

Dundas said while she didn’t witness the situation with the 17-year-old, she disagrees the 22-year-old man was being violent with police, or fought back.

"He was flat against the ground with five to six cops on top of him," Dundas said.

McBride said police were conducting a traffic stop and the crowd "came to them to interrupt and disrupt what they were trying to do."

"They were engaged in kind of that mob mentality where you become fearless and it's a recipe for bad things," McBride said.

Organizers of the car show said the incident had nothing to do with the event.

"It was not linked to any officially sanctioned activities and did not happen in the area Show and Shine was taking place. We strongly condemn the actions described by the Saskatoon Police Service," Rawlco Director of Promotions Heather Bonynge told CTV News.

Both the teen and man are charged with obstruction and assaulting a police officer.