No charge to police in peeing incident

La Presse’s Mayssa Ferah examines a rather anodyne case that nonetheless focuses on an issue of police discretion. In 2021, a cop saw a man urinating in an alley, and went to question him. The cop tries to restrain him, throwing him to the ground and injuring him. Ferah talks to a retired cop who observes that the attitude shown by a person stopped by police is a factor in such a situation, but although he admits the police have discretion, he stops short of suggesting that they use common sense concerning the relative seriousness of an action before hospitalizing someone over taking a leak.

The cop in this case won’t be disciplined.