Toronto police say an internal investigation is underway after a video circulating on social media appeared to show an officer giving a citizen the middle finger over an argument about alleged illegal parking last week.

In the video, which has been viewed more than 425,000 times on TikTok, two Toronto police officers are seen ordering Starbucks in the area of Front and Berkeley streets near the city’s Distillery District on Friday afternoon.

The exchange continues for several minutes and the officers eventually get back in their cruiser. The video then shows one of them giving the citizen the middle finger from the passenger seat of the cruiser.

The individual who took the video later told CP24 that he doesn’t believe the officer knew they were being filmed as by that point he had put away the body camera he was using previously. The footage, he said, came from a pair of glasses with a built-in camera.

  • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    LOL. Canadians are so polite. They are actually investigating the police for shooting a bird. In the US we don’t even bother with that when they shoot a person.

    • octopus_ink
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      4 months ago

      How effing nice would it be for our biggest problems with police to be that they park illegally and give people the bird sometimes.

      • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        If that is the implication you are drawing from this article, you are incorrect about the situation in Toronto. Very much so.

        • octopus_ink
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          4 months ago

          Fair, but I’m pretty anti-cop and this incident feels like small potatoes.

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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            4 months ago

            Maybe. But if the shoe was on the other foot, ie: someone was giving the cops the finger, well … you know the cops likely would have done something about it.

            Cops can kill people at the drop of a hat. Therefore they should be held to a higher standard.

            • octopus_ink
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              4 months ago

              Cops can kill people at the drop of a hat. Therefore they should be held to a higher standard.

              This is a guiding principle I believe in, so good point, I hadn’t thought of that here.

    • Carl@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      There will always be rude people in every country. I hate stereotypeing people or countries.

      • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Which? The fact that Canadians are polite or the fact that cops don’t get investigated for crimes in America?

        • Mongostein@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          That Canadians are polite and our cops are cool. They also avoid investigations.

          I also just realized I stumbled upon a month old post.

          Hi!

          • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yeah, a month doesn’t seem that old to me, but I kind of have an attention span. I guess it’s a curse.

            Also, I’ve been to Canada and everyone was really nice, just like I had come to expect. Not quite as nice as New Zealanders, but way up there. Try visiting Germany some time. It’s the new France.