Complaint alleges a Hamilton police officer at Pride said violence is 'not my problem'

Ontario's police watchdog isinvestigating allegations that aHamilton police officer refused to address a woman'sreport about theviolentaltercation at Pride, saying itwas"not my problem" because police "weren't invited to Pride."

The officer referenced Hamilton police not getting a recruitment booth at the Pride event, saidCaitlin Edwards, who filed thecomplaint with theOffice of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD). The office is now looking into it.

Edwards saidshe was walking through Gage Park with her 11-year-old son when she saw protesters with homophobic signsclashing with Pride supporters.

Edwards quickly moved away from the altercation, she said,and approachedtwouniformed police officers.

Edwards said shetold a female officer that a fight was happening behind alarge black cloth barrier, which counter-protesters hadset up around the protestgroup.

"Before I could get out all the words, she interrupted me and she spat outin a very irritated tone, 'Don't you remember that we weren't invited to Pride?'" said Edwards in an interview with CBC News.

Edwards said she was shocked, and responded saying she didn't knowwhat the officer was talking about. She said she was justwalking through the park,saw a fight and told an officer.

Violence at Hamilton Pride

5 years ago

Duration 0:18

Police have charged four people so far following physical confrontations at Hamilton Pride on June 15. (Video Courtesy: YouTube/Facts VS. Feelings)

The officer "snapped" at her again,said Edwards, and repeated her earlier statements,saying "we're just going to stand here."

Edwards said she got angry and started yelling at the officer that she wasn't doing her job. The officer yelled back, Edwards said.

"She kept saying,'It's not our problem. We weren't given a recruit tent, we weren'tinvited, we're not moving," said Edwards.

Hamilton Police Service wouldn't confirm these details, saying only that a conduct-related complaint has been filed with the OIPRD. The service said it won't comment to "respect that investigative process."Chief Eric Girt is also reviewing two service complaints,which deal with how "effectively and efficiently" a police service performs its duties.

The OIPRDalso could not comment on Edwards's complaint, butsaid it has received "multiple complaints" in relation to the Hamilton Pride event.

Edwards said during her altercation with the officer, another officerwas on his phone a few feet away. She walkedover to him, she said, butshe didn't hear his response during the chaotic moment.She only references the female officer in her complaint.

The police walked toward the fight several minutes later, Edwards said,after she had walked some distance away and a Pride board member had spoken with the officers.

Edwards said Hamilton police reached out to her after she tweeted about the interaction.

Pride Hamilton has also criticized the police response to the violence, saying officers were not present in sufficient numbers and weretoo slow to break up the conflict.

Pride expected police to 'do their job'

Pride organizers hadturned downHamilton Police's request to have a recruitingbooth at the Pride event, same as the year before.

The organization did not want armeduniformed officers inside the event area itself, but Pride still expected police to be nearby and "do their job," said board member Cameron Kroetsch just as police had done the previous year.

Police knew about potential protests andofficerswere expected tobe outside the event area to intercept potential violence, said Pride Hamilton.

Edwards said she couldn't understand why a uniformedpolice officer refused to address her report.

She was just a mom walking through a park who "saw a fight, told an officer," she said."It just got so weird and so crazy with her telling me no."

'I don't trust the cops after what Isaw'

Edwards said she was shocked anddisappointed.

"I feel like the police in Hamilton are not protecting their community over hurt feelings," she said.
"I don't trust the cops after what Isaw."

While Edwards was interacting with the officers, Kroetschsaid he was also approachingthem.

After Edwards had walked away, Kroetschsaid, an officertold him they were not equipped to deal with the altercation and were calling in backup. He said he onlyheard the end of Edwards's interaction with police.

Police Chief Eric Girt has publicly referencednot being invited to the Pride event.He defended his department's response to the altercation during an interviewin June.

Girtsaid police respected Pride's requests and officers would have been deployed differently had theybeen welcomed.

"We were asked not to be at the event and we remained on the perimeter," he said during a weekly Chief's Town Hall segment on CHML. There were officers in plain clothes on the festival grounds, he said, and several officers at city hall, where police believed a major altercation would take place.

The service did request to have a recruitment booth at Pride, Girtsaid. But he took "nooffence" to police not getting a booth, he saidduring a police services board meeting last week.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger responded to Edwards on Twitter, callingthe idea that police declined to assist a "false narrative."

Edwards said that the mayor"would have been able to see first hand what happened" had he attended the Pride event.

Kroetschhopes Edwards'scomplaint is taken very seriously, "because it'spretty disturbing."

The onus keeps falling on Pride Hamilton, Kroetschsaid, but nothing had changed from the year before. Police showed up last year when protesters were in the exact same place.

Pride Hamilton has saidthatofficers made "chilling comments" to board members after the violence, suggesting that had they granted police a recruitment booth, hired paid duty officersand alloweduniformed officers to patrol the event space, "things would have turned out differently."

Edwards said she hopes other police officers get a strong message.

"They cannot decline to help any community based on any sort of personal bias," she said.

"That's not the job that they chose."