Police Chief Mark Saunders says he is extremely disturbed by a caught-on-video incident in which members of the public threw bottles and other objects at officers in Yonge-Dundas Square while being cheered on by an unruly crowd.
On Saturday night during the height of Nuit Blanche police were called to the public square for multiple reports of a person with a gun.
Upon arrival, Saunders said a fight broke out in the crowd and during the course of that fight many people fled the area, some of them trampling a young woman in the process.
Police then located a person with an imitation handgun and a knife and took them into custody.
At that point, Saunders said the mood changed and the crowd began to scream and yell at the officers with at least one person throwing beer bottles and other objects.
As a result, one officer suffered a broken bone in his hand while two others had their helmets cracked.
No arrests were made as a result of the confrontation, though Saunders said police are actively looking for those responsible and are reviewing various video footage for clues that may lead to their identification.
“What we saw over the weekend was extremely disturbing. We saw behavior that was dangerous, behavior that was reckless and behaviour that could have caused extreme, serious injuries,” Saunders said at a news conference on Wednesday morning. “This type of behavior can never be tolerated. While the law provides criminal sanctions it must be socially unacceptable to even consider being impaired in public and engaging in or encouraging threatening and dangerous behavior while regarding it as some sort of performance.”
Saunders said that many of the people gathered in Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs and were encouraging the “aggressive and threatening” behavior that was being exhibited by some.
The police chief credited the “professionalism and restraint” of his officers with preventing the incident from escalating into something “much more serious.”
“It seems clear that for many there it was a party atmosphere. There were smiles, laughter, encouragement, booing and cheering, attitudes completely at odds with the threat to those in the square,” Saunders said. “We are very lucky that there were no serious injuries here.”
Other incidents in and around Yonge-Dundas Square
While Saunders said that it is not unheard of for officers to be subjected to verbal attacks or to have debris thrown at them while dealing with large crowds, he said the fact that this incident was captured on video makes it more notable, particularly with regards to the “carnival-like” atmosphere that was clearly in place.
“It’s interesting just in terms of the behavioural aspect and how people were responding,” Saunders said of the video.
In addition to the confrontation at Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday, police also responded to a stabbing in the square earlier in the night and an incident at nearby Queen Station in which a person was pushed onto the tracks. Police were also called to Dundas Station in the early hours of Sunday morning after a number of people ripped tiles from the ceiling of the station.
Speaking with reporters, Saunders said that Nuit Blanche “could have been a factor” in some of the incidents, however he said it is impossible to say for sure whether the people responsible were taking part in the all-night art festival.
It should be noted that there were no official Nuit Blanche installations at Yonge-Dundas Square or in the immediate area.
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