Internal police documents about the day police and protesters clashed in Halifax in August 2021 suggest police examined officers’ actions and concluded almost everything the department did was correct. Critics who spoke out against tactics like pepper spray don't share that view.
In documents obtained by CBC under access to information, HRP deemed its "overall objectives were completed" and said no officers did anything wrong.HRP declined, citing the ongoing external review.Police and city workers removed tents at three city parks before 8 a.m. that day. After that, incident commander Supt. Andrew Matthews wrote the decision was made to move to the small park around the former library building on Spring Garden Road.
Some protesters blocked the path of the van with their bodies. On the Brunswick Street side of the library site, police tried to push protestors back. In use of force reports, some officers described being "overwhelmed" or "surrounded." Protesters and police push against each other during the protest against the eviction of people who are homeless outside the former Halifax Memorial Library.
Two types of dispersal methods were used: a fogger that produces a wide angle spray and a "pepperball launcher" that can shoot a targeted capsule at a distance. "I believe I sprayed at least 30 people," one officer wrote. "I sprayed the fogger into the crowd of people as a last resort to gain compliance and to prevent further officers from being injured."The documents released to CBC show HRP's Bicycle Rapid Response Team was an integral part of the crowd-control response.
"All force applied with my bike was under direction of my team lead … which stems from the chain of command," one wrote.In the after-action document, HRP noted 12 officers had "minor injuries" following the event. Another filed a Workers Compensation Board report that included being "pepper-sprayed by protesters," and some records stated the officer who was pepper-sprayed in the face had to go to hospital.One officer described being sprayed in the face by a protester with "what is believed to be bear spray." That officer did a "hard controlled takedown," putting the person on the ground.
They believed there hadn't been enough done to de-escalate the situation and were concerned about a lack of officers' name tags, which they called "pervasive." They estimated they were not able to see name tags on approximately half the officers they saw.
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