Violent arrest scars woman
Complains of race discrimination after police officer breaks her arm
At around 9 p.m. on Nov. 21, Majiza Philip was enjoying a Machine Gun Kelly concert at Olympia Theatre with her best friend, sipping a beer. In two days, Philip, who is black, would celebrate her 26th birthday.
A few hours later, her friend was arrested for loitering and Philip found herself pushed against the back of a police car, felt the officer make a quick movement, and says she heard a crack and then felt a scalding pain in her left arm — her humerus had been severely fractured.
The events of that night continue to shape her life more than seven months later. Philip has been unable to return to work, she suffers from anxiety and says she only recently found out she was the subject of an arrest warrant on criminal charges stemming from that evening that she had never been informed about.
It all started when Philip decided to tell her friend she had his jacket, and would bring it to the station. She went up to the female police officer who was writing her friend a ticket. Philip says the officer came out of the car and tried to grab the jacket from her hands, after which she backed away and said she would bring the jacket to the station.
She then tapped on the police car window to warn her friend that she had his jacket. In the ensuing moments, a male officer pushed her down violently, pulled her arms back, and then hit her arm with his baton, she said.
Philip said she was handcuffed and brought to the station, crying and begging for the officers to loosen the handcuffs on her left hand. She says they laughed in response. At the station, she was interrogated, even though she kept repeating something was seriously wrong with her arm.
She said she was taken to the lobby, where an officer freed her injured arm, and her right arm was cuffed to her chair. She was told an ambulance had been called. Paramedics looked at her arm, putting it into a sling.
She says the police officer who broke her arm asked her to sign a document, which she refused to do and asked it be mailed to her home. She said she didn’t read it at the station and later learned it was a “promise to appear” — a document stating her charges and her court date. Philip said she never received the document in the mail.
She was taken to a hospital, where a doctor diagnosed a fractured humerus. She wore a cast for five weeks, and had an operation — she now has a metal plate and six screws in her arm.
The police report, which Philip obtained in court last week, presents a much different account of that evening. It states Philip was violent from the start, that she was yelling and threatening the female officer, that her breath reeked of alcohol (she says she had two or three beers) and that she did not complain of pain while being driven to the station. It also states she refused a lawyer — she says she was never given the option in the first place.
The SPVM has refused to comment, as they do not comment on files that are before the Ethics Commission or in front of the courts, said media relations officer Anne-Claude Poulin.
In January, Philip learned she had received two fines that night: one for yelling, and another for refusing to comply with an officer. But she says she never received the tickets.
The Centre for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR) helped Philip file a complaint with the Police Ethics Commission.
On July 29, after meeting with an investigator from the commission, she went to the Montreal courthouse. She says she learned she had been scheduled to appear in court in March and had been charged with assaulting two officers, obstructing justice, and resisting arrest. She also learned a warrant had been issued for her arrest although it has since been lifted.
“We need answers as to why her case was not properly dealt with in the system,” said Fo Niemi, CRARR’s executive director.
“I’m the victim, but now I’m considered a criminal,” she said.
On Monday, she appeared in court to correct the court records about her failure to appear in March. She pleaded not guilty to the charges. A date was also set for her trial: It will begin Sept. 23.
A long, dark scar is apparent where her cast was, but some of her scars aren’t physical — every time she sees a police officer, she says she gets scared. Her doctor has referred her to a psychologist so she can be treated for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, Philip said.
The injury also cost her her job. Philip, who works as a chef, called her employer to say she had been injured. By the time she was ready to return, her job had been filled by someone else.
She hasn’t been able to teach dance since the incident — something she has done for years.
Her friend, who is white, received two tickets the day of the incident, but wasn’t charged.
“I know that my colour mattered. They looked at me differently because (I’m) black,” she said.