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Surrey Mountie activates lights, siren as car is swarmed

‘Obstructing a police vehicle from leaving because you’re unhappy about a ticket is unacceptable,’ Cpl. Munn says
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Screen shot from TikTok video

A Surrey Mountie activated his lights and sirens while extracting his police cruiser from a group of about nine young South Asian men who swarmed the unmarked car on Sunday night in a Strawberry Hill parking lot near Party City and the movie theatre in west Newton.

A video posted to social media platform TikTok shows the white Mountie under the caption “bully racist cop” and above the message “Never ever think that international students dont know there rights.”

The men demand his name and badge number, chant “bully,” and one shouts “Get the f—k out of here” to the officer. Another shouts, repeatedly, “This guy hit me.”

Cpl. Vanessa Munn told the Now-Leader that the Mountie in the video had responded to a complaint from on-site security that a vehicle with an “extremely loud and disruptive exhaust system had been unnecessarily driving around the parking lot and causing a disturbance for the preceding three hours. One person was served a ticket, as well as a notice and order for a vehicle inspection.

“The behavior exhibited by the persons in the video is an example of why we continue to receive community concerns about groups of people who gather in that complex,” Munn added. “If you feel that, you were unfairly served a ticket, there is process to dispute the ticket clearly laid out on the back of the ticket. If you feel you were not treated professionally by the police officer there is a complaint process in place for that. Obstructing a police vehicle from leaving because you’re unhappy about a ticket is unacceptable.”

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Munn said the group’s behaviour “escalated” when the officer got back into his car and attempted to leave. “Persons involved blocked the police vehicle, attempted to open the driver’s door and could be heard swearing and name calling while filming the incident,” she said. “The behaviours exhibited in this video by the group of males is unacceptable and impeding a police officer from their duties can result in criminal charges.”

Asked if police are contemplating pursuing charges, Munn said the investigation is ongoing.

As for the claim of racism, she replied, “We continue to conduct enforcement in that area due to ongoing nuisance behaviour. We’ve had multiple people in our community reach out and say that they feel unsafe bringing their family to that complex due to the large gatherings, the fights, vehicle stunting, other nuisance behaviour that’s ongoing so we continue to conduct enforcement in that area based on community concerns.”



tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com

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About the Author: Tom Zytaruk

I write unvarnished opinion columns and unbiased news reports for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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