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• Woman assaulted during wellness check

  **The account below is a community submission to the Archive. It has been anonymized to protect the identity of the person(s) and agency involved. This account is a personal reflection based on lived experience and opinions. All incidents are allegations not proven in a court of law, and the Archive does not investigate the veracity of reported incidents.** On May 23 around 1:30 pm, I had walked from my home to a park bench while experiencing an autistic meltdown. My partner was worried about me and called the police, with the understanding that they would send a crisis intervention team paired with an AHS mental health specialist to assess the situation and ensure my safety. A screenshot of the PACT (Police and Crisis Response Team) policy from their website is attached. I texted [my partner] with my exact GPS coordinates. There were other witnesses there that can attest to me sitting/lying peacefully (though crying) on the park bench. [My partner] came and found me. We embraced. She consoled me. And she told me I’d have to talk to the police before we went home. I said “I don’t want to talk to the police” (bad experiences, go figure). When the male officer who had just came into my field of vision said my “boyfriend” was pretty worried about me, I responded “not my boyfriend” (as she is trans). IMMEDIATELY both officers had their hands on me (the female officer from behind on my left (I hadn’t even seen her), and the male officer right in my face. I didn’t recall until later that in this moment I screamed. The same blood curdling scream I’ve let out when assaulted previously. I left my body. I wasn’t there. I was again a powerless child in the vice grip of my abusive father. The male officer then slapped me in the face. From there they were dragging me, tackling me, trying to restrain me, threatening to taze me, and never telling me why. [My partner], who had made the call in the first place, was BEGGING them to stop, asking them why they were escalating, pleaded with them to stop. The male officer then threatened to taze her and put her in a choke hold and dragged her away from me. We tried telling them I’m autistic (I am). They laughed and called me a “fucking retard”. I submitted and let them tackle me to the ground and cuff me. 4 officers had me pinned and I couldn’t breathe. I am a 5’5” average frame woman. They dragged me across the grass to the cop car. One of my shoes fell off and they slammed me against the side of the car and kicked my legs open to pat me down for weapons before tossing me in the back of the car where I could see my partner lying on the ground having a panic attack. The officers then proceeded to tell me repeatedly that I didn’t know how lucky I was that they didn’t “punch me out” in the face. And they mocked [my partner] for calling the police for “help” and then refusing said “help”. They kept me in cuffs for 4 hours. I spent 2.5 in the waiting room at the hospital. I was not permitted any water until [my partner] happened to find me there and asked the staff and police attending to me if she could get me some. I had asked for water repeatedly and the cops refused. I had literally had a psychiatrist appointment earlier that day and she swapped my meds for the following day because my Vyvanse was preventing me from eating and drinking. I was on the tail end of an autistic meltdown after regulating myself with a walk when the police tackled me, beat me, berated me, and then denied me basic human rights like water and even a phone call. (Since I wasn’t under arrest, they didn’t need to give me a call). They told [my partner] once she got to the hospital that the reason I was in cuffs is because under the Mental Health Act, they “can”. Again… forgetting that the EPS has the PACT policy in place. How could the cops justify holding me under the Mental Health Act when they didn’t follow the procedure to ensure they weren’t violating that very act? The cops were not wearing body cams in spite of there province mandating their use in 2023: I was told this was a “pilot”—in other words, they’ve had a mandate for 2 years to get body cams on cops and still haven’t. Why is there no publicly register for police officers? I cannot look up these MFers last names nor badge numbers to confirm their status. As far as I know there’s zero transparency for cops with black marks on their records. Who watches the watchman. Pictures enclosed of my bruising."