Bizarre interaction between Toronto police and pedestrian caught on video

Toronto Police say they're conducting an internal investigation after video footage surfaced of a traffic officer screaming loudly in the face of a woman who was clearly distressed.

The video, captured by tech entrepreneur Affan Imran, shows a woman attempting to cross Front Street at University Avenue during rush hour on Tuesday evening.

"Hey @TorontoPolice @TPSOperations, your traffic officer at Front And University needs to calm down and not scare this poor woman trying to cross a street," wrote Imran when posting the clip to Twitter.

Hey @TorontoPolice @TPSOperations your traffic officer at Front And University needs to calm down and not scare this poor woman trying to cross a street. #TOpoli pic.twitter.com/tmkzs6HI3i

— Affan Imran (@affan_imran) May 15, 2018

The video itself is only 10 seconds long, and it begins mid-altercation, but what can be seen is serious enough that Toronto Police Service took notice.

"This officer has been identified and his Unit Commander has started an internal investigation," reads a message from an official Toronto Police account in response to Imran's tweet.

Many online are speculating that the woman had been trying to cross the street with zero seconds left on the blinking pedestrian timer.

"The sign says don’t walk. The officer says don't walk. She's in the wrong and he is providing her with correction in lieu of a violation ticket," commented one Twitter user."Not worthy of a complaint, although everything is in this new society of entitled brats we have."

Oof - this made me feel sick to my stomach. What a small, little big man. Glad you reported it and glad it’s seemingly being investigated. Qwhite interesting the woman crossing towards your side of the street wasn’t berated and physically blocked.

— Raf (@rafayagha) May 16, 2018

"Even if she were," noted someone else, "there is no excuse for abusing her like this. None. Ever."

Imran, who was actually there, later noted that the officer was "completely out of line and being predatory and intimidating to the woman."

"Keep the peace and move people along if you’re going to be a traffic cop," he wrote. "Escalating the issue to aggressive commands was unnecessary."

I suppose we'll have to wait and see if TPS agrees.

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO