Police in London, Ont., are investigating a confrontation captured in a now-viral video at a local Sobeys as a possible hate crime.
The incident, partially caught on camera and posted Tuesday to Facebook, involved two men as they appeared to be leaving the grocery store. The video depicts a man in a red shirt holding a phone to his ear and blocking a man in a hoodie from leaving the store. It had nearly 2 million views at time of writing.
“Don’t touch me … I want to leave, stop assaulting me,” the man says, asking the woman filming the video to call the police if necessary.
According to the post made by Facebook user Katie Pocasangre Montoya, one man called the other an “illegal alien,” asked to see “Canadian documentation” and tried preventing him from leaving the store as he called the police.
At the “victim’s request,” no charges have been laid at this time, according to Const. Michelle Romano. While the London Police Hate Crime Unit is reviewing the incident as a possible “hate-motivated crime,” there may still be no charges laid if the investigation finds evidence of a crime since the police service operates “on a victim-centred approach.”
“There is no mandate to lay charges if the victim doesn’t want to go ahead with charges,” said Romano.
What led to the altercation remains unclear, but Romano confirmed that there has been a “prior argument between the two inside the store,” following by the second interaction that was caught on camera. Romano said she is not aware of any relation, if any, between the woman who filmed the video and the man in the hoodie.
According to a StatsCan report published late last year, police reported 1,409 hate crimes in Canada in 2016, 47 more than in 2015. But experts believe many go unreported.
“We believe these hate-motivated crimes are under-reported,” said Romano. “We want to encourage people that if they feel they’ve been a victim of anything like this to report it. The stats are proving it’s on the rise.”
