Montreal police racially profiled black man during traffic stop, judge rules

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Almost four years later, Lamine Sale Nkouendji still can’t bring himself to watch the video recording of his violent arrest at the hands of Montreal police.

Captured by a bystander, the video shows Nkouendji crying in pain as he is pepper sprayed twice, pulled from his car and thrown to the ground while handcuffed.

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Now, a judge has confirmed what Nkouendji always believed: last week, the court ruled traffic stop was prompted by racial profilingacquitting him of the obstruction charge he faced.

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“I’m glad it’s over and justice prevails,” Nkouendji, 27, said in an interview this week.

The case dates back to the summer of 2020.

Nkouendji was stopped at a red light in Outremont when he noticed a police officer driving in the opposite direction staring at him. Moments later, he saw the police cruiser make a U-turn behind him and overtake other cars to stop him.

Once arrested, Nkouendji recorded the two officers as they asked him a series of questions. They told him they would pull him over for running a yellow light, which he insists he never did.

When he presented his Cameroon driver’s license, questions focused on his immigration status and whether he was allowed to drive in Quebec.

“It’s because I’m black that you guys turned around,” Nkouendji is heard telling the officers.

The traffic stop deteriorated when Nkouendji was informed that the rental car he was driving was going to be towed, as his right to drive was subject to unpaid fines. When he refused to get out of his car, the officers began to force him out.

Video captured by a bystander shows one of the officers attempting to pepper spray Nkouendji in the face, but failing. The officer then positioned himself to spray him directly in the eyes as he was already getting out of the car.

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“My arm! My arm!” Nkouendji is heard shouting with high-pitched screams. “My eyes burn!”

At trial, the two officers involved, Adrien Gagné and Guillaume Michel-Black, insisted that race had nothing to do with the traffic stop.

Rather, they explained that after first crossing Nkouendji, they looked at the car again to see its license plate and noticed that it was an “F type” plate normally used for commercial cars.

Gagné explained that from experience, these plates were often used by people who drove without a license or with sanctioned permits. He argued that this is the only reason why they decided to follow Nkouendji and in doing so saw him run a yellow light.

Montreal Municipal Court Judge Gabriel Boutros flatly rejected the argument.

“There was nothing to alert (Gagné) that the defendant’s vehicle had an F license plate, nor to draw his attention to the vehicle, other than the fact that the driver is a young black man,” Boutros wrote.

Boutros ruled that officers’ interest in Nkouendji’s car was unwarranted and described his claim that he ran a yellow light as “dubious.”

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“The Court concludes that the facts indicate that, at least at an unconscious level, the driver’s race played a role in the decision to investigate his license plate and, eventually, intercept him,” the judge wrote.

Contacted for this article, the Montreal police department said it is sensitive to the details described in the case and has taken note of the sentencing.

“We can confirm that an analysis of this decision is underway,” a spokesperson wrote. “Under the circumstances, we will not be commenting further.”

In an interview, Nkouendji’s lawyer, Fernando Belton, said it is rare for someone to be acquitted in Quebec for racial discrimination; As far as he knows, he added, this is only the second time it’s happened.

He congratulated the judge for recognizing the nuances that the issue presents.

“The judge clearly understood and identified what constitutes evidence of racial discrimination,” Belton said.

Nkouendji still has an ongoing $300,000 lawsuit against the city of Montreal and the police department over the arrest.

The last four years, and the trial in particular, have been challenging for him. Every time the arrest video played in the courtroom, he would ask to leave and the sound of him screaming would bring him back to how he felt that day.

Nkouendji said he now understands that it was negligent of him to drive with an authorized licence, but says he was not aware of it at the time.

Still, he doesn’t think this justifies the way he was treated. When asked if he always believed he would be acquitted, he said he trusted the justice system.

“I really believed that anyone could see that something was wrong in this case,” he added. “And I could see that they treated me differently.”

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