#Chokehold arrest of First Nation chief shown in dashcam video

Disturbing dashcam video from Canadian police captured the violent arrest of an Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation chief who was punched in the head and placed in a chokehold, according to a report.

Chief Allan Adam is seen swearing at members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police outside a casino in Fort McMurray, Alberta, on March 10, when an officer inquired about an expired tag on his pickup truck’s license plate, Global News reported.

The 12-minute RCMP video — which was filed Thursday as a court exhibit — shows Adam walking to the police vehicle and telling an officer that he is “tired of being harassed by the RCMP.”

When the officer tells Adam to go back to his vehicle, the chief is heard swearing and saying he did not like how police stopped behind his truck.

“Don’t f—– stop behind us like you’re f—- watching us,” he says.

Adam later returns to the police vehicle and asks: “Is there a problem with us going home?” An officer tells him again to return to his truck.

“You and I are gonna have a f—- problem!” Adam is heard saying as he walks back.

An officer soon gets out to speak to Adam, who is seen going to the passenger door and removes his jacket as a woman gets out through the driver’s door.

Adam then flings his jacket in the truck and gets back into the vehicle through the passenger door. The woman stays outside with the cop, who is then seen grabbing and twisting her arm, prompting her to yell, “Ow!”

“Hey! Leave my wife alone,” Adam shoutes as he exits the truck and appears to knock the cop’s arms off his wife, Freda Courtoreille.

The officer then places his hand on his hip — apparently near his service weapon — as Adam’s wife tries to speak with him.

Moments later, Adam and his wife go back in the truck, where his niece also is sitting. The chief then exits again and an officer tries to grab his arms.

“Don’t f—- touch me!” Adam yells.

Sirens from another police car can then be heard as another officer runs into view, launching into Adam’s neck with a clothesline tackle over by his neck.

The footage shows both officers on Adam and the one who tackled him punching him while screaming, “Don’t resist!”

“What the f—- is wrong with you guys?” Adam, whose face is bloodied, shouts as the cops hold him. He asks his family to get the their badge numbers.

“You know you f—- did the wrong thing — you know that?” Adam says as he is walked to a police car.

An affidavit filed in court quotes the notes of Constable Simon Seguin, according to CBC News.

“I charged at the male [Adam] with the intention of bringing him to the ground,” Seguin wrote.

“I struck the male as he tried to come up,” he wrote. “He turned on his right side. I struck him using my right hand on his right side of the face. I wrapped my hand [left arm] around his jaw and started squeezing.”

Seguin added: “I then wound up placing my left knee on the back of the male’s head and ‘cranked’ the male’s left arm up. The male [Adam] was complaining of police brutality.”

Adam said he decided speak up about the incident because “enough is enough.”

“We (Indigenous people) are a minority, and nobody speaks up for us,” he said told reporters Saturday, according to Global News. “Every time our people do wrong, the RCMP… they always seem to use excessive force. And that has to stop.”

Wood Buffalo RCMP said in a news release that officers had checked an unoccupied and idling vehicle with an expired plate when Adam returned to it.

Adam resisted arrest and officers were “required to use force,” police said, adding that their actions were reasonable and did not meet the threshold for an investigation.

However, Alberta’s police watchdog — the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team — has since said it has been called to investigate the violent encounter.

Adam’s lawyer Brian Beresh said there is no way RCMP officials who viewed the footage should have concluded the officers’ actions were appropriate.

“This was a false arrest; there was no basis for it, and it was excessive force used,” he said. “We reject that totally. We will let the public look at the video and make a determination.”

Beresh added that he thinks Adam’s behavior leading up to the arrest was “a reaction to the systemic racism that his people have suffered for a long time, and that is a part of what agitated him.”

“He, as the leader, feels that he has to stand up and make the statement,” he said. “If you’re bothering me as the leader, what is happening to those people that have no voice?”

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was deeply troubled by Adam’s accusations, according to CBC News.

“We have obviously all seen and been deeply alarmed by the pictures that Chief Adam shared,” said Trudeau, who vowed to bring in “significant, concrete and rapid measures” to address systemic racism in policing.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki told reporters Monday that he didn’t believe there was systemic racism in policing in Canada or in Alberta.