Law enforcement may not have a licence to kill like James Bond did, but police appear to have the power to kill your driver’s licence.
Or, in this case, return it to a driver broken — and in two pieces.
This strange incident happened Aug. 4 at Kipling and Finch Aves., while a man heading to a store was stopped by a Toronto Police officer for alleged traffic violations.
As the man’s video shows, the officer returned to the vehicle and handed back the motorist’s plastic driver’s licence in two pieces.
“First things first, that’s your licence, I stepped on it by accident getting out of the car,” said the officer.
The young man driving the car was having none of it.
He alleged it was “done on purpose.”
At that point, the officer did what a 51 Division female officer did last week on King St. during a verbal exchange with a member of the public who was once a police officer. Like her, he lost his cool.
In her case, she shot the guy the middle finger as he left, not realizing he had camera glasses on.
A cop gave the middle finger during a verbal confrontation with a man who objected to where she and another officer had parked. (MadLab Press and Canada Cop Watch)
In this case, the officer from 23 Division said: “On purpose or accident, who cares?”
With that comment, the officer was rude like the person was being to him. At the same time, he sent the message he’ll act as he pleases.
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The verbal sparring heated up.
“This is a new licence, how can it break?” said the man.
“I’m trying to help you out,” said the officer, who ended up throwing three tickets on the dashboard.
“You don’t need to help me, why did you break it?” said the driver.
The officer didn’t say anything about it being expired or what the three tickets were for. They are all believed to be Highway Traffic Act offences.
What should have been a routine call, became nasty. For both.
“While we can’t speak to the specifics of the incident captured in the video, the Professional Standards Unit (PSU) is aware,” said Const. Cindy Chung.
PSU is also looking into last week’s incident where the officer gave a citizen the finger outside a Starbucks. While it would be interesting to learn how that licence was broken, I don’t think these cases need to go that far.
These are good officers who are merely human and didn’t hurt anybody. That said, those posting these videos are also human, and their perspectives are also important.
In both cases, these conversations were stupid in the big picture. But they were caught on video and shared on social media.
Police officers and regular citizens both have to remember to resist the temptation to take the bait. Not everything needs to end up in a battle. Sometimes there are ways to agree to disagree.
People need to cool down out there: Civilians and those in uniform.
Help each other. Respect each other. My solution for this latest case is for the officer and man in the car to sit down together and work things out peacefully.
The officer could offer to help the man get a new licence as well as apologize for its destruction. The man could offer a mea culpa for his over-the-top response. It’s easy. The two could shake hands and later laugh about this.
It’s a better solution than escalating an unnecessary fight.
There’s no need for people to be angry with each other, as we are seeing all too often.
When you look at this video, picture how you would react, remembering that your response will be shown around the world.
Thankfully, it didn’t escalate into someone being hurt or worse.
We are in this together, folks. And even though it’s a tough time in the world today, we have to remember to tone it down. It starts by respecting each other.
It’s not a movie starring 007. It’s real life with real people.