Vancouver police are defending the actions of officers after a video showing a protester being kneed in the back was uploaded to YouTube.
Video footage, which can be seen above, shows police officers pushing a protester off his bike at the Beat the Pipelines march on May 1. In a second video, two police officers hold the man's arms and one knees him in the back in an attempt to hold him down. He screams as he's been subdued, yelling "I'm being oppressed, I'm being oppressed!" Observers also shout at the officers to "leave him alone" as they're "breaking his f**king arm." It's unclear what the man did before he was pushed over, and the video does not include what happened before and after the arrest.
Police appear to have started making arrests when they tried to move marchers out of the left lane of the street to make way for a bus and prevent them from boarding. When people began to swarm around the bus, police began arresting them.
While no one has launched an official complaint, police spokesman Const. Brian Montague still defended the officers' actions.
“It’s fairly clear in the video that the person being arrested isn’t being cooperative, isn’t compliant with the officers and unfortunately force is sometimes necessary,” Montague told News 1130.
Three people were arrested at the event.