MANDEL: Toronto cop accused of dangerous speeding, taunting citizen
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A new Somali-Canadian officer with Toronto Police is claiming he’s being hauled before a disciplinary tribunal because of racism.
His bosses alleged it was due to his bad performance on the job.
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MANDEL: Toronto cop accused of dangerous speeding, taunting citizen Back to video
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Const. Moussa Tahlil is accused of racing dangerously to the scene of an altercation on June 16, 2022, between a man and a parking enforcement officer — including driving into oncoming traffic, reaching speeds of 126 km/h and having “near misses” with a car and a pedestrian — despite there being no report of violence or weapons.
Tahlil, 44, is then alleged to have escalated the situation by using “profane, abusive or insulting language or … otherwise (being) uncivil to a member of the public.”
Though the belligerent man would certainly have tried anyone’s patience.
On paper, Tahlil was an ideal police prospect.
Immigrating to Canada in 1989 with his mom and eight siblings, he grew up on social assistance and attended 11 different schools as his mom kept moving them away from bad influences — but he still tragically lost a brother to violence. He dropped out of high school in Grade 11 to help support his family and eventually started a successful landscaping business, finished his high school diploma when he was 32, ran unsuccessfully as a school trustee and was on the Anti-Racism Advisory Panel before pursuing his dream to be a police officer.
Just a year later, though, he was in trouble.
Tahlil alleged that he was only being called out because of his race, something prosecutor Mattison Chinneck vehemently rejected. “This is not a racist place,” he said.
As Chinneck challenged him on his actions on that sunny spring day two years ago, Tahlil became increasingly combative.
It was 5:22 p.m. and he said he had “full control and care” of his police SUV as he sped south on Dufferin St. and east on Geary Ave., through residential streets, past an old-age home and schools.
“I’m not worried about children,” he said. “I’m constantly scanning, constantly keeping an eye on what’s going on around me.”
Asked about his excessive speed, Kahlil snapped, “I drove in the manner I was trained to do. You’re not a police officer. You don’t have the training that I do.”
“You’re going 90 km/h in the lane of oncoming traffic and it’s your proposition this is ‘just driving?'” Chinneck said, pressing on.
“I’m still driving safely and as quickly as possible,” he contended.
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Tahlil’s body camera captured his arrival on scene as the foul-mouthed driver was yelling at the parking officer: “You think I’m afraid of you, you pale-a–ed b—-?”
Tahlil told him to stop causing a disturbance.
“Buddy,” the man replied, “shut the f— up.”
It went downhill from there.
“Yeah, what are you going to do?” Tahlil said.
He agreed that his statement could be perceived as a challenge, but denied instigating anything.
“What the f— are you going to do, n—–?” the man responded.
Tahlil then pulled his Taser out and ordered him to the ground. “He took a fighting stance with me and I believe he was going to assault me,” he told his lawyer Peter Brauti.
Chinneck accused the officer of doing nothing to de-escalate the situation when he told the man: “Yeah, keep running your mouth,” “Yeah, yeah, you shut the f— up,” and, “Yeah, come walk towards me.”
“I’m letting him know I’m the dominant one and in control of the situation,” Tahlil explained.
“It seemed you weren’t in control of your own emotions,” Chinneck suggested.
“You’re wrong,” he retorted.
While the man repeatedly called him by a racial slur, Tahlil denied calling him the same epithet, but instead said, “Yeah, I am a n—–.”
Chinneck asked if that was an appropriate word to use in his position.
“It’s not prohibited. That’s my answer.”
Tahlil probably lost points before the hearing officer by insisting his way of dealing with the obviously disturbed man was better than the training he’d received in de-escalation at the Ontario Police College.
“In this situation, yes. I wasn’t able to offer him water or ice cream or hold his hand,” he said sarcastically. “They keep telling us to be nice, but the situation is volatile.
“De-escalation is only available when it’s safe to do so. It wasn’t safe to do so.”
The hearing continues.
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