'It was harassment': Ford weighs in on video of Toronto cop appearing to give middle finger

A Toronto police officer who appeared to give a citizen the middle finger during an interaction over parking last week is shown on the left in an image taken from a video circulating on social media. On the right Premier Doug Ford is shown speaking with reporters in Mississauga on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is coming to the defence of a Toronto police officer who was captured on video flipping their middle finger to a citizen during a heated exchange.

"Let's support our police. Let's thank them, rather than getting Google Glasses and trying to, you know, harass our police, that's what I call it. It was harassment," Ford said of the video while taking questions from the media in Mississauga Wednesday morning.

The video in question was taken on Aug. 2 near the busy Distillery District and emerged this week. In it, two officers are seen carrying coffees back to a cruiser which is parked in a no parking area. The man taking the video confronts the officers, saying they should find a regular parking spot like everyone else.

The video goes on for 7.5 minutes, culminating in the man yelling at the departing officers from the sidewalk to go on a green light. One of the officers in the cruiser then appears to raise her middle finger before the cruiser departs.

Toronto Police are investigating after a video surfaced that appears to show an officer giving the finger to a man who questioned her about parking illegally to get coffee. August 6th, 2024

The man who recorded the video told CP24 that he was using special video recording glasses, so the officers did not know that they were being recorded.

Raising the matter unprompted Wednesday, Ford called the surreptitious recording “kind of creepy.”

"These guys walking around with these Google Glasses. It might be the thing, but I find it pretty creepy. Imagine some guy walking down the street videotaping everything."

He said the man should have shaken the officers' hands and bought them a coffee for the job they do.

"I support our police and as far as I'm concerned, they did nothing wrong. I absolutely love them," Ford said.

In an interview with Newstalk 1010 Wednesday, the man who took the video and posted in to YouTube said he was a police officer with TPS for 24 years and recently retired.

His YouTube page shows numerous videos of other confrontations with officers.

The man, who said he's received death threats and didn't want to be named, said he doesn't have a "grudge" against police as one of the officers suggested in the video. He said he started his YouTube channel to "expose" the "very few" officers who don't do a good job.

Toronto police have confirmed that the Professional Standards Unit is looking into the incident.

With files from Newstalk1010's Deb Hutton and CP24's Beatrice Vaisman