Wild fight sees woman with kid in stroller stomp on someone's head (VIDEO)
Spring is in the air in Toronto and crowds are pouring back into city streets, which means fights. Lots and lots of fights.
The latest in a string of wild videos captured on Toronto streets shows a scuffle that quickly escalates into a vicious violent encounter, where a woman essentially curb-stomps her adversary and then goes back to casually pushing a toddler in a stroller.
Lawyer Caryma Sa’d captured the incident at Yonge and Dundas on Thursday night in an over six-and-a-half-minute video that shows the prolonged fight.
I vacillated between whether or not to share this footage, but in the end it’s an honest reflection of Yonge & Dundas after midnight.
Private security did not physically intervene, and police took ~30 min to attend.
$1.16B doesn’t buy safety.
TW: violence#Toronto pic.twitter.com/4MWTa0jSQt
— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) May 12, 2023
During the video, a pair of women can be seen engaging in a fight just outside of the Dundas subway station exit at Yonge Dundas Square at the intersection’s southeast corner. A stroller with an infant, belonging to one of the women engaging in fisticuffs, can be seen on the sidelines.
With a child in a stroller?!? 😳
Why is security not dealing with this situation?
— TemporarilyUnstonedSeaWitch🇨🇦 (@stonedseawitch) May 12, 2023
Sa’d tells blogTO that the argument broke out over a cellphone, explaining that “the lady in denim was accused of taking the other lady’s phone. That triggered the fight. As you can see from the video, the denim lady’s friend intervened to hold her down. It was heated.”
Despite multiple attempts from bystanders to de-escalate the situation, including a TTC station supervisor who said they had called Toronto police, Dundas Square security guards can be seen doing little to intervene. Sa’d said that it would take another half hour after the events of the video before police arrived on scene.
Two frontline city workers were in the fight’s immediate vicinity: TTC station supervisor and paramedic.
The station supervisor called police.
The ambulance nearly passed by, but pulled over to offer assistance. #Toronto pic.twitter.com/KhYCyHctXq
— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) May 12, 2023
This type of activity at Dundas Square is a “constant occurrence,” according to Sa’d, who says that “there are often fights that play out with no police intervention, while security stands by.”
“For a tourist hub, it’s actually shocking how unsafe the area is, especially at night,” she added, continuing, “This has been an issue for years.”
Granted, she doesn’t fault security officers for their inaction, adding that “they surely aren’t getting paid enough to jeopardize their own physical safety, and their primary function seems to be stopping people from smoking/biking/scooting in the square.”
If the private security intervened, would they risk exposure to litigation?
Since the private security did not intervene, do they risk exposure to litigation?
Is the private security contracted to protect property or the public?
— Douglas Tompson (@DTSaskatoon) May 12, 2023
That being said, Sa’d believes that “the response overall was disappointing as it seemed to lack urgency,” though acknowledges that she is “mindful that police intervention can have net negative repercussions in situations like this,” instead calling for “social services that are rehabilitative rather than punitive.”
She questions why “police take up such a large fraction of the budget yet took 30 minutes to show up, meanwhile, there isn’t money for social services.”
The woman in denim was later punched by a man across the street in another exchange that has not been shared on social media.
Sa’d calls it an ironic twist that the phone that allegedly started the fight was later found by a bystander and handed over to responding paramedics.
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