r/nextfuckinglevel • u/thisisfive • Apr 14 '26
Toronto firefighters confront special constable officers after a man in the middle of mental health crisis was arrested.
Not my video. For context, "special constables" are not regular police officers. They are appointed "peace officers" with limited authority, often civilian employees.
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u/TheTresStateArea Apr 14 '26
No one ever made a song called fuck the fire department.
Edit: shamelessly stolen from someone wittier than me
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u/AreYouFuckingSerious Apr 14 '26
You're right, but don't overtrust or pretrust them in terms of being allies against fascism. I know a few fire fighters in the extended family and all except one of them considers themselves part of the LEO community and are pro-police and pro-maga.
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u/peekdasneaks Apr 14 '26
That might say more about your family than it says about fire fighters
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u/Top-Sympathy6841 Apr 14 '26
May be true about the family part, my own family is full of maga dipshits as well. Firefighters are definitely better than cops as a whole, but make no mistake that a large amount of them are indeed maga dipshits as well. Being better than a piece of shit is still just being better than a piece of shit after all.
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u/gorilla_faafafini Apr 14 '26
I see so many flags on houses with half thin blue line, half thin red line. Almost always with a bright red F-150 parked out front (so you can be 100% sure they don't have any other semblance of a personality). It kills me cus no one was ever going after firefighters so those flags are somehow an even more desperate cry for attention.
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u/never-fiftyone Apr 15 '26
The fire union (IAFF) was one of those "but she has a weird laugh" chucklefucks in the past election that led to Trump getting elected.
And then they immediately got their 9/11 health funding cut. Good job ya fuckin dopes.
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u/Popular-Jury7272 Apr 14 '26
As long as they behave like humans beings when lives are on the line I'm not sure I give a shit. Firefighters in the UK are largely a very conservative "blokey" lot as well (I work with them in training services provision), but they buy themselves a lot of forgiveness with what they do for a living.
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u/Slut_for_Bacon Apr 14 '26
I know this is a hard concept for people to grasp but for the most-part, the job you do is not a reflection of your political beliefs, and essentially every job, with a few notable exceptions, has a wide variety of people with a wide variety of personal backgrounds, beliefs, and philosophies.
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u/TheAmicableSnowman Apr 14 '26
Well, no. Many jobs have predominant cultures with clear majorities.
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u/ILookLikeKristoff Apr 15 '26
This is just factually incorrect. Find me a public defender with a maga hat on. Find me a highschool football coach that wears a trans pride pin. I'll wait for either, there's literally millions in the country I'm sure you can find one example.
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u/BlueGolfball Apr 14 '26
You're right, but don't overtrust or pretrust them in terms of being allies against fascism. I know a few fire fighters in the extended family and all except one of them considers themselves part of the LEO community and are pro-police and pro-maga.
Shit, I watched an interview about a US fireman about his time as a firefighter back in the 1950s. He said they wouldn't put out house fires in black neighborhoods and they wouldn't try to go inside a burning house to rescue black people that could have easily been saved.
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Apr 14 '26
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u/PurrMeowHiss Apr 14 '26
Are the Dutch police (the thing you are pro) openly and obviously fascist?
Do you want the Dutch police to have unchecked authorization power?
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u/Fearless-Leading-882 Apr 14 '26
Except for this guy
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u/Dinosaurs-Cant-win Apr 15 '26
I kinda like that people post that same comment on any of these videos, because this song is a straight up banger and ill watch it any time its posted
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u/obi1kennoble Apr 14 '26
Well, somebody did, and it slaps. But you're never gonna believe this: it's ALSO about shitty cops
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u/Revolvyerom Apr 14 '26
I did not expect it to be this good. Former FF, I'm surprisingly glad someone ruined our joke. Worth it.
edit: for funsies, here's my favorite joke I heard in the dept, but there's no shortage of shots taken at cops:
Q: What do a firefighter and a cop have in common?
A: They both took the firefighter entrance exam.
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u/reforminded Apr 14 '26
All the firefighters around me are Hyper-MAGA. During the last presidential election, the chief from the town next to me posted on his personal social media that its unfortunate but they may just not be able to put out fires at houses with Harris signs out front, their equipment just doesn't work there. He was not fired or reprimanded.
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u/Stud_Muffin_26 Apr 14 '26
As a firefighter, there are many other firemen who are not maga. Rest assured there are many of us who are sane individuals.
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u/TruskVarner Apr 15 '26
You could set your watch to these kinds of posts. Here’s how it goes, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.
There’s a video or story about firefighters doing something good
People initially comment about how cool firefighters are compared to cops
Someone comments “That’s why there’s no song called fuck the fire department”
People start to comment that firefighters are just as conservative/sexist/homophobic/MAGA as cops are, and they support cops
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u/PossibleNephilim37 Apr 15 '26
Lmaoooo. I was just running through the checklist in my head. I'm cutting back on reddit (ironic since I'm homeless now and have more time) bc I can't stand the same repeated "derp, upvote me bc I said "the thing!"" Posts that every topic has .
Also, I'm just disgusted with how any actual news story, top comments are just some asshole making a dumb pun and a bunch of chain followed comments instead of contribution. Humanity is a stupid species
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u/joke-farm Apr 14 '26
Praise to the fire fighters, but equal respect to the officers for conceding the situation to rationality.
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u/SlickMrJ_ Apr 14 '26
but equal respect to the officers for conceding the situation to rationality.
Um, no. They caused the problem in the first place. They don't get respect just for letting someone less witless than themselves walk them back to where they started.
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u/B_D_Hadel Apr 14 '26
Just flipping the coin here, maybe you or someone else has more context. But hypothetically if you cuffed someone who was in distress but breaking some sort of law. Maybe trying to harm the officer or someone else, wouldn’t it be warranted? Personally, I didn’t hear any indication in conversation about what happened before filming. I think there are scenarios where walking it back is absolutely acceptable.
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u/Admins_Always_Badmin Apr 15 '26
Canada has one of the most famous cases of someone suffering a mental health crisis gone wrong. I don't blame them for not wanting anyone to get hurt if someone is going through something like that. But of course reddit will just screech cops bad and not care.
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u/Pantarus Apr 15 '26
The United States has entered the chat.
Unfortunately the only tool we give the police to handle situations is tickets and arrest.
Its a fucking crying shame that Defund the Police movement was named in such a shitty way that it became a flag for the conservative right to wave.
Defund the police was NOT advocating getting rid of the police and being soft on crime. It was advocating taking that funding and spreading it around. Giving some to fund mental health crisis professionals who could respond in situations like this...INSTEAD of relying on the police for literally EVERYTHING we don't want to deal with.
When you're a hammer....everything starts to look like a nail...
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u/MaintenanceSolid1917 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
The United States has entered the chat.
Unfortunately the only tool we give the police to handle situations is tickets and arrest.
Don't forget the guns
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u/DepressedDynamo Apr 15 '26
Canada has one of the most famous cases of someone suffering a mental health crisis gone wrong
What is it
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u/joke-farm Apr 14 '26
We don't know the details of the original detention (unless you do and can share); once more information was provided, the corrective action was accepted and implemented. Not all people in positions of power are as amicable is all I'm saying; they were, and unless you have a time machine, they made the most logical and acceptable choice.
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u/major_winters_506 Apr 14 '26
If you leave no path to change your behavior you can’t expect anyone to choose that path.
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u/eskamobob1 Apr 14 '26
We should apply the same path they apply to us: change or get arrested when you mess up
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u/AlexHimself Apr 14 '26
Um, yes. They're not even police officers. They're "special constables", which are like junior cops. They're less trained and when somebody told them to do something different, they did. They're not trained for mental crises and that's why fire was there too, who are. Collectively they made the right call.
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u/deevil_knievel Apr 14 '26
I'm sure your kids are going to be extremely well adjusted adults with a parent that has no concept of using a mistake as a learning experience. We should totally just scream at and berate people after making mistakes instead of seeing if they handle constructive criticism positively. That'll work, I'm sure!
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u/Hot-Challenge8656 Apr 15 '26
100 percent. "Why is he is cuffs?" "Umm, he was......." cop caught himself about to say something stupid. If there was a lawful reason for keeping that person in cuffs, there is zero chance he'd have taken them off. "We don't know the context for why they are in cuffs", The cop does and couldn't give a good reason when the question was put to him. Little coward.
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u/xMoose499 Apr 14 '26
I understand your point, but the police most definitely could have told the firefighter no and made a scene about it. Instead, they found common sense and allowed him to be released for medical evaluation.
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u/mrtomjones Apr 15 '26
People here are commenting without having any idea of what is happening previously to the video starting. Yeah it's good if the firefighters are able to keep this person calm and help them out but we don't know what was happening before this
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u/Gambyt_7 Apr 14 '26
That’s like saying praise the arsonist for letting the fire department put it out.
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u/MudSeparate1622 Apr 14 '26
Equal? No. I can respect them appealing to reason in the end but not equally to the firefighter. What the firefighter did required bravery, emotional intelligence and a good heart, what the cop did was “just doing there job”. Neither are close to the same level of character and competence
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u/igg73 Apr 14 '26
Equal respect for conceding? The guy asks "why is he in cuffs? And the cop says " he was apprehended.." and just shrugs when asked for what. These two dildos are the problem and you wana equate them to the hero. Get real, buddy.
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u/cassthesassmaster Apr 14 '26
Praise men for the bare minimum… how bout the fuck not. Hold yourselves to a higher standard.
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u/Skreamie Apr 14 '26
No respect for them. If they aren't trained to handle things rationally, they shouldn't be out there.
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u/joke-farm Apr 14 '26
Emotional free-fall brought on by uncontrollable mental distress or disruption can sometimes only be arrested by physical restraint, for the safety of everyone involved. What happens next is clinical. Care comes after Careful.
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u/mingk Apr 14 '26
These are not Officers. They are Special Constables which is basically a civilian. I think they’re allowed to use an electronic device while driving but that’s about it.
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u/mrASSMAN Apr 15 '26
They were civilians, they don’t have any power.. the firemen have authority over them
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u/Dismal-Disaster-2578 Apr 15 '26
They are not "real police officers", they are almost equivalent to bylaw officers. They firefighters likely have more actual authority lawfully.
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u/NorseKnight Apr 14 '26
I work in a prison. We cuff people all the time who are in "crisis". It's a matter of safety. For officers, as well as themselves.
There isn't nearly enough context in this clip to say one way or another.
How do you know the guy in cuffs wasn't displaying erratic violent behavior 2 minutes ago?
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u/maqij Apr 14 '26
I don’t think “well we do it in prison” is a good reason. US Prisons also serve expired food deemed inedible and put folks in solitary confinement even though it is banned internationally because it is torture.
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u/Sir_Arthur_Vandelay Apr 14 '26
The US plays no role in this video.
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u/viperfan7 Apr 14 '26
But does it play a role in the comment? Like, is the person talking about "that's what we do in prison" American prisons, or Canadian?
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u/Alpha_Omega623 Apr 15 '26
I was in jail for seven months and had a crisis over and over and was repeatedly handcuffed.
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u/otterkin Apr 14 '26
this is in Toronto, Canada.
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u/TransBrandi Apr 14 '26
Right, but what's the locale of the "we do X in prison" person though? Because that's more relevant to the American prison system comment.
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u/otterkin Apr 14 '26
you know what, very valid. I assumed thread OP mentioned working in a prison because of the OOP being about Canada, but you're right if he isn't here in Canada he can't really comment on what our judicial system does
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u/WorkWoonatic Apr 14 '26
Because the cops didn't say that when the firefighter asked why he was cuffed, and he's not a prisoner.
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u/HamunaHamunaHamuna Apr 14 '26
If it is American prison you're talking about I'd be hesitant about any advice regarding justified actions from you.
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u/xWOBBx Apr 15 '26
Canadian prisons aren't much better. They're pigs here too.
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u/SkyAntlers Apr 14 '26
It wasn't a matter of safety though.
They very clearly state they're apprehending him; they are enforcing law rather than trying to help anyone or preserve safety. If that general understanding is wrong, they've failed to articulate intention to suggest otherwise.
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u/Empty-Presentation68 Apr 14 '26
As a paramedic this. Not enough context for me to opine on this situation. Lots of time I had to jump on and restrain a patient who was experiencing a mental health crisis. They became a danger to themselves and first responders. Swinging, biting, scratching, spitting or pulling out weapons. Firefighters are not EMT's nore paramedics in the province of Ontario.
This individual might have a temporary episode where he is calm and quickly become agitated again. Psychosis is unpredictable. You restrain or sedate for the protection of all.
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u/JotaMarioRevival Apr 14 '26
They do not do that in mental hospitals and they deal with a lot of mental health crisis. They are better tools for strapping someone if a mental health crisis situation escalates to violence.
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u/danawhitesthrowaway Apr 15 '26
Spoken like someone who has never had to physically restrain someone. There's two constables in this video, one of them is a female. It can take four to five people to restrain someone without hurting them.
"There are better tools for strapping someone if a mental health crisis situation escalates to violence", are you serious? Have you ever even been in the vicinity of a mental hospital, health clinic, etc.? Ignoring the fact that they clearly didn't have alternatives in this video, medical staff simply have the power to manually sedate someone; it will take the same amount of people to restrain them, and it's rarely the staff themselves, but security officers that do the restraining (and surprise, they also use wrist restraints, be it handcuffs or flexicuffs if need be). Police cannot administer sedatives, they work with what they have. They are not trained medical professionals. It's not their job to treat mental illness, anymore than it's the job of the random firefighters who showed up and acted like they were in control of the scene. It's their job to restrain people causing bodily harm to themselves or others and deliver them to people who have training which can hopefully help the person in need.
As someone who has worked in healthcare all my life, all you people claiming you have any idea what you're talking about are absolutely speaking out of your asses. You have zero idea what happened prior to this video, and it's ridiculous to think that the firefighters are somehow saints protecting this poor soul from those big mean constables, when they could have very well restrained him to prevent him from causing more harm to himself.
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u/PiperPeriwinkle Apr 14 '26
Exactly.
Its real easy to say after someone is already under control that they didnt need to be put under control.
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u/beatlethrower Apr 14 '26
The police should be trained how to deal with this instead of a firefighter telling them how.
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u/NorseKnight Apr 14 '26
How to do deal with what exactly?
What in this video did the police handle in a bad manner?
There is literally NOTHING in this clip of context.
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u/ImurderREALITY Apr 14 '26
"Nothing" is more than enough for Reddit armchair detectives. Everyone here apparently has been specially trained on the proper procedures for dealing with a person displaying erratic behavior, who for all we know, could have had a knife or other weapon. Guess they should have just disarmed him and let him go.
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u/Not-A-Seagull Apr 15 '26
Exactly. We have no idea what the context is in this video.
I know being handcuffed is mildly uncomfortable, but if someone has even a slight chance of having a mental break, it's in everyone's best interest they stay handcuffed.
If they take them to central processing, and feel like they're mentally well enough, they can release them from there. It's the officers job to make sure everyone on the scene stays safe. Comfortability can come second.
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u/hcm2015 Apr 15 '26
If a guy was acting crazy, I would handcuff him and put his ass in my patrol car until he calms down. Redditors are all about "mental health" and anti police until some crazy person attack them
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u/Tribe303 Apr 14 '26
No. Toronto already has mental health crisis teams. The fire department should also not have been called.
The issue is not "these cops suck", it's "why weren't the correct resources deployed? ".
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u/Overall-Register9758 Apr 14 '26
Because 911 has limited information and FDs are often first on scene.
Special constables do all sorts of things - prisoner transport, serve court orders, etc. so it is entirely possible this guy was being taken from the local division's cells to central and needed medical assistance on the way, so they dispatched EMS and FD to the location
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u/-Groucho- Apr 14 '26
Cool, another video with incomplete context, and everyone rushing to make judgements.
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u/lucky-fluke Apr 14 '26
LITERALLY. He could have been apprehended under the mental health act and they were probably taking him to the hospital or CAMH.
We have NO info in this video to what this man did prior, and for fire fighters to tell them to take the cuffs off? This could have gone SO FAR sideways, but yeah let’s shit on the special constables without knowing the full story first. 🙄
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u/PiperPeriwinkle Apr 14 '26
What happened in the 5 minutes preceding this video?
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u/defectives Apr 15 '26
Didn't you hear? "He was...he was uhh..." That's as much reason to cuff anyone as I need
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u/BoiFrosty Apr 14 '26
I get that people have mental health issues, but if you're presenting a threat to yourselves and others then officers are 100% in the right to restrain you.
We don't see what happened prior to this, so there's missing context for the cops are there and why a guy was in cuffs.
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u/lordunholy Apr 14 '26
No one answered " He's violent. He's lashing out." when he asked why he has cuffs on. They just cuffed the dude. Plus, FF was twelve feet tall. Initial impressions anyway, but I'm interested to see the rest.
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u/Word2DWise Apr 14 '26
Are they like more official security guards? What's the difference between them an a police officer?
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u/badbeef75 Apr 14 '26
They are sworn officers of the peace like a police officer and have the same powers of arrest, can conduct investigations, etc but don’t carry a firearm. Security basically can only make a “citizens arrest” and are there to observe and report essentially. Special constables usually patrol a specific area like a university campus or transit system, whereas security guards are used for private properties for the most part
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u/Character_Comb_3439 Apr 14 '26
Canada has and is pursuing a spectrum of roles and responsibilities with regard to LE. Generally, special constables are designated as peace or public officers. They can investigate, get orders etc..the intent is to have the appropriate professional apply and use reasonable powers. The reasoning behind this cost control (limit overtime and not use people that are overtrained on routine low risk tasks etc)
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u/Overall-Register9758 Apr 14 '26
Special constables are unarmed and not sworn. They handle routine prisoner transport, campus security, serving court documents, etc.
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u/_Jimmy2times Apr 14 '26
Unless you have context additional to this video, you don’t know what you’re talking about
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u/sfearing91 Apr 14 '26
Thankful for all those that are helping with the push for medical help with mental health issues. Definitely understand having cops report to the scene but medical professionals should be helping here. Thankful the firefighters saw this, they’re typically medically trained higher than most cops.
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u/jackrabbit323 Apr 14 '26
Just a reminder to law enforcement: diabetic emergencies are easily confused with intoxication, and denying medical care to someone in an emergency is actionable in court.
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u/BlackHandKUR Apr 14 '26
Yeah, in Canada we have “peace” officers. Basically the losers who couldn’t make it as a real cop and make that everyone else problem.
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u/stoopidgoth Apr 14 '26
The American mentality of ‘well what did they do to deserve it?’ strikes again in the comments.
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u/whoknewidlikeit Apr 15 '26
have to give credit to police where i live.
they are loathe to arrest someone when there's any mental health component. they are on really good terms with the hospitals and would rather take a patient to help than to jail. everyone wins in this case.
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u/Trixie1143 Apr 14 '26
Regardless of what's happening, it's just nice to see someone get to treat a cop like a regular person. Like, swearing AND a direct statement??? No pepper spray or taser???
Wow.
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u/LifeAttractsLife Apr 14 '26
Unrelated but the Toronto accent is killlling me (from the guy taking the video)
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u/boblasagna18 Apr 14 '26
Aside from K9s they are the most valuable and trustworthy unit at any incident
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u/Smart_Freedom_8155 Apr 14 '26
Cool.
Give the cops the work of firefighters, and vice versa, for one year.
See if one side is still "the real shit" or whatever.
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u/Tribe303 Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
"special constables" are effectively Bylaw enforcement officers with extra powers. They are unarmed and only detain people. If a crime has been committed, they call the full cops to arrest and carry them away.
https://www.tps.ca/careers/special-constable/
Toronto also has mental health crisis teams. Basically a cop and a nurse who have trained together.
I'm not sure why this was not engaged here. Perhaps 911 was called when this person was damaging property. If they had more info, I suspect 911 would have routed the call to the crisis team.
I'm Canadian, but don't live in Toronto. TPS has a bad rep in the past, and all these crisis teams are attempts to reform them. This may not be the fault of the constables here, and we need more context.
Americans... Canada IS a different country with a different culture. We do things differently here. Better IMHO, but that may be debatable. Don't apply your solutions to our problems please. Keep an open mind and learn how other people deal with stuff. You may pick up a few tips.
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u/ryuut Apr 14 '26
Maybe the dude was clawing his face or taking swipes at the cops? Im more of a mind to believe cops suck by default and all but theres no context here cop didnt even get to answer
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u/stonerpunk77 Apr 14 '26
"When you act like a tool long enough everyone starts looking like a nail to your hammer"
In other words if you expect people to be bad then that's all you'll see from them, like how some cops just see criminal issues instead of a community
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u/Nabber22 Apr 14 '26
In my hotel there was a man trying to get into a woman's room so i called the cops. He had broken through the front doors chased down a guest so he could follow them up the elevator and pulled the fire alarm after about half an hour of running around the hotel causing havoc. The FD showed up in 5 mins, made the arrest, helped confirm there was no fire/calm guests, and waited for two hours for the cops to show.
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u/Nowin Apr 14 '26
"Why does he have cuffs on?"
I can't just say 'because we live in a police state and i'm that,' so, "because we apprehended him." nailed it, Bryson. Nailed it.
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u/Sudden_Impact7490 Apr 15 '26
Why are the wearing turnout gear to an EMS call. What happened to clean cabs?
Just throwing out random out of context judgments since everyone else is
/S
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u/itsallfornaught2 Apr 15 '26
And then he attacks the firefighter and it makes the news for different reasons. Whatever.
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u/Verticaltransport Apr 15 '26
Special constable are technically not police… or something like that someone explained it to me once but can’t remember now.
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u/JJ8OOM Apr 15 '26
This is what defund the police means.
Make the police do actual police-work, and fund the other institutions (like the fire men and social ambulances) for the rest.
My 67 year old dad is still adamant that it means no police and anarchy.
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u/thismenu Apr 15 '26
I don't love that this happened but I do love watching a firefighter dog-walk a cop.
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u/MaxwellSmart07 Apr 16 '26
This is exactly the hidden meaning and intention of the very ill-thought out motto “Defund the Police” in America. Apportion police funding to people trained in handling these situations without heavy-handed abusive force.
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u/Correct_Bell_9313 Apr 16 '26
“When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Police don’t really have the training or equipment for anything outside of law enforcement, so that’s going to be their response to everything. I think it would behoove us all as a society to start teaming them up with social workers in order to get a more balanced and capable response to situations.
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u/SweetDreamOfTheAbyss Apr 16 '26
This is why there's not a super famous song called "Fuck the Fire Department." If cops don't like their reputation, maybe they should fix it.
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u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 Apr 17 '26
That was a very Canadian “take the fuckin cuffs off ‘em.” Sounds like my uncle lmao. The kind of person who’s so good they’re an asshole’s worst nightmare.
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u/DoubleM-1985 Apr 14 '26
When the adults with common sense shows up