‘Gross incompetence:’ Man ticketed for contraband cigarettes says he was racially profiled

globalnews.ca:

An Iranian man in Quebec says he was racially profiled by police when they conducted a “routine stop” which he says led to over $1,100 in ticket fines for providing his insurance papers “too late,” possessing two packs contraband cigarettes and obstructing a peace officer.

Iman Niknam held a press conference on Wednesday alongside the Red Coalition, an anti-police profiling organization, detailing the “gross incompetence and troubling unprofessionalism” by Roussillon Police when the incident occurred back on July 8.

Niknam, a renovation contractor, says he was heading to meet a client at around 8 a.m. when he was pulled over for what the officers called a “routine stop” on Rue Centrale in Sainte-Catherine, Que., on Montreal’s south shore.

Once stopped, he says he asked one of the two officers why they had done a U-turn to pull him over.

According to Niknam, the officer replied “are you smoking Indian cigarettes? I can give you a ticket for that if you want to be rude.”

She then asked for his license, registration and proof of insurance. He says he showed his license but had a hard time finding his insurance papers.

The officer then took the driver’s license and vehicle registration, returned to the police cruiser and came back with a $64 ticket for failure to provide his insurance papers. By that time he had found the documents and handed them over.

He says she told him it was too late and issued the ticket anyway.

Niknam says he continued to ask why they had done a U-turn to stop him. “She gave me a bunch of different answers. She said, ‘You have an F plate (a license plate issued to commercial and special use vehicles) and we wanted to see who the driver was. It’s a normal routine stop — we have done it to six others