WATCH: Police Run Over Freedom Convoy Protesters With Horses, Face Lawsuit

Police began their action against the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa Friday morning. There are a lot of protesters and while the police have gained control of some streets and arrested some of the people, there are still many other protesters.

At least 100 people have been arrested, mostly for “mischief” charges — a charge that seems to be a catch-all for dissenting from the government — and about 24 vehicles towed. But based upon the number of folks who have come out, there are a lot of people left and now, more people are coming out. They may have just made more protesters after this police action.

But Deputy Chief Steve Bell claimed that no protesters were hurt.

That’s a lie, because as we noted in our last story, protesters were kicked and beaten, at least one person was even hit by the police with the butt of a gun. We have the video, and it would be hard for the police to argue that “no one was hurt,” if you look at that video. Plus, it was wrong and excessive.

On top of that, when they made a big move on the protesters — they used horses, followed by dozens of cops — they hurt more people. While horses have sometimes been used in crowd control, I don’t think I’ve ever seen police running horses right into the crowd of people, right at them, at that speed. You can see as they do so, they knock people to the ground, including what appeared to be an older woman with a walker/scooter and a man. People started screaming that the woman had been trampled.

Ottawa Police Horses Trample Protestors Increasing Tensions Between Protestors and Police

Credit: https://t.co/54dcfpPRvY pic.twitter.com/yAbVsAQcsn

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 18, 2022

Police in Ottawa trampled protesters with horses today. pic.twitter.com/VPLX5XpDhf

— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) February 18, 2022

Police claim they needed to do that because of protesters’ “assaultive behavior;” you can see there was no such behavior. The woman who was trampled was simply calling out, “this was a peaceful protest,” before she’s knocked over.

pic.twitter.com/7DvMasdx9V

— Phil_C🔰 (@mufc9986) February 19, 2022

There are no videos that I have seen of any protester’s “assaultive behavior.” The most I have seen is people holding onto poles or other people, resisting getting pulled by cops. That might be resisting, but it isn’t an assault. Indeed, the protesters have gone to great effort not to fight back despite being attacked, kicked, and beaten by the cops. This is not going to look good in the morning, when it’s flashed around the world.

This is what it looked like to True North journalist Andrew Lawton, right before he was pepper-sprayed. It was a madhouse.

The police advance moments before I was maced. pic.twitter.com/w7gQHwbQO6

— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) February 18, 2022

Lawton said he had been pepper-sprayed.

Update from Ottawa convoy protest https://t.co/0Cs2wJm6Pc

— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) February 18, 2022

His editor-in-chief, Candice Malcolm, announced that they would be pursuing action against the police for assault and targeting a journalist.

I've just retained a lawyer on behalf of True North and our journalist @AndrewLawton. We are suing the police for assault and targeting a working journalist. @JustinTrudeau: you don't get to beat up journalists in this country. See you in court.

— Candice Malcolm (@CandiceMalcolm) February 18, 2022

But if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the liberals thought that this crackdown against the people was going to boost his flagging polls after all this, they would be sorely mistake the Conservatives have gone up 10 points because people are looking at the liberals and seeing what a mess they are. In January, they were dead even with the liberals.

The 10-point jump for the Conservatives comes as Bergen advocates for protesters who’ve been encamped in Ottawa for 22 days to protest federal vaccine mandates, and as the Tories oppose the government’s use of the Emergencies Act, which was invoked to give police new powers to remove those same demonstrators.

Now add alleged police abuse on top of that, with a picture of them trampling older women — not a good look, when you look like China.

But as I said earlier, even more people have come out now, so I’m not sure this had the effect they hoped it would. We shall see and keep you updated.

Despite the freezing cold temperatures and an army of police officers, protesters in Ottawa are refusing to back down in the face of tyranny 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/f7ZkiFNLh3

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 19, 2022

Larry O’Connor from our sister publication Townhall.com nails it here: