Sammy Yatim: Another Unlearned Lesson in The Life Saving Value of De-escalation Techniques

On July 27, 2013, 18-year-old Sammy Yatim was a passenger on the 505 Toronto streetcar.  According to other streetcar passengers as reported in the media, Sammy’s expression and actions drew a mixture of concern and fear.  Passengers left the streetcar.  Sammy Yatim remained, alone, with a knife in his hand.

A witness captures on video, the moments before Sammy Yatim’s death.  Even from the distance that the video is shot, it is clear that Sammy Yatim is in crisis.  As a Toronto police officer aims his handgun he yells, “Drop the knife right now.  You heard me say it.  If you take one step in this direction, I’ll f***ing do it.  No doubt about it.”  Sammy slowly backs up and repeats a mantra of four words, in a cadence that if it did not sound so baleful, it could be the lyrics to a song, “You’re a f***ing pig…You’re a f***ing pig.”

Does Sammy understand what the officer is saying?

Is Sammy in a state of mind where he can absorb fully what is being asked of him?

Does the officer understand this?  Does the officer believe that Sammy has the capacity to understand the command, is capable of following this order and has the capacity to comply?

Does the officer consider other options before drawing his gun?  Has the officer considered de-escalation?  Do any of the other officers attempt to assist in a way that could de-escalate the situation as the shooting officer aims.

Many police officers have arrived.  But, are they assisting or are they simply disengaged, mesmerized and chaotic?

It seems as if the shooting officer is on his own with one very frightened officer also aiming who is at his side.

One police officer moves casually to the side of the streetcar, talking into his shoulder communication device.  Other officers arrive and casually enter the scene and stand behind the shooting officer.  Other officers seem to mill about, directionless.  A few officers move back and forth erratically, but it is not clear what their goals or intentions are.  Some officers seem energetic but disoriented.  Passersby, seem undaunted and walk by.  Do police direct or ensure the safety of the civilian onlookers?

Before passengers exited the streetcar, according to one passenger, Sammy moved down the aisle of the streetcar with jaw and fists clenched, eyes wide.  The knife was in an upright position.   When Sammy neared, the passenger did not feel threatened, he reported to media because Sammy was moving slowly and seemed to be looking past him.

Following commands from the Toronto police officer, Sammy has backed up from the front TTC streetcar doors.  He is noted in the first side window, with his arm at a 90 degree angle.   A figure darts past on the opposite side of the TTC streetcar.  Sammy notices, but not with the expectation of imminent danger. He seems to move in a dream-like manner as though the knife he is holding and moving slowly through the space in front of him has an ethereal or mystical quality. He turns to follow the movement outside the streetcar to his right with a floating quality, not the startle response and darting action of someone in a heightened state of arousal due to danger.  His slightly delayed response is longer than would be expected from someone who has 22 police officers watching and waiting for him to decide not to comply.  His delayed response is longer than one would expect in someone who is alert, capable and in a coherent state of mind. Does Sammy have the capacity to make appropriate choices?

Sammy makes the inappropriate choice as determined by Toronto Police Service’s protocols, training and guidelines for ‘use of force’ in situations where an offender has a weapon.  Sammy drops his arm and deliberately moves one small step forward.

Nine shots, pop, pop, pop…then 6 more slow and deliberate…pop…pop…pop…pop…pop…pop.

Sammy immediately drops out of sight after the first shot.  Moments later Sammy lays twitching.  Is he still clutching the knife?  “Drop the knife.  Drop the knife,”  the Toronto police officer commands.  They move forward together in a pack, bodies taut, nervous.  Someone arrives quickly and moves in front of the pack of officers and enters the TTC streetcar deliberately, confidently.

Media reports state that Sammy was stunned with a Taser after being shot.  Did Sammy drop the knife after the first Taser deployment?  Did Sammy ever drop the knife?  Did someone pluck the knife from his hand as he lay dying on a cold TTC streetcar floor?  After the first shots, was Sammy in a conscious state of mind to let go of the knife?  Was Sammy conscious?

Had Sammy already dropped the knife as he dropped his arm just before taking that first deliberate step?

Eventually, CPR is applied.  Thirty minutes later Sammy is transferred by ambulance to hospital.  Sammy dies.

As Sammy’s mom, Sahar Bahadi weeps for the loss of her son and requests for no retributive action against the TPS, the community asks, how can this happen?

How can police training advocate for the use of repeated lethal force in a situation where a young man could have been easily contained to maintain the safety of police and civilians alike?

After closing the TTC doors to contain Sammy, if de-escalation had been the first or even the intervening choice by any other officer, Sammy might be alive and we would have all learned the value of effective de-escalation techniques.

Ontario’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin has stated that he is watching the outcome of this SIU investigation and may intervene if proper measures to make sure that another Sammy Yatim tragedy does not occur.  Andre Marin has the authority and power to direct changes in Toronto Police Service training.

 On July 29th, a march for justice for Sammy Yatim brought hundreds of Torontonians to the streets from a variety of cultural backgrounds.  A second march is scheduled for August 13th, the date of the next Toronto Police Services Board meeting.

In support of justice for Sammy Yatim and to support the Yatim family as they grieve for the loss of a son, brother, friend, join the march on August 13th and help bring about effective change to policing services for those in crisis.

Arming Special Constables: Will We Be Safe?

Porter Airlines would like to bring U.S. customs to the Toronto island airport.  Under federal aviation regulations, the Toronto Port Authority will need armed officers to operate a preclearance area for US customs, Patty Winsa reported in the Toronto Star recently.   To achieve this, it seems there are two options – one available and one that needs tweaking:  1)  Hire Toronto police officers   2)  Hire special constables.

Unfortunately, special constables do not carry guns in Toronto.

Police Services Boards have the power under the Police Services Act to consider use-of-force methods for special constables.  The Toronto Port Authority has approached the Toronto Police Services Board for their consideration in this matter.  Not surprisingly, Toronto Police Chief, Bill Blair has vetoed it.  Not surprisingly, Scarborough city counsellor and vice-chair of the board, Michael Thompson wants to look into it.

And there is much to consider.  Oversight and public confidence are two of them.

With Toronto police officers carrying guns, they are overseen by the board, the Special Investigations Unit and the Office of the Independent Police Review Director.  And, with this level of oversight the public continues to be skeptical.  Special constables can be approved by the board, but not overseen by them.  Likewise, the SIU and the OIPRD do not have authority to oversee special constables either.  And that means they are not able to investigate or hold special constables accountable for their actions when they discharge their weapons.

So who does?  The chief of police only?

And how then, will the public be protected when there is a question as to the integrity of special constables?

With the somewhat shaky confidence in the SIU and the newly appointed and supposedly ‘independent’ position of the police review director in question, paired with Toronto police officers who seem to be protected and immune to fault when discharging their weapons, how can we trust that special constables, armed with guns will discharge them honourably?

My thoughts.

We better get this accountability thing right before we start giving out any more guns, weapons, or Tasers to anyone else with the authority to shoot us.

Two Conversations With Former Toronto Police Officers

I had the opportunity to speak recently with two former Toronto police officers.  Both conversations were unique, candid and surprising.  Due to the candid nature of the conversations and concerns about publicly announcing viewpoints that may bring repercussions to both former Toronto police officers, I have chosen to keep their identities anonymous so that they would feel free to disclose. One of the officers now works in health care. The other continues to work in law enforcement.

Officer #1:  Male, married, 40-something

PO #1:  So what’s this blog about?

Me:  I write mainly about social justice and civil rights issues for racialized, marginalized and vulnerable persons.

PO #1:  Hmm.  Why, do you get paid to do this?

Me:  No.

PO #1:  So you just do this for fun?  What, do people write to you and say stuff like ‘good writing’?

Me:  Not really.  The blog is pretty controversial.  Not everyone agrees with my point of view, and …..you might not really like   what I’m going to say next.

PO #1:  (taking a deep breath, shifting position and straightening his back)  Go ahead.  You can tell me anything you want.

Me:  You know there have been a lot of shootings of black youth by the Toronto police since the 1970’s and I’m looking into it.  I also think the Somali kid who got shot in the alleged home invasion in Peel seems a bit unusual, too.  So I wrote about that, too.  That blog sparked a lot of hateful comments.  Many comments I could not approve and some of them were overtly racist so were inappropriate to publish on the blog.

PO #1:  You know, you don’t look like a cop-hater.

Me:  I’m not.  I just think that policing should be ethical.  There was a police officer last year that had to bring in another police officer who had been drinking and driving and..

PO #1: (he cuts me off – not maintaining eye contact, looking away to the side) So what do you care if some Somali kid got shot?

Me:  Because I do.

PO #1:  So you want your kind of justice.

Me:  (I’m beginning to feel quite anxious here, but I continue on) My kind of justice?  Shouldn’t justice be the same for everyone?  Tell me you don’t care about this Somali kid.

PO #1:  (maintaining eye contact with a great deal of effort, gritting his teeth)  I..Don’t…Care. (the corners of his outer eyelids droop in sadness)

Me:  You care.  I can see that you care.

PO #1:  (looking to the side, shifting position, sighing) No I don’t.  They shoot each other, too.  Didn’t you know that?

Me:  (sadly)  Yes, they do.  I’ve been writing about something else, too.  I witnessed a Toronto police officer shoot a black kid back in 1996.  I saw the whole thing from start to finish.

PO #1:  (he starts writing down what I say)  Okay, when was this exactly?

Me:  January 10th, 1996.  The black boy was Tommy Barnett.  They say he had a sword, but it was only a flag.  I saw the whole thing from my apartment window.

PO #1:  (sounding edgy, writing again) What was your address?

Me:  3 Claxton Blvd. apt #302.

PO #1:  Who was the shooting officer?

Me:  ( I tell him the officer’s name)

PO #1:  (sounding angry)  You’re talking about my friend.  I worked with that guy.  And that kid was a man.

Me:  That kid was 22-years-old.

PO #1:  That’s a man. (spoken emphatically) I can’t deal with this.  I’m not talking to you about this.  I’m getting someone else(He begins to walk away)

Me:  Does your friend know I’m writing this blog?

PO #1:  No. And he’s not gonna know.  I don’t want him to know.

Me:  How is he doing?  Is he still working as a police officer?

PO #1:  (still upset, edgy) Yes.  He’s doing just fine.  And yes, it was a flag, but there was also a sword.  You should read the entire inquest before you write these things.  It’s not as if you..well, yes you did see it, so…(with some sarcasm) okay, so tell me all about it.  So you heard the sirens and you went to the window.

Me:  Actually, I don’t know what brought me to the window, I don’t remember sirens but anyway…I went to the window and I see a cruiser in the middle of Bathurst St close to what was originally Haber’s pharmacy.  The cruiser was parked on a diagonal across Bathurst St.  The officer was standing outside the cruiser on the driver’s side and moved along the length of the vehicle until he was closer to the back near the trunk.  With his back to the cruiser he took aim and shot.  It happened pretty quickly. It seemed like just a few minutes between him watching Tommy and the shooting taking place.  The other officer didn’t seem to want anything to do with it.  He was standing on the other side of the cruiser, sideways, looking over.

PO #1:  (stated matter-of-factly) There wasn’t another officer there.

Me:  Yes, there was.

PO #1:  (less matter-of-factly, more casual) Oh yeah, that’s right he did have a partner sometimes.  Well, you don’t want to know what I think of him, ratting Ben out like that.

Me: (I don’t know if this is true or not, but I want to see the officer’s reaction) He didn’t.

PO #1:  (visibly taken aback, pulls his head back and straightens up quickly).  You know it was snowy that night.  The ground was icy.

Me:  The shot was from at least 15 feet.  That’s quite a distance.

PO #1:  It was icy.  You know I’ve gotta give you credit for looking into this, but you’ve got a lot of nerve doing this.  (incredulously) And, you put your actual name on your blog and your picture?  That’s not a good idea.  If you were my sister, I’d tell you to..

Me: (cutting him off) You’d tell me not to do it, right?  It’s dangerous to write about this, isn’t it?  I want people to know who is writing this so that it can be verified.

PO #1:  Listen. I’m not gonna tell you not to do this but do it by proxy, okay?   You’re writing about this stuff, but you don’t know how it is.  You don’t know what its like when you’ve got someone pointing a weapon at you and you have to protect yourself.

Me:  One black teenager was shot in the back.

PO #1:  (emphatically)  I’d shoot someone in the back, too.  If I’ve got a person who was a threat to my partner, I’d shoot him and I don’t care what my supervisor says or the chief of police.  You got that?  And if someone was running towards you with a weapon in their hand, I wouldn’t worry about whether I was shooting centre mass or not, I’d ram them with my vehicle if I was in it.  (sarcastically) You want to sit at home in your nice little house and watch tv after dinner with your nice little families while we’re out here dealing with all this stuff so that you can feel safe.   So, you can feel safe.

Me: (thinking to myself:  I don’t feel safe with ‘police justice’) That boy who was shot in the back didn’t have a weapon, wasn’t threatening anybody.

PO #1:  That guy you saw shot.  Did you know he was giving us a hard time?  Did you know he was giving us trouble?

Me: (dumbfounded, wondering what kind of hard time Tommy gave the police that deserved being shot in the head)

PO #1:  I’ll bet for five bucks you can get a copy of the whole inquest.  You need to read the whole thing.

Me:  I’m going to do that.

————————————————————————————————–

Officer #2:  Female, separated, 40-something

Me:  I had an interesting conversation with a former Toronto Police officer the other day.  We were talking about my blog and the shootings by Toronto police officers of black youth.

PO #2:  Shootings of black youth?

Me:  Well, there has been quite a few shootings since the late 1970’s and nothing has changed.  I saw a black guy get shot from my apartment window by a Toronto police officer in 1996.  I didn’t speak up back then, but I’m writing about it now on my blog.  I started after Michael Eligon was shot last year.  He was wearing only a hospital gown, toque and socks when he was shot by Toronto police.  He was holding blunt-ended scissors in each hand at his sides walking towards police when he was shot.

PO #2:  What?

Me:  When I talked with this former Toronto police officer, he said that he’d shoot a kid in the back if he had to.

PO #2:  (incredulously) In the back?  How can you shoot a kid in the back?  That kid better be facing you and he better have a weapon in his hand.

Me:  Nope.  No weapon.  And, the police officer who shot that kid in the back was not charged.

PO #2:  What?  If I had to shoot a kid, he’d have to have a weapon and I’d have to be in danger and I’d wait until I absolutely had to.  It would be a hard decision.

Me:  How do you’d think you’d feel afterwards?

PO #2:  I’d want to quit.  I think any officer who shot someone would find it difficult to work after that.  That’s how much it would affect someone.

Me:  The officer who shot the guy I saw shot, is still working.  Others are, too.  How long did you work for Toronto Police?

PO #2:  Two years.

Me:  That wasn’t long.  What happened?

PO #2:  I was always getting into trouble.

Me:  For what?

PO #2:  I wasn’t hard enough on people.  I’d feel bad for someone if they were upset and I wouldn’t give them a traffic ticket sometimes.  I was also kind to the people we took into custody.  My supervisor didn’t like that.  So, I quit.

Me:  Do you think it might have something to do with being female or male?

PO #2:  No.  There are female officers who are just as bad as the guys.  You know, arrogant, tough, cynical, suspicious.  Some are tougher!

Me:  Do you miss policing?

PO #2:  Yeah.  Thinking of applying for OPP.  You know, there are police officers who haven’t drawn their gun in thirty years of service.

Me:  Wow, that’s good to know.

Tommy Barnett: January 10th 1996 – The Day Faith Died

January 10, 1996:  Tommy Barnett, a 22-year-old black man was shot at the corner of Claxton Blvd. and Bathurst St. in Toronto by a member of the Toronto Police Service. 

Today, I think of Tommy Barnett.  It is not only today on this very important date that I think of him.  I have thought of him every day since I first started this blog in March 2012.  Tommy was the reason for this blog.  When I blog, I think of him.

I also thought of him every day for several weeks after his shooting death.  How could I not think of him?  I witnessed his death in its entirety from his first encounter with the Toronto police that evening to the moment he fell to the pavement.  This, from my apartment window.

Although I have been witness to many things in my lifetime, witnessing the death of another by gunshot from one we would not expect to shoot to kill unless it is absolutely necessary – a police officer,  has affected my life in a way that supersedes all other trauma and is indescribable.  How does one explain the moment when faith has been lost?

Funny, this sentence – ‘ ….when Faith has been lost.’  Yes, Faith with a capital F.  Or, faith with a small f.  My faith in the Toronto Police Service and Tommy, who was also known as ‘Faith.’

Racquiah Topey of the Black Action Defense Committee knew Faith.  I didn’t.  Racquiah told me Tommy’s nickname was Faith.  Funny, how another’s life event can have a huge impact when you didn’t really know them.  Your only frame of reference is the moment of their death, but not only their death by natural causes which I have witnessed and this, too, leaves its imprint on your soul – the moment of passing from one state of being to another – like birth really, but with solemn poignancy, not glee.  Quiet reflection on what was a human being’s life and their value to those who knew and loved them.

Tommy was loved.  His mother wept with a ferocity and anguish I have never heard as I shared the news of her son’s last moments.  I did not know Tommy’s mother either, but I thought she should know the truth of her son’s death.  I thought she should know that the ambulance that carried Tommy to the Sunnybrook Trauma Unit, waited for 30 minutes before transferring him.  It had been reported the following day in the news that Tommy died in hospital, meaning that he had arrived alive.

Why the delay in transferring him?

And why had Tommy been shot?  This was unclear to me.

As Tommy’s mother wept, raged, cried out in pain, I asked her why the police would shoot a young man marching with a flag in the middle of Bathurst St.  Reporters must have been fed details from TPS who said that Tommy had a Samurai sword.  There was no mention of flags.  Why no mention of flags?

I had become increasingly anxious as I read details in the news that did not match details I had observed.  Had no one from the media spoken to any of the residents of my low-rise apartment building to fact-check?  Certainly no one had spoken to me.  I must contact the newspaper and discuss what I had observed.  Certainly, they will thank me for my efforts in reporting the truth.  I think they will be shocked to find out the truth.  This is a major story and I need some help in telling it.  I can’t tell this story alone without back-up.

Why?

Because, we’re talking about the policing system in our city.  The policing system that is hiding facts.  The policing system that just shot a guy walking with a flag from at least 15 feet while his policing partner who clearly wanted nothing to do with the shooting at all, stood on the other side of the police car near the door, standing sideways, watching.  They didn’t mention him, either.  What did he say about this incident, I wondered?  Why is this being hushed up?  And how could such brazen action by police – those who we trust and have faith to serve and protect us be covered up?

What did the newspaper guy say when I told him the truth about the story?

I don’t remember the exact words because fear like a tidal wave washed over me as I listened.  Like those movies where our character hears only the sound of his own heart pounding and the muffled backdrop of indecipherable angry backlash, I too found myself shutting down instantly into stunned silence.  The gist of the conversation was that I had no right to interfere as I was yelled at over the phone.

Funny, they didn’t want to verify anything.  They didn’t want to know.  Funny, that they didn’t want to know.

This, all before I spoke to Tommy’s mom.  I hadn’t expected to speak with Tommy’s mom.  Being a mom myself, imagining how utterly life-changing an event such as your own son’s death would be, paired with the news that it didn’t have to be at all would be greater than grief itself.  It would be the greatest pain any mom could endure – 1000 times the pain of natural childbirth.  The last person I wanted to inflict this level of pain on was Tommy’s mom.

And, I wanted Tommy’s mom to be the last mom to endure it.

Outing the TPS’s little secret would change everything.  I had been reading in the news about police shooting young black men for years.  At least one to two had been shot each year since the late 1970’s.  I thought this was odd, but had never really questioned it.  I believed in the Toronto Police Service, policing in general and all I had read in the news.  I had believed that Toronto police must have had good reason to shoot.  And, I had reasoned that had anyone witnessed any differently, the media would certainly unveil the truth.  That if the details didn’t add up, someone certainly must have tried to inform the media.  I had assumed that the media always wanted to get the authentic story, regardless of who may be offended.  So, even if something seemed amiss, media would uncover it, gratefully.

Really.  Naive.  And dead wrong.

Fear.

After calling everyone with Tommy’s mom’s last name in the Toronto white pages, I find her.  My heart pounds, and sinks all at once.  What if I just avoid this.  I don’t have to tell her.  She could live in quasi-bliss not knowing the final moments of her son’s life.  She could go on, believing that the police had a reason to shoot.

This, too, naive.  A white mother does not know what fear a black mother lives with when her son leaves through the front door.

I am learning, now.

I leave my phone number with Tommy’s mom.  Should she want to pursue this, I will help her.  I tell her I’m scared, but I want to help her.  No mother should have to face this alone.

We talk for 20 minutes.  She tells me that I shouldn’t try to help her.

Why?

“You have children.  You have no idea what the police will do to you once you try to help me.  I’m not going to do anything about it,” she blurts out between baleful sobs.  “But, thank you for your call.”

Wow.  And I’m getting thanked for this horrific news, too.  I shudder with the weight of my own emotions, Tommy’s mom’s emotions plus what knowledge I carry.  What I must bury, Tommy’s mother must bury twice with a heavily laden heart.

For a few weeks, I talk to others in my apartment building about it.  No one saw anything.  I talk to a black retired school-teacher in the neighbourhood I know.  At first she says I should report it directly to the police, and I feel hopeful.  Then she suddenly asks me if I’m talking about a black man.  She too has a son who is a young man.

“Oh no, don’t say anything.  I thought we were talking about a white man who was shot,” she admonishes, “You have young children, you don’t want trouble with the police.  Black man shot. That’s different.”

Not knowing where to turn, no internet access to information in 1996 like there is today, not knowing that the Special Investigations Unit that begun in 1990 as a result of the Black Action Defense Committee with civil rights lawyer Charles Roach and civil rights activist, Dudley Laws pushing for public oversight of Toronto policing, could be contacted or that the Black Action Defense Committee existed….I stopped trying to bring justice for Tommy’s death.

I hoped that Tommy’s mom would contact me.  I hoped she would pursue it.  Or, maybe I hoped she wouldn’t.   I was frightened that pursuing it would lead to my own demise.  That someone would silence me.  But, how could I live with this truth and not reveal it?  How could I just say nothing and allow others to die?

Tommy’s mom never called me for help.

And I silenced myself.  And I tried to forget about it.  And I did mostly forget, or at least stay silent, for 16 years until Michael Eligon was shot by Toronto police February 3rd, 2012.

If I had followed up on Tommy’s homicide somehow I would have found out that an inquest had been held and Tommy’s mom had secured a lawyer to help her.

I spoke with her lawyer recently.  He sighed and wondered how things might have been different if I had spoken up back then.  He’s working on the James Bishop case now.

A reporter at the Toronto Star sent me some information in April of this past year.  It was the judges closing comments at the end of Tommy’s inquest.

I spoke with a Toronto police officer, recently too.

Bluntly, he told me that I don’t have all the facts straight.  With a mixture of amused disbelief and unapologetic candor, he also told me that he’s got to give me credit for this but I have a lot of nerve taking this on. He told me I should look at the entire inquest which I can get at the court records office as a transcript.  What do you think this is, some kind of conspiracy?

I asked him if he knew the significance of the name of the coroner who took part in this inquest.

He looks at me blankly.

Charles Smith, I say, just as bluntly.  You know, the same Dr. Charles Smith who gave expert opinion in the baby battering cases that sent parents to jail, then it was discovered that all these parents had not done anything to harm their children at all?  The same Dr. Charles Smith that avoided legal repercussions by resigning his position as Chief Coroner of Ontario. And the same Dr. Charles Smith who accepted kick-backs from the company who produces Tasers so that Tasers could be endorsed and introduced smoothly into Canada?

Same blank stare, eyes averted.

You know what made me dig deeper?  The discrepancy between the coroner’s account of the distance the shots were fired at and my eye witness account.  I wondered if forensics was an exact science.  I had thought it was.  How could the coroner get this distance so wrong?

With each finding, I tried to find others to support me and help.  I have been working on investigating this since April. I still am.  Slowly.  Taking in a deep breath and a break with each discovery.  It’s frightening and sad all at once.  There is a part of me that does not want to know the truth.  I want to believe that those who have taken the oath to serve and protect, will do so.

I have recently been reminded that people are well, simply human.  Cops, too.  Coroners, too.  There are many cops who haven’t fired a shot or removed their gun from their holster in thirty years of service.  I’m grateful for this, buoyed by the knowledge that there are Toronto police officers who take the oath to serve and protect seriously.

Maybe I should give up this fight for truth and justice.  Maybe we all know what the truth is… about everything, but are too afraid to speak up.  The cost too high. But, then where does that leave us as humans collectively?  What will that say about humanity if I give up this fight for the sake of personal safety like everyone else?

I think of the holocaust.  People were afraid to speak up for those who were taken away.  The cost to personal safety too high.

Tommy has a sister.  A picture of her standing beside Dudley Laws fighting with him for civil rights and social justice hangs in the office of the Black Action Defense Committee where Racquiah Topey answers the phone.  I have asked since April if I can somehow get in contact with her.  Everyone goes quiet and says it’s not a good idea.  Calls have been made and I hear that it’s not a good idea.

I don’t know if anyone has actually asked Tommy’s sister if she would like to speak with me.  If you know her, could you please send this blog her way.  Tell her I’m still working on slowly uncovering the truth about the events of her brother’s death and she is not alone in thinking of her brother Tommy today.  If she would like to contact me in any way, ask her to send a message through this blog in the comments section.  I will not publish her comments or her contact info, but I would like to speak with her.

Toronto Police Services Board Meeting: Access Denied…for Black People

After a peaceful demonstration in front of Toronto Police Headquarters, 40 College St., several people were denied access to the board meeting.  A line of seven armed police officers in yellow jackets with helmets barred entrance to the lobby of the Toronto Police Headquarters building.  Baffled, those who were to depute or to attend were told that the meeting room was completely full and that no one was allowed inside.

Two young black women who did not attend the Justice Is Not Colour-Blind and Rights Watch Network rally outside, politely inquired if they could go inside to the meeting and were flatly denied.  One of the perplexed women turned, to the small crowd of less than 30 people and asked why the meeting was closed to the public.  Toronto Police Services Board Meetings are always open to the public.  The board and the Toronto police service is accountable to the public and are conducted in an open forum as courtrooms are.  It is here that the public engages in an open forum, informed of policing business as it relates to the community and deputants speak to Police Chief Bill Blair and the board on issues concerning our community that policing serves – the tax paying community – us.

But, today, no black person was allowed inside.  White people were allowed to freely enter and exit with an officer politely holding the door open on entry and exit and a few intimate words of contact as the officer bent in and quietly exchanged information with white persons.  When black people approached, the same officer stood tall, with chin high and back firmly straight, zero eye contact, and no words of kindness or comfort, stating that the meeting room was full.

Justice Is Not Colour-Blind’s, Yafet Tewelde and Odion Fayalo were routinely denied access and repeatedly told the meeting room was full.  Both Tewelde and Fayalo stated that they were to present in front of the board, that they were on the list to depute and this had been confirmed with Deirdre Williams of TPS.  With chins held high, no eye contact and an unflinching emotional wall of distance, “the meeting room is full” stated sternly.

In frustration, I asked the same officer as he stood firmly on guard, why white people were allowed access to a meeting room that was already full while black people were denied access being told that they could not enter.  Although somewhat unsettled by the question that would have been obvious to anyone, I was told that this was the orders they were given and they must follow orders.  It seemed peculiar to me why a small number of black people, some who were lawyers, such as Roger Love of the African Canadian Legal Clinic and Selwyn Pieters along with university students, professionals, and retired persons were denied access.

With repeated denials of access, deputants decided to depute to the crowd in front of the line of police officers.  Audrey Nakintu, with megaphone in hand, delivered her deputation clearly and loudly to the consternation of Toronto Police Accountability Coalitions’ John Sewell, former mayor of Toronto, who walked briskly towards her and shouted at her to stop because it was hurting his ears.  Nakintu, somewhat surprised and momentarily intimidated by this tall white man, quieted briefly then resumed with the urging of Yafet Tewelde of Justice Is Not Colour-Blind.

Surprising, because former mayor, John Sewell, has stated that he founded the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition due to the shooting death of a black man in 1979 at the hands of Toronto police.  Toronto police had chased this terrified black man up a stair case and shot him through the mattress he held in front of himself as protection.  Sewell says he was moved to action by this event and that police actions towards the black community are clearly unacceptable.  So, one would think that such a man would want to hear what a black woman wanted to say about harm to her community.  Perhaps, find out why she was not allowed access to properly speak to the board.  Perhaps help her inside by speaking to officials.  He didn’t.

Audrey Nakintu, speaking of carding, which was to be reported on at today’s meeting by Chief Bill Blair, was compared by Nakintu to documentation booklets, black people were expected to carry with them at all times during apartheid in South Africa.  These booklets accounted for their whereabouts at all times, recorded their every position and location as they ‘freely’ moved about their community and were checked by police officers continuously.  White people in South Africa were not checked or expected to account for their whereabouts at all.  Contact cards – 208 contact cards used to collect information on black people as they move about their neighbourhoods in Toronto is eerily similar, yet is flatly denied as an information collecting system that monitors black people and intimidates black youth.

Surprising that a white man proclaiming to be the empathic voice of the black people shot and harassed by Toronto police did not want to know what Audrey, a black woman, wanted to say about the condition of being profiled, targeted, harassed and monitored in the community she is purported to be free to move about in.  Sewell turned away and walked into the Toronto Police Board meeting to depute.  He did not concern himself with the people who wanted to speak on their own behalf about their own condition in Toronto’s neighbourhoods comprised largely of the marginalized.

Chief Bill Blair, who ordered the detention and withholding of black speakers from the meeting at the threshold to the Toronto Police Headquarters clearly did not want to hear either.

This underscores the fact that the marginalized in Toronto’s neighbourhoods and those of us who support them do not want to be heard from, keeping the black community, entirely – marginalized.

Police Dishonesty: Will Reporting Officers Lies During Testimony Make a Difference?

It is official.  Police who lie during testimony in court, are to be reported.  But to whom?  Will they be reported back to their police chiefs as the final judge of police conduct?  What will happen then?  Will the police officers be disciplined or will it be forgotten and swept under the carpet?  Will it matter?  Will it make a difference?

Although the number of police officers who lie is purportedly a small fraction of police forces, should we ignore it?  Should we pretend it doesn’t matter because it is only a small number of police officers who lie?  This seems to be the current position of the Toronto Police service.  Will this continue to be the position of the Toronto Police service?  And does it serve a useful position?  Is there a reason why the Toronto Police service would prefer to cover-up,  particularly those in positions of greater authority over the men in blue, such as the chief of police?

Is this cover-up not simply a lie as well?

It may have been an understandable position, to cover-up the lies of police officers in the past, hiding the ugly, human side of policing for those who found some justification for doing so.  To hide the truth would be to maintain an air of integrity for the entire police force.  To hide the truth proves without a doubt that all police officers are honest, up-standing citizens we can all count on to do the right thing and to serve and protect the public.  Of course, this is the image that the Toronto Police service wishes to convey to the public.

And while the cat is not out of the bag, this serves to be a useful projection and guise – to cover-up.  Fooling the public, while the public wishes to be fooled is a great marketing advantage and tool.  A perfect political move.  Namely, a public who wants to believe that all police officers are honest and looking out for their best interests and a police service funded by the taxpayers with huge sums of money not questioning their integrity, or questioning where the money is allotted, or if the money is even being used wisely…or if this ‘tough on crime’ position is in the best interests of the public.

Unfortunately for the TPS, the cat is out of the bag.  Fortunately for us.

But, only if we no longer believe that our police chief, Bill Blair or any subsequent police chief will allow a cover-up of a police officer’s actions and lies during court testimony after they have sworn that they will tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  Only if we no longer have faith in the actions of the SIU, who have sanctioned multiple cover-ups, police chiefs who allow cover-ups of police officers indiscretions, police chiefs who allow bullying of honest police officers by their less than honest police colleagues.

Vickie McPhee, executive director for Rights Watch Network, is encouraged by this decision.  “The decision that Crowns have to report officers that lie during testimony in court moves the issue of police misconduct to the forefront and takes a shot at the Blue Sheild of Brotherhood with the police services and association.”

McPhee explains, “Over the 15 years I have spent as an Advocate I have attended a number of cases where a judge has made, on the record, statements about conduct of officers needing ‘review’, ‘investigation’ what-have-you.  However, the reality is the crown is trying to win the case whether the officers lie or not they do not care; they just want to win.  I disclaim that I believe all crowns to take this position but it is the inherent best practice within the court system.  Now when an officer lies and the transcripts reveal it  the defendant has a right to a copy of the transcript and can hold Crowns accountable. The defendant can file the complaints through the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OPIRD), they can file other complaints through other available streams for redress.  The decision gives individuals represented by the Rights Watch Network an opportunity to prove that an officer has violated the Police Services Act and they have a right to redress.  Officers engaging in Profiling fit this.  We will make utility of this decision as test cases. The decision has utility for our clients and I look forward to testing what process will be followed by the Crowns forced to report officers.”

McPhee also believes that it opens the door to increase Ombudsman complaints and build the need for greater oversight for that
body.  A revolution is afoot she says and she is enjoying the small changes.

Conversely, upon hearing the news, Yafet Tewelde of Justice Is Not Colour-Blind, tells me he is reminded of something former Civil Rights leader Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael would say: “all things change all the time it is a scientific fact.” Tewelde says, “He would say this to show that this applies to white colonial state-power (i.e. Canada) as well because this type of power must adapt to the demands of society. We must remember the current political context that this decision is arising in; there is currently a massive amount of criticism of the police and unchecked power. This is especially seen here in Toronto with numerous reports on racial profiling and the groups, such as Justice Is Not Colour-Blind, fighting to have this addressed and the outrage around police abuse after the G20.”

Tewelde adds, “This decision shows that resistance works and challenging state power is the only way. However, we cannot rest on our laurels because the system will give us solutions that still maintain unjust white supremacist control. We must ask how we can trust a system to all of a sudden challenge police when this same system has given police a mandate to carry out Canada’s goals of suppressing progressive political actions through abuse and degradation. This is a smokescreen to pacify the growing anti-police movement.”

As a community, we need total reform of the Toronto Police Service and the SIU to hold accountable all police officers who are dishonest and sully the image of their brethren who do not lie, and do uphold the law.  This, for all the cops who swore their pledge of allegiance to the Toronto Police Service to serve and protect, believing they were joining a group of men and women with the highest degree of integrity possible.  This pledge to serve and protect, with the highest degree of honesty because this is who they were.  Great men and women of integrity.

It’s time to restore the Toronto Police service to what the public believed it was –  a police service they could trust.

A cover-up and protection of the few without integrity is to completely dishonour those men and women of the Toronto Police service who do uphold the law.  The ones who really do serve and protect us.

There has been a lot of talk lately about a disorder commonly known as PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that affects police officers who have seen other police officers shot, or have been completely stressed by their job, similar to those who have served in the military and have fought during war.  There is some controversy about the authenticity of its existence by those in the psychological scientific community.  Some psychologists believe that PTSD is simply post traumatic stress, which is a normal response to stress, rather than an authentic disorder.

Perhaps some police officers are coping less well to the demands they are under from their superiors and from the policing culture in general that emphasizes support of colleagues at all costs, encouraging the suppression of the truth.  For more ethically minded police officers, it would not be difficult to imagine that clinical depression would be the result of factors not under their control with the pressure of the thin blue line.

I wonder about those honest police officers who have seen dishonest cops shoot and kill an innocent person, followed by a cover-up by the entire Toronto Police service.  I wonder how stressed they feel.  The ones who didn’t take part, but were complicit in the cover-up because they didn’t know where else to turn…because no one would believe them.  Because the chief of police reminded them that no one would believe them.  This, because the unsuspecting and complicit public believed and wanted to believe the lies were truth too.

I wonder about the other police officer standing on the opposite side of the police car, in January 1996, trying to look away while Tommy Barnett was shot.  I wonder about his PTSD.  I wonder how he’s holding up.  Secrets are hard to keep, when they are filled with others lies.  Post trauma stress, duress, a pretense that a single lie is truth.

Now Is Not Too Late, Or Is It?

In 1977, a report was released commissioned by Metro Toronto Chairman, Paul Godfrey.  Walter Pitman, commissioned to research and report on the state of racism in Toronto, wrote a report, `Now Is Not too Late.`  Speaking primarily on the racist treatment of brown and black Torontonians, the report centered on our Loyalist and Imperialist beginnings in this nation and how Canadians with a righteous sense of entitlement,  unfairly and unwelcoming name-called, wrote racist words of hate in public spaces, and physically attacked Torontonians of non-white culture and colour.  An impassioned speech was presented by Walter Pitman outlining the need to correct this racist hatred of other cultures of non-white origin before it is too late.

Is it too late?

In 1977, it was common to hear the words, `Paki` and `Nigger.`  Walter Pitman refers to this name-calling as a sign of racist times.  Since 1977 it is understood that name-calling is not politically correct and these words are not spoken often by those who would have uttered them in 1977 and those born since.  In fact, writers often ask whether these words should even be referred to in written form.  Would anyone be offended?  And while the signs and symptoms of name-calling signifying the degree of this insidious disease known as racism have been eradicated, have we arrived?  Do we live in a racist-free nation?  Have the prophetic words of Walter Pitman, words to the wise,  resulted in an end to racism?

If you ask any white person if racism exists, they will probably seem surprised.  They will think of the multi-cultural nature of Canada, their co-workers who are of many different colours and nations, advertising featuring models of different ethnic origin, their neighbours and friends who are also of varying backgrounds and colours and declare an emphatic `No.`  Since we no longer speak the words of racism – paki or nigger, believing that this is racism, then it must certainly not exist.

And this is why, it may be too late.

Because we have stopped saying the noxious words, we have halted awareness.  We believe that an end to the hatred spoken, infers that racism has been eradicated.  This inference would be wrong.  Racism has merely gone underground.  It is silent, yet, it continues to exist in the most obnoxious form.  The form of undeclared truth, hidden political agendas, and outright acceptance of a brutal and hidden form of hatred that for some, is unrecognizable to those who are most affected by racism – those of South Asian and Caribbean descent.

Consider the words of Deputy Chief of Toronto Police, Peter Sloly at a recent meeting at FYI in the Weston-Mount Dennis location beside the George Harvey High School.  An address to those concerned about racial profiling and carding of black youth in that priority neighbourhood including teens, youth workers, and those who care for teens of black and brown ethnicity, resulted in Deputy Chief of Toronto police stating that,  “Racism exists in everyone in the room.  It exists in the Toronto Police service.”  He further stated that, “Racial profiling does exist as has been stated by Toronto Chief of police, Bill Blair.”  He also firmly told the crowd that this would continue, as would carding of black youth, with a stoic expression, in support of and upholding the organization to which he is a member.  Audible, were gasps of surprise.  Peter Sloly is of Caribbean heritage.

Is it too late, Mr Pitman?

While white people may be convinced that it is a great majority of black folk who commit crime, belaying researchable facts that prove otherwise, they are certainly blind to the effects of silent racism because it does not affect them.  When all black and brown persons have been convinced that racial profiling and carding of black and brown youth is a useful, necessary evil to contain the outrageous criminal behaviour of a large percentage of the black and brown ethnicities of Toronto, it will then be too late.

To find out more about silent racism, racial profiling and carding of black youth, see what York University students and many other Toronto citizens are doing to fight back.  Click on the links below:

Justice IS NOT Colour-Blind Campaign

Mobilize Our People, Maximize Our
Power!

Email: justicenotblind@gmail.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/justicenotblind/

Twitter:
@justicenoblind

How We Treat Our Most Vulnerable: Anatomy of a Successful Form 1 Transfer

Jimi Hendrix as well as many others who work in the entertainment field, diagnosed with bipolar

How we treat our most vulnerable in society is a reflection of how we view humanity.  Do we care?  Do we feel empathy for those in need of help?  Do we judge whether someone is justified in receiving help –  are they worthy of that help or do we assist regardless and without judgement?  These are the questions a society seeking compassionate members must ask themselves.

Catherine Zeta-Jones has been diagnosed with bipolar II, a mental illness that unlike bipolar I, does not lead to mania

And for those working in the mental health field, it is a challenge each day.  Assisting those with mental health challenges often requires a resolve to assist without reward in the social sense.  How do we maintain our empathy in the face of client rejection and potential bodily harm that feels personal and may be personally directed?  How do we consider and frame a myriad of DSM IV diagnosed personality disorders such as borderline personality or narcissistic personality disorders which are now under revision and assessment for inclusion as an authentic disorder?  How do we include these in our assessment ‘tool box’ in terms of approach and consideration for compassionate care?

How do we think about the mentally challenged, especially when the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – an assessment ‘bible’ for the mental health caregiver and psychiatrist) included homosexuality as a mental health disorder in its recent history?   Do we trust the DSM IV now?  Do we have the correct labels and the correct diagnoses?  Do we really know what a mental health disorder is and what it looks like, well enough to authentically diagnose it?

Do the mentally challenged trust it?  Do they trust us?

At a meeting of the Never Again Coalition, I spoke with Jennifer Chambers who leads the Empowerment Council, a mental health consumer/survivor group, concerning the Michael Eligon case.  Michael Eligon had left the Toronto East General hospital on February 3rd, 2012 wearing only a toque, hospital gown and with blunt-end scissors in hand, was shot dead by Toronto police.

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chambers reveals a surprising fact.  She says that the police are sometimes the preferred person to speak to those with mental health challenges.  Jennifer leads a group of mental health consumer/survivors at the Empowerment Council who inform her of their preferences within the mental health system.  Jennifer tells me that those with mental health challenges sometimes prefer anyone other than a mental health nurse to speak with them.  A police officer often represents ‘anyone other than.’  .   Experiences with mental health nurses are all too often of the negative kind.  Mental health consumer/survivors prefer anyone to speak to them as though they are adults and not children.  A police officer is the person who often approaches them with conversation rather than directives, initially.  Jennifer says this is what those with mental health challenges prefer –  conversation and respect for their preferences – not always offered by mental health nurses.

Recently, I participated as a nurse, RPN, in the Form 1 transfer of a client who had been a threat to self and others.  This transfer could go well or not, I reasoned.  I considered what it must feel like to be stripped of your rights and told you will be required to participate in action you may not desire to be a part of.  It must feel like arrest and incarceration.  Preparations must be made.  Informing a client calmly and advising of the process in advance if possible is good.  In this case, the client was calm and this was possible and was done.  The client, somewhat perplexed, agreed to the transfer.

Emergency 911 was contacted.  Two emergency attendants arrived with stretcher.  I asked if they needed to wait until police arrived to help with the transfer as is customary with Form 1 transfers.  Police had arrived and were available if needed.  I had informed the police when I called 911, that client was calm and cooperative.  I decided to help the ambulance attendants, because I had provided care to the client and all previous conversation had been respectful, maintaining client needs as priority with good outcomes.

As we three entered the clients space, I noted that the client became alert, vigilant and rigid, ready for the next undesirable intervention.  I introduced the ambulance attendants.  The attendants were friendly and I noticed client reaction was a softening of rigidity and a more receptive demeanor.  I took that opportunity to engage the client by offering assistance.  I reached out and offered to help the client onto the stretcher.  With a momentary hesitation, while client assessed us for trustworthiness and good intentions, an arm reached out.  We connected.  Not only by hand, but by humanity and a genuine desire to assist…each other.

The transfer was completed to hospital without incident with police escort.

A group of city residents who live near Toronto East General Hospital, along with city councillor Janet Davis, ward 31, are pushing for a crisis intervention team consisting of a mental health nurse and police to attend all circumstances where police intercept those in mental health crisis.  With my experience of excellent outcomes in a Form 1 transfer and echoing the words of Jennifer Chambers of the Empowerment Council via the consumer/survivors of the mental health system, this team needs to consist of any nurse and police officer who care about those in mental health crisis, have the ability to empathise with their needs and are willing to have a conversation first before any intervention.  With an excellent team consisting of police officer and nurse who prioritize respect for and safety of those with mental health challenges, consistent good outcomes for client, police officer and nurse are bound to prevail.

It has been announced that an inquest into the shooting death by Toronto police of Michael Eligon will be combined with an inquest into the deaths of two other persons with mental health challenges who were also killed by Toronto police.  The inquest date has yet to be announced.  The Empowerment Council has asked for standing at the joined inquest.  One of the Empowerment Council’s recommendations is an advisory committee of consumer/survivors connected with the mobile crisis intervention teams.  And who better to inform the people who will arrive to assist them, then the people themselves who need the help?

The trial and inquest of Michael Eligon has been combined with Sylvie Klibingaitis, a white woman also shot by Toronto police to downplay the racial aspect of black men consistently being shot dead by Toronto police two to three times per year.  However, while focussing on the mental health aspect in this inquest, we must not forget that decent, respectful intervention by both nurse and police must be maintained with all members of society, including black men/youth.

Anita Wascowicz looks at picture of her sister, Sylvie Klibingaitis, 52
photo credit: Toronto Sun

Why?

While psychiatry and the medical field sort out what constitutes an authentic mental illness, we must remember that we are all subject to the potential for a mental health epsiode.  It is the social determinants of health and the number of social determinants together that places any one of us at risk.  If we do not feel accepted or acceptable and are not treated as though we are valuable members of society, we are, any one of us, at risk of a mental health diagnoses.  This includes, but is not limited to persons of colour, newcomers to Canada, muslims, new Canadians, those who are different with differing social skills, those who have intersected the justice system, those who are LGBTQ and those of us who feel somehow unacceptable.

Social inclusion and acceptance is likely the most important social determinant, and the deciding factor in whether our mental health is at risk for any one of us.  Acceptance of others, tolerance for the different nature of others and a welcoming atmosphere especially for medical staff and police officers alike with an open-minded approach towards understanding without judgement even in the event of personal rejection or potential injury is imperative.

This is challenging.  It is achievable.  It is decent, fair and a guiding beacon of light towards which we must direct our attention, if we hope to achieve a productive and safe society full of mentally healthy members.  We must have compassion for all.

_____________________________________________________________________

Racial Profiling: Is Carding Black Youth Abuse of Power?

A young black teen leaves his apartment in his community housing complex.  He has a few friends with him.  He does not have a criminal record and has never been in trouble with the law.  Suddenly a TAVIS police cruiser pulls up and two officers get out and approach the youth.  One officer begins asking questions.  Where do you live?  Where are you going.  Who are your associates and who are your other associates at school?  Are your parents divorced or do they still live together?  What is your weight and height?  Your age.  Your name.

He has two choices he believes.  He can tell the officer that he does not have to give this information and turn and walk away or he can give the officer the information he seeks.  Some may believe that giving the information is the best choice because then you don’t arouse the suspicion of the officers who must believe you are up to no good.

It’s just info right?  What can anyone do with honest info?

Plenty.

The information TAVIS police collect, enters a data base that is accessed when youth require a criminal background check for employment purposes.  This can impair their ability to find decent employment and shows that they have intersected the law.   A clean background check is preferable.  How does carding over 50 times – 50 intersections with law enforcement appear to a prospective employer on a criminal background check?  This leaves  youth explaining how a police officer wanted to talk to him 50 times and that doesn’t look good to the average employer who would likely assume the police had a valid reason to stop the youth.  Many would ask, was he doing something he shouldn’t be?  Even with reasonable explanations of the carding process, employers could feel unsure and wary.

But, there is another reason that carding is useful for law enforcement but not useful for youth who do nothing to cause entry into the justice system, yet find themselves in a position of defending themselves.  The data obtained by police serves two purposes.  To harass and make it known that you are being monitored and scrutinized for wrong-doing.  And to build a data base of suspects that can be called on if they ‘fit’ the description.  Or ‘fit’ the association.  Now, a youth gets picked up and brought in on suspicion of committing a crime, because the data is already in the data-base and easily accessible.

For some, this may seem like an efficient way to profile people.  And this could be considered harmless demographic information, except for one thing.  Demographics collected on our age, postal code, income level do not generally lead to our incarceration.  Demographics is a marketing tool used to profile the perfect buyer.  Police racial profiling, 208 carding, of black youth results in black youth criminalized erroneously for acts they did not commit, at the very worst and at the very least, impairs employment opportunities.  Encounters of this type with the law create fear, distrust, and a reluctance to coöperate with police in the future, leaving them without assistance from the police when they need it.  Who then, will our youth turn to when they need protection?  Perhaps, each other and a concealed weapon.  If youth are carded and found with anything resembling a weapon, they will be charged and arrested as well, entering the justice system.

So, the question must be asked.  If you frighten youth into running away, and not relying on police for help and you do live in a neighbourhood that could have criminal elements in the mix, and carry something for your own protection because there is no one to help, hasn’t the system set you up to fail?  Hasn’t the system set you up for eventual incarceration?  If you feel frightened enough to carry a weapon to protect yourself, knowing police are not there to help, might you use it if you needed to?  If you use it, then you will go to jail.  Case closed.

There is the alternative.

You could say you don’t need to give any information and walk away.  Right?

When youth have tried this, they don’t get far.  Police do not generally agree good-naturedly and walk away.  In the priority neighbourhoods  TAVIS is supported, welcomed and endorsed by Toronto Community Housing.   Youth have told accounts where they have been grabbed, maneuvered, surrounded, assaulted into compliance.

Justice For Children and Youth, a legal aid clinic, supply credit card sized cards listing a youth’s rights if approached by police:

1.     I can refuse to talk to police or answer question, unless I am in a bar or a cinema, driving a car or they say I broke the law.  Must give name, date of birth and address or show ID.  Do not have to say more.

2.  I can say “NO” if the police ask permission to search me or my things.  Saying “NO” does not mean I have something to hide.

3.  I can leave unless I am being detained or arrested.

4.  If I am being detained or arrested, I have the right to know why, and a right to speak privately to a lawyer without delay – even if I can’t afford to pay.

5.  I have a right to know an officer’s name and badge number.

6.  I can report an officer who violates my rights.

When youth have tried to exercise these rights, compliance by Toronto police is generally not the order of the day.  In a recent piece, August 11th, 2012,  in the Toronto Star, Jim Rankin and Patty Winsa report on stopping and documenting by Toronto Police.  The Star obtained information through the freedom of information act that in each of the 72 patrol zones, black people were more likely to be carded than white people.  Police performance measures such as disciplinary actions and promotions are tied to the carding activity and the,”average number of cards per officer was 109 in 2008.  Of the top 15 carding officers, 13 were TAVIS officers who had a total card count of 17,460.”  And, “the top carding officer documented 12 young men in 5 different patrol zones.  All were either black or brown-skinned, and in each case, the nature of contact was listed  as ‘general investigation’.”

At the Toronto Police Services Board meeting, August 15, 2012, Moya Teklu of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, argued in a deputation that the issue of carding, police brutality and racial profiling has been ongoing since 1979.  She listed numerous reports highlighting the poor effects on youth when they are consistently carded and asked when this practice could change by giving a receipt of the encounter to the youth so they may be aware of why they were stopped, by whom, etc.  The Toronto Police Accountability Coalition asked the same question, highlighting the same concerns.

November 1st, 2012 is when we may see some interim temporary resolution.  After 37 years of waiting for a resolution to the 208 carding and racial profiling of black youth…I won’t be holding my breath.

The Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign does not ask when changes to carding with issuing receipts to youth will begin.  JINCB asks when this form of racist hate crime called racial profiling and carding will be stopped.  Period.  Odion Fayalo of JINCB stated,   ‘The argument of contact receipts put forth by folks such as TPAC and ACLC yesterday may be well-intentioned but it is misguided considering it leads us down a path to accommodation under white power. It does not actually overturn
our relationship with white power. In this case, white, police-state power! ”

Odion argues, “The solution lies in uniting and building a movement to change public policy and social relations. Only an engaged and energized movement can make change.  We have to build the movement.  We have to become the movement.  JINCB and other progressive organizations must not allow business to continue as usual at the TPSB. Business has to be ceased literally, until our demands are met.  It is the carrying out of business that allows the police to control blacks on a day-to-day basis. It is public policy to control black people.  After all, its big business to lock up black folks!”

What are the chances that a black youth not in conflict with the law, could avoid getting carded by remaining calm and stating his rights if he is walking in his neighbourhood?  Watch this video below by Chief Bill Blair who discusses a youth’s right to say NO, then recants that right later in the video.  Seems like Blair is saying youth do have rights but do not have the right to exercise them.  What do you think?  Click on the link below to view the video by Toronto Chief of police Bill Blair.

http://www.torontopoliceguide.ca/english.html

Toronto Chief of Police Bill Blair

Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign:

1. We want an immediate end to all racist programs, policies and practices that
target black people, which include but are not limited to: TAVIS, carding and
racial profiling.

2. We want an end to the practice of sweeps and raids
of black people, which have been used under false pretexts, in order to
criminalize the community.

3. We reject the notion of justifiable
homicide and want the families of all black victims of police killings, to be
fully compensated by the Province of Ontario, for their pain and suffering,
whether or not there are civil actions pending.

4. Given the documented
physical, psychological, mental, economic and other injuries resulting from
being racially profiled, we demand the criminalization of the practice of racial
profiling. We believe that racial profiling is a tenet of systemic racism, which
is institutional racism. Consequently, we want the immediate arrests and
vigorous prosecutions of all police officers in Ontario that have killed black
victims.

5. We demand an immediate end to the incestuous relationships
between the Attorney General’s ministry, SIU, and police services. We want the
SIU to be a truly independent and forceful agency, staffed with civilians from
top to bottom, and throughout. Furthermore, we call for an independent body to
be organized that can hold the SIU responsible. This body must be made up solely
of community members with substantial disciplinary powers to keep the SIU truly
accountable.

—
Justice IS
NOT Colour-Blind Campaign

Mobilize Our People, Maximize Our
Power!

Email: justicenotblind@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/justicenotblind/

Twitter:
@justicenoblind

TAVIS Gone Wild in Lawrence Heights

Four black teens, who were on their way to a Pathways to Education meeting in their Lawrence Heights community housing complex, three of them sporting braces, are accosted by TAVIS police officers.  The officers want to know who they are.  According to Joanna MacDonald, a lawyer with  Justice for Children and Youth, that question does not need to be answered if you are walking in the neighbourhood, unless you have committed a crime.  It is your right to respectfully decline and walk away.  One teen, I spoke with at a recent Toronto Police Accountability Coalition Meeting, founded by former mayor, John Sewell, said that when he declined to give his name to a police officer while walking around the community housing building he lives at in Moss Park, he was hit across the face by the police officer.

The young teen, a black youth, demonstrates by motioning with his hand hitting across his left cheekbone.  He is a decent youth, working hard at school, staying out of trouble, yet when he tried to exercise his rights, he was assaulted by police.  This, if the teen had done to anyone else, including police, would result in arrest, jail, charges of assault and a criminal record, substantially changing his life.  But, if you are a peace keeper – a police officer – you can pretty much do what you want with the back-up of our political system including our current mayor, Rob Ford, who wants all the immigrants sent home due to the recent shootings and harsher sentencing for youth offenders.  The Toronto Community Housing Corp., effectively a subsidiary of our government welfare system, agrees to the TAVIS oversight as well, welcoming the police presence.

TAVIS carding and racial profiling is the current tactic condoned by Toronto Chief of Police, Bill Blair and our Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty.  In fact, due to the recent Danzig shooting, continuing financial support for TAVIS was just approved by the McGuinty government.  TAVIS police officers have a different mandate than the typical police officers.  They are trained for intercepting violent or potentially violent situations.  Those residents the Justice is Not Colour-Blind Campaign have spoken to in housing communities, who do believe police can be a threat, say that they watch carefully when TAVIS police are around and try to stay out of their sight.

Unfortunately, these four black Lawrence Heights teens, became the victims of TAVIS officers November 11, 2011.  According to Jim Rankin’s report in the Star, when one of the teens tried to exercise the rights he learned at a voluntary justice program by the Ontario Justice Education Network, he was pushed, punched and brought to the ground and when his twin brother and two friends tried to help by approaching, the officer drew his gun and aimed at them.   A crowd of family, friends and youth workers gathered, and attempted to speak with the TAVIS officers.  TAVIS was not interested.  The youths were arrested and charged with assaulting police.  The youth in question, was further charged with threatening death and assault with intent to resist arrest.

Rankin, further reports that the version of the youth differs from that of the TAVIS officers.  The youth give a consistent report, outlining the details.  The TAVIS officers gave inconsistent reports and state that the youth were excited, spitting and swearing.  The youth say that the police stated there was a robbery in the area as the reason for questioning them.  The officers notes do not show a robbery in the area.  Lawyer, Craig Bottomley, representing the teen who he states, “…rightly told the police that he did not have to co-operate with their investigation.  This is a gross overstep by the police that has left my client shaken and disillusioned.”  The four teens told the Star that they have been stopped and documented by the police more than 50 times in their neighbourhood.  They are asked their height, weight, age, address, phone number, where they are going and where they are coming from.

If a youth has been documented 50 times – height, weight, age, name etc., shouldn’t they know him by now?  It seems as if ‘getting to know’ the neighbourhood is a cover story for getting to harrass the neighbourhood.

One woman commented in the Star online version below the Lawrence Heights TCHC security camera video of the interaction between TAVIS and the four teens.  It seems that she agrees with the treatment that the teens received at the hands of police.  She writes that she tells her sons to “stop and drop at the word of the police.”  In the agree or disagree section under her comment, no one has agreed.  I don’t agree either.

After seeing Tommy Barnett shot and killed by Toronto police in 1996, the story covered up and the truth unexposed to this day; after hearing stories from youth where their rights were denied and they were assaulted or worse, shot at by police and with my experience with one police officer where I was polite and compliant, yet treated with disrespect, accusations stated in harsh judgemental tones on a traffic stop, I would not tell my sons of mixed racial heritage to stop and drop.

What would I tell them?  I have thought about this lately – what to do if approached by police.  I want to tell them to be polite, respectful, but to know that they have rights too, because it seems we live in racist times.  I would tell them to watch the officers hands and what they reach for, stay out of the officers way, don’t let him get too close.  Watch where the other officer is, because he is going to go behind you when distracted by his partner.  Make sure you know where they are in respect to you at all times so you can stay safe from them.  If this strategy doesn’t work, then keep an escape route handy and run as fast as you can, zig-zagging as you flee because its harder to shoot a zig-zagging target and they will probably miss centre mass and you will get to live another day.

I wish Tommy had been zig-zagging.  He was positioned forward, straight line – the best target position for shooting centre mass.  And they did, while he remained in one spot.  Compliant.

I wish this was not the advice I give my brown skinned sons, browner with the summer sun.  I want to tell my sons to respect police officers because they are there to keep you and I safe.  But, some officers are not there to keep you and I safe, maybe just I because I’m white.  Or because I am a white woman.  Not all police officers are working to keep young black male youth safe.

A reminder.  A TAVIS officer was recently jailed for assaulting and squeezing the testicles of a 21-year-old cooperating man during what was found to be an unlawful search on a traffic stop.  We must not assume our safety around police officers.  While many police officers may be exemplary examples of the policing profession, we must not be blind to potential police corruption and potential police violence, brutality and inappropriate action with the public.  We must remember it is us, the tax paying public who pays these officers their salary.

Is this a democracy or a police/political state?  If we don’t challenge the authority that challenges us when we are unequally armed; when our votes, vote these politicians into office, who condone this police brutality, then we choose to continue to allow our youth to be assaulted, harassed and shot.  And it is the youth, who do not yet have a vote who are counting on us to challenge the system they abide by.  How long will ‘assaulted by police’ youth, who have tried to exercise their rights, trust the adults intended to protect them. This includes not only the police, and the politicians, but us as the adults, caregivers, parents and leaders to stand up for the rights we have already told them they have.

The police carry guns, batons – weapons of destruction, and when used may cause death.  Police must be humble, honorable and honest in their profession to earn the trust of the public.  And now, there are a number of us who question the integrity of the police and a political system that does little in the wake of these abuses at the hands of our police.

Click on this link below to see video:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1236666–toronto-police-tavis-stop-of-four-teens-ends-in-arrests-captured-on-video

Read the press release below to find out what the Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign is doing to address racist policing in Ontario.  Click on the links at the bottom to join the Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign to change policing in Ontario now:

________________________________________________________________________

                                             For Immediate Release

The Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign attended yesterday’s African Canadian Leadership Meeting hosted by the African Canadian Legal Clinic and the recently formed African Canadian Coalition of Community Organizations at the Don Montgomery Community Recreation Centre in Scarborough. The Coalition, which was formed in July 2012 in response to gun violence in the black community, invited the Minister of Children and Youth Services, Dr. Eric Hoskins, and Minister Madeleine Meilleur of Community Safety and Correctional Services to present their Action Plan in addressing issues ranging from poverty and unemployment to housing.

The Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign has a unique perspective of the state considering it is the Campaign that consistently confronts Toronto Police at protests and demonstrations, while police gather intelligence on leaders and organizers. It is the Campaign that has consistently raised the slogan of “jail the killer cops now.” It was the Campaign that confronted Chief Bill Blair at the June 14 Toronto Police Services Board meeting, and demanded that he “jail the killer cops now.” The Campaign understands that the state will not give any concessions unless it is made to do so. This is why the Campaign will continue and escalate acts of civil disobedience, until all of the group’s demands are met.

The next demonstration will be a rally on August 25 for 2:00 pm at 31 Division. The Campaign will continue to pressure Premier Dalton McGuinty to end carding, reform the SIU, and ensure the arrests and convictions of police officers involved in the illegal homicides of black people. The campaign has the following demands:

• We want an immediate end to all racist programs, policies and practices that target black people, which include but are not limited to: TAVIS, carding and racial profiling.

• We want an end to the practice of sweeps and raids of black people, which have been used under false pretexts, in order to criminalize the community.

• We reject the notion of justifiable homicide and want the families of all black victims of police killings, to be fully compensated by the Province of Ontario, for their pain and suffering, whether or not there are civil actions pending.

• Given the documented physical, psychological, mental, economic and other injuries resulting from being racially profiled, we demand the criminalization of the practice of racial profiling. We believe that racial profiling is a tenet of systemic racism, which is institutional racism. Consequently, we want the immediate arrests and vigorous prosecutions of all police officers in Ontario that have killed black victims.

• We demand an immediate end to the incestuous relationships between the Attorney General’s ministry, SIU, and police services. We want the SIU to be a truly independent and forceful agency, staffed with civilians from top to bottom, and throughout. Furthermore, we call for an independent body to be organized that can hold the SIU responsible. This body must be made up solely of community members with substantial disciplinary powers to keep the SIU truly accountable.

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Media Contacts:

Yafet Tewelde, Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign, 416-802-7452

Odion Fayalo, Justice Is Not Colour-Blind Campaign, 905-965-9288

Email: justicenotblind@gmail.com