Now what?
After appalling figures from Canada’s largest municipal police, proving what black and other racial communities have known for decades – that Toronto police have indeed used disproportionate force against them – the question now is what accountability might look like.
Ask Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder Sandy Hudson, and the answer is what she and countless other community activists have been calling for for years: “Free the police.”
“This is the only solution that no one wants to talk about, and this is the only solution that we know will be effective,” she said.
Hudson spoke to CBC News after revealing unprecedented data commissioned by the province. Among the findings: police used force against blacks about twice their share of the population; and that compared to white people, black people are 1.5 times more likely to have an officer’s gun aimed at them.
Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Canada, spoke to CBC News after revealing unprecedented data commissioned by the province. (CBC)
Defund is a word that goes back to what was thought to be a tribute to the police violence caused by the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in cities around the world, raising questions from that city about whether Regis Korczynski-Packet , Andrew Loku, Sami Yatim and many others may still be alive, if not the color of their skin.
Toronto’s police chief has since moved on, an interim chief has been appointed and a proposal to cut the police budget by 10 percent – to divert about $ 107 million to public services – has been rejected by the city council in favor of reforms proposed by Mayor John Torrey. , including the establishment of an out-of-police response team for mental health calls and the deployment of worn-out cameras.
In Toronto, the police department has the largest position in the city’s operating budget of 13.5 billion dollars.
Reform is “not what we need,” the activist said
Asked about his reaction to the withdrawal at a news conference on Wednesday, Chief James Ramer said: “When we hear this discussion, I think what the community is talking about is reform and talking about modernizing the police service.”
Rammer continued to cite the support of the forces for redirecting certain calls to 911 to the crisis center, saying that this freed employees to respond where they may be most needed.
WATCH “Chief Ramer, we do not accept your apology,” the lawyer said.
“Chief Ramer, we do not accept your apology,” the lawyer said
Beverly Bane of the No Pride In Policing Coalition addressed Toronto Police Chief James Rammer at a press conference on race-based data on Wednesday.
But for Hudson, “reform” is no substitute for deprivation.
“This is absolutely not true. It is not what we need. Attempts have been made to reform over the decade,” she said. “What has not been done is to take away the power of the police to harm us … I want to see this act.”
What exactly defining means may vary depending on who you ask. Some called for the complete abolition of the police force, while others supported the reduction of police budgets so that their work would focus more on violent crime.
Michael Thompson, the deputy mayor and the only black city councilor in Toronto, says he believes the idea of confiscating police funds is not the beginning.
“I do not support the idea of depriving the police. The police are agents of our society to help maintain peace. Without them, frankly, I think many of us would have sleepless nights,” he said. – Honestly, we need the police.
However, he said, the chief’s apology for the excessive policing of blacks, indigenous peoples and other racial communities was “just noise” without a specific “justice-based” reform.
Accusations of racism against members “unfounded”: TPA
John Reed, president of the Toronto Police Association, a union representing city officials, told CBC News that he supports certain calls, such as some related to mental health, to be processed through non-police responses, but that this cannot came “at the expense of the frontline police.”
John Reed, president of the Toronto Police Association, a union representing city officials, told CBC News that he supports certain calls being handled through non-police responses, but also says those measures cannot come at the expense of police on the front line. (CBC)
Reed says the association also supports each of the 38 recommendations of the forces calling for more data collection, saying “greater transparency is always a good thing”. Some of the other recommendations, including bias training and de-escalation, have been under way for two decades, he said.
(In 2003, the TPA filed a lawsuit against the Toronto Star for reporting that black people were treated more severely by Toronto police, arguing that the articles slandered its members as racist. The case was dismissed the same year.)
However, Reed said he was concerned about some of the data presented on Wednesday, saying they lacked context for what led to situations in which police used force.
“Unfortunately, officers have been portrayed to some extent lately – some of them – as racist. And that’s unfounded, to be honest.”
Systemic racism, built by racist individuals, defenders say
At a news conference Wednesday, Ramer also noted that the anonymized data highlighted the problem of systemic racism and was not intended to identify “individual manifestations of racism” by officials he said could be addressed through other channels.
But for some this distinction simply cannot be made.
WATCH The Toronto police chief apologizes after the report highlights systemic racism:
The Toronto police chief apologized after the report highlighted systemic racism
Toronto’s interim police chief, James Ramer, apologized after a report uncovered widespread systemic racism in the forces – an apology quickly dismissed by some as a “public relations stunt” that was “offensive” to blacks and indigenous peoples.
“Systemic racism is not a phenomenon without someone responsible,” Hudson said. “When a police officer is … more likely to use force against a black person, it is a racist decision that is backed by a system that never holds anyone responsible.
Notisha Masakuoi, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto in Scarborough, who spent three years leading the process of developing a race-based data collection force policy, had a similar message.
“You cannot have systemic racism in an organization if it is not supported by racist people, racist policies, racist values, racist attitudes and racist behavior,” she said.
As part of the data release, the force also presented 38 recommendations, many of which focused on training and strategy development. These include engaging with blacks, local and other communities to understand the data and discuss the way forward, enforcing mandatory screening of cameras worn on the body for all violent incidents, and requiring probation officers during their first year of service to conduct an interview with the supervisory authorities following incidents of the use of force.
The mayor “does not support” the withdrawal
The Tory office said Thursday that it believes in “investing in the elimination of systemic racism in the Toronto Police Department.”
“But the mayor was very clear that he believed we could not reduce public safety, given that we hear from communities in the city that actually want more investment in police resources.”
The idea that the police can be trusted to reform will not work. So why trust them now? “Sam Tekle.”
“The mayor will continue to strongly support police reforms that will restore confidence … And while he will continue to monitor the sound financial management of all resources allocated to the police, he does not support the significant, often arbitrary, reductions advocated by some. “
However, many say that the road ahead requires more imagination.
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, said he preferred the term “detaching” to “de-financing”, and concluded: people would have fewer opportunities to use force, fewer opportunities to be searched.
Aquasi Ovusu-Bempa is a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and a special adviser to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. (Oliver Walters / CBC)
As for whether the police force can be relied on to make this change, Ovusu-Bempa said, “Absolutely not.”
“The police are not interested in the kind of reform we would like to see within the mandate to withdraw funds or remove debts.
The police can play a role in this process, but he says it is a job that must be in the hands of the public and politicians.
In fact, says Sam Tekle, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto Metropolitan, “For many communities, the police literally don’t introduce security.”
“The idea that the police can be trusted to reform – it did not turn out. So why trust them now?
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