Now what?
After the condemnatory figures of Canada’s largest municipal police show what blacks and other racialized communities have known for decades: that Toronto police have used disproportionate force against them, the question now is what it might look like. responsibility.
Ask Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder Sandy Hudson, and the answer is one she and many other community activists have been calling for for years: “Refinancing the police.”
“It’s the only solution no one wants to talk about and it’s the only solution we know will be effective,” he said.
Hudson spoke to CBC News after the force revealed unprecedented data, sorted by province. Among the findings: police used force against blacks about twice as much as their population ratio; and that, compared to whites, blacks were 1.5 times more likely to have an officer’s weapon pointing at them.
Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Canada, told CBC News after the force revealed unprecedented data, sorted by province. (CBC)
“Defund” is a word that refers to what was seen as a moment of accountability for police violence, sparked by the assassination of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests in cities around the world, fueling questions this city on whether Regis Korchinski-Paquet. , Andrew Loku, Sammy Yatim and many more could still be alive if it weren’t for the color of their skin.
Since then, the Toronto police chief has passed, an interim chief was presented and a proposal to reduce the police budget by 10%, to redirect about $ 107 million to community services, was voted on by the city council in favor of reforms. proposed by Mayor John Tory, including the creation of a non-police response team for mental health calls and the implementation of cameras for the body.
In Toronto, the police service is the largest item in the city’s $ 13.5 billion operating budget.
The reform “is not what we need,” says the activist
Asked about his reaction to the issue of funding at a news conference on Wednesday, Chief James Ramer replied: “When we hear this discussion, I think what the community is talking about is reform and there is talk of modernizing the police service.”
Ramer went on to cite the support of the force to divert certain 911 calls to a crisis center, saying that doing so has freed officers to respond where they are most needed.
TARGET | “No Ramer, we do not accept your apologies,” said the lawyer.
“No Ramer, we do not accept your apologies,” the lawyer said
Beverly Bain of the No Pride In Policing Coalition addressed Toronto Police Chief James Ramer on Wednesday at a press conference on race-based data.
But for Hudson, “reform” is not a replacement for funding.
“This is not absolutely true. It is not what we need. Over the decade there has been an attempt to reform,” he said. “What has not been done is to take away the power of the police to hurt us … I want to see this action.”
Exactly what the funding means may vary depending on who you ask. Some have called for the total abolition of police forces, while others have called for a reduction in police budgets because their work is more focused on violent crime.
Michael Thompson, deputy mayor and sole councilor of the black city of Toronto, says he believes the idea of defunding the police is not a principle.
“I can’t stand the idea of defunding the police. The police are a necessary agent in our society to help keep the peace. Without them, frankly, I think many of us would have sleepless nights,” he said. “Frankly, we need police.”
Yet, he says, the chief’s apology for the over-policing of black, indigenous, and other racialized communities is “just noise” without concrete “equity-based” reform.
Allegations of racism against members are “unfounded”: TPA
Jon Reid, president of the Toronto Police Association, the union that represents city officials, told CBC News that it supports certain calls, such as some involving mental health, that are managed through responses. not police, but that this cannot come “at the moment”. frontline police spending. “
Jon Reid, president of the Toronto Police Association, the union that represents city officials, told CBC News that he supports certain calls that are handled by non-police responses, but also says those measures do not they can be done at the expense of the front line police. . (CBC)
Reid says the association also supports any of the 38 force recommendations calling for more data collection, saying “greater transparency is always a good thing.” Some of the other recommendations, which include training on bias and de-escalation, have been in place for two decades, he said.
(In 2003, the TPA filed a lawsuit against the Toronto Star for reporting that blacks were being treated more harshly by Toronto police, arguing that the articles defamed their members as racist. The lawsuit was dismissed on same year.)
Still, Reid said, he was concerned about some of the data presented Wednesday, saying they had no context as to what caused situations in which police used force.
“Unfortunately, recently, the agents are being painted a bit, some of them, by racists. And that’s unfounded, honestly.”
Systemic racism constructed by racist individuals, advocates say
At a press conference on Wednesday, Ramer also stressed that the data, which is anonymous, highlights the problem of systemic racism and does not seek to identify “individual acts of racism” by agents, which he said could be addressed in through other channels.
But for some, this is a distinction that simply cannot be established.
TARGET | Toronto police chief apologizes after report highlights systemic racism:
Toronto police chief apologizes after report highlights systemic racism
Toronto Police Chief James Ramer apologized after a report revealed widespread systemic racism by force, an apology quickly dismissed by some as a “public relations ploy” that is “insulting” to blacks and indigenous people.
“Systemic racism is not a phenomenon without someone responsible,” Hudson said. “When a police officer is more likely to use force on a black person, this is a racist decision that is being backed by a system that never takes responsibility for it.”
Notisha Massaquoi, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough, who spent three years leading the process in developing the force-based data collection policy, had a similar message.
“One cannot have systemic racism in an organization if it is not supported by racist people, racist policies, racist values, racist attitudes and racist behaviors,” he said.
As part of the data release, the force also presented 38 recommendations, many focused on training and developing strategies. They include collaborating with black, indigenous, and other communities to understand the data and discuss a way forward, implement a mandatory review of camera images carried on the body for all incidents of use of force, and demand that agents are on parole during their first year of service. to report to supervisors after incidents of use of force.
The mayor “does not support” the financing
Tory’s office said Thursday it believes in “investing in the elimination of systemic racism in the Toronto police service.”
“But the mayor has been very clear that he believes we cannot limit public safety as we hear from communities across the city that are in fact calling for additional investment in police resources.”
The idea that the police can be trusted to reform is not proven to be so. So why do we believe them now? – Sam Tecle
“The mayor will continue to strongly support police reforms that will rebuild confidence … And while he will continue to oversee the prudent financial management of all police resources, he does not support the significant, often arbitrary, reductions that defend some. “
Still, many say that the path to follow requires more imagination.
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, says that while he favors the term “detachment” to “defunding,” the conclusion is, “We need to keep in mind that if we had the police intervening less in the lives of individuals, there would be fewer opportunities to use force, fewer opportunities to be searched. “
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto and a special advisor to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. (Oliver Walters / CBC)
As to whether the police forces can be relied upon to carry out this change, Owusu-Bempah said, “Absolutely not.”
“The police have no interest in the kind of reform we would like to see with a refinancing or disassignment warrant.”
Police may play a role in this process, but he says it is a job that should be in the hands of the public and politicians.
In fact, says Sam Tecle, a sociology professor at the Metropolitan University of Toronto, “For many communities, the police literally don’t introduce security.”
“The idea that the police can be trusted to reform has not proven to be the case. So why do we believe them now?”