12/21/2023 0 Comments Journal photo police montrealA Université de Montréal criminologist argued that police officers were afraid, “and when you’re afraid, you don’t engage with youth the same way.” The Journal de Montréal, using the same term in 2008 as this week, argued that “underpolicing” was spreading across the city. Though Villanueva’s killer was never sanctioned and was in fact promoted to the SWAT team in 2013, familiar claims about police confidence were made. In 2008, another wave of protests erupted following the police killing of Fredy Villanueva. Fredy Villanueva’s mother holding a picture of her son on the 10th anniversary of his murder (2018) In 1993, the head of the union claimed police directors had been telling their troops to “look elsewhere” when a racialized person was observed committing a crime. While these results clearly refute the claims of the police union, they did not stop the union from making them. Supposedly afraid to intervene, the police verifiably killed three Black men and allegedly killed two others between 19. This was also a period in which Montreal police killed more Black men than any time in history. In 1989, they created the city’s first anti-street gang squad, a squad that focused almost entirely on Haitian youth in its first year and then, when the size of the squad was doubled in 1990, announced they would now “do to the Jamaicans what we did to the Haitians.” Rather than holding back in fear of appearing racist, the police went on the offensive. In hindsight, we can see these arguments were baseless. “When the police don’t feel secure,” the union head explained, “the whole system is sick.” In 1988, in the wake of then-historic protests sparked by the killing of Anthony Griffin, the police union claimed the police had lost their sense of confidence, putting the whole city in danger. This is not the first time such claims have been made in moments when a social movement puts the legitimacy of the police in question. This week, both Le Devoir and Journal de Montréal featured articles on the supposed phenomenon of “underpolicing.” In a context of widespread protest and criticism of the police, a retired officer cited in Le Devoir claimed that the police “say they’re not going to put their life, their career and their family in jeopardy … those guys intervene less and less.” These claims were treated as factual, even though no evidence was offered to support them. On Radio-Canada, a Université de Montréal criminologist claimed that police officers are often afraid to stop racialized youth, even when they see a gun sticking out of their waistband. Reports about police officers afraid to intervene have been everywhere in the media in recent months. These claims, advanced without evidence, follow a historical pattern that ultimately reveals more about police power than the work of anti-racist movements. In Canada, defunding the police has moved the centre of the debate, winning the support of the majority of urban Canadians and over 70% of Montrealers surveyed last August. While no major reforms have yet been implemented, many commentators are claiming the movement has weakened the morale of police officers and made them afraid to intervene - lest they be charged with racism. The uprising against police racism and violence sparked by the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor last summer has transformed the debate about police reform around the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |