–Brief–
Community Safety Reform
4 minute starting point 📖
5 questions to research 💭
9 ideas to participate 💡
Summer 2020
Background
The world watched an unarmed Black man lose his life to police brutality, sparking protests around the world at a scale not seen since the 1960s.
Today, policing is a publicly-organized service to maintain law and order. Historically, policing was privately-organized to protect wealth and power.
- Two days later, a Black-Indigenous woman lost her life in police custody for reasons that remain unconfirmed.
- Protests began in Minneapolis for the man, George Floyd and in Toronto for the woman, Regis Korchinski-Paquet. They grew to seek justice for Black and Indigenous victims of police encounters in the past and continued growing to protest systemic racism and police brutality in general.
- Systemic racism is the unequal treatment of people based on ethnicity that continues because the structures of society make it easy to exist.
- Race Forward, an organization that conducts research and shares solutions for racial justice, created the thread #SystemicRacismIs to share practical examples, definitions, and reports of how systematic racism exists in everyday life.
- Police brutality is the improper use of force, or unnecessary violence, by law enforcers to protect themselves and maintain control over a person or situation.
- Amnesty International, an organization that conducts research and shares solutions for human rights, explains how lethal force by police is legal if their life is in danger, but in many cases their lives have not been in danger as defined by the law.
Today, policing is a publicly-organized service to maintain law and order. Historically, policing was privately-organized to protect wealth and power.
- 1636: a night-watch system was created in America by European settlers to look out for each other and supervise their property, which included enslaved people, explains staff writer Olivia B. Waxman for Time.
- 1829: the first-ever police force was created in England as a less expensive version of the military, explains social and political journalist Mychal Denzel Smith for The New Republic, "to protect property, quell riots, put down strikes and other industrial actions, and produce a disciplined industrial work force."
- 1838: the first publicly-funded police force was created in America, explains Waxman in Time, when businesses convinced the government that “hiring people to protect their property and safeguard the transport of goods” was in the public interest.
- 1873: a central police force was created in Canada to bring law and order to the land based on the English policing model, explains Indigenous-French human-rights journalist Brandi Morin for the Toronto Star. This included moving people living here originally to confined areas of the land and supervising them as other people arrived to take over.
What happened
As protests grew bigger and louder and more disruptive, police departments and governments were pressured to do something.
Vandalism and looting increased tension between crowds and police, which caused public confusion over the messages peaceful protesters were trying to deliver.
Being polite doesn’t make violence go away.
Canadians showed an interest in the issue, so new and old reports circulated online about racism and policing in Canada. Here's some of what we learned:
Untrue and misleading information went viral on social media, making it difficult to tell what was true and what was false.
- Calls for change evolved as the protests grew, explains political journalist Elaine Godfrey for The Atlantic, but the common denominator was changing how the law is enforced and how people are treated by law enforcers.
- This includes prioritizing non-police emergency services, Godfrey explains, and removing special laws that protect police officers from getting in trouble for bad behaviour.
Vandalism and looting increased tension between crowds and police, which caused public confusion over the messages peaceful protesters were trying to deliver.
- Damaging property and breaking into stores happened largely in America but other countries too, including Canada. Riots were reported in Montreal and prepared for, but didn't happen, in Toronto.
- Canadians in Regina, Baden, Toronto, Kingston, and Charlottetown protested city governments to remove the statues of Sir John A. Macdonald, the prime minister responsible for residential schools. Victoria was the first Canadian city, in 2018, to have the statue removed from public display.
- Residential schools were created and managed by Christian churches and later financed by the Canadian government, explains Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, to "integrate" Indigenous children into European-Christian society.
Being polite doesn’t make violence go away.
- Filling the streets with crowds that interfere with business as usual, explains Aldon Morris, Ph.D in sociology and African-American studies for Scientific American, gets powerful people to pay attention.
- Symbolic change like "replacing monuments, renaming buildings and streets, amending music lyrics, and altering our vocabulary” is happening, Morris says.
- Structural change like prioritizing non-police emergency services and improving people's education, housing, and health situations is not happening, he says, which means disruption would need to continue for structural change to happen.
- To explain his point, Morris references a letter from Martin Luther King during the 1960s civil-rights protests: “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation."
- The protests King participated in, and was sent to prison for, led to the creation of historic laws that increased the rights of citizens regardless of their race, religion, gender, and heritage.
Canadians showed an interest in the issue, so new and old reports circulated online about racism and policing in Canada. Here's some of what we learned:
- 70% of over 460 deaths from police encounters since 2000 were people with mental-health and substance-abuse issues, explains investigative journalists Jacques Marcoux and Katie Nicholson for the CBC, because people in recovery are being integrated back into society without enough mental-health support.
- The use of SWAT teams, or police with military equipment for extreme situations, increased by 2,100% since 1980 to help with basic policing, explains legal academics Kevin Walby and Brendan Roziere in Maclean’s, because there’s “no national policy or law regulating SWAT team conduct or growth.”
- An Indigenous person is 10 times more likely to lose their life to a police officer’s gun than a white person, explains journalist Ryan Flanagan for CTV News, because governments aren't following Indigenous recommendations to redesign the justice system to focus on building relationships over enforcing laws.
- At least 5 people died during wellness checks by the police in April and June, explains investigative journalist Mack Lamoureux for Vice, because even though crime is falling, police budgets are increasing and mental-health budgets are underfunded, which means police are responding to mental-health calls.
- Attacks on jail guards almost doubled in Ontario between 2016 and 2017, reports journalist Karena Walter for The Standard, because of understaffing and lack of resources, which has caused low morale and health issues among prison staff.
- The number of times the RCMP used force in interactions has risen by 10% between 2017 and 2019, explains investigative journalist Justin Ling for The Globe & Mail, and that the RCMP collects but doesn’t release data on the health conditions of people from the interactions. The RCMP employs about a third of police officers in Canada.
Untrue and misleading information went viral on social media, making it difficult to tell what was true and what was false.
- An Instagram post claiming that certain companies use free prison labour and calling to boycott them was misleading, explains fact-checker Miriam Valverde for PolitiFact, because the post referenced old and outdated information.
- To date, 48 untrue or misleading social-media posts about protests and policing were debunked by disinformation and news reporters Jane Lytvynenko and Craig Silverman for BuzzFeed. To spot untrue or misleading content, they suggest "checking how recently an account has been created, keeping a close eye on information from news outlets, or searching online to find another source."
- In Canada, online rumours went viral about bricks being placed around Toronto to encourage vandalism and give police reasons to assert force, explains disinformation reporter Andrea Bellemare for the CBC, but the bricks were linked to construction sites. Other online rumours spread about an anti-Black riot group coming to Toronto, but no media reports or verified social posts confirmed it.
Zara S., Niagara Falls | proactivecitizen.org
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What's next
To stop racism and violence, a conversation about prioritizing non-police emergency services over the police needs to happen.
The police can struggle to build relationships because some people just assume they do more harm than good.
But crime and punishment are big business.
Canada is looking to modernize police structures and update “use of force” standards. No timeline is set for introducing new laws or plans.
- “Instead of relying on police we could rely on well-trained social workers, sociologists, forensic scientists, doctors, researchers and other well-trained individuals," says co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, Sandy Hudson in The Huffington Post, "to fulfill our needs when violent crimes take place."
- To explain her point, Hudson says: “The decriminalization of cannabis and our response to the opioid crisis show how a public-health approach to drug use is more effective than policing to support people who need help.”
The police can struggle to build relationships because some people just assume they do more harm than good.
- “No non-police member of a black community knows what it’s like to put on the most hated uniform in the country,” says former police officer and detective Heather Panter in The Conversation. “Just as a white police officer doesn’t know what it is like to have the skin of an oppressed community.”
- To fix the problem, Panter suggests police 1. acknowledge racism exists, 2. focus more attention on community policing to build trust, and 3. acknowledge the nation was built by white people having power over Black and Indigenous people.
- Community policing means focusing on "local needs and trust" over crime control and "finding solutions from officers who have become familiar to locals over a period of time," explains social-issues journalist Al Donato for the CBC.
But crime and punishment are big business.
- Canadian pension funds, or organizations providing and managing pensions for people in Canada, have invested in organizations that make money from running American prisons and detention centres.
- This includes the CPPIB, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, explains current-affairs journalist Tracey Lindeman for The Guardian and the OTPP, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, explains investigative journalist Nicole Brockbank for the CBC.
- Both pension funds sold their shares in the for-profit prison businesses but it's difficult to find public-friendly reports to explain how much money the funds may have made from selling their shares in the businesses.
Canada is looking to modernize police structures and update “use of force” standards. No timeline is set for introducing new laws or plans.
- Canada's national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), says that their “improper” use of force numbers are low, making up 1% of their total encounters, explains parliamentary reporter Catharine Tunney for the CBC. Critics say that the patterns in encounters are concerning and not all encounters may be getting reported.
- The RCMP is responsible for federal issues, including human trafficking, drugs, national security, organized crime, and money laundering, explains investigative journalist Stephen Maher for Maclean’s. They're also contracted by provinces and cities to supervise communities too small to have their own police force. The RCMP is supervised by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).
- The CRCC is an independent government agency that reviews complaints against the RCMP and holds the force accountable, explains criminal-justice journalist Thomas Rohner for the CBC. The agency has been criticized for not using its power and access to solve complaints effectively.
- Information and statistics on Canadian policing is available here.
Questions to research
* What are the pros and cons of community policing and contract policing?
* Would facial recognition and body camera technology make communities safer?
* Do police officers need social and crisis training? Or should police stations hire social workers and crisis counsellors?
* Do we have enough non-police emergency workers to respond to emergencies 24/7?
* How do we build trust and manage fear?
* Would facial recognition and body camera technology make communities safer?
* Do police officers need social and crisis training? Or should police stations hire social workers and crisis counsellors?
* Do we have enough non-police emergency workers to respond to emergencies 24/7?
* How do we build trust and manage fear?
Ideas to participate
Learning 💡
When street protesting is not possible and social protesting gets overwhelming, bringing lessons home is valuable.
Spending 💡
In a capitalist society, supporting by spending money is impactful and effective.
Participation 💡
Law enforcement is a public service, which means it’s managed by governments and paid for by taxpayers. This gives citizens influence. 🎤
When street protesting is not possible and social protesting gets overwhelming, bringing lessons home is valuable.
- Bookmark Justice in June, an open-source document by two young activists with easy-to-follow educational material divided into four sections: read, listen, watch, and act. 👀
- See first-hand how laws are being reviewed, changed, and created by Canadian and Ontario governments. 📑
- Attend a city government meeting (virtually) to check-in and ask questions by reviewing the schedule: Toronto, Hamilton, St Catharines, Niagara Falls, Welland. 🗓
Spending 💡
In a capitalist society, supporting by spending money is impactful and effective.
- Check Google Maps for Black-owned businesses with a new feature symbol added to make businesses easier to find. 📍
- Gift family-friendly books that explain diversity and inclusion with vetted and curated suggestions from PBS Kids and Today's Parent. 📚
- Explore directories and threads like The Nile List, #BuyIndigenous, Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Government of Canada's Indigenous Business Directory to find businesses to invest in, buy from, create partnerships with, and follow on social media. 🖇
- Note: In Canada, the government made a $41 million commitment to support 73 Indigenous-owned businesses and projects through regional partnerships, explains tech business journalist Isabelle Kirkwoord for BetaKit.
Participation 💡
Law enforcement is a public service, which means it’s managed by governments and paid for by taxpayers. This gives citizens influence. 🎤
- Keep up with the government representatives by checking in through email, phone, and social media:
- Find your MP, your Canada rep, by typing in your postal code here, find your MPP, your Ontario rep, by typing in your postal code here, and find your city councillor, or local rep, by visiting the city’s website: Toronto.ca, Hamilton.ca, NiagaraFalls.ca, Welland.ca. ✅
- Request an update on the symbolic and structural changes being made to address systematic racism, police brutality, or the local issue of concern. (Many have newsletters and post regularly on social media!)
- Save the phone numbers of community support workers that can be contacted directly in an emergency:
- Review this list of non-police emergency numbers in Toronto prepared @lifeofsu on Instagram. There are no lists of non-police emergency numbers for Hamilton or Niagara – yet!
- Dial 211 instead of 911 to get free and confidential advice on mental health, financial, food and other essential social and community services.
- Volunteer with or donate to a local organization that conducts research and shares solutions with governments to create or change laws:
- Canadian organizations like Global Citizen and Heart Press prepared lists of organizations across Canada working on systemic racism and police brutality issues, which can be followed on social media or contacted directly to get involved. 🎯
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
–Angela Davis