[IPSM] Statement on Ottawa Police

[mattm-b at resist.ca]

forward widely


 statement on Ottawa Police endorsed by:

 *No One Is Illegal (Ottawa)*
*POWER*
*Indigenous People's Solidarity Movement - Ottawa*
*Pro-Choice Coalition of Ottawa*
*Agitate!*
*Under Pressure*


 On Saturday November 20th two queer activists were arrested for unfurling a
banner as part of the Trans Day of Remembrance events. The banner, which
read ''Remember Stonewall?'', was dropped from a highway overpass near the
Ottawa Police station on Elgin street, where a flag-raising ceremony for
TDOR was about to take place. Many in the queer and trans community were
upset that some TDOR organizers would choose to host an event with the
police, given how tense the relationship between queer and trans groups and
the cops has become. The flag-raising ceremony at the cop shop was supposed
to turn into a march to Parliament Hill, but many in the community chose to
gather at Minto park, a few blocks away, as an alternate to the police
ceremony – making it clear that the police do not have the trust of many in
Ottawa's queer and trans community.


 Many groups have found it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to
work with the police, and so we would like to take this opportunity to
reiterate our opposition to the idea that we must always work with the cops.


 Many of us come from communities that have long been targeted by police
forces, and continue today to be harassed by and experience violence from
those same forces. We are queer, poor, non-status, trans, racialized,
sex-workers, indigenous, disabled and homeless. We have been victims of
violence, wrongful arrests, sexual assaults, intimidation and ridicule by
the police.


 This has been the case for many many years. But recently, in the last year,
the systemic nature of abuses on the part of the Ottawa police has been so
exposed that even the most sympathetic can no longer excuse it as 'a few bad
apples'.


 Earlier this year Ottawa Police released the photograph of a man who didn't
disclose his HIV-positive status to partners, using the words "*sexual
predator” in media communications. The young man *is now being charged with
aggravated sexual assault for allegedly spreading a sexually transmitted
disease. His picture made the front page of Ottawa newspapers. *Despite this
being widely condemned by HIV activists and community organizations, Police
Chief Vern White stood by his decision earlier this year to release the
photograph. By flatly rejecting a community proposal to review and develop
policy guidelines for prosecution for HIV non-disclosure cases, Chief White
showed no interest in collaboration and chose to ignore the expertise of
HIV/AIDS community organizations and legal opinions, denouncing this
intensification of the criminalization of HIV. The outrage over this
incident caused deep divisions in the queer community during Ottawa Pride in
August, when official Pride organizers invited the Ottawa police to speak at
the human rights vigil as part of the week's events, prompting an outcry
from community-based HIV/AIDS organizations and activists in which they
stated that if the police were not uninvited from the event they would be
forced to withdraw and organize independently.*


 This summer well over a thousand people were arrested at the mass anti-G20
mobilizations in Toronto. Some were beaten, some were dragged from their
beds in the early hours of the days of action, some were captured on their
way to or from the protests and some were caught in mass arrests. Most of
the arrestees have had their charges dropped, though some still face serious
Conspiracy charges, draconian bail conditions, while some remain in jail and
others face deportation.


 On June 18th of this year three local activists were arrested. One was
released a few days later under strict conditions, another spent months in
jail, and another remains locked up today. Charges have been stayed for two
of the arrestees, but the damage to their lives has already been done. In
addition, through the court proceedings it was discovered that police had
not only had active surveillance on local activist groups, but actually had
an undercover agent infiltrating social justice organizations.


 Recently, an Ottawa police officer who followed a cab driver to the
airport, in a fit of road-rage after being cut off on the road, and broke
the cab driver's arm after uttering racial slurs, was acquitted. Despite the
obvious racist motivations behind the attack, and the complicity of other
officers in the incident, the Police Chief chose to defend his officers and
faced sharp criticisms from the taxi driver's union who could not be
appeased, and demanded that the entirety of the Ottawa police force be
reviewed and that Chief White address the systemic racism of the force.


 Recently, a number of women have gone public with charges of harassment and
assault against Ottawa police officers, many of them implicating the same
officers in a more than one incident of abuse – officers who remain employed
by the Ottawa police. We learned about the case of a young woman who was
arrested, sexually assaulted – violence which was caught on police video –
and held for hours by the Ottawa police after having committed no crime.
Walking through the Byward Market late at night she was a victim of social
profiling. A judge called her treatment a ''travesty.'' Two weeks later,
another woman came forward with a lawsuit against the same officers, among
others, for assault while in custody and wrongful arrest. And this past
weekend, another Ottawa woman also came forward with charges of sexual
assault and mistreatment while in custody after being arrested without
cause.


 We say that these are not random or unrelated incidents. And they are also
just the tip of the iceberg, further proof of a bad system that must be
changed immediately.


 These are not just a few bad apples – this is a corrupt, illegitimate, and
violent institution. More than the high profile cases that we see on the
news, it is the institutionalized discrimination and day-to-day abuses of
the police that worry us the most: systemic racism and misogyny, the
continued arrests of sex workers, the ticketing of panhandlers, the lack of
any real action for the hundreds of missing aboriginal women, the harassment
and criminalization of drug users and countless other offences. *Despite
mountains of proof that criminalization does more harm than good, it
continues to be the only agenda that this city is willing to put money
behind. This dangerous strategy is being implemented by a police force with
a long and troubling history of violence, abuse of authority, and impunity.
*This is not a system that we deem fair and democratic and this is not a
system that we will cooperate with.


 We applaud the efforts of all those struggling for justice and freedom, and
those who have risked or lost their freedoms in this fight. We stand in
solidarity with all prisoners and all those struggling to survive in the
face of a system that would rather see them dead. We will continue to
support all political arrestees and all those subjected to police brutality,
and continue to proclaim loudly that the police are not our friends.


 For more information and recent articles about our local police force:



http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Ottawa+woman+files+lawsuit+alleging+mistreatment+hands+Ottawa+police/3902052/story.html


 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/story_print.html?id=3898089&sponsor



http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Chief+fails+defuse+drivers+anger/3875705/story.html



http://www.xtra.ca/public/Ottawa/Ottawa_Police_chief_will_decide_whether_info_is_released_in_future_HIV_cases-9448.aspx

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/11/19/ottawa-hiv-status-police-review.html#ixzz168vhuhbr

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/city+outraged/3852404/story.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/882189--are-these-cops-above-the-law


 http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/11/19/16219531.html



http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Two_arrested_at_Trans_Day_of_Remembrance_in_Ottawa-9459.aspx



http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Strip+search+police+cell+travesty+judge+rules/3839408/story.html



http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=92f9f5ca-cfe5-414c-b6ee-63dd2fbb88e2


 http://www.ottawamenscentre.com/news/20040827_ottawa_cop_sentenced.htm


 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/02/19/shoplift.html



http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101120/OTT_trans_arrests_101120/20101120/?hub=OttawaHome


 www.nooneisillegal.org