[mobglob-discuss] Fw: [Sci-global] [can-survive] Pepper spraying revisited

[Liz]

more terrible info re: what it's like to be a member of a targeted
minority - namely mental patient.
liz

February 18, 2004 01:00 AM The Toronto Star
Pepper spraying revisited

JOE FIORITO

Naked, surrounded, pepper-sprayed, dead. The details of the death of Robert
Walker made the psych survivors wince. This happened to him. It could happen
to us.

"How many police?"

"Ten."

"Oh."

A derisive "Oh!" The details of what happened are unclear, but there were 10
police and there was one angry naked man. "Oh!" said the psych survivors.

They were talking about the death of Robert Walker yesterday afternoon at
PARC, the Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre, a bright, multi-purpose
drop-in on Queen St. a couple of blocks west of Lansdowne.

A tall man spoke up from under his hoodie. He said, "That person could still
be alive today." Someone added, "If we have 10 police who cannot arrest one
person without the use of pepper spray, then they should not be on the job."
And someone else said, "We have people who get upset around here. We don't
shout at them. We don't surround them with 10 staff. If we can do it, why
can't they?"

Why, indeed?

There had been complaints. Police came early Monday morning. They found
Walker in the middle of Woodbine Ave. near Queen St. E. They surrounded him
and they waited. There was shouting. And then they pepper-sprayed him and
they put him in an ambulance. Walker was dead on arrival at St. Michael's
Hospital. The Special Investigations Unit, which looks into incidents
involving police, is investigating. Dr. Jim Cairns, deputy chief coroner of
Ontario, said there will be an inquest, since Walker died in custody.

When PARC closed for the afternoon, Terence and George and Glenn walked down
the street to a nearby coffee shop. They did not know Robert Walker but they
had much more to say.

Terence: "I know what it's like to be pepper-sprayed. It happened a couple
of years ago. I was staying on the street in those days. I was trying to get
into a hostel. I couldn't get in. I got somewhat angry. I was upset. It was
quite horrible. They sprayed me from three feet away. My eyes began to burn.
They took me to the hospital to get it washed away." He said, "It would have
helped if they had talked to me."

Glenn: "I was shocked when I heard the news. It seems every time I show up,
I hear about someone dying."

George: "I've never been mistreated by the police, thank God. You need to
know how to restrain properly. I think the police don't give a damn about
people on the street."

Terence: "Most people in society have a warped view. When something like
this happens there's a lot of publicity. But most people with disorders have
not committed violence."

Most have not.

Most people who have survived the psychiatric system also know they are
viewed with suspicion by the rest of society. George took a moment and drew
a circle on the table with his forefinger. "Here's the circle. All of the
psych survivors are in it. We have to get out of the circle." He continued.
"A lot of survivors are on medication. Their voices are loud but their
bodies are weak. It wouldn't take much to restrain them. "

All three men are quite familiar with medication. They know it makes them
weak. They also know it can affect their behaviour in unpleasant or
unpredictable ways.

George: "If someone does something wrong, is that the person or is it the
medication? Even suicide can be caused by medication. If medication is
supposed to help a person, why do they have to restrain a person after he'd
had medication?"

Glenn: "Surround him. Don't touch him. He'll get cold."

Oh.

At one o'clock in the morning, on a cold night in February, how long do you
think it would take for a naked man to stop being upset and to start
shivering in earnest? Lay off the pepper spray. What's a few more minutes?
Where's the harm?

Terence: "I know that area where it happened. I grew up there. It gets quiet
late at night. It was cold. There were a lot of police. Keep an eye on him.
Let him run. He'll get tired."

George: "This is part of what I'm talking about. Why didn't they wait?
That's one of the tools. There should be more training, better training. If
the police could learn to see the person as a person..."

Terence: "A lot of mental health has got to do with poverty. People end up
in bad conditions...disability pensions haven't gone up in 10 years. You
aren't housed or clothed properly, you have no money for food."

Glenn: "I'm moving pretty soon. Right now I have a room with a shared
bathroom and a shared kitchen. It costs me $400 a month. The other guy
drinks and smokes, it's not my kind of environment."

George: "I know a guy who was living in a shelter. It wasn't good for him.
He had to spend three months in a psychiatric hospital. When they let him
out, he went right back to the place that caused the problem. Peace of mind
is part of it. Everybody needs peace of mind."

And if these three men could speak directly to the chief of police - they
think the position should be elected, by the way - this is what they would
say:

George: "You are facing a human being. The first thing you have to think
about is, you are facing a human being."

Glenn: "Show restraint. Think about what you are doing. Put yourself in that
person's shoes and act accordingly."

Terence: "Life is sacred. I would say that to the chief of police and
everyone in the police force. Even if we don't have very much, we are
people, too. Life is sacred."

Tell it to the cops.

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