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Canada

Police racism sp

By KERRY McCUAIG

TORONTO — Brushing off calls for an
independent review of police wrongdoing as
the hysterics of an unrepresentative “fringe
group” wil prove increasingly difficult for
police spokesmen after last Tuesday night.

In a broad show of solidarity, representa-
tives from 28 different cultural, labour, anti-
poverty, women’s, legal, native, gay and
ethnic groups came out to back demands by
the Black Action Defence Committee for
murder charges to be laid in the recent
police killings of two Black men, and for a
provincial independent civilian agency to be
set up with the power to investigation alle-
gations of police wrongdoing.

The public press conference, sponsored
by the Black Secretariat, was in response to
efforts by leading police spokesmen to incite
racial hatred in Metro Toronto and to dis-
miss the manslaughter charges, laid in the
killings of Lester Donaldson and Michael
Wade Lawson, as political appeasement “to
a handful of Black activists.”

The harshest criticisms were reserved for
police union president Art Lymer, who

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threatened to refuse police protection in
incidents where Blacks are involved.

“Police officers will be reluctant to act
and theyll be reluctant to arrest Black peo-
ple. (Blacks) will take over the city and
you'll be back in Detroit,” Lymer com-
mented, following the announcement of
manslaughter charges in the Donaldson
case.

Later, in an unveiled threat directed
against the Black community, Lymer
stated: “If (Blacks) provoke violence, vio-
lence is going is going to be provoked
against them, and if they put somebody’s
life in danger, their life is going to be put in
danger.”

There is no apparent disagreement in the
force, the provincial government or the
police commission with Lymer’s state-
ments. No leading official has criticized
Lymer or called on other members of the
force to disassociate themselves from his
remarks.

Ina closed meeting Jan. 15, 2,500 officers
voted unanimously for the resignation of
Attorney-General Ian Scott who they allege
interfered politically in the laying of charges
in the Donaldson killing. Earlier in the
week, about 700 members of the force
launched a work-to-rule protest. Police
Chief Jack Marks said later that no discipli-
nary action would be taken.

Linda Carty of the Toronto Black
Women’s Collective said the Black com-
munity feels “defenceless because it appears
the police are running the state.

“This is why they have been asking for
the resignation of the attorney-general.
They appear to be running the premier’s
office, and the solicitor-general’s office.
There has been a deathly silence on the part
of the Liberal government who just a year
ago came with outstretched arms for votes
from the Black community.”

In aconciliatory mood, Lymer also said
police union members voted to meet with
“responsible” members of the Black com-
munity, other ethnic groups, and “Canadi-

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arks outcry

“In South Africa the government speaks
to whom it wants,” commented BCDA
member Bromley Armstrong. ‘The Black
community ... will select our own leaders.”

The former Ontario Human Rights
Commissioner accused police leaders of
“supporting insurrection” in the force.
“They want the right to break into our
homes and shoot us.”

Responding to a complaint of a hostage-
taking, four Metro officers broke into the
room of Lester Donaldson last August. Fif-
teen minutes later he was dead. Witnesses
who had seen Donaldson moments before
police arrived said the 44-year-old man had
been lying in his bed eating supper. Para-
lysed from the waist down, Donaldson had
been shot by police in an incident six
months earlier.

It took five months for an Ontario Pro-
vincial Police investigation to lay man-
slaughter charges against one of the officers
involved, David Deviney.

Robert Kellerman, of the Law Union of
Ontario, reported that rather than pushing
for manslaughter charges in the Donaldson
killing, the attorney-general’s office actually
pressed against murder charges being laid.

Kellerman accused the police of acting
“totally inappropriately” in response to the
charges laid. “Their role is to investigate
incidents, lay charges, and then shut up. As
lawyers we are very, very concerned that the
police think they should not face criminal
charges, The very thing they’re accusing the
Black community of (political pressure),
they’re doing.”

The lawyer repeated a theme echoed by
many other speakers. “This is not just a
problem for the Black community. We
know there is homophobia and sexism in
the department. All communities are under
attack, We must all stand together.”

Black anger, already high in the wake of
the Donaldson killing, rocketed following
the Dec. 8 murder of a Mississauga tee-
nager. Michael Wade Lawson, 18, was shot
in the back of the head by police investigat-
ing a car theft. Official statements from the
Peel Regional Force said the police fired on
the car as it sped towards them. The bullet
that killed Lawson was a hollow-point —
illegal in Canada, and banned under the
Geneva Conventions.

One of the officers has since been charged
with manslaughter and another with aggra-
vated assault.

Speakers stressed that the only means of
reaching the truth in both killings was
through the establishment of an independ-
ent civilian agency with the powers to inves-
tigate all allegations of police misconduct.

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Pacific Tribune, January 30, 1989 « 11