Racism + police: two stories
Two incidents in crowded parks over the weekend are raising more questions about police response to visible minorities and their apparent willingness to punish people of colour while giving white people a pass.
Meanwhile, community groups are calling on the city to strengthen the police hate crimes unit, which currently has only 4 members. Since the pandemic, Asian Montrealers have faced a lot of bullshit, although I don’t know where the line is drawn that makes it criminal.
Joey 20:56 on 2021-04-13 Permalink
‘ Plante says that’s why she supports body cameras for police officers: “Where we can also have the beginning, the middle and the end. I think this is very important.”’
Didn’t Projet decide body cameras aren’t worth implementing? I recall Alex Norris getting into it on Facebook with someone (as usual).
dominic 21:08 on 2021-04-13 Permalink
@joey: I think the SPVM said it was a “bad idea” and everyone just went with it.
DeWolf 09:50 on 2021-04-14 Permalink
Plante originally said body cameras weren’t worth the added expense.
Many defund-the-police types are against body cameras because they are just another way of inflating police budgets without doing anything to change police behaviour. As we’ve seen in many places that do have them, police officers turn off their body cameras even when they aren’t supposed to, without any repercussions. And it certainly hasn’t stopped police shootings from happening, as we’ve just seen in Minneapolis.
Ephraim 15:55 on 2021-04-14 Permalink
Body cams should be used as a teaching tool and a way to cut down on the court expense and have people plead, knowing the data is there. In reality, the real functionality of a body cam is actually a cooler. It cools down a situation from all sides. Citizens as well as cops.