“Do you have a legitimate reason to be here?”
It’s a question that can often lead to misunderstanding or confrontation, especially in the context of power relations between police and youth. It prompted the Black Community Police Consultative Committee roundtable discussion on UTSC campus last Wednesday. The discussion’s aim was to get feedback from students and the community about the major issues in the city through BCPCC-a volunteer organization that works as a community liaison with the Toronto Police.
John O’Dell, one of the committee’s co-chairs, has experienced such touchy situations himself.
“I get pulled over, too, but it’s important to never get angry, so that an innocent situation gets worse,” he said.
O’Dell said that Toronto Police in fact, receive diversity training to defuse such situations. Both O’Dell and Staff Superintendent Peter Sloly, the second co-chair, were quite explicit on the need for all citizens to educate themselves on their rights and to know how to properly file a complaint should police officers overstep their bounds.
“You should be able to get their name and badge number. That is mandatory. If you can, get a police number date, time, and location of the incident. Police officers even have visible name badges for such incidents,” explained O’Dell.
Sloly added that he encourages usage of the complaint system.
“But, like all things,” he added, “use it, don’t abuse it.”
Sloly was the first to admit that power dynamics between Toronto Police and young people, particularly those of colour, have indeed been difficult. He assured the audience that he was “working to reduce the number of negative incidents regarding the police. They do happen. But if we reduce the negative instances, it will hopefully take the urban legend [aspect] out of police violence and ease the confrontation problem.”
He also took pains to say that negative confrontations also “work both ways.”
The discussion turned to gun violence. The suburb of Scarborough has received increased media attention, including proclamations by CityTV and the Toronto Sun that 2006 was the “summer of the gun.”
Lekan Thomas, a member of the anti-violence campaign I Will Not Be A Target, remarked that, while the record on police violence is not perfect, “there is a greater threat amongst those from within the community, with no gun training, than risk from police. The police won’t have ‘fun’ with guns.”
