Thread by @youseepeeYYC

With the news of Derek Chauvin being found guilty in the murder of #GeorgeFloyd, it’s probably a good time to remember that Canada also has deep-rooted problems in policing. 🧵

#blacklivesmatter #blm

This starlit beating took place in Calgary in 2013.

“When the officers left him at a desolate construction site, it was –28 C with the windchill, and Addai-Nyamekye was dressed in only a tracksuit and sneakers.”

#yyc

cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/epi…

“This is where he almost ended my life,” says Addai-Nyamekye in the film, returning to the site where he was tasered and beaten.

cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/epi…

“Although Addai-Nyamekye filed a formal complaint with the Calgary Police Service about how he was treated, the officers involved remained on duty.”

#yyc #DefundThePolice

cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/epi…

“In the midst of a global uprising against police brutality and systemic racism, No Visible Trauma / Above the Law examines a deeply troubled police department and reveals the devastating consequences of unchecked police brutality.”

#DefundThePolice

losttimemedia.com/portfolio/nvt-…

How was the film received?

“A Calgary police constable has filed an emergency injunction to stop a documentary on police brutality from airing.
The same police officer is also suing the film's production company for defamation.”

#blacklivesmatter

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

“The concerns centre around a seven-minute clip from the full-length documentary posted online that shows an Indigenous man, Clayton Prince, running from police after a traffic stop.” 📺

#DefundThePolice

vimeo.com/471987957/b5e3…

Let’s take a tangent here to return our attention to the US to look at how the murder of George Floyd was initially reported in Minneapolis.

Read this chilling description of this murder.

#GeorgeFloyd #DerekChauvin #BlackLivesMatter

https://twitter.com/chrisvanderveen/status/1384616345262776322

Now, even after #DerekChauvin is found guilty *of murder* major American news corp, @abcnews, still can’t say it.

“Guilty in the death of George Floyd”

has a different ring to it than

“Guilty in the MURDER of George Floyd.”

How these crimes are reported matters.

#BLM

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1384616919576190979

Some hard-right propagandists have professed Chauvin’s innocence even after the guilty verdict.

“If Chauvin was innocent, George Floyd would still be alive.”

—@DunningsBooger

#BlackLivesMatter
#DefundThePolice

https://twitter.com/dunningsbooger/status/1384629050262446085

So Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd.

Finally some justice in the world, right?

“A Columbus police officer shot and killed a Black teenage girl...”

h/t to @V4DeadManWalkin

#blacklivesmatter
#DefundThePolice

thedailybeast.com/columbus-polic…

Well, surely things are better in Canada right?

“A member of the Ontario Provincial Police force [was filmed] pushing a young boy to the ground at a skate park.”

It’s not a murder, but this is still police brutality.

cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

Maybe that’s an outlier?

Surely if you google “Ontario police 12-year-old” then only that once incident would come up, right?

2018:

narcity.com/en-ca/news/tor…

#blacklivesmatter #DefundThePolice

Let's return to #Alberta and see how things are here.

"#Lethbridge police repeatedly searched [@albertaNDP MLA] Shannon Phillips's personal information in their database"

Not cool, @lethpolice.

#ableg #yql

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

Around this same time @lethpolice also made international news for police brutality in their handling of a girl doing Star Wars cosplay.

Not cool, @lethpolice

https://twitter.com/xeviuss/status/1257564952874774531?s=20

Did I say "international" attention? I should have said inter-stellar attention.

Even Captain Kirk called out this police brutality.

https://twitter.com/WilliamShatner/status/1258012040435625984?s=20

Not to be outdone, @CalgaryPolice would also make headlines last year...

Const. Alex Dunn, 34, would be convicted in Dec 2010 for the assault of Dalia Kafi at an arrest processing unit in 2017.

This investigation took 3 years??

#BlackLivesMatter #yyc

nypost.com/2020/10/30/sho…

“I can still remember the sounds of the contact of the knuckles hitting his face… "

“People stick to a story. They cover things up. They want to justify beating people up,”

- Article from 2013

#yeg #DefundThePolice

cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

Okay this thread is already getting long, but we can't talk about police in Canada without also talking about First Nations.

"Our cops are just as bad as American cops, they just go after a different colour."

--@JamesLeduke

https://twitter.com/JamesLeduke/status/1384704801733107715?s=20

Calgary police officer, "Const. James Othen, broke ribs and collapsed lung of Clayton Prince during [2016] traffic stop."

#DefundThePolice

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

"In 2019, Elliot McLeod is lying still, face down (...) a second officer approaches & suddenly drops, driving his knee into the man's upper back."

"McLeod, (...) a member of Bigstone Cree Nation, screams in pain and begs them to stop."

#DefundThePolice

cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

“[Video] shows Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam being floored and repeatedly punched by a RCMP officer [in Fort McMurray in 2020.”

bbc.com/news/world-us-…

To be clear, this isn't just an Alberta problem.

" Provincial Police officers allegedly falsified their notes to justify a racially influenced violent takedown of two First Nations brothers in Orillia, #Ontario [in 2018.]"

cbc.ca/news/indigenou…

"They beat him. They beat him good. He didn't know what happened," said Moar, "He was just covered in blood."

Halcrow was charged with three counts of assaulting a police officer.

Seven months later, on Jan. 5, 2020, Brian Halcrow killed himself.
cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

"[Rodney] Levi, 48, was shot and killed by RCMP on June 12, 2020."

"Levi was the second Indigenous person killed by police in New Brunswick within a two-week period."

#cdnpoli #nbpoli

cbc.ca/news/canada/ne…

I could never succeed in listing all the examples of police brutality towards First Nations peoples in Canada.

"Recent Claims Of Police Brutality In Canada Are ‘Tip Of The Iceberg’ For Indigenous People"

web.archive.org/web/2021042106… (archive)

huffingtonpost.ca/entry/police-b…

Despite making up just 5% of Canada’s population, 30% of the country’s prisoners are Indigenous. Across the prairie provinces of #Manitoba, #Saskatchewan and #Alberta – regions that have higher populations of Indigenous people – that number rises to 54%."

aljazeera.com/features/2021/…

I mean I really can't capture it all.

Here's a reddit post showing a video of two kids riding their bikes on a street where police are.

(I don't think this is in Canada.)

reddit.com/r/PublicFreako…

...Then you read the comments to find out about how someone feels about the police in Calgary, and about Saskatoon's 'starlight tours'.

@CalgaryPolice, you guys really have an image problem.

#cdnpoli #abpoli #skpoli

"On Jan. 28, 2000, two police officers drove Darrell Night five kilometres outside of Saskatoon and abandoned him in -22° C weather with just a T-shirt and jean jacket on his back. The incident was part of a series of “starlight tours,”"

#skpoli

macleans.ca/news/canada/ne…

With another example of police brutality by starlight—which is how we started this thread—let’s revisit something from out little media tangent earlier, then move towards a conclusion about how to deal with systemic racism.