CITLALLY MACIEL
<News Editor>
On Thursday, September 12, Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani was found guilty of assault. The victim was Adam Nobody, a protester during the G20. When questioned about the conviction, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said that he is “always concerned when any incident might detract from the public’s perception of their police service.” Chief Blair also reminded us that there are many courageous and dedicated police officers that work hard to protect our city. There is no doubt about it. However, that the frequency with which we hear about police misconduct increasing has made many people question whether they can still trust the police.
The allegations of police misconduct during the G20 represent an extraordinary situation that cannot be easily compared to others. Detainees, bystanders, police, and media all have a different version of what happened. Each one has pointed fingers at the others. I have read the affidavits of some of the detainees. If I did not know better, I would have thought that the events being described there had occurred somewhere else, in a dictatorship perhaps. If what is being claimed by these detainees is true, the way the police carried themselves can be described as deplorable.
At the same time, there are a number of factors that may have contributed to this behaviour. Toronto was in a state of chaos. There were thousands of people on the street that weekend. There were police cruisers set on fire, windows smashed, businesses burglarized. The natural reaction would have been fear. Fear that the crowds would overtake the policemen. And when fear strikes, self-preservation instincts take over. Perhaps policemen got scared (no disrespect intended) and fought back. Or, the evilness of one policeman was contagious and spread among the others. Have you ever heard of “conformity”? The Milgram experiments? The Asch experiments? The science of psychology can help explain a lot of what happened that weekend. But that is the topic of another conversation. The point is, it is unfair to generalize and judge the police judging by what happened during this incident because of the unconventional nature of the circumstances.
And then, there are other events. The events that are becoming way too common in our society. The events that makes us perplexed, upset, even angry. These are the events that raise suspicion and cause distrust. I remember the first time I heard about Sammy Yatim’s death. It was Saturday afternoon, the day after the incident. I was getting lunch and the joint had CP24 on. I remember hearing the announcer warn the public that the content of the video could be upsetting to some. I was intrigued. Call me cynical or jaded, but I find that nothing is shocking anymore (not even Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance. Give it up Miley, it’s all been done before). But then I saw it, the video. I was shocked. Nine (unprovoked) shots, that’s gotta be shocking, right? As the days went by, as more information came out, as I heard more and more that the officer did not follow protocol, as I saw the video again many more times, and as the people began to protest, the more absurd everything seemed. Yatim is not an isolated incident. There is Robert Dziekański. There is Charles McGillivary. These all are cases involving avertible deaths caused by questionable police behaviour.
In addition, there are the allegations of police corruption. This week CBC’s The Current had a segment on civil forfeitures. Although the issue is, for the most part, a problem representative of the US, Canadians are not particularly immune to it. The original purpose of civil forfeiture was to prevent individuals from profiting from criminal activities by seizing property that is believed to be the proceeds of crime. Now, allegations have surged that the American officers are using this power to obtain personal gains. The kind of property seized ranges from electronics to cars to homes.
In 2009, the owner of a motel in Massachusetts was told that his motel was subject of forfeiture because criminal activity had been conducted in the motel even though he had never been personally involved or charged. He had to go to trial and spend thousands of dollars to save his property from being seized. This problem is apparently a more serious one in the south where policemen have been accused of stopping drivers for some minor traffic violation that will then lead to policemen to go on a fishing expedition and nailing the driver for more serious violations. For anyone found in this situation, retaining one’s freedom may entail handing over cash, or any other form of payment including the vehicle itself. The issue with this is not only that innocent people are being affected by these practices, but also that criminals are being set free as long as they are able to buy their freedom.
In Canada, forfeiture attempts can be just as ridiculous. In British Columbia, for example, the Vancouver Sun reported that a man who was caught driving his motorcycle at 200km/hr in a 60km/hr zone had to face the possibility of having his motorcycle forfeited because it had been used for an illegal activity. Surely it was. But it seems to me that the law is being (conveniently) misinterpreted. As I understand it, civil forfeiture concerns property or financial gains which have resulted from engaging in illegal economic activities, not just illegal activities. Such broad interpretation of the law would result in civil forfeiture of a person’s house because he was engaging in downloading music illegally, or the forfeiture of someone’s business because his employee was smoking dope on the premises, or some other similarly crazy scenarios.
For now, Constable James Forcillo has been charged with second degree murder for the death of Sammy Yatim. Of course, Mr. Forcillo is innocent until proven guilty (duh!), but if his actions do not amount to a crime, Torontonians deserve to know what happened and be reassured that this will not happen again. This should not have occurred. Whatever Yatim’s condition was at that moment, whether he was suffering from psychosis or was under the influence of drugs, this could have been managed differently. I suspect that, had it not been for the videos taken by those bystanders, less details regarding this incident would have been made public. Time will tell whether this was a genuine attempt to vindicate Yatim’s death or just a response to the demands of Torontonians to make police accountable for their actions.
With reports from the Globe and Mail, CBC The Current, New Yorker Magazine, and the Vancouver Sun.