tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/racial-profiling-29414/articlesRacial profiling – The Conversation2023-10-31T23:47:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166272023-10-31T23:47:13Z2023-10-31T23:47:13Z‘Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive’: how a police program targeted Indigenous kids<p>“Unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory in its effect on children and young people.” </p>
<p>That’s how the Law Enforcement Conduction Commission (LECC) described a police program that aims to target likely offenders before they commit crimes.</p>
<p>It’s a program that allowed police to make home visits at all hours, and stop and search people in the street. </p>
<p>Yesterday, the commission released its damning <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/media-release-operation-tepito-final-report">final report</a> after a five-year investigation.</p>
<p>Here’s what it found.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/too-much-money-is-spent-on-jails-and-policing-what-aboriginal-communities-told-us-about-funding-justice-reinvestment-to-keep-people-out-of-prison-200531">'Too much money is spent on jails and policing': what Aboriginal communities told us about funding justice reinvestment to keep people out of prison</a>
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<h2>Report identifies unlawful practices</h2>
<p>The program in question is the Suspect Targeted Management Plan, implemented by NSW Police.</p>
<p>It’s a pre-emptive policing program that selects and then targets children and adults who police predict may commit crimes in the future. </p>
<p>The rationale behind the policy is to deter recidivists.</p>
<p>Once placed on the plan, police “disrupt” people’s everyday lives, through questioning, stop and search, and home visits – sometimes at all hours and even multiple times a week or even a day. </p>
<p>The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission found some of this conduct to be unlawful, possibly even “serious misconduct”. </p>
<p>While the plan was introduced in 2000, the then secret “black list” only came to public attention in 2017 with my <a href="https://piac.asn.au/2017/10/25/policing-young-people-in-nsw-a-study-of-the-suspect-targeting-management-plan/">research</a> (coauthored with Camilla Pandolfini), in partnership with Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Youth Justice Coalition. </p>
<p>The commission agreed with our recommendation that there were grounds to investigate the police for potential agency maladministration. </p>
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<p>The commission’s investigation, called “Operation Tepito”, has been ongoing since 2018. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/publications/operation-tepito-interim-report-january-2020.pdf">interim 2020 report</a> was scathing of police.</p>
<p>It recommended further reform of the revised management plan through new policy guidelines and training. </p>
<p>The commission urged police to engage with young people with “positive interactions” and reduce coercive ones. </p>
<p>The final report reviewed the operation of the plan for children between November 2020 and February 2022.</p>
<p>The commission concluded that police use of the management plan was an “<a href="https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2016-061#sec.11">agency maladministration</a>” but did not make formal findings. This is because NSW Police abandoned the plan before the report was released. </p>
<h2>First Nations children disproportionately targeted</h2>
<p>Of the recommendations the commission made in 2020, NSW Police <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/media-release-operation-tepito-final-report">failed to successfully implement</a> any of them. </p>
<p>Police overwhelmingly still subjected young people to intrusive, disruptive strategies. Some of these, such as home visits and searches, were unlawful. </p>
<p>There was <a href="https://www.lecc.nsw.gov.au/news-and-publications/news/media-release-operation-tepito-final-report">little evidence</a> of “positive interactions”, nor of support referrals.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nts-tough-on-crime-approach-wont-reduce-youth-offending-this-is-what-we-know-works-160361">The NT's tough-on-crime approach won't reduce youth offending. This is what we know works</a>
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<p>First Nations young people were disproportionately targeted. </p>
<p>In 2022, First Nations people made up 48% of all young people on the plan.</p>
<p>This was an increase on the 42% reported in the 2020 interim report. </p>
<p>Crucially, the commission found that:</p>
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<p>The NSW Police Force did not undertake any analysis to try to determine the reasons for this and did not take steps to reduce this over-representation.</p>
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<p>First Nations young people are <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003115243/conflict-politics-crime-chris-cunneen">overpoliced, overcharged and overincarcerated</a>.</p>
<p>If you then use the same data to decide who is “risky” and deserving of intensified police harassment, it only reinforces the cycle of criminalisation. </p>
<p>The Commission also found other administrative issues, including:</p>
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<li><p>varied quality in intelligence assessments</p></li>
<li><p>unclear justifications for putting people on the plan</p></li>
<li><p>inflation of how some scores were calculated</p></li>
<li><p>poor record-keeping</p></li>
<li><p>inadequate consideration of complex needs or the alternatives to placing a young person on the Suspect Targeting Management Plan.</p></li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/raising-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-is-only-a-first-step-first-nations-kids-need-cultural-solutions-186201">Raising the age of criminal responsibility is only a first step. First Nations kids need cultural solutions</a>
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<h2>A plan at odds with Closing the Gap</h2>
<p>The fact NSW Police didn’t implement any of the 2020 recommendations or reduce the over-representation shows the plan was never safe for First Nations young people in the first place.</p>
<p>Indeed, the management plan did precisely what it was designed to do: incapacitate and disrupt. </p>
<p>No amount of training or improvements to policy could remedy the extensive harms for First Nations young people put on the plan. </p>
<p>It was fundamentally a punitive surveillance approach, which made police the first responders for First Nations young people.</p>
<p>Aboriginal children need <a href="https://earlytraumagrief.anu.edu.au/files/ctg-rs21.pdf">culturally appropriate, therapeutic, trauma-informed services</a> run by Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. </p>
<p>They also need <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1362480615625763">safe distance</a> from police. </p>
<p>The Suspect Targeting Management Plan was always at odds with the NSW government’s commitment to divert First Nations people from the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>In its Closing the Gap <a href="https://www.aboriginalaffairs.nsw.gov.au/closingthegap/nsw-implementation-plan/2022-24-implementation-plan/">Implementation Plan</a>, all early interventions to support young people need to be community designed and driven. </p>
<p>There should also be health, housing and education support.</p>
<h2>A community development approach</h2>
<p>NSW Police has dropped the Suspect Targeting Management Plan for people under 18 and will soon scrap it entirely.</p>
<p>Police are now developing a replacement approach. Will they take the lead from communities? </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/walgett-partnership/about-us">Yuwaya Ngarra-li</a> community-led partnership in Walgett is one example of how holistic diversion programs can work.</p>
<p>Another is <a href="https://www.justreinvest.org.au">Just Reinvest</a> in Bourke, Kempsey and Moree.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/jumbunna-institute-indigenous-education-and-research/our-research/indigenous-law-and-justice-hub/self-determination-and-criminal-justice">UTS Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education</a> has developed ideas around Aboriginal self-determination in youth justice that could shape guiding principles. </p>
<p>Police are the wrong people for providing Indigenous young people with non-coercive, therapeutic support.</p>
<p>Community alternatives to state policing are real and powerful.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This article has been amended to reflect that the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission did not make formal findings of agency maladministration because NSW Police abandoned the Suspect Targeted Management Plan for children before the report was released. The article previously did not include this context.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216627/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicki Sentas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has handed down a damning report into an unlawful policing strategy. It’s the latest example of First Nations children being over-policed.Vicki Sentas, Senior Lecturer, UNSW Law, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2130282023-09-20T12:26:10Z2023-09-20T12:26:10ZHow local police could help prevent another January 6th-style insurrection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547578/original/file-20230911-17-mbivt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=847%2C469%2C2074%2C1374&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, at left, and group member Joe Biggs were sentenced to many years in federal prison.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/enrique-tarrio-leader-of-the-proud-boys-and-joe-biggs-news-photo/1230086703">Stephanie Keith/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some of the most prominent members of the Proud Boys, a far-right militant group that functions more like a street gang than a militia, have been <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/proud-boys-leader-sentenced-22-years-prison-seditious-conspiracy-and-other-charges-related">sentenced to long terms</a> in federal prison for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/5/23712755/proud-boys-sedition-trial-verdict-conviction-january-6-attack-trump">Experts</a> declare that these successful prosecutions by the U.S. Justice Department will not only discourage far-right groups but also deter people from joining them and engaging in future criminal activity.</p>
<p>Group chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/1197824591/former-proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-sentenced-to-22-years-for-jan-6-riot-rol">sentenced to 22 years</a> in federal prison after being found guilty of <a href="https://theconversation.com/regardless-of-seditious-conspiracy-charges-outcome-right-wing-groups-like-proud-boys-seek-to-build-a-white-nation-184592">seditious conspiracy</a>. Group leaders Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl were also found guilty of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/news/press-releases?search_api_fulltext=+proud+boys&start_date=&end_date=&sort_by=field_date">seditious conspiracy</a> and sentenced to 18, 17 and 15 years, respectively. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/01/1197186891/proud-boys-member-dominic-pezzola-sentenced-to-10-years-in-jan-6-riot-case">Dominic Pezzola</a>, a Proud Boys member who breached the Capitol building with a stolen police riot shield, was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy but was convicted of a variety of felonies, including assaulting a police officer, robbing government property and obstructing an official proceeding – and sentenced to 10 years in prison.</p>
<p>But despite the lengths of those sentences, prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to impose even harsher ones, claiming the offenses were related to terrorism. Kelly, however, ruled that claims of terrorism <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/01/proud-boys-pezzola-nordean-sentencing-jan6/">overstate the conduct</a> of the Proud Boys sentenced.</p>
<p>That fits with our analysis of the Proud Boys. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fjys1XAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholars</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cLpO6QwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">study</a> street gangs and far-right groups, we see that the larger law enforcement community <a href="https://contexts.org/articles/classifying-far-right-groups-as-gangs/">continues to focus</a> – we believe mistakenly – on the belief that, like terrorist groups, white supremacists are coordinated in ideology and intent. Evidence shows that perception actually diverts local police agencies’ attention from <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-nationalist-groups-are-really-street-gangs-and-law-enforcement-needs-to-treat-them-that-way-107691">identifying and managing these groups</a>. </p>
<p>Gangs are generally defined as <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003159797-4/demystifying-alt-right-gangs-matthew-valasik-shannon-reid">durable, street-oriented groups whose own identity includes involvement in illegal activity</a>. We believe that if police had treated Proud Boys as <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300453/alt-right-gangs">members of a street gang</a> from the group’s inception in 2016, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, might have been avoided, or at least reduced in severity.</p>
<h2>The trouble with fighting domestic terrorism</h2>
<p>The United States lacks explicit laws banning domestic terrorism, in part because they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-fight-domestic-terrorism-6-experts-share-their-thoughts-165054">constitutionally controversial</a> and may target unintended groups. </p>
<p>That problem has arisen with other criminal laws, such as the <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/mjrl17&div=13&id=&page=">Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act</a>, which was designed to specifically target organized crime groups, like the Italian Mafia. The application of RICO, however, has been adapted and used aggressively against <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1099004661/young-thug-is-the-latest-rapper-to-be-charged-under-historically-problematic-ric">Black, Latino and Indigenous groups</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/06/1197987659/georgia-has-charged-61-stop-cop-city-protesters-with-racketeering">political protestors</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, some <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-136/responding-to-domestic-terrorism-a-crisis-of-legitimacy/">have suggested</a> that passing laws defining and outlawing domestic terrorism would be the best way to deal with the threats posed by the Proud Boys and other far-right extremists.</p>
<p>But when <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1854516291659">Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/470065/new-zealand-designates-american-proud-boys-and-the-base-terrorist-organisations">New Zealand</a> designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization, that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99804-2_3">did not eliminate white supremacists</a> from those countries. It merely forced them to <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/re-branding-white-supremacy">rebrand</a> themselves with a new name and logo. Treating Proud Boys solely as members of a terrorist organization does not actually stamp out white supremacy groups. </p>
<p>Instead, this perception hurts local law enforcement’s ability to recognize local, disorganized, far-right groups as street gangs and not terrorist groups. Police discretion is immense. Time and again, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/us/proud-boys-law-enforcement.html">police have been documented</a> ignoring Proud Boys <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/07/15/george-floyd-protests-police-far-right-antifa/">violence and intimidation</a>. Failing to arrest members <a href="https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2018/10/14/why-dont-portland-police-stop-the-proud-boys-from-brawling/">explicitly observed in criminal infractions</a> has only encouraged future acts of violence. Furthermore, local law enforcement’s <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law">history of failing</a> to investigate and arrest members of far-right groups forces the federal government to be solely responsible for prosecuting them.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men stand in an open space inside a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547586/original/file-20230911-8058-5e3iib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola, center with police shield, was among those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CapitolBreachExtremistPlots/5abfd5183c2e41319090fd7fc31ad807/photo?Query=proud%20boys&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=429&currentItemNo=193">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</a></span>
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<h2>Once a gang, always a gang</h2>
<p>From the very start, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes explicitly declared the group a “<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3v54k/joe-rogan-spotify-proud-boys">gang</a>.” Local police across the U.S. actively investigate and prosecute gangs, especially those whose members are <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/reports/Trapped%20in%20the%20Matrix%20Amnesty%20report.pdf">Black</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/attorneys-and-activists-question-accuracy-of-police-gang-database/2517076/">Latino</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/">other people of color</a>.</p>
<p>Proud Boys are predominantly white men who also intimidate and threaten communities around the U.S. with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/19/proud-boys-document-jan-6-violence">disorderly conduct, public harassment</a> and <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/andy-b-campbell/we-are-proud-boys/9781668611159/?lens=hachette-books">more serious violence, including battery, assault, murder, rioting and hate crimes</a>. This <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118726822.ch22">“cafeteria-style”</a> offending is quite common among gang members participating in a range of criminal activities. </p>
<p>But, perhaps because of the Proud Boys’ claims to be just a “<a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/publication/proud-boys-crimes-and-characteristics">western chauvinist</a>” men’s club, local law enforcement agencies <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/us/proud-boys-law-enforcement.html">have tended not</a> to treat the Proud Boys and other far-right groups as street gangs. Such increased scrutiny by police of their criminal activities would have produced a much greater deterrent effect. Instead, the lack of acknowledging the Proud Boys’ violent criminal behavior only emboldened them further.</p>
<p>In fact, police have either remained idle or even consorted with Proud Boys members at recent protests, even <a href="https://www.wkbn.com/news/ohio/columbus-police-chief-responds-after-officer-seen-high-fiving-proud-boy/">giving them high-fives</a>, as observed in Columbus, Ohio, at a demonstration against the “Holi-drag” story time event. This type of police engagement is just one element of how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X18000139">police ignore the threat of white supremacy</a> and its followers.</p>
<h2>Broadening the concept of gangs</h2>
<p>Many Proud Boys fail to exhibit remorse for their actions. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/01/1197186891/proud-boys-member-dominic-pezzola-sentenced-to-10-years-in-jan-6-riot-case">Pezzola declared “Trump won!” as he exited the federal courtroom</a> after his sentencing. <a href="https://twitter.com/misstessowen/status/1699823971674227184/photo/1">Tarrio</a> is now positioning himself as a <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3mqva/january-6-trump-apologists-blame-biden-proud-boys">political prisoner</a> to rally support from the GOP.</p>
<p>This raises our concerns that Proud Boys members will continue to be active and violent. Research finds it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427811419368">effective for police to systematically monitor and target groups</a> that exhibit violent behavior and that doing so deters future acts of violence.</p>
<p>Sometimes, new laws can help. In Alabama, for instance, a law enacted in June <a href="https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/SB143/2023">expands the legal definition</a> of groups police might be concerned about. Instead of using a specific term like “street gang,” as most states do, the Alabama law defines a “<a href="https://www.al.com/news/2023/05/alabama-legislation-removes-gangs-in-favor-of-criminal-enterprises.html">criminal enterprise</a>” as any group of three or more people who engage in a pattern of criminal activity. Such an approach aids in removing the bias in law enforcement that street gangs are composed only of urban youth.</p>
<p>We hope that police will collect and share information about far-right groups’ criminal acts with other agencies to help identify people who are active in various areas of a state or even around the country. But in the end, the evidence shows that the Proud Boys, like any street gang, remain primarily <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/white-supremacist-links-law-enforcement-are-urgent-concern">localized groups</a> that are best dealt with by local police, not federal agents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Proud Boys are more of a loosely affiliated street gang than they are a unified right-wing militia, researchers say. But police ignore the threats from these groups, and their threats grow.Matthew Valasik, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of AlabamaShannon Reid, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina – CharlotteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084442023-07-12T20:27:05Z2023-07-12T20:27:05ZCanadian law enforcement agencies continue to target Muslims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536418/original/file-20230709-145234-1zd726.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C1904&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People hold signs during a protest in Montréal against Islamphobia in 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canadian-law-enforcement-agencies-continue-to-target-muslims" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>As Canadians, we often take pride in perceiving ourselves as different from the United States, proudly <a href="https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=2848&context=wmlr">asserting our contempt</a> about <a href="https://vancouversun.com/news/conversations-that-matter-we-cant-be-smug-about-canadian-democracy">events south of the border</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, a haunting question lingers: have we fallen into some of the same practices we so vehemently condemn, specifically systemic Islamophobia?</p>
<p>On Canada Day in 2013, John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alleged-canada-day-bomb-plot-targeted-b-c-legislature-1.1408115">arrested by the RCMP</a> after allegedly attempting to bomb the British Columbia legislature. </p>
<p>The arrests were widely celebrated as a victory in the global war on terror. However, three years later, Canadians discovered that the arrests were not the success story the RCMP portrayed them to be. </p>
<p>In July 2016, Justice Catherine Bruce of the B.C. Supreme Court <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9097868/nuttall-and-korody-sue/">ruled that the RCMP manufactured</a> the case against them and entrapped Nuttall and Korody. </p>
<p>The case represents the only terrorism trial in North America where entrapment was successfully invoked by the defence to overturn terrorism convictions, leading to a stay of proceedings and ultimately the couple’s acquittal. However, behind this groundbreaking case lies a darker truth — the deeply concerning tactics deployed by the RCMP. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tall man embraces a shorter woman wearing a black head scarf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536414/original/file-20230709-196949-2zr9v8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Nuttall and Amanda Korody embrace at B.C. Supreme Court after a judge ruled the couple were entrapped by the RCMP in a police-manufactured crime in Vancouver in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inside Project Souvenir</h2>
<p>In a tale that reads like a Hollywood thriller, the RCMP found themselves entangled in a web of intrigue when they received a tip from CSIS in February 2013 that Nuttall had been purchasing potassium nitrate and making some violent pro-Islamic remarks.</p>
<p>In response, the RCMP launched an elaborate surveillance operation it called Project Souvenir.</p>
<p>Undercover “Officer A” roped Nuttall into a fictitious jihadist organization planning a large-scale attack on the West. Nuttall, tasked by Officer A with devising the plan, presented a wide range of grandiose ideas, from train hijackings to firing rockets over the B.C. legislature. </p>
<p>As the operation unfolded, it became clear that Nuttall was not capable of carrying out any of the proposed plans. Officer A threatened Nuttall with expulsion from the organization if he did not come up with a viable attack plan. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"740316183522611200"}"></div></p>
<p>Ultimately, a plan came together about planting pressure cookers at the legislature in Victoria. Yet Nuttall’s lack of knowledge and incompetence in handling explosives became glaringly apparent.</p>
<p>This led Officer A to promise Nuttall that all resources, including the elusive <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Photos/igphoto/2001510222/">C4 explosive</a>, would be provided. </p>
<p>On Canada Day in 2013, Officer A gave the couple a ride to the legislature, where they planted the pressure-cooker bombs. Later that afternoon, the couple was arrested.</p>
<h2>The over-policing of Muslims</h2>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/john-nuttall-amanda-korody-rcmp-terror">Nuttall’s long criminal history spanning 20 years</a>, he only seemed to attract the attention of RCMP after his conversion to Islam. </p>
<p>It became evident in the trial that the police lacked substantial evidence to support any suspicions about the couple. There was no corroboration for the CSIS alert that initiated the investigation in the first place, but police proceeded with it anyway.</p>
<p>It seemed instead the police were profiling the couple based on their religion, and falsely associating devout religious beliefs with political violence and terrorism. </p>
<p>The RCMP allocated around <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/project-souvenir-john-nutall-amanda-korody-investigation-overtime-1.3468323#:%7E:text=Documents%20obtained%20by%20The%20Canadian,was%20code%20named%20Project%20Souvenir.">$1 million in overtime payments to 200 Mounties</a> for this five-month operation. </p>
<p>This raises the question of whether Muslim communities in Canada are over-policed, as <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487545901/systemic-islamophobia-in-canada/">suggested by University of Toronto law professor Kent Roach</a>.</p>
<p>The RCMP’s unwavering determination to proceed with the investigation, disregarding <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/john-nuttall-amanda-korody-rcmp-terror">warnings of a potential police-generated crime</a> within the police ranks, poses the question: were investigators fuelled by stereotypes and discrimination? </p>
<p>What Roach describes as “over-policing” of Muslims has led to rampant human rights abuses. Alarming parallels emerge in cases like <a href="https://www.amnesty.ca/legal-brief/case-maher-arar/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtamlBhD3ARIsAARoaEykUENR2ZN5F8zx0qW_V6UOHsdkTI_lMsLqghp5mmWWb-6vBC2QnxkaAuLREALw_wcB">Maher Arar</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/abdullah-almalki-apology-ottawa-morning-1.4032265">Abdullah Almalki</a> and other targeted Muslim Canadians, where intelligence may have stemmed from guilt by association and anti-Muslim stereotypes. </p>
<p>These cases paint a brutal picture of the over-policing of Muslims in Canada, underpinned by suspicions of Muslims as terrorists. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bearded man listens to a question at a news conference. A row of Canadian flags is behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536417/original/file-20230709-21-ryopai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maher Arar, an Ottawa telecommunications professional wrongly accused of having ties to terrorism when arrested by American security officials in 2002, listens to a question at a news conference in Ottawa in 2006.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mass surveillance</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492231151587">recent study</a> by criminology and sociology academics Baljit Nagra and Paula Maurutto sheds further light on CSIS’s mass surveillance of Muslims in Canada. </p>
<p>The study documents how CSIS fosters a culture of informants and reveals how racial narratives surrounding perceived “radicalized extremist” Muslims have provided legitimacy for sweeping surveillance at the hands of intelligence services under the guise of the war on terror.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/csis-targeting-of-canadian-muslims-reveals-the-importance-of-addressing-institutional-islamophobia-199559">CSIS targeting of Canadian Muslims reveals the importance of addressing institutional Islamophobia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>CSIS adopts a “radicalization” framework, which identifies religious devotion as a marker that labels young Muslims as “at risk” for potential indoctrination into “radical extremism,” directly linking Islam to potential terrorism. </p>
<p>As we reflect on the safeguarding of our rights and freedoms, we are confronted with a humbling realization: we may not be so different from our neighbours south of the border. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-crimes-associated-with-both-islamophobia-and-anti-semitism-have-a-long-history-in-americas-past-116255">Hate crimes associated with both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have a long history in America's past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Canada must continue examining the tactics and decision-making processes employed by its law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>In doing so, we must reflect on the profound consequences of over-surveillance on the freedoms of religion, expression and association — particularly for Muslim Canadians — and their impact on equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Basema Al-Alami is affiliated with the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at University of Toronto</span></em></p>Canada must reflect on the profound consequences of over-surveillance on the freedoms of religion, expression and association — particularly for Muslim Canadians — and their impact on equality.Basema Al-Alami, SJD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2090942023-07-11T17:01:14Z2023-07-11T17:01:14ZNew report suggests there’s no real effort to end racial profiling in Montréal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536409/original/file-20230709-4906-1lvz4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1958&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A police cruiser is shown in a Montréal park in September 2020</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/new-report-suggests-theres-no-real-effort-to-end-racial-profiling-in-montreal" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://montreal.citynews.ca/2023/06/22/montreal-police-spvm-street-checks-racial-profiling-second-report/">A damning new report</a> on racial profiling in Montréal suggests the city and its police force have given up on fighting the problem.</p>
<p>An update to a 2019 study, <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-police-chief-rejects-street-check-moratorium-despite-racial-profiling-data-1.6452248">the report</a> — authored by three independent researchers hired by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) — found that rates of racial profiling were either the same or higher than four years earlier, with Black, Indigenous and Arab people still particularly susceptible to being stopped by police. </p>
<p>As such, the report points to problems not just with the SPVM, but with the city administration that has long promised to curtail racist policing practices.</p>
<p>The problem of racial profiling can be <a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/robyn-maynard-police-violence-legacy-of-racial-and-economic-injustice">traced to the beginnings of policing</a> in North America, but it has nevertheless acquired more public attention in the last 10 to 15 years. </p>
<h2>Montréal’s history of racial profiling</h2>
<p>In Montréal, a city with <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/a-timeline-of-police-violence-against-people-of-colour-in-montreal">a long history of protests against police racism and violence</a>, the police killing of Fredy Villanueva in a city park in 2008 sparked widespread demonstrations. It did so in part because it occurred in the midst of a campaign of incredibly racist policing in an area in the city’s north-east.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman weeps into a handful of tissues." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536413/original/file-20230709-27-vczmod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lilian Villanueva, mother of Fredy Villanueva, reacts to the coroner’s report on the death of her son at a news conference in 2013 in Montréal. Villanueva was shot and killed by police in a park in Montréal in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An <a href="https://pdf.lapresse.ca/lapresse/charest.pdf">internal report by the SPVM</a> revealed that police had stopped as many as 40 per cent of young Black men in the north-east neighbourhoods of Saint-Michel and Montréal-Nord in 2006 and 2007. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.cdpdj.qc.ca/fr/publications/profilage-racial-et-discrimina-1">lengthy and damning report</a> on racial profiling by the Québec Human Rights Commission followed in 2011, while a series of shorter reports appeared over the next five years.</p>
<p>While these protests and reports challenged the SPVM, the task of combatting racial profiling ultimately belongs to the governments that oversee the police, especially the city of Montréal. </p>
<p>The city’s first major response to the increasing criticism of the SPVM was to hold <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2020.1831139">a major public consultation</a> on racial profiling in 2017. The consultation provided a venue for a wide range of community organizations, activists and researchers to call for police reform.</p>
<p>Among these demands were calls to strengthen police oversight and discipline, abolish arbitrary police stops and partially transfer police spending to community-based safety initiatives.</p>
<p>The city balked at these demands, but took the unprecedented step of calling on the SPVM to produce an analysis of police stops by racial group, a key indicator of racial profiling. The SPVM agreed to the demand and soon hired the three independent researchers to provide a report. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A protester in a parka holds up a sign decrying racial profiling by police." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536410/original/file-20230709-19-9362vb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People attend a protest in Montréal in February 2021 calling for justice for a Black man who was wrongfully arrested by police and jailed for six days.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Action soon?</h2>
<p>In a sense, the city kicked the can down the road. Concrete action, Montréalers were told, would await a more detailed assessment of the problem, but there would be action soon. </p>
<p>In the meantime, a new city administration took power as Valérie Plante was elected mayor and her Projet Montréal won a majority of seats in the November 2017 election. Following the election, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-police-report-fail-address-racial-profile-1.4416461">Plante said</a> combating “social and racial profiling” would be a priority of her administration.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark-haired woman gestures with her hands as she speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536408/original/file-20230709-191791-djethv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Montréal Mayor Valérie Plante speaks during a news conference in Montréal in August 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The analysis of police stops promised in 2017 was finally completed in 2019. Known as <a href="https://spvm.qc.ca/upload/Rapport_Armony-Hassaoui-Mulone.pdf">the Armony Report</a>, the study found that Black and Indigenous people were more than four times as likely than white people to be stopped by police, while Arab people were twice as likely to be stopped. </p>
<p>Looking at gender, the report also found that Indigenous women were 11 times more likely to be stopped than white women. </p>
<p>With the assessment complete, it was time for the city to act. Rather than listening to community demands, however, the Projet Montréal administration invested its hopes in a new police stops policy. </p>
<p>The policy, introduced in July 2020, stipulates that police stops must not be discriminatory and must be based on “observable facts” that justify the stop. The policy was widely criticized at the time as it simply reiterated the anti-discrimination provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. </p>
<p>Many (<a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-new-montreal-police-policy-wont-stop-racial-profiling">including myself</a>) also observed that police could always find “observable facts” to justify a stop motivated by other, discriminatory criteria.</p>
<h2>Backing the police</h2>
<p>Since 2020, Plante’s administration has repeatedly touted the police stops policy as a strong antidote to racial profiling. For example, Plante cited the policy in February 2023, when she was called to testify in a class-action lawsuit against the city and the SPVM for racial profiling. </p>
<p>Pointing to the policy, <a href="https://www.noovo.info/nouvelle/action-collective-pour-profilage-racial-temoignage-de-la-mairesse-de-montreal.html">she testified</a> that her team was “very proactive and works very hard on racial profiling.”</p>
<p>This narrative, already disputed, was fully discredited when the updated report on racial profiling was released in June 2023.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black bald man gestures as he speaks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536412/original/file-20230709-27-tqncm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dan Philip, president of the Black Coalition of Québec, responds to a question during a news conference in Montreal in 2019 after a judge authorized a racial profiling class-action lawsuit against the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://spvm.qc.ca/upload/02/Rapport_final_2e_mandat.pdf">It found</a> Black people are now 3.6 times more likely to be stopped by police than white people (a modest decline from 2019), Arab people are 2.6 times more likely to be stopped (a modest increase), and Indigenous people are now six times more likely to be stopped (a major increase).</p>
<p>If anyone was expecting a mea culpa from the city about its meagre efforts to combat racial profiling, they were disappointed. Plante, who said she was shocked by the 2019 report, has yet to comment publicly on the new findings. </p>
<p>Her colleague Alain Vaillancourt, the city Executive Committee member responsible for the police, simply <a href="https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/793501/malgre-un-rapport-extremement-critique-le-spvm-maintient-les-interpellations-policieres">said he supports the city’s police director</a> and feels “comfortable” with his plan to change the “culture” of the SPVM. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1672250179611684864"}"></div></p>
<p>The city’s response to racial profiling seems to have entered a new phase. After delaying action in 2017 and implementing a toothless new policy in 2019, the city seems content to leave the problem in the hands of the police director and abdicate its role in overseeing the police on behalf of the population. </p>
<p>In a city with a long history of protest against police racism and violence, this stance is unacceptable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209094/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Rutland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Montréal’s response to a new report on racial profiling shows little appetite for change.Ted Rutland, Associate professor, Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033892023-04-30T13:12:12Z2023-04-30T13:12:12ZPolice violations of Charter rights highlight the need for accountability and transparency<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523254/original/file-20230427-22-gdqqpl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3435%2C2287&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If police are serious about respecting our fundamental rights and ensuring public safety, they should take action.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2021 and 2022, the <a href="https://alumni.westernu.ca/alumni-gazette/fall-2020/making-the-invisible-visible.html">Hidden Racial Profiling Project (HRPP)</a> at Western University’s Faculty of Law helped the <em>Toronto Star</em> identify more than <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2022/06/09/how-torstar-found-600-cases-of-police-violating-fundamental-rights-when-no-one-is-tracking-this-national-problem.html">600 court decisions</a> from the past decade that found Canadian police violated the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/how-rights-protected/guide-canadian-charter-rights-freedoms.html">Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a> when dealing with the public. </p>
<p>Violations included excessive force, unreasonable searches and not being told of your right to a lawyer without delay. The decisions reveal <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/police-charter-rights-violations.html">pervasive and systemic failures</a> by many police services with respect to our fundamental rights. Few police services told the <em>Star</em> whether they were aware of the cases. Most refused to say.</p>
<p>The 600 cases are a huge underestimation of just how frequently police are violating Canadians’ Charter rights. They do not include cases where evidence that was gathered in violation of the Charter was not excluded, the proceedings were not stopped by judges or sentences were not reduced.</p>
<p>They also do not include incidents that we will never see in criminal case law — Charter-infringing conduct, like arbitrary detentions, unreasonable searches and racial profiling, that do not result in charges or cases that were withdrawn by the Crown. </p>
<p>Race is often <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2006CanLIIDocs492#!fragment//BQCwhgziBcwMYgK4DsDWszIQewE4BUBTADwBdoByCgSgBpltTCIBFRQ3AT0otokLC4EbDtyp8BQkAGU8pAELcASgFEAMioBqAQQByAYRW1SYAEbRS2ONWpA">not mentioned</a> in criminal cases when judges found officers violated the Charter rights of accused. Our project seeks to identify the race of victims in Charter-violating cases and expose racial profiling.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C0%2C5961%2C4007&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The back of a man in handcuffs being placed in a car by a police officer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C0%2C5961%2C4007&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523066/original/file-20230426-402-e1oh4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hidden Racial Profiling Project helped the <em>Toronto Star</em> identify over 600 court decisions that found police violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Identifying Charter violations</h2>
<p>Since the <em>Toronto Star</em> series was published, our project has completed its case-law research and flagged problematic trends. We are now beginning the process of identifying the race of victims of Charter violations.</p>
<p>Police violations of the Charter matter. They negatively impact the physical and mental health of victims and undermine public trust and safety. <a href="http://mr.crossref.org/iPage?doi=10.18574%2Fnyu%2F9780814776155.003.0004">They discourage co-operation with police</a>, and we know that relationships between police and Indigenous and Black communities are already strained because of <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/432/SECU/Reports/RP11434998/securp06/securp06-e.pdf">systemic racism in policing</a>. Charter violations can also result in <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2019/2019scc34/2019scc34.html?autocompleteStr=r%20v%20le&autocompletePos=1">evidence being excluded</a> from trials and in the accused walking free. </p>
<p>Police forces <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2022/06/13/police-must-be-told-when-courts-condemn-their-violations-of-rights.html">should be told</a> when courts find that officers violate the Charter, but there is no need to wait for governments to set up formal notification systems. Charter violations can be found with a few keystrokes and some sifting and sorting.</p>
<p>The HRPP searched for cases that were decided between 2015 and 2019 and involved the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00015/tbl/tbl05-eng.htm">10 largest city police services in Canada</a>. We were struck by the sheer volume of cases with Charter violations. We felt there was a public interest in getting this information into the public eye so we provided our case-law research to the <em>Star</em>, which did a broader search. </p>
<p>If the HRPP could find these cases, police services can too. They have the resources and know-how to find them themselves. And the decisions must lead to police transparency and accountability. </p>
<p>Large police services, like those in <a href="https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/COMMISSIONS_PERM_V2_FR/MEDIA/DOCUMENTS/PRES_SPVM_20201118.PDF">Montréal</a>, <a href="https://www.ottawapolice.ca/en/who-we-are/resources/Documents/Reports-and-Publications/Budget-2023/2023-Budget-Book-online-version.pdf">Ottawa</a> and <a href="http://www.calgarypolicecommission.ca/proposed-police-budget/">Calgary</a>, have budgets in the hundreds of millions, or, in the case of <a href="https://www.tps.ca/media/filer_public/51/0a/510ae2fe-d188-40f1-8c2d-1e3e0b7f3de5/734e38ee-0298-495e-b72b-fdfcbbe198b0.pdf">Toronto</a>, the <a href="https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/royal-canadian-mounted-police-2022-2023-departmental-plan">RCMP</a> and the <a href="https://opp.ca/index.php?id=115&entryid=619547b8522f655e245bba83">Ontario Provincial Police</a>, over a billion. Smaller services, like <a href="https://vicpd.ca/portfolio-items/vicpd-2021-provisional-budget-presentation-victoria-council/">Victoria</a> and <a href="https://www.fredericton.ca/sites/default/files/2023_annual_budget_book_-_final.pdf">Fredericton</a>, have budgets in the tens of millions. And all of them have lawyers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two black men lead a march down a street. One of them chants into a megaphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522720/original/file-20230424-24-gphaht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protest against police brutality in Montréal in June 2020. Many police services already have the resources and know-how to identify court decisions with violations of the Charter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Police transparency and accountability</h2>
<p>Court decisions with Charter violations should be part of an <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/PIJPSM-02-2020-0027/full/html">early intervention system</a> to alert supervisors and police leadership about problematic officers, units and divisions. </p>
<p>Canadian police services would not be the first to do so. Cases where evidence was excluded due to constitutional violations are part of early intervention systems for the <a href="https://www.fergusoncity.com/531/Consent-Decree">Ferguson, Mo.</a> and <a href="https://consentdecree.baltimorecity.gov">Baltimore, Md.</a> police forces. </p>
<p>Court decisions with Charter violations should also trigger investigations into officer misconduct and lead to training or discipline where appropriate. Where there are systemic issues, policies and training should be changed — not in secret, but publicly, and not in a way that’s colour-blind, but through an anti-racism lens. </p>
<p>One of the cases the HRRP found was <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2017/2017onca543/2017onca543.html?resultIndex=1"><em>R v. Gonzales</em></a>. In 2009, a York Regional Police officer pulled over two Hispanic men in a rental van. The officer was investigating break-and-enters in the area, but had no reason to link the men or the van to the crimes. The officer also had no suspect description. Five days earlier, the officer had seen the van in the same area and its occupants enter a home. The officer even thought that one of the men may have lived there. </p>
<p>The officer smelled marijuana coming from the van and called for backup. Searches of the van and home uncovered a gun, ammunition, hundreds of pounds of marijuana and more than $100,000 in cash. The men were arrested.</p>
<p>In a 2017 appeal, Ontario’s highest court concluded the traffic stop was an arbitrary detention and one of the men was unlawfully strip-searched at the station — both violations of the Charter. </p>
<p>Consequently, the evidence police found was tossed out. One of the men was acquitted and would not serve the original five-year prison term. </p>
<p>The judge found the officer’s misconduct was not an isolated incident but part of a “pattern of abuse.” The court stated “evidence emerged from the officers at trial that this stop was part of a larger pattern of pulling over ‘suspicious’ persons and asking them what they were doing in the neighbourhood.” </p>
<p>Worse still, the same pattern was noted in two other cases involving the same police service the next year: <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc/2018/2018oncj44/2018oncj44.html?resultIndex=1"><em>R v. Bhagiratti</em></a> and <em>R v. Noseworthy</em>. </p>
<p>York Regional Police <a href="https://www.yorkregion.com/news/crime/good-policing-or-profiling-courts-reprimand-york-police-for-illegal-arrests/article_406f44d3-e29c-5211-b910-86c86fbb88b3.html">appear to be aware</a> of the <em>R v. Gonzales</em> and <em>R v. Bhagiratti</em> decisions and respect them. But what steps did the York Regional Police or its board take to address the “pattern of abuse,” including any disproportionate impact on Indigenous, Black or other racialized people? Were the officers investigated, disciplined or retrained? </p>
<p>Were policies or training reviewed or changed? It may take legislative change for there to be transparency about individual officer discipline, but these other questions need to be asked and answered publicly. </p>
<p>If police are serious about respecting our fundamental rights and ensuring public safety, they should take action. And we deserve to see it. Justice depends on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sunil Gurmukh received funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario via Western University's Faculty of Law for the Hidden Racial Profiling Project, which he is leading. His views do not represent the Ontario Human Rights Commission or Ontario Public Service.</span></em></p>The Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibits Canadian police from using excessive force and conducting unreasonable searches. But research has found many cases of police violating the Charter.Sunil Gurmukh, Visiting Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027932023-04-17T10:43:02Z2023-04-17T10:43:02ZCasey review: how the Met police needs to accept that it is institutionally racist and deal with failures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518223/original/file-20230329-1565-lblkzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/british-metropolitan-police-officer-hivisibility-uniform-1279370110">Carrie Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Louise Casey’s <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/met/about-us/baroness-casey-review/update-march-2023/baroness-casey-review-march-2023.pdf">review</a> of the standards of behaviour and internal culture at the Metropolitan police makes for uncomfortable reading. It was commissioned following the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, who was a serving Met officer at the time. </p>
<p>Casey highlights the prevalence of sexism and homophobia. Crucially, in considering police culture she draws different conclusions on the existence of institutional racism than <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-commission-report-the-rights-and-wrongs-158316">the position</a> taken in 2021 by Boris Johnson’s government on race.</p>
<p><a href="https://irr.org.uk/article/what-is-institutional-racism/">Institutional racism</a> is defined as racial discrimination in process, attitude and behaviour. It results from prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness or racist stereotyping. And it adversely affects people from minority ethnic communities. </p>
<p>In 1999, already, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf">Macpherson report</a> found the force guilty of institutional racism. The recent cases of Met officers accused of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54466254">racially profiling</a> the athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos and the two Met officers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/26/mother-of-murdered-sisters-bibaa-henry-nicole-smallman-met-police-apology">dismissed for</a> sharing photographs and making inappropriate comments about Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, the sisters murdered in 2020, have highlighted, however, how little has been done about it. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/28/metropolitan-police-safeguarding-risk-black-children-schools-strip-search-child-q">commentators</a> have grave <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/26/race-disparity-police-strip-searches-of-children-england-and-wales">concerns</a> about how black communities in the UK are disproportionately and unfairly policed. In 2020 the House of Lords <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/accusations-of-racism-in-the-metropolitan-police-service/&data=05%7C01%7Cangus.nurse@ntu.ac.uk%7C18829195b93740f3f6b608db2a227120%7C8acbc2c5c8ed42c78169ba438a0dbe2f%7C1%7C0%7C638150099632125799%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0=%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3WsQ7HZxf90pJZGM71coe48RjZEiz1tmeIEKIAik4f0=&reserved=0">reported</a> on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-and-search-new-data-shows-continued-ethnic-disproportionality-172260#:%7E:text=Racial%20disproportionality%20in%20stop%20and%20search%20has%20been,associated%20legislation%20%28the%20most%20frequently%20used%20stop-and-search%20powers%29.">disproportionate use</a> of stop and search against black Londoners. <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/mopac-publications/action-plan-transparency-accountability-and-trust-policing">Research shows</a> that people from black and mixed ethnic groups have lower trust and confidence in the Met.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/casey-review-key-steps-the-met-police-must-take-to-address-its-institutional-racism-and-sexism-202255">challenge</a> for the force, then, is whether it will accept this institutional failure. In figuring out how to deal with it, it should, among other things, examine how complaints are dealt with, how staff members are able to raise issues themselves, and how performance monitoring uncovers problems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several police officers in uniform on police motorbikes by a street curb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518224/original/file-20230329-18-ncwzpy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Met is not representative of the people it serves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-03-19-2022-line-2140461621">RobertoBarcellona/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The scale of the task</h2>
<p>Casey does not simply highlight the problems with how black citizens are policed, and the crimes perpetrated against them dealt with. She says the Met is unrepresentative of Londoners, noting that “Met officers are 82% white and 71% male” and that “the Met does not look like the majority of Londoners”. </p>
<p>She acknowledges that the force has improved the ethnic diversity of its workforce. However, she states that black communities in London are “under-protected – disproportionately the victims of homicides and domestic abuse; and over-policed – facing disproportionate use of stop and search and use of force by the Met”. </p>
<p>The Met’s response to scandals, the review says, often involves “playing them down, denial, obfuscation, and digging in to defend officers without seeming to understand their wider significance”. Casey also points to what many regard as a “hostile culture” within the force, with evidence of systematic racial bias against black, Asian, and ethnic minority staff. </p>
<p>Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, responded to Casey’s findings acknowledging that the racism, among other ills, is systemic. However, he <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-chief-sir-mark-rowley-again-rejects-use-of-term-institutional-to-describe-forces-problems-after-damning-report-12840225">rejected</a> the term “institutional”. To his mind, it is a political term, unhelpful because it is ill-defined. Instead, he emphasised the need to root out <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/met-police-chief-embarrassed-by-review-but-wont-use-term-institutionally-racist-12839225">“toxic individuals”</a>. </p>
<p>Individual offenders seeking to justify their actions will sometimes use what sociologists and criminologists call “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0140.xml">neutralisation techniques</a>” to minimise their guilt. Organisations also routinely deploy them, to underplay the seriousness of the allegations made against them. </p>
<p>This is because denial deflects from the need to act. Appealing to higher loyalties protects the profession or the organisation by asserting its value. </p>
<p>When organisations are faced with accusations of racism, the institutional response often emphasises that the fault lies with individual rotten apples, as opposed to the barrel itself. The institution thus avoids facing up to the reality of the situation and embracing meaningful and effective change, even when senior leadership displays willingness to do so.</p>
<p>Conversely, responses that are system led and process driven but ineffective are just as fruitless. Casey says the Met has often responded to problems by effectively just ticking boxes. A complaints system or procedure might provide a mechanism that allows people (or groups) to raise complaints. But the process (that is, the response) is taken up with logging the level and number of complaints and defending an organisational position. </p>
<p>Instead, organisations need to take their cues from what research and data tell them about the existence of institutional racism and discrimination. They need to identify the nature of issues and then implement thorough organisational changes.</p>
<p>When it comes to identifying misconduct, Casey suggests introducing a new misconduct system and overhauling the vetting processes for new recruits and for specialist units. She also recommends that the commissioner be granted greater powers to better enforce the misconduct standards and remove officers whose conduct falls short of the required standards. </p>
<p>On race, however, her recommendations fall short. The Macpherson report had 70 recommendations. They included implementing a code of conduct that would “ensure that racist words or acts proved to have been spoken or done by police officers should lead to disciplinary proceedings”. </p>
<p>And yet, 24 years on from that report, the Casey review is still recommending training and codes of practice. This suggests that Macpherson’s recommendations were not efficiently implemented. </p>
<p>Like many large institutions, the Met risks remaining in denial about the scale of its racism problem. It has failed to appropriately challenge discriminatory <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23303131.2016.1249584?casa_token=oKd7Odi9FfcAAAAA%3A4yRqis0UZf54Dq5eI2c0hNBFp6IoAQ4YxpKbxvz0ZFtPdPTc_I5ZVdHNFBYwsk1-76Gt9FdxZZ-1">attitudes</a> and behaviour. Inaction or ineffective action will only further enable those who hold racist attitudes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angus Nurse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like many large institutions, the Met remains in denial about the scale of its racism problem. The Casey review falls short in its recommendations for how to address it.Angus Nurse, Head of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1995592023-02-22T18:23:24Z2023-02-22T18:23:24ZCSIS targeting of Canadian Muslims reveals the importance of addressing institutional Islamophobia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511508/original/file-20230221-18-jwylk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C0%2C4962%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Muslim Canadians face mass surveillance that brings entire communities under suspicion.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been an uproar recently among politicians who have called for the <a href="https://montreal.citynews.ca/2023/02/02/amira-elghawaby-apology/">resignation of Amira Elghawaby</a>, Canada’s first <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2023/01/26/prime-minister-announces-appointment-canadas-first-special">special representative on combating Islamophobia</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=142%2C284%2C8484%2C5458&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a hijab and glasses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=142%2C284%2C8484%2C5458&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510974/original/file-20230219-332-lgmx5d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amira Elghawaby was appointed as Canada’s first special representative on combating Islamophobia on Jan. 26, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The position was created in January 2023 to address the longstanding discrimination, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2022001/article/00013-eng.htm">hate crimes</a> and intolerance faced by Muslim communities across the country. </p>
<p>In recent years, Canada has witnessed the highest number of Muslims killed in <a href="https://www.nccm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Policy-Recommendations_NCCM.pdf">hate-motivated attacks</a> out of all the G7 countries. </p>
<p>The controversy stems over Elghawaby’s <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/elghawaby-and-farber-quebecs-bill-21-shows-why-we-fear-the-tyranny-of-the-majority">2019 criticism</a> of Québec’s Bill 21. The law prohibits public servants from wearing religious symbols like hijabs, turbans, yarmulkes and crosses. </p>
<p>The bill has been criticized for unfairly impacting Muslim communities — <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-21-impact-religious-minorities-survey-1.6541241">particularly Muslim women</a>.</p>
<p>There was also criticism of <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-activists-lawyers-express-support-for-embattled-amira-elghawaby">remarks Elghawaby made</a> in response to an <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-term-bipoc-is-a-bad-fit-for-the-canadian-discourse-on-race/">opinion piece</a> that said French Canadians were the largest group in Canada to be victimized by British colonialism.</p>
<p>In response, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet, has called on the federal government to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-trudeau-must-drop-elghawaby-and-get-rid-of-anti-islamophobia-position/">scrap the position</a> of the special representative on combating Islamophobia altogether. </p>
<p>However, our research on the treatment of Canadian Muslim communities by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), shows how vital it is to address <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/racism-descrimination-claims-canadian-security-intelligence-service-1.6083353">institutional Islamophobia</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23326492231151587">our recent study</a> we interviewed 95 Muslim community leaders living in five major Canadian cities to learn about their experiences with CSIS. </p>
<p>This study is the first of its kind to map the anti-Muslim tactics employed by CSIS in its racialized surveillance of Muslim communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men bow in prayer at a mosque." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511510/original/file-20230221-22-v2yb4a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men pray at the Hamilton Mountain Mosque in Hamilton, Ont. Mosques have become frequent targets of surveillance by CSIS.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Muslims face mass surveillance</h2>
<p>We found that CSIS adopts specific surveillance practices that are informed by Islamophobic tropes. This works on the premise that Islam and any expression of religious devotion to it represents a potential terror suspect. </p>
<p>Consequently, CSIS engages in mass surveillance that brings entire Muslim communities under suspicion. It relies on <a href="https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/islastudj.7.2.0215">false radicalization assumptions</a> that depict Muslim communities as hotbeds of extremism that must be contained through aggressive surveillance strategies.</p>
<p>CSIS engages in mass surveillance with devastating and prolonged effects on Muslim communities. We found that mosques have been transformed into sites of surveillance rather than a safe place for religious worship and community gatherings. </p>
<p>CSIS treats mosques as sites of radicalization and incubators of extremism in order to legitimize its intensive policing and infiltration. CSIS monitors who enters and exits them, and members, especially imams, are subject to interrogation and forced to provide intelligence on their congregations. We found there is a persistent deployment of CSIS operatives at mosques. </p>
<p>Muslim youth in particular are heavily targeted by CSIS. Those who attend mosques, are involved in Muslim student organizations, attend Muslim gatherings or summer camps are frequently interrogated by CSIS, often without their parents’ permission. </p>
<p>Muslim university students who we spoke to informed us they have found recording devices in their campus prayer spaces, and had their social media scanned. The result is that Muslim youth are subjected to extreme forms of state surveillance. At the University of Toronto, faculty and lawyers have even set up a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/csis-students-university-muslim-campus-1.5229670">support line</a> to help Muslim students and provide representation when they are contacted by CSIS. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elderly man carries a placard that reads: Question authority, in front of a roadside sign that says Canadian security Intelligence service" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510976/original/file-20230219-358-ztot2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CSIS has used mass surveillance to target and monitor Muslim Canadian communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Fred Chartrand)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>CSIS relies on coercive techniques</h2>
<p>A key CSIS tactical strategy is the use of coercive techniques to pressure ordinary citizens to become informants. We were informed that CSIS threatens to show up at the workplaces of individuals who refuse to talk to them. They particularly seek out refugees or those with precarious immigration status.</p>
<p>They also use aggressive tactics such as making unannounced visits to people’s homes in the middle of night; actions that intimidated entire families, including children. We were informed that this is a common practice as individuals are unable to access legal counsel or community support at such times.</p>
<h2>Political activism targeted</h2>
<p>Those politically active and critical of the Canadian state found themselves at higher risk for interrogation. In our study, we found those who criticize state policies — particularly concerning politics in the Middle East — come under increased surveillance. </p>
<p>We were informed of the deep chilling effect this has on Muslim communities. Those we interviewed spoke about being fearful of voicing their concerns regarding state practices, as they believe this would incur CSIS surveillance. </p>
<p>This level of political suppression directly violates the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-23/">CSIS Act</a>. This act prohibits investigation of lawful advocacy and dissent. </p>
<p>The result for Muslim communities is a culture of suspicion and internal fear. We were informed of the common suspicion that others in the community are working for CSIS. Furthermore, some concealed being approached by CSIS because they believe they could be ostracized within their own communities. </p>
<h2>Islamophobia institutionalized in Canada</h2>
<p>CSIS is just one institution that racially targets Muslims. There are a host of other counter-terrorism laws and practices that also operate to reproduce racist perceptions and assumptions about Muslims. For example, our previous research has documented how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azz066">Canada’s no-fly list</a> and security practices at <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/canajsocicahican.41.2.165">Canadian border crossings</a> function as endemic practices of institutionalized racism. They target Canadian Muslims, exacerbate racial profiling and subject people to demeaning treatment.</p>
<p>Contrary to the demands for Elghawaby’s dismissal, our work speaks to the vital need for a special representative on combating Islamophobia and to make addressing Islamophobia an urgent priority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Baljit Nagra receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Maurutto receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>A recent study highlights how mass surveillance of Muslim communities by Canadian intelligence is based on racist stereotypes about Muslims.Baljit Nagra, Associate Professor, Criminology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaPaula Maurutto, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1835142022-05-24T22:41:22Z2022-05-24T22:41:22ZPublic police are a greedy institution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465130/original/file-20220524-20-s2rnf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C62%2C5955%2C3880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A photo from a demonstration calling for police accountability and an end to police brutality in Vancouver, in May 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/defund-the-police-canada-1.5605430">calls from communities to defund public police, that grew louder</a> following the police killings of <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/crime-law-and-justice/killing-of-george-floyd">George Floyd</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html">Breonna Taylor</a> in 2020, have raised several crucial questions. </p>
<p>As researchers of police work, we looked at some of the critical issues surrounding these calls in our new <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003167914">book on police, greed and dark money</a>. We examined the push by public police to accumulate more resources despite these calls and the rise of secretive or “dark money” in public policing.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305791.001.0001">criminologists have shown that social development leads to less street crime and healthier communities</a>, police departments seem unperturbed when social programs for housing, mental health and health care get cut to <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/defund-the-police-this-is-how-much-canadian-cities-spend-1.5018506">fund growing police budgets</a>. It is also <a href="https://prospect.org/justice/police-foundations-scrub-corporate-partners-board-members/">unclear whether a well-funded police institution leads to less transgression</a> or safer communities.</p>
<p>The greedy tendencies of police departments help illustrate the major problems with public police funding in Canada and the United States today. </p>
<h2>What is a greedy institution?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.asanet.org/about/governance-and-leadership/council/presidents/lewis-alfred-coser">American sociologist Lewis Coser</a> first spoke of greedy institutions in 1974. A greedy institution <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241608330092">demands loyalty and conformity to its culture</a>, worldview and politics. For example, the military is a greedy institution since it demands full loyalty to branches of the armed forces. </p>
<p>We are not the first scholars <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X8601300101">to apply the greedy institution concept</a> to public police and to suggest its officers must be loyal and not cross the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7392282/rcmp-directive-thin-blue-line/">“blue line.”</a> Our book extends this concept to show how the police institution seeks loyalty and conformity not just internally, it does so externally as well. </p>
<p>While the public police demands loyalty to its institution and conformity to its worldview, its challengers, within and outside the institution, tend to be shunned or neutralized.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Book cover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465120/original/file-20220524-22-6pk0jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A new book, Police Funding, Dark Money and the Greedy Institution outline how public police departments demand loyalty and funds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Routledge)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The other meaning of greedy institution is literal. </p>
<p>Police greediness is evident in the quest for private sponsorship of police, especially through private police foundations. These foundations exemplify the attempt of police departments to extend their networks and social connections while accruing more financial resources.</p>
<p>Another example is paid duty policing, which we argue reveals the police managerial desire to control officers’ off-duty activities, while ensuring they receive significant extra money beyond their salaries.</p>
<p>In both instances, dark money is something that often involves secret or anonymous donations or income. The murky exchanges of dark money are mostly hidden to the public.</p>
<h2>Police foundations: a funnel for private capital</h2>
<p>Police foundations have emerged as entities that allow private corporations and individuals to donate to police. In our book, we show how foundations are <a href="https://policefoundations.org">being established at record pace</a>. In the U.S., there are hundreds of police foundations. In Canada, police foundations in Vancouver, Delta and Calgary, as well as a few others, have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azx055">funnelling corporate money to police for decades</a>.</p>
<p>Not many people know how prominent the police foundation has become, nor about the sources and levels of dark money it funnels into public police or the related conflicts of interest that arise. For example, Axon (makers of tasers and body-worn cameras) and other weapons companies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10439463.2016.1251431?journalCode=gpas20">are major funders of police across North America</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of the Mobile Command Centre - a black van." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2156%2C1193&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465108/original/file-20220524-17-98ktl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Vancouver Police Department’s SWAT Mobile Command Centre costs $500,000 and is funded by the donors of Vancouver Police Foundation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5dzqnNFk0k">(Vancouver Police Department YouTube channel)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It usually works like this: Private entities give dark money to the foundation. <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/08/24/Private-Firms-Pour-Millions-Militarizing-Police/">Most foundation money ends up getting distributed to the police</a> rather than <a href="https://thebaffler.com/latest/giving-back-to-themselves-ramakrishna">local charities</a>. The police often spend those dollars on tactical units, surveillance devices and police dog teams, things often associated with <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-of-the-swat-team-routine-police-work-in-canada-is-now-militarized-90073">militarization of the police</a>. </p>
<p>The foundation is the police institution’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2012.684019">shell corporation</a> through which other corporations and individuals <a href="https://readsludge.com/2020/06/19/corporate-backers-of-the-blue-how-corporations-bankroll-u-s-police-foundations/">can privately donate</a>. These donations continue despite already ample public police budgets and <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/defund-police-dominated-2020-what-happened-n1278506">even after wide public calls to defund public police</a>. </p>
<p>The foundation is also a communication vehicle for police, through which allies <a href="https://canadians.org/analysis/troubling-financial-connections-between-big-oil-and-police">such as powerful corporations</a> or folks from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1748895818794225">local companies and affluent individuals</a> are accrued. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2017.1341509">The foundation can advertise the police worldview</a>, garnering more loyalty and conformity. In this way, police foundations <a href="https://gothamist.com/news/do-cops-serve-the-rich-meet-the-nypds-private-piggy-bank">assemble allies and social and political capital</a> even amid loud calls to defund police. </p>
<h2>Paid detail policing as literal greed</h2>
<p>Paid duty or paid detail is another type of greediness. You may have noticed uniformed and armed police officers standing or strolling about at sporting events: chances are <a href="https://cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/3123/3436">those officers are working paid duty</a>. The sports team or corporation’s venue is paying the officer individually. </p>
<p>If you’ve ever seen police standing around at a construction site, movie shoot or retail outlet or outside a nightclub, chances are those uniformed officers are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23640987">receiving handsome compensation from a private funder</a>.</p>
<p>Paid duty also reflects a greedy institution. </p>
<p>Officers are <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/07/high-demand-for-paid-duty-officers-is-putting-a-strain-on-toronto-police-and-event-organizers.html">making big money from these paid duty postings</a>. They receive up to $100 an hour extra from working paid duty and — where not legally required through obscure bylaws — loyal funders are expected to provide “easy gigs” such as standing around at construction sites or sporting events. Yet police administrators often restrict paid duty gigs where cannabis, alcohol, gambling or nudity is involved and that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0964663918810375">assumed to taint officers’ loyalty</a>. </p>
<p>In Winnipeg, police were <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6277732/winnipeg-police-special-duty-theft-december/">criticized for paid duty guarding of groceries</a> after they <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/winnipeg-superstore-police-racial-profiling-1.5391157">engaged in racial profiling of Indigenous customers</a>. </p>
<p>Paid duty is a problem for professional, accountable policing and its connection with <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/investigations/bs-md-ci-police-foundation-20160827-story.html">police corruption</a> including in Jersey City, Seattle and <a href="https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_314863d6-48ca-11ec-a62e-fb326a0266e7.html">New Orleans</a>. In Toronto, officers sometimes miss court dates and exceed limits on paid duty hours worked during lucrative jobs provided by external funders, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/03/04/paid_duty_policing_costs_taxpayers_millions_audit_report.html">as reported by the <em>Toronto Star</em></a>. </p>
<p>Paid duty is also a problem because some funders are public, including government departments that operate road maintenance and construction, utilities and hospitals. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/paid-duty-police-work-does-it-cost-city-too-much-1.2640944">The public already pays for police operations</a>, with huge proportions of government budgets, but then are <a href="https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/motion-to-eliminate-65hour-paid-duty-officers-at-work-sites-to-go-to-council">asked by the police institution to pay again for paid duty</a>.</p>
<p>Both private sponsorship through foundations and paid duty channel dark money into police departments. This all suggests that public police need greater scrutiny so that their greedy influence and reach can be reigned in and this institution can be re-envisioned through a lens of the public good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Walby does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The greedy tendencies of police departments help illustrate why public police funding is a major problem today in Canada and the United States.Kevin Walby, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, University of WinnipegRandy K. Lippert, Professor of Criminology, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1792592022-04-12T12:24:06Z2022-04-12T12:24:06ZBlack people are often associated with deviance – but I never understood the true impact until I was racially profiled<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457408/original/file-20220411-26-qvuqtf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C9183%2C4529&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/silhouette-profile-group-men-women-diverse-1808618392">melitas/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The horrifying experience of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/16/met-officers-under-investigation-over-strip-search-of-girl-at-london-school">Child Q</a>, a 15-year-old girl who was subjected to a strip search by police officers in her school in Hackney, London, is a harrowing example of how British society associates Blackness with deviant behaviour. </p>
<p>The subsequent child safeguarding review into Child Q’s case <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/15/black-girl-racism-police-strip-search-london-school-hackney">has concluded that</a> “racism (whether deliberate or not) was likely to have been an influencing factor in the decision to undertake a strip search.”</p>
<p>The child’s teachers wrongly suspected she had cannabis on her and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2022/mar/25/shameful-strip-search-of-child-q-today-in-focus-podcast">called the police</a>. The police then strip searched her, without the teachers or the child’s parents present. The ordeal has left Child Q traumatised. </p>
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<p>It is likely that racial profiling plays a role in the disproportionately high numbers of young Black people in the justice system. A recent <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/2/50/pdf">study</a> shows that Black boys and young men are overrepresented at every stage of the youth and adult justice systems in England and Wales. Black children account for only 4% of 10- to 17-year-olds in England and Wales, but make up <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/annual-statistics-a-system-failing-black-children">34% of the children in custody on remand</a>. </p>
<p>What’s more, a recent personal experience of being racially profiled has also led me to understand quite how harmful <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/18752/?template=banner">profiling and labelling</a> is. This experience spurred my doctoral research into the troubling connection British society at large – and not just its justice system – too often makes between Black people and deviance. </p>
<h2>Assumptions of deviance</h2>
<p>Sometime in 2021, I went into a supermarket in south London to purchase cough sweets. They cost around 70p. As I was leaving the store, I was asked by the shop attendant – in front of the other customers – whether I had paid for my items. They asked me to provide a receipt, as proof. </p>
<p>I was horrified and embarrassed. I was the only person at the self-checkouts that was asked to produce evidence of my purchase. I felt that there was no plausible reason other than my race that would explain why I was suspected of deviant behaviour. </p>
<p>In sociology, the concept of <a href="http://www.romolocapuano.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/EriksonNotesSociologyDeviance.pdf">deviance</a> is best described as a lack of compliance with social norms. Most citizens, at some stage in their life, will be deviant. </p>
<p>The term does not necessarily relate to criminal behaviour. For example, in British culture jumping a queue can be viewed as deviant, and will mostly likely offend or upset someone. However, it is not a criminal offence, and as such there will be no legal implications. </p>
<p>With that said, deviance is often connected to criminal behaviour. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10282580.2015.1025634">Research</a> shows that this misconception causes people to assume that certain groups are more likely to engage in criminal behaviours than others. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616700701768105">media representations</a> of young people wearing attire such as hoodies and caps suggested that those particular items of clothing were associated with crime and violence. This in turn influences public perceptions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teenage boy in hoodie and headphones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457397/original/file-20220411-20-p5q2pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mistaken links between deviance and criminal behaviour can lead to assumptions about particular groups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teenage-boy-listening-music-urban-setting-343884482">SpeedKingz/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In my previous role as a probation officer working in an inner London borough, I often had young Black men tell me that they felt that society automatically associated them with crime and deviance, even before they had committed a crime. This, they said, impacted their identity and how they viewed themselves. </p>
<p>These young men’s experiences are widely supported by research. There are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10282580.2015.1025630">double standards</a> in how deviance and criminality is viewed dependent on a person’s ethnic background. </p>
<p>Studies also show that this in turn causes disparities in our understanding of what behaviour is deviant. It <a href="http://jakobdjensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/13.-Hurley_et_al-2015-Journal_of_Social_Issues.pdf">shapes our assumptions</a> about some groups being more deviant than others. </p>
<p>While I had taken on board these young men’s testimonies, I had not fully understood the true impact this can have on a person’s sense of identity, and how harmful <a href="http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/18752/?template=banner">this profiling or labelling</a> can be, until it happened to me. </p>
<h2>The impact of identity</h2>
<p>I recognised that being a well-educated, professional Black woman – what identity experts would define as my <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/gender-sexuality/positionality/">positionality</a> – had somewhat blinded me to the reality of everyday experiences for young Black men. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1891867">Positionality</a> is the social and political context out of which a person’s identity is created. It relates to their race, class, gender, sexuality and level of ability, and can both influence and bias their understanding of the world. If people have not had certain experiences as a result of their positionality, they can fail to truly understand them. </p>
<p>It is the reason some people who have never experienced racial profiling, for example, can misconstrue other people’s comments or criticisms about racial inequality and discrimination as having “<a href="https://inews.co.uk/culture/arts/dane-baptiste-the-chocolate-chip-interview-racism-identity-politics-396463">a chip on their shoulder</a>”.</p>
<p>We all have to recognise the harm this causes, and not wait until we or someone close to us experiences it, before we act on it. We should investigate and question discrimination from the perception of those who experience it. </p>
<p>This principle was articulated by the 1999 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2311.00165">Macpherson Report</a> into institutional racism in the UK, which was prompted by the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence, a young Black man, in 1993. Unfortunately, the findings from the report still ring true nearly 30 years after it was written.</p>
<p>My own profiling experience left me questioning how I am viewed in wider society. For me, the experience reinforced what <a href="https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/publications/black-social-workers-identity-racism-invisibilityhypervisibility-">research has shown</a> about how Black people, from all backgrounds, too often have feelings of both invisibility and hyper-visibility. </p>
<p>Invisibility in areas that matter: good job prospects, positive representations in popular culture, political debate. And hyper-visibility in the criminal justice system, negative portrayals in popular culture and general disenfranchisement in society. </p>
<p>What’s more, in connecting Black people and subcultures with deviance, British institutions such as the criminal justice system, schools and even health services criminalise Black people. Social institutions are crucial in <a href="https://www.thebrokeronline.eu/shaping-behaviour-d85/">shaping societal views</a>, precisely the kind that foster phenomena such as racial profiling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Nyamwiza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>My profiling experience left me questioning how I am viewed in wider society.Nicole Nyamwiza, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Kingston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1611602021-05-30T11:17:44Z2021-05-30T11:17:44ZThe high cost of advocating for Palestine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402248/original/file-20210524-23-2ckd69.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5797%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Those speaking out for Palestinian human rights continue to be sidelined and silenced in Canadian institutions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thousands of people across <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/demonstrations-canada-israel-palestinian-conflict-1.6028550">Canada</a>, and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/5/23/in-pictures-palestinian-solidarity-protests-around-the-world">around the world</a>, have recently taken to the streets to protest the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-airstrikes-gaza-rockets-1.6030713">latest Israeli military action against Palestinians</a>. </p>
<p>My research examines how Muslim Canadians often face <a href="https://csalateral.org/issue/8-2/webs-of-relationships-pedagogies-citizenship-muslims-canada-el-sherif/">severe consequences for protesting prevalent social understandings in Canada</a>. National conversations and encounters with state institutions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2017.1409590">educate them about their “place.”</a></p>
<p>My most recent example of this is anecdotal and comes from a personal experience. In Hamilton, I attended a <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2021/05/17/a-dozen-ticketed-as-nearly-1000-attend-pro-palestinian-rally-in-hamilton.html">pro-Palestine rally</a> with some friends. By our count, police issued tickets to at least eight Muslim women wearing hijabs out of a total of 12 tickets issued. </p>
<p>My close friend, who wears a hijab, had arrived at the protest earlier than me with her two school-aged kids. Although they wore masks and stood socially distanced from the small crowd of protesters, two officers approached her and spoke to her aggressively about her violation of the <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1000124/ontario-extending-stay-at-home-order-until-june-2">Ontario stay-at-home order</a>. According to her, one of them said: “I can ticket you or arrest you.” They issued her two tickets, each over $800.</p>
<p>At that time, people were just beginning to congregate at the protest but Hamilton’s streets were full of people.</p>
<p>Ticketing these eight women who wear the hijab is racial profiling. This targeting is typical of patterns I have found in my research. As a researcher on Muslim Canadian citizenship, I examine what happens <a href="https://csalateral.org/issue/8-2/webs-of-relationships-pedagogies-citizenship-muslims-canada-el-sherif/">when Muslim Canadians challenge Canada’s social order</a>.</p>
<p>Muslim Canadians who wear a hijab are seen to have less of a right to protest. They are called out more viciously, censured more severely and generally told to be grateful to the country that welcomed them — even if they are born and raised in Canada.</p>
<p>When it comes to Palestine, Muslim and Arab Canadians are expected to be silent. This connects to a wider pattern of systematically silencing anyone who advocates for Palestine. People with no ethnic connection to the region are targeted as well. </p>
<h2>Progessive Except for Palestine</h2>
<p>Last summer, the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law attracted international attention after it <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/did-a-university-of-toronto-donor-block-the-hiring-of-a-scholar-for-her-writing-on-palestine">rescinded its offer of employment to Valentina Azarova</a>, a Germany-based human rights lawyer and scholar. The university stated that this was due to issues arranging a visa and work authorization. However, several others, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/05/19/amnesty-international-suspends-ties-with-university-of-toronto-law-program.html">including human rights organizations</a>, believe the offer was rescinded over Azarova’s Palestinian human rights work. An <a href="https://thevarsity.ca/2021/04/04/ihrp-controversy-report-concludes-external-pressure-did-not-influence-hiring-decision/">investigation into the incident</a> has since absolved the University of Toronto. However, numerous voices have challenged the integrity of those findings. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/criticizing-israel-is-not-antisemitic-its-academic-freedom-148864">Criticizing Israel is not antisemitic — it's academic freedom</a>
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<p>Vincent Wong, a lawyer, research associate and PhD student at the University of Toronto law school, was one of the hiring committee members and had a front-row seat to the entire process. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/20/anti-palestinian-racism-appointment-row-at-toronto-university">He resigned from his job in protest</a>. In an incisive analysis in OpinioJuris, an international law blog, Wong <a href="http://opiniojuris.org/2021/04/06/what-the-ihrp-hiring-scandal-tells-us-about-intersectional-privilege-in-canadian-legal-institutions/">characterized the de-hiring and subsequent investigation as layers upon layers of white male privilege</a>.</p>
<p>In April, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), an association of over 70,000 members, voted unanimously to <a href="https://censureuoft.ca/about/">censure the University of Toronto</a> for their racism and disregard for Azarova’s rights.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign for the University of Toronto in front of a footpath." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402941/original/file-20210526-21-18btm0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An investigation into the revocation of Valentina Azarova’s job offer absolved the University of Toronto. However, numerous voices have challenged the integrity of those findings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>This is not an isolated incident. Across Canada, the atmosphere is menacing for those who would speak up for justice in Palestine.</p>
<p>Last week, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/20/israel-palestine-canadian-journalists-letter/">Canadian journalists</a> who signed a letter criticizing the lack of Palestinian voices in the media were reprimanded by their newsrooms. Long-time CBC journalist Pacinthe Mattar detailed her experiences in an article for <em>The Walrus.</em> She explains how <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/objectivity-is-a-privilege-afforded-to-white-journalists/">her reporting a story on Palestine was likely used to block</a> her promotion.</p>
<p>This global phenomena of being chilled into not talking about Palestine, no matter how progressive one may be, has a name: <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/except-for-palestine">Progressive Except for Palestine</a>. It refers to how many people take principled stands against injustice, but draw the line at Palestine. In this menacing climate, many <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/roger-waters-pink-floyd-israel-boycott-ban-palestine-a6884971.html">people self-censor</a>. </p>
<h2>New law bars criticism of Israel</h2>
<p>In October 2020, the Ontario legislature <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-human-rights-order-risks-restricting-criticism-of-israel-149796">adopted a controversial definition of antisemitism into law</a>. The law conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Discussions of justice for Palestinians <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/israel-palestine-and-the-politics-of-race-9781780765327">have always been taboo in the West</a>. Now, they carry the risk of significant legal consequences. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-human-rights-order-risks-restricting-criticism-of-israel-149796">New human rights order risks restricting criticism of Israel</a>
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<p>A large group of Jewish Canadian academics released <a href="https://jewishfaculty.ca/">a statement</a> decrying the increasing pressure to adopt this narrow definition of antisemitism that shuts down solidarity with Palestinians. This definition, <a href="https://theconversation.com/jewish-scholars-defend-the-right-to-academic-freedom-on-israel-palestine-157674">some of the signatories pointed out</a>, bullies those advocating for Palestinian rights. </p>
<h2>Global land rights</h2>
<p>Immigrants to Canada, such as my friend from the protest, <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-canada-day-we-need-a-new-citizenship-oath-119288">take a colonial oath of allegiance to the Queen.</a> Part of that contract is freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a Keffiyeh around his neck stands above a crowd waving a Palestinian flag. Police officers stand in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402939/original/file-20210526-21-ff7lyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man waves the Palestinian flag at a rally in Montréal. Global anti-racism protest movements have brought attention to land injustices and human rights violations around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Every day, her children and countless other children across Canada, say Indigenous land acknowledgements. <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-nations-land-defenders-in-caledonia-reveal-hypocrisy-of-canadas-land-acknowledgements-145158">These land acknowledgements compel us</a> to recognize how land and human rights injustices are woven together. This attention to how land and human rights are entangled should be both local and global.</p>
<p>Injustices towards the Palestinian struggle do not stop at the borders of Gaza or the boundaries of East Jerusalem. They are here, in Canada, towards people like the Muslim women at the protests, academics, journalists and countless others who speak up about the injustices happening in Palestine. </p>
<p>Thanks to Black Lives Matter and last summer’s anti-racism uprisings, the stage for racial justice has seismically changed. In recent years, Indigenous activism, especially the <a href="https://idlenomore.ca/about-the-movement/">Idle No More</a> movement, means more Canadians are aware of how human rights violations are inseparable from land injustices. </p>
<p>When will Canadians stop punishing those who call for justice for Palestine?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy El-Sherif has received funding from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. </span></em></p>Injustices towards the Palestinians’ struggle don’t stop at the borders of Gaza or the boundaries of East Jerusalem. Across Canada, the atmosphere is menacing for those who speak up for justice.Lucy El-Sherif, PhD candidate, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1480442020-12-04T13:27:11Z2020-12-04T13:27:11ZWisconsin’s not so white anymore – and in some rapidly diversifying cities like Kenosha there’s fear and unrest<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372360/original/file-20201201-12-1v4jh5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An activist is arrested after his van was stopped by Kenosha police Aug. 27, days after police shot a Kenosha man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-activist-is-taken-into-custody-after-a-van-he-was-news-photo/1269241752">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenosha, Wisconsin, became a national byword for racial unrest when protests in August erupted in violence. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/us/rusten-sheskey-account-jacob-blake-shooting-invs/index.html">local police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake</a>, seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed, furious residents took to <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/08/29/wisconsins-summer-of-fury">the streets expressing years of pent-up anger</a>. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fire-chief-damage-kenosha-unrest-tops-11-million-73049162">During nighttime hours</a>, fires were set. </p>
<p>Law enforcement’s response only <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/w8zn7/">escalated the situation</a>. One night an armed white militia showed up, and Kenosha officers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kenosha-police-thanked-armed-militia-and-gave-water-2020-8">thanked them</a>. Then, at 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 25, a white teenager allegedly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kyle-rittenhouse-charged-killing-2-kenosha-protesters-has-bond-set-n1245953">fired an assault rifle during a confrontation</a>, killing two protesters and wounding one. </p>
<p>Most <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/us/george-floyd-protests-different-why/index.html">anti-racism demonstrations</a> across the United States last summer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">were fairly peaceful</a>. </p>
<p>What went wrong in Kenosha?</p>
<p>Our research on Wisconsin’s changing demographics suggests racial integration and political polarization are a combustible combination in Kenosha.</p>
<h2>Diversifying Wisconsin</h2>
<p>Nationally, Wisconsin is generally perceived as white and working class. Historically that was largely true, and the <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/WI">state is still 81% white</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://cdn.apl.wisc.edu/publications/2010_census_chartbook_wi.pdf">it’s changing fast</a>. </p>
<p>In 1980 Wisconsin had 25 small cities – those with populations of 20,000 to 100,000. Only three had populations that were more than 1% Black, and only two were more than 1% Asian American, according to census data. Latinos comprised 1% or more of the population in eight small Wisconsin cities in 1980. </p>
<p>By 2010, the number of small cities in Wisconsin had grown to 35, and few were all white anymore. Nine were more than 5% Black, 11 were more than 5% Asian and 19 of the 35 were more than 5% Latino.</p>
<p>These demographic shifts were greatest early this century. Between 2000 and 2010, Black people as a percentage of total population <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">more than doubled in a dozen of Wisconsin’s small cities</a>. In Milwaukee – the state’s largest, most diverse city – <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/milwaukeecitywisconsin">white people now comprise just 44% of the population</a>. </p>
<p>Today Kenosha is one of Wisconsin’s most racially diverse small cities. Black people make up about 11.5% of its 100,000 people, and Latinos make up nearly 18%, according to <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">2018 population estimates</a>. Only three similarly sized Wisconsin cities have more people of color. </p>
<h2>‘You protect and serve who?’</h2>
<p>Historically, white Americans have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2004.tb00533.x">reacted with suspicion and hostility</a> to the sudden arrival of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238145">Black people and immigrants to their neighborhoods</a>. </p>
<p>Integration is an American ideal – a high-minded recipe for combating racism that dates back to the 1950s. But research shows that even in multicultural communities, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cico.12371">social segregation among community members of different racial backgrounds persists</a>. </p>
<p>White residents who feel threatened may turn to law enforcement, as demonstrated in numerous recent nationwide incidents of white people reporting Black people to the police for barbecuing, selling lemonade and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/attorneys-for-the-three-white-men-accused-of-killing-a-black-georgia-jogger-offer-a-surprising-defense/">jogging</a> in predominantly white neighborhoods. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man sits handcuffed on a curb while police stand over him at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arresting a man for breaking curfew in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in October after a police killing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-take-people-into-custody-who-were-out-after-curfew-news-photo/1279430714?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To understand how this tension plays out in Wisconsin, the <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu">Justice Lab at the University of Wisconsin</a>, where we work as sociological researchers, has been conducting interviews with police officers, residents and politicians in cities that have undergone such demographic and social changes. </p>
<p>University ethics requirements prohibit us from revealing identifying details about our study participants. But our work finds that Black residents of small cities like Kenosha, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/yes-black-america-fears-the-police-heres-why">as in other large cities</a>, overwhelmingly fear police.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid … they might come to the car, and just for some reason be scared that day, and any sudden movement they’ll think I’m holding a gun,” said a 29-year-old Black father we’ll call Dennis.</p>
<p>“You protect and serve who? Not me or mine,” he said. “Not none of us.” </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/">2020 Pew Research survey</a> found that 64% of Black American men say they’ve been unfairly stopped by the police. </p>
<h2>‘They’re looking to stop you for anything’</h2>
<p>In Kenosha, the police department grew as its community of color did. </p>
<p>In 2007 Kenosha Police Department had 192 members. In 2013 it had grown to 198, according to <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">Law Enforcement Management And Administrative Statistics data</a>, an expansion of 3.1%. That growth exceeds the city’s overall population growth during the same period, which was 2.6%. </p>
<p>Most Wisconsin police departments were shrinking at that time, even as the <a href="https://datacommons.org/">state’s population grew</a>. According to the Kenosha Police Department’s 2014 annual report, the force needed more officers to meet <a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/police/annualreports/2014AnnualReport.pdf">growing demand for its services</a>.</p>
<p>But violent crime in Kenosha has remained fairly stable for decades. Since 1990, the city has had three to five murders a year, according to the <a href="https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/">FBI’s Uniform Crime Report</a>. And property crimes actually decreased by more than 25% between 2007 and 2013. Yet during the same period, the Kenosha police budget rose from <a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/finance/AdoptedBudget2008.pdf">about $23 million</a> to <a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/finance/AdoptedBudget2013.pdf">nearly $27 million</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128707309718">Scores of studies from across the U.S. have documented</a> this phenomenon: When Black and Latino populations rise, white residents tend to respond by increasing the funding and size of local law enforcement agencies, independent of crime rate. Social scientists call this the “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0204.xml">racial threat hypothesis</a>.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/police/annualreports/2014AnnualReport.pdf">Putting more officers on the street to do community policing</a> when there’s no rise in crime creates the potential for more routine interactions between police and civilians – and for people of color, more potential conflict. </p>
<p>Leslie, a mother of two sons, told us that police once stopped her son and his friend while driving one night, “talking about his license plates don’t match his car.” </p>
<p>Leslie said she knows that’s not true because she and her husband had recently bought the car for their son and registered it in their name. </p>
<p>Her perception: “No, you pulled him over because you were hoping that you had two black kids and when they rolled down the windows you would smell weed,” she said.</p>
<p>Leslie advises Black acquaintances not to drive into nearby largely white neighboring cities.</p>
<p>“They’re looking to stop you for anything,” she says of police.</p>
<h2>Police and politics</h2>
<p>Racial tension may be exacerbated when a city is also marked by strong partisan divisions, our research suggests. </p>
<p>Kenosha has been solidly Democratic for several decades, but about a third of its residents vote Republican, according to <a href="https://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/results">state election records</a>. Republicans and Democrats tend to live side by side, not segregated by partisan affiliation, <a href="https://legis.wisconsin.gov/ltsb">community data shows</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd of mostly Black protesters in face masks hold up BLM and other racial justice signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Outside the Kenosha County Courthouse on Aug. 24.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-in-front-of-the-kenosha-county-court-house-to-news-photo/1268353449">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That setup can pit neighbor against neighbor after events like police killings. Republicans are <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/">far less likely than Democrats to see racial bias in law enforcement as a problem</a>, according to Pew Research.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Donald Trump has stoked such tensions throughout his presidency, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpEz48TJz2A">vilifying Black Lives Matter and exalting law enforcement</a>. The day before the 2020 election, he held a rally in Kenosha, declaring he had <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/02/trump-returns-wisconsin-election-eve-rally-kenosha/6122031002/">brought “law and order”</a> to the city. </p>
<p>Trump narrowly lost Wisconsin, <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">including Kenosha</a>. Joe Biden’s presidency will change the national debate on police violence, but it won’t stop the seismic demographic shifts creating unease in Wisconsin’s small cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research on Wisconsin’s changing demographics suggests that racial integration and political polarization were a combustible combination in Kenosha, where violence erupted in August.John M. Eason, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-MadisonBenny Witkovsky, PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-MadisonChloe Haimson, PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-MadisonJungmyung Kim, PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414082020-07-06T16:08:47Z2020-07-06T16:08:47ZIf Canada is serious about confronting systemic racism, we must abolish prisons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344316/original/file-20200626-104480-bnyrvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C50%2C947%2C450&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Segregation cells at Dorchester prison in New Brunswick. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Senate of Canada)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global uprisings in response to anti-Black police brutality have prompted demands to defund policing and reinvest in communities. Public health professionals recognize the connections between racism and community well-being. But it is not just policing agencies that have a systemic racism problem, Canadian prisons do too.</p>
<p>Prisons are densely packed. Social distancing and adequate hygiene is impossible. Advocates suggest depopulating carceral facilities to reduce harm and save lives. </p>
<p>The Ontario government recently announced it would funnel <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/mcscs/en/2020/06/ontario-investing-in-frontline-corrections-workers.html">$500 million</a> into corrections — despite anticipating a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-projects-205-billion-deficit-in-2020-21-as-it-spends/">$20.5 billion deficit</a> due to the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>The Saskatchewan government also recently announced it would spend <a href="https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/news-and-media/2020/june/17/remand-centre-expansion">$120 million</a> to build a remand centre expansion at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, while predicting a <a href="https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/newsalert-saskatchewan-says-covid-19-factor-in-2-4b-deficit-no-cuts-coming">$2.4 billion</a> deficit. </p>
<p>These developments are regressive. It is time to look at alternatives to imprisonment and set our sights towards <a href="https://justiceexchange.ca/abolition/abolition-in-canada-syllabus/">prison abolition</a>.</p>
<p>As soon as COVID-19 spread to North America, health professionals, scholars and activists <a href="https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/local-perspectives/martha-paynter-prisons-petri-dishes-for-coronavirus-418686/">expected widespread outbreaks in prisons</a>. Advocates pleaded for governments to release prisoners.</p>
<p>One province, Nova Scotia, heeded this call.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343871/original/file-20200625-132982-7a0bg1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from the documentary ‘Conviction’ (2019) depicting women prisoners in Nova Scotia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Nova Scotia’s approach</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/jail-population-cut-in-half-new-covid-19-measures-1.5541732">Nova Scotia,</a> the judiciary, corrections, crown and defense counsel, along with community organizations, collaborated to cut the provincial prison population in half. As of June 16, Nova Scotia’s jail for women had only eight prisoners. This resulted in only one case of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia’s prison system. </p>
<p>Prisons that did not heed the warnings of experts — like those in <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-s-prison-ombudsman-calls-covid-isolation-extremely-concerning-1.4910922">Ontario, B.C. and Québec</a> — saw widespread <a href="http://tpcp-canada.blogspot.com/2020/05/confirmed-covid-19-cases-linked-to_29.html">outbreaks</a>.</p>
<p>We spoke with Coverdale Executive Director Ashley Avery, who reports the people they support are mostly arrested for public intoxication, homelessness and mental health crisis. These are areas where imprisonment should not be the answer. </p>
<p>Abolition is a creative project that replaces punishment, widely considered <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-are-not-the-answer-to-preventing-crime-123575">ineffective in reducing violence</a>. Instead, transformative approaches prioritize health and well-being. </p>
<p>Decarceration is the effort to limit the numbers of people who are detained behind bars, either through minimizing who is sent to carceral facilities in the first place or through creating avenues to release people already in custody. </p>
<p>Every decarcerated person requires housing, adequate income and health services.
In Nova Scotia, community groups (Coverdale Courtwork Society, Elizabeth Fry and John Howard) report it costs them $150 per person per day to keep a decarcerated person housed in a hotel with legal, health and other services. Compare this with <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2017001/article/14700/tbl/tbl06-eng.htm">$255</a> per day to keep someone in a provincial jail. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1139%2C2448%2C1304&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343880/original/file-20200625-132961-16ohg5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Port Cartier prison cell in Québec, the first prison in Canada to report cases of COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Correctional Investigator of Canada)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prison expansion is a step backward</h2>
<p>The mass incarceration of racialized communities in Canada’s prisons reflects the country’s racial profiling and over-policing of Black and Indigenous people. Decarceration offers a direct way to address the systemic oppression Canada has imposed on Black and Indigenous peoples.</p>
<p>More than <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00010-eng.htm">30 per cent</a> of Canadian prisoners are Indigenous (they are five per cent of the Canadian population), and <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/06/17/the-afterlife-of-slavery-defund-reform-canadas-prisons-advocates-say-after-watchdog-says-very-little-has-improved-for-black-inmates/252966">9.6 per cent</a> are Black (they are 3.5 per cent of the population). Indigenous women account for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-overrepresentation-prison-oci-statement-1.5434712">42 per cent of women</a> in federal custody. </p>
<p>Black people are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/street-checks-halifax-police-scot-wortley-racial-profiling-1.5073300">six times</a> more likely to be street checked in Halifax, and more likely to be charged than white people for the same behaviour. </p>
<p>Indigenous confinement has been described as “<a href="https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/comm/press/press20200121-eng.aspx">a national travesty</a>” by the Correctional Investigator of Canada and “<a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/canadas-prisons-are-the-new-residential-schools/">the new residential schools</a>” by criminologists. African American literary and cultural historian Saidiya Hartman calls it the “<a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/06/17/the-afterlife-of-slavery-defund-reform-canadas-prisons-advocates-say-after-watchdog-says-very-little-has-improved-for-black-inmates/252966">afterlife of slavery</a>.” </p>
<h2>Very few releases</h2>
<p>Eight hundred people in the federal prison system <a href="http://tpcp-canada.blogspot.com/2020/05/confirmed-covid-19-cases-linked-to_29.html">tested positive</a> for COVID-19. Several prisons had massive COVID-19 outbreaks, and <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/a-second-inmate-in-a-canadian-federal-prison-has-died-of-covid-19-1.4926031">two people have died</a>. </p>
<p>While the federal government claimed it had <a href="https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/hundreds-of-inmates-quietly-released-from-federal-prisons-over-covid-19-fears-blair/">released hundreds</a>, in reality there is only evidence that it released <a href="https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ailing-federal-prisoner-to-be-released-after-heading-to-court-over-covid-19-fear-1.4900293">one person</a>.</p>
<p>Minimum security prisoners could have been released. Those close to parole could have had board appearances expedited. The elderly and unwell could have been released on compassionate grounds. <a href="https://www.thecoast.ca/COVID19Needtoknow/archives/2020/04/11/for-those-incarcerated-with-their-babies-covid-puts-two-generations-in-peril">Prisoners in Mother Child programs</a>, where young children live with their imprisoned mothers, could have been relocated to their communities. None of this happened.</p>
<p>The recent announcements about Ontario and Saskatchewan investing more dollars into prisons come amid pressing need for investments in health. Despite its promise, Nova Scotia’s decarceration initiative is at risk of <a href="https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-s-inmates-worry-housing-during-covid-19-could-end-unless-funding-extended-1.4989446">imminent defunding</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343870/original/file-20200624-132955-1y02mnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest outside of Ottawa Carleton prison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Criminalization and Punishment Education Project)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Time for change</h2>
<p>The federal Black Caucus called for public investments in non-carceral <a href="https://www.chch.com/parliamentary-black-caucus-calls-for-action-on-systemic-racism/">community justice strategies</a>. Indigenous leaders in British Columbia called for the release of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-indigenous-leaders-say-csc-needs-to-address-outbreak-at-mission/">as many people as possible</a>, with support plans for housing, financial aid and community safety. Sc’ianew First Nation (Beecher Bay) Chief Councillor Russ Chipps wants William Head prison closed and the <a href="https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/close-william-head-prison-and-return-the-land-says-first-nation-chief-1.24153672">land returned to First Nations</a>.</p>
<p>Abolition may sound like a radical new idea, but people have been working toward it for decades. Black feminist theorists including Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Mariame Kaba helped put this vision into practice by providing language, <a href="http://criticalresistance.org/">organizations</a>, <a href="https://survivedandpunished.org/">initiatives</a> and <a href="https://transformharm.org/">resources</a>. </p>
<p>We can defund police and prisons instead of ticketing people for being outside, snitching on our neighbours, tearing down tents, criminalizing people in mental health and addictions crisis and profiling Black and Indigenous Peoples.</p>
<p>Prisons are too broken to reform. If Canada is serious about dealing with racism, then the abolition of both policing and prisons is the way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141408/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martha Paynter receives funding from Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation and CIHR. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Mussell receives funding from Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation and SSHRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nataleah Hunter-Young receives funding from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and SSHRC. </span></em></p>It is not just policing agencies that have a systemic racism problem, Canadian prisons do tooMartha Paynter, PhD Candidate in Nursing, Dalhousie UniversityLinda Mussell, PhD Candidate, Political Studies, Queen's University, OntarioNataleah Hunter-Young, PhD Candidate, Communication and Culture, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1403842020-06-10T19:50:41Z2020-06-10T19:50:41ZHow police departments can identify and oust killer cops<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340751/original/file-20200609-21196-a7wsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1900%2C90%2C3563%2C3383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters march on June 6, 2020, in New York. Demonstrations continue across the United States in protest of racism and police brutality, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ragan Clark)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The global condemnation of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/09/us/george-floyd-funeral-tuesday/index.html">the death of George Floyd,</a> one of the latest in a constellation of officer-involved deaths of unarmed civilians, has grown into a worldwide social movement for disbanding or defunding police. </p>
<p>At the far end of the debate, there are those calling for abolishing the police altogether. On the other hand, there are those wishing <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html">to defund the police</a>. This means shifting significant material resources from police departments to social services for issues such as mental health. </p>
<p>In cases of mental distress or welfare checks, for example, social service providers intervene rather than police, who have proven <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-mental-health-crisis-training-police.html">ill-equipped to deal with people in mental distress.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340750/original/file-20200609-21178-1kg4yi6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters demonstrate against police brutality in Nairobi, Kenya, on June 8, 2020. The protest against police brutality in Kenya was in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is growing acknowledgment that the attitude of officers towards the human rights of suspects needs to change, as do the numbers of police-involved killings. The research on excessive use of force by police and the sociological context and psychological characteristics of killer cops point to useful policy measures.</p>
<h2>Psychological traits and screening</h2>
<p>Killer cops and those who routinely mistreat civilians tend to be action-oriented. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.04.007">Research suggests</a> that they are prone to boredom and suffer from major personality disorders. These include mood swings, impulsivity, lack of empathy, narcissism and anti-social personal disorder. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-017-0404-6">Many of these traits begin early in life</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340752/original/file-20200609-21219-140pbla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators march on Toronto Police Headquarters to protest the death of Sammy Yatim in Toronto in August 2013. Yatim was shot by police during a confrontation on a streetcar a month earlier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Diversity workshops, training or cultural sensitivity have limited utility to help such officers. The primary solution is to not hire them in the first place. This speaks to the need for greater psychological screening by police organizations. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.torontopolice.on.ca/publications/files/reports/police_encounters_with_people_in_crisis_2014.pdf">A 2014 report by former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci</a>, submitted to Toronto Police Service following the death of Sammy Yatim in July 2013, calls for “screening out psychopathology and screening in for desirable traits such as emotional intelligence, empathy, tolerance of diversity, and patience.”</p>
<h2>Hire more women</h2>
<p>Women are less likely to support use of force than men. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.2015022">My collaborative research</a> in Alberta shows that women are less likely to support use of so-called less-than-lethal force options like conducted energy weapons. </p>
<p>The evidence in support of reducing deadly force by hiring more women in police departments is overwhelming. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.04.007">Female officers are less likely to use (excessive) force</a> as they deploy de-escalation techniques and engage verbally. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340753/original/file-20200609-21196-99b2a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, left, is seen speaking during a news conference in January 2018. Shields has been lauded for wading into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters and listening to them, and for swiftly terminating police officers who assaulted demonstrators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/David Goldman)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Police departments with a reasonable number of women tend to record lower levels of officer-involved killings. However, the number of women is important. Female officers in male-dominated police departments may exhibit hyper-masculine traits in an attempt to fit in. They may be just as brutal as men. </p>
<p>There is no agreement on what constitutes a reasonable number. A gender-balanced police service should be ultimate priority. I suggest a minimum threshold of 40 per cent female officers. </p>
<h2>University graduate-only officers</h2>
<p>Officers without university degrees <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.04.007">populate the ranks of killer cops</a>. Officers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0093854806290239">with university degrees</a> are more likely to request mental health support for suspects and demonstrate a higher appreciation for the complexity of social life, individual problems and subtleties of working in an increasingly diverse environment. </p>
<p>Officers with university degrees exhibit stronger verbal skills, effective communication and empathy. The Iacobucci report recommends recruiting officers from “specific educational programs” such as nursing and social work in order to foster “a compassionate response to people in crisis.”</p>
<h2>Ethno-racial diversity</h2>
<p>Evidence from the United States is less settled regarding racial characteristics of killer cops. However, most studies find that white, non-Hispanic officers are more likely to shoot or kill civilians. A few studies suggest Black officers are more likely to shoot and kill civilians. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz1429">These have been criticized for poor methodology</a>. </p>
<p>In Canada, most killer cops appear to be white men. An ethno-racially diverse police service is integral for <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf">building public trust and inclusivity</a>. </p>
<h2>Training</h2>
<p>Much of the current training for many police organizations focuses <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/police-gun-shooting-training-ferguson/383681/">on deployment of lethal force or marksmanship.</a> That’s a waste of time and sets up officers for frustration given today’s realities. Once out of training, officers realize that people get meaninglessly drunk, abusers beat their spouses and citizens experience psychotic episodes. </p>
<p>Somehow, the police are required to respond to all these matters. These are in fact some of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F000271627843900156">the most common issues</a> brought to police attention. These scenarios may be frustrating for action-oriented officers. Action-oriented officers may see only moral failing in each case and respond with disdain and unnecessary force. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-of-the-swat-team-routine-police-work-in-canada-is-now-militarized-90073">Rise of the SWAT team: Routine police work in Canada is now militarized</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The professional officer will see “clients” in need of bureaucratic assistance and attempt to de-escalate. </p>
<p>There is a need to overhaul officer training and extend it to at least one full year of rigorous classroom engagement with human rights, mental health issues and diversity, among others.</p>
<h2>Accountability</h2>
<p>The main officer involved in George Floyd’s death <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/cop-accused-in-george-floyd-s-death-drew-17-complaints-earned-medal-for-valour-1.4968274">had 17 complaints in his file</a>. Three of those involved shootings, with one death. This is a poor disciplinary record. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340755/original/file-20200609-21208-63yv3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This May 31, 2020 photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff shows former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was arrested in the death of George Floyd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Hennepin County Sheriff via AP)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Such officers make policing more difficult and dangerous. The Minneapolis Police Department bears responsibility for keeping such a person in service. </p>
<p>Undesirable people may sometimes enter into police service but must be promptly removed once their engagement with colleagues, superiors and the public begins to reflect certain troubling patterns. </p>
<p>The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) charged two officers in June 2020. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/rcmp-officers-charged-whitecourt-alberta-shooting-death-1.5603398">They were the first charges brought forward against officers by ASIRT</a> since its establishment in 2008. This is mind-boggling given incidents of excessive use of force in Alberta. Tolerating errant cops is dangerous for public trust.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>I propose a two-pronged policy — a “kill-and-go” policy and “three strikes policy” — for police accountability. </p>
<p>Kill-and-go means any officer who kills an unarmed civilian or a suspect who had a weapon but did not deploy it against an officer is dismissed from service and prosecuted. </p>
<p>The three strikes proposal is similar to the <a href="https://www.courts.ca.gov/20142.htm#:%7E:text=California's%20Three%20Strikes%20sentencing%20law%20was%20originally%20enacted%20in%201994,otherwise%20provided%20for%20the%20crime.">disused California anti-crime law of the same name</a>. Any officer involved in three excessive use-of-force incidents in which a civilian is mistreated and sustains injuries is automatically dismissed from service and prosecuted. There should be no expiry to each strike across an officer’s career.</p>
<p>Policing is also a well-paying occupation relative to entry qualifications and length of training, at least in Canada and many parts of the U.S. </p>
<p>The RCMP notes that <a href="https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/salary-and-benefits">the annual salary of a newly sworn-in officer is $53,144</a> and increases to $86,110 within 36 months of service. There are postdoctoral fellows working on life-saving biomedical research who make less than $50,000 a year, despite possessing hard-earned PhDs. The government and public should get value for the money spent on police by selecting appropriate people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Temitope Oriola's research team received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for the study.</span></em></p>Research on excessive use of force by police and the sociological context and psychological characteristics of killer cops point to useful policy measures.Temitope Oriola, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325942020-06-05T05:32:47Z2020-06-05T05:32:47ZFrom robodebt to racism: what can go wrong when governments let algorithms make the decisions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319530/original/file-20200310-61070-1sbbdr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C9%2C6371%2C3583&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>Algorithmic decision-making has enormous potential to do good. From identifying priority areas for first response after an earthquake hits, to identifying those at risk of COVID-19 within minutes, their application has proven hugely beneficial.</p>
<p>But things can go drastically wrong when decisions are trusted to algorithms without ensuring they adhere to established ethical norms. Two recent examples illustrate how government agencies are failing to automate fairness.</p>
<h2>1. The algorithm doesn’t match reality</h2>
<p>This problem arises when a one-size-fits-all rule is implemented in a complex environment.</p>
<p>The most recent devastating example was Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-human-oversight-of-machine-decisions-to-stop-robo-debt-drama-118691">Centrelink “robodebt” debacle</a>. In that case, welfare payments made on the basis of self-reported fortnightly income were cross-referenced against an <em>estimated</em> fortnightly income, taken as a simple average of annual earnings reported to the Australian Tax Office, and used to auto-generate debt notices without any further human scrutiny or explanation.</p>
<p>This assumption is at odds with how Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-costs-of-a-casual-job-are-now-outweighing-any-pay-benefits-82207">highly casualised workforce</a> is actually paid. For example, a graphic designer who was unable to find work for nine months of the financial year but earned A$12,000 in the three months before June would have had an automated debt raised against her. This is despite no fraud having occurred, and this scenario constituting exactly the kind of hardship Centrelink is designed to address.</p>
<p>The scheme ultimately proved to be a disaster for the Australian government, which must now <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-to-repay-470-000-unlawful-robodebts-in-what-might-be-australias-biggest-ever-financial-backdown-139668">pay back an estimated A$721 million in wrongly issued debts</a> after the High Court ruled the scheme unlawful. More than 470,000 debts were wrongfully raised by the scheme, primarily against low income earners, causing significant distress.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-human-oversight-of-machine-decisions-to-stop-robo-debt-drama-118691">We need human oversight of machine decisions to stop robo-debt drama</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. Inputs embed racism</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-violence-in-the-united-states-what-lies-behind-the-bad-apples-narrative-139931">stunning scenes of police violence</a> in US cities have underscored the extent to which systemic racism <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming-evidence-that-the-criminal-justice-system-is-racist-heres-the-proof/">influences law and order processes in the United States</a>, from police patrols right through to sentencing. Black individuals are <a href="https://sociology.columbian.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs1986/f/downloads/Weitzer%20%26%20Brunson%202015%20.pdf">more likely to be stopped and searched</a>, more <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3146057">likely to be arrested</a> for low-level infractions, more likely to <a href="https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-nws-sunshine-disparities-20160317-story.html">have prison time included in plea deals</a>, and <a href="https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171114_Demographics.pdf">incur longer sentences for comparable crimes</a> when they do go to trial.</p>
<p>This systemic racism has been repeated, more insidiously, in algorithmic processes. One example is COMPAS, a controversial “decision support” system designed to help <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLRS/2019/14.pdf">parole boards in the United States</a> decide which prisoners to release early, by providing a probability score of their likelihood of reoffending.</p>
<p>Rather than rely on a simple decision rule, the algorithm used a range of inputs, including demographic and survey information, to derive a score. The algorithm did not use race as an explicit variable, but it did embed systemic racism by using variables that were shaped by police and judicial biases on the ground.</p>
<p>Applicants were asked a range of questions about their interactions with the justice system, such as the age they first came in contact with police, and whether family or friends had previously been incarcerated. This information was then used to derive their final “risk” score.</p>
<p>As Cathy O'Neill put it in her book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28186015-weapons-of-math-destruction">Weapons of Math Destruction</a>: “it’s easy to imagine how inmates from a privileged background would answer one way and those from tough inner streets another”.</p>
<h2>What is going wrong?</h2>
<p>Using algorithms to make decisions isn’t inherently bad. But it can turn bad if the automated systems used by governments fail to incorporate the principles real humans use to make fair decisions. </p>
<p>People who design and implement these solutions need to focus not just on statistics and software design, but also <a href="https://www.aat.gov.au/about-the-aat/engagement/speeches-and-papers/the-honourable-justice-garry-downes-am-former-pre/good-decision-making">ethics</a>. Here’s how:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>consult those who are likely to be significantly affected by a new process <em>before</em> it is implemented, not after</p></li>
<li><p>check for potential unfair bias at the process design phase</p></li>
<li><p>ensure the underpinning rationale of the decisions is transparent, and the outcomes are relatively predictable</p></li>
<li><p>make a human accountable for the integrity of decisions and their consequences.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/algorithms-are-everywhere-but-what-will-it-take-for-us-to-trust-them-118830">Algorithms are everywhere but what will it take for us to trust them?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It would be ideal if the developers of social policy algorithms put these principles at the core of their work. But in the absence of accountability in the tech sector, numerous laws have been passed, or are being passed, to deal with the problem.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/">European Union data protection law</a> states that algorithmic decisions that have significant consequences for any person must involve a human review component. It also requires organisations to provide a transparent explanation of the logic used in algorithmic processes.</p>
<p>The US Congress, meanwhile, is considering a draft <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2231/all-info">Algorithmic Accountability Act</a> that would require institutions to consider “the risks that the automated decision system may result in or contribute to inaccurate, unfair, biased, or discriminatory decisions impacting consumers”.</p>
<p>Legislation is a solution, but it is not the best one. We need to develop and embed ethics and norms around decision-making into organisational practice. For this we need to boost the public’s data literacy, so they have the language to demand accountability from the tech giants to which we are all increasingly beholden. </p>
<p>A transparent and open approach is vital if we are to make the most of the technologies on offer in our data-rich world, while retaining our rights as citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monika Sarder works as a research data scientist at Monash University. Specifically, she investigates the way in which institutional data can be harnessed and analysed, within the context of traditional academic literature, for multidisciplinary approaches to education research. The views expressed are her own.</span></em></p>Algorithms can take much of the hard work out of tough decisions. But to avoid problems like the Robodebt debacle or unfair parole rulings, we need to ensure machines operate with human-like ethics.Monika Sarder, Senior Strategic Analyst, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1144792019-07-03T13:04:36Z2019-07-03T13:04:36ZMexicans in US routinely confront legal abuse, racial profiling, ICE targeting and other civil rights violations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281444/original/file-20190626-76722-1o2gl80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The civil rights of 11.3 million Mexican nationals who live in the US are routinely violated, according to a comprehensive new report on U.S. immigration enforcement since 2009.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Arizona-Immigration/191bc70a2f7a4f84a8cfc93dd7885e9d/37/0">AP Photo/Matt York</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Officially, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">Constitution of the United States</a> gives everyone on U.S. soil equal protection under the law – regardless of nationality or legal status. </p>
<p>But, as recent stories of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/john-sanders-cbp.html">neglectful treatment of migrant children in government detention centers</a> demonstrate, these <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/duklr59&div=52&id=&page=">civil rights</a> are not always granted to immigrants.</p>
<p>We are scholars focused on U.S.-Mexico migration. Our <a href="http://ccis.ucsd.edu/_files/conference_papers_present/CNDH-final-3.4.19.pdf">report on the enforcement of U.S. immigration law under presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump</a>, presented in February to Mexico’s <a href="http://www.cndh.org.mx">National Human Rights Commission</a>, documented pervasive and systematic civil rights violations against Mexicans living in the United States. </p>
<p>Some of the abuses we documented – which include racial profiling, discriminatory treatment and due process violations – result from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-zero-tolerance-immigration-policy-still-violating-fundamental-human-rights-laws-98615">Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies</a>. Others <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-immigration-policies-will-pick-up-where-obamas-left-off-70187">began much earlier</a>, under Obama or well before. </p>
<p>All paint a troubling picture about the rule of law in the United States and the challenges facing America’s largest immigrant group.</p>
<h2>Discrimination and deportation</h2>
<p>An estimated <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/mexican-immigrants-united-states">11.3 million</a> people born in Mexico now live in the United States – 3% of the total U.S. population. </p>
<p>About 5 million of them are unauthorized immigrants, meaning Mexicans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/us-unauthorized-immigrant-population-2017/">make up just under half</a> of the 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the country. The other <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/">6.3 million Mexicans in the U.S.</a> are either lawful permanent residents or dual nationals who are naturalized U.S. citizens. </p>
<p>Based on these figures, we found, Immigration and Customs Enforcement – or ICE, the agency that carries out the nation’s immigration laws – arrests Mexican immigrants at levels that are <a href="http://ccis.ucsd.edu/_files/conference_papers_present/CNDH-final-3.4.19.pdf">disproportionate</a> to their share of the unauthorized immigrant population. </p>
<p>Roughly 70% of immigrants deported from the U.S. interior in 2015 <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/removehistory/">were Mexican</a>, the most recent year that such detailed deportation data are available. </p>
<p>Another 550,000 young Mexican American “Dreamers” – immigrants who were brought to the U.S. unlawfully as children – <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-deporting-the-dreamers-is-immoral-91738">became subject to deportation</a> when Trump in September 2017 rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave them temporary protection from deportation.</p>
<p>Not all deportations violate immigrants’ civil rights. The <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/legal-resources/immigration-and-nationality-act">Immigration and Nationality Act</a> says immigrants may be deported for violating a long list of criminal and administrative laws.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/lst.2013.14">evidence suggests</a> that Mexicans and other Latinos are sometimes targeted for arrest based on their race or ethnicity. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281443/original/file-20190626-76738-1h5yxo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2013 a federal judge ruled that police in Maricopa County, Arizona, were racial profiling Latinos in traffic stops that targeted immigrants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Racial-Profiling-Traffic-Stops/2c5a68d8a5634af7a96cd088f3ab8573/1/0">AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2014, <a href="http://phparivaca.org/?page_id=1174">independent monitors</a> at a Customs and Border Protection checkpoint in Arivaca, Arizona, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, found that vehicle occupants who appeared to be Latino were 26 times more likely to be asked to show identification than white-looking vehicle occupants, who are frequently waved through the checkpoint. </p>
<p>And in 2012, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in Alamance County, North Carolina, found that the sheriff had <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article213085749.html">instructed deputies</a> to “go out there and get me some of those taco eaters” by targeting Latinos in traffic stops and other law enforcement activities.</p>
<p>The DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-releases-investigative-findings-alamance-county-nc-sheriff-s-office">concluded</a> that the county demonstrated an “egregious pattern of racial profiling” – a violation of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">14th Amendment</a>, which guarantees everyone equal protection under the law.</p>
<h2>Family separation</h2>
<p>Mexicans in the United States have seen their constitutional rights violated in other ways. </p>
<p>The most egregious example was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-and-sessions-can-end-immigrant-family-separations-without-congress-help-98599">forced separation of families found to have crossed the border illegally</a>. </p>
<p>Under this Trump administration policy, which began in April 2018, at least <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/family-separation">2,654 migrant children</a> – and perhaps <a href="http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/01/17/oei-bl-18-00511.pdf">thousands more</a> – were taken from their parents and held in government custody while their parents were criminally prosecuted for crossing the border unlawfully. </p>
<p>Thirty of the children known to have been separated from their families were Mexican; the rest were from Central America. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/emails-show-trump-admin-had-no-way-link-separated-migrant-n1000746">Poor record-keeping</a> has made it difficult for all of them to be reunited with their families before their parents’ deportation. </p>
<p>Together, these actions violate the constitutional rights to legal due process, equal protection and, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000169-603d-d102-a76d-ebbd03e30001">the Southern District of California</a>, the right of parents to determine the care for their children.</p>
<p>“The liberty interest identified in the Fifth Amendment provides a right to family integrity or to familial association,” wrote Judge Dana M. Sabraw in a June 2018 ruling. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281446/original/file-20190626-76701-oxey35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A child from Guerrero, Mexico, clings to her mother as the family waits in Tijuana to apply for asylum in the U.S., June 13, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Immigration-The-Goal/c9eba4dce9d040308ec4cfef408ac1f6/13/0">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More routine civil rights violations happen to Mexicans in the U.S. every day, our report found. </p>
<p>Though children born in the U.S. are entitled by law to American citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status, hundreds of undocumented Mexican women in Texas have been <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-immigrant-birth-certificate-20151016-story.html">denied birth certificates</a> for their U.S.-born children since 2013, according to a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-texas-immigrant-birth-20150718-story.html">lawsuit filed by parents</a>. In 2016, Texas <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/25/texas-agrees-to-resolve-birth-certificate-case/">settled the lawsuit</a> and agreed to expand the types of documents immigrants can use to prove their identity.</p>
<p>And in both Arizona and Texas, so-called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/09/texas-immigration-sanctuary-cities-law-arizona">show me your papers</a>” laws allow police to demand identification from anyone they have a “reasonable suspicion” may be undocumented, which may lead to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/785481/download">discriminatory targeting</a> of Latinos.</p>
<p>Once in government detention, <a href="https://www.colef.mx/emif/eng/">surveys conducted in Mexico</a> of recently deported immigrants show, Mexican deportees are often badly treated. </p>
<p>On average, in 2016 and 2017, about half of all recently deported Mexicans reported having no access to medical services or a bathroom while in government custody. One-third reported experiencing extreme heat or cold. </p>
<p>Mexicans are <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes">not alone in their negative experiences at border patrol facilities</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2019-06/OIG-19-47-Jun19.pdf">recent report by the Office of Inspector General</a> found unsafe and unsanitary conditions at several U.S. immigrant detention centers, and immigration lawyers found <a href="https://time.com/5607608/migrant-conditions-holding-centers-border/">food shortages at some migrant children’s shelters</a>.</p>
<h2>A climate of fear</h2>
<p>While Mexicans in the United States have faced <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1163/156916306777835376">biased law enforcement</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3846170/">discrimination</a> for many decades, their treatment appears to have worsened since President Trump took office in 2017 with an openly <a href="http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/">anti-Mexican agenda</a>.</p>
<p>A survey of Mexicans recently deported from the United States <a href="https://www.colef.mx/emif/eng/">found</a> that the number of people who reported experiencing verbal abuse or physical assault during their time in the U.S. increased 47% between 2016 and 2017. </p>
<p>The number of hate crimes against Latinos reported to the <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2016/tables/table-1;%20https:/ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/tables/table-1.xls.">FBI</a> also rose 24% in 2017 compared to 2016 – increasing from 344 incidents to 427. </p>
<p>Mexico is concerned about its citizens in the United States. </p>
<p>In March, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard <a href="https://www.vidaenelvalle.com/news/politics-government/article227092954.html">announced</a> it would provide more consular services online to increase the reach of Mexico’s 50 brick-and-mortar consulates in the U.S. and provide more legal training to consulate officials. </p>
<p>To support Mexicans in the U.S. with deportation and other immigration cases, the Mexican government will also <a href="https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/nuevos-consules-generales-en-ee-uu-presentan-estrategia-para-fortalecer-defensa-de-connacionales?idiom=es">strengthen its official ties with U.S.-based legal aid providers</a>. </p>
<p>In theory, Mexico shouldn’t have to scramble to defend the rights of its citizens in the U.S. because the U.S. Constitution would. But, in practice, the civil rights of immigrants are simply not always guaranteed.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114479/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David FitzGerald has received research funding from Mexico's National Human Rights Commission.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Y. McClean and Gustavo López do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new report on Mexicans in the US paints a troubling picture about the treatment of the country’s largest immigrant group.David FitzGerald, Theodore E. Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations, Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San DiegoAngela Y. McClean, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, Fellow and Graduate Researcher at Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San DiegoGustavo López, Graduate Researcher at Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San DiegoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1191452019-07-02T22:16:34Z2019-07-02T22:16:34ZRich private colleges in the U.S. are fuelling inequality – and right-wing populism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281282/original/file-20190625-81776-1yjkznp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C42%2C3528%2C2302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oberlin College's lawsuit raises issues for global higher education, and has implications for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Oberlin College in Ohio recently lost what began as a US$44.2 million defamation lawsuit because of its involvement in student protests against alleged racial profiling at a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/14/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-bizarre-lawsuit-between-oberlin-college-and-a-local-bakery/">local bakery.</a> </p>
<p>The payment was later cut almost <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2019/06/28/Judge-halves-damages-in-lawsuit-against-Oberlin-College/stories/201906280160">in half to $25 million</a> but the case has still sent <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/10/oberlin-ordered-pay-bakery-11-million-over-protests">shock waves through American higher education</a>. It also has implications for Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.</p>
<p>The private legal status of Oberlin and elite American universities is an important part of the story. The conservative media and Trump trolls are framing this as an example of left-wing political correctness, but the major problem with American colleges is not far-leftism, <a href="https://theconversation.com/subsidized-privilege-the-real-scandal-of-american-universities-113792">but excessive private privilege.</a></p>
<p>The Oberlin incident happened just after Trump was elected president in 2016. Three African-American Oberlin students (a young man and two young women) were involved in a scuffle with Allyn Gibson Jr., grandson and son of Gibson’s Bakery and Food Market owners. Gibson detained the male student after he had tried to buy alcohol with a fake ID and shoplift two bottles of wine.</p>
<p>The male student eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, a lesser charge than the extreme <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/the-publicly-shamed-sue-oberlin-college-verdict/591379/">felony robbery charges</a> placed on him. </p>
<p>Oberlin students organized mass protests against the bakery, claiming racial profiling. Oberlin College administrators got involved on the protestors’ side, a jury decided, and have been ordered <a href="https://quillette.com/2019/06/20/ideology-and-facts-collide-at-oberlin-college/">to pay massive damages.</a></p>
<p>The Oberlin president is defending the university by acknowledging the shop-lifting but arguing that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/22/735005809/oberlin-college-president-on-bakery-case">the university was not taking a side in the protests</a>. </p>
<p>As a sociologist, I’m interested in this case because while sociologists have <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-l-annee-sociologique-2016-1-page-171.htm">addressed how private wealth and inequality are impacting campus and intellectual life in the United States</a>, they have ignored how the private elite colleges that dominate America’s unique higher educational system are feeding right-wing populism. </p>
<p>But I’m also a Canadian who did my undergraduate degree at Cleveland State University near Oberlin, and so as a student I had friends there. I admire its intellectual calibre and its faculty and students.</p>
<h2>Backlash politics?</h2>
<p>Right-wing media and social media commentators are now alleging a higher education system is promoting <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/conservative-groups-offer-alternative-to-new-wave-of-political-correctness-on-campuses">far-left ideology</a>, <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2019/06/13/Oberlin-College-bakery-lawsuit-student-crimes-racism-slander-activism/stories/201906130033">political correctness</a> and race-baiting.</p>
<p>Is a $25 million judgment against a college <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/01/judge-slashes-award-oberlin-case-only-25m">going to chill free speech on campuses?</a> Or is this a case of an excessively liberal college abusing their power and resources <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/oberlin-college-lawsuit-woke-privilege/">to coddle and protect their excessively privileged students making unfair charges of racism against hard working local business people?</a> </p>
<p>Both uncritical Oberlin defenders and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/18/why-do-conservatives-hate-oberlin-so-much/">conservatives obsessed with the political correctness are missing</a> larger issues.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The jury found that Oberlin officials were involved in supporting student protests against Gibson’s Food Mart & Bakery, pictured here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Polarized lawsuit</h2>
<p>The Oberlin College administration are using the banner of student free speech to defend themselves against a major <a href="https://oberlinreview.org/18975/opinions/media-coverage-of-gibsons-verdict-misses-the-mark/">public relations disaster and financial hit</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/local/education/2019/06/15/oberlin-college-gibsons-bakery-libel-lawsuit-race-community-free-speech/stories/20190614189">The protests against Gibson’s Bakery were unfair</a>. None of this erases the reality and injustice of racial profiling or <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/new-jim-crow">mass incarceration in America</a>. Oberlin students were right to be outraged at initial felony charges, and surely it would have been better for all concerned if the incident had not been escalated. And students should not shoplift. </p>
<p>But Oberlin College argues that it is wrong that they are being <a href="https://oberlinreview.org/18970/news/jury-rules-for-gibsons-assigns-44-million-in-damages/">penalized simply for protecting the free speech rights of their students</a>. The details from the trial, however, particularly email evidence, do not reflect well on the senior administration, even when discounting the bias of <a href="https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2019/06/15/despicable-and-indefensible-legal-insurrections-thread-with-details-from-gibsons-bakery-v-oberlin-college-trial-is-a-must-read/">conservative sources that are ramping up the rhetoric</a>. </p>
<p>The jury found that officials of the school <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/us/oberlin-bakery-lawsuit.html">were involved in supporting the student protests</a>. Appeals are possible, even though Oberlin has now <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/cops-and-courts/2019/06/19/Second-letter-from-Oberlin-College-president-gives-FAQ-cutting-through.html">admitted to unprofessional language.</a> </p>
<h2>U.S. private colleges and subsidized privilege</h2>
<p>The elephant in the room is the private non-profit status of Oberlin College. The most elite colleges in the U.S. are private, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/01/09/year-after-tax-law-changes-new-guidance-still-rolling-out-colleges">and, up until 2017 and 2018 changes in the law,</a> have not paid <a href="http://ephblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/CRS.pdf">federal taxes on their massive endowments.</a> Nor do private nonprofit colleges contribute to the provision of collective social services of communities and states <a href="http://ncpl.law.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/resources/HenryHansmann-COLLEGEANDUNIVERSITYEXEMPTION.pdf">through property or sales taxes</a>. </p>
<p>Even the most elite Canadian universities have endowments that hover around $1 billion to $2 billion, while Harvard’s endowment tops the U.S. college endowment list at $38 billion. <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Which-Colleges-Have-the/245587">Columbia and Yale’s endowments are respectively about $11 billion and $29 billion</a> and these latter two colleges border communities of racialized poverty <a href="https://www.plannersnetwork.org/2009/10/columbia-universitys-expansion-and-the-struggle-for-the-future-of-harlem/">in Harlem</a> and <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-university-college-towns.html">New Haven</a>.</p>
<p>Oberlin has less than 3,000 students enrolled and an endowment of <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/local/education/2019/06/13/jury-hits-oberlin-with-31-million-punitive-damages-bakery-protests/stories/20190613148">nearly $900 million</a>; the research-intensive Canadian university where I teach, McMaster, has more than 30,000 students enrolled and in 2017 its endowment <a href="https://impact.mcmaster.ca/sites/default/files/documents/eendowment_2016-2017_sm.pdf">was about $704.7 million</a>. The U.S. dollar is worth about C$1.30, so that means Oberlin’s endowment has more than USD$300 million than McMaster’s — at a school with 27,000 fewer students. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attorney Lee Plakas talks about his clients’ lawsuit claiming Oberlin College hurt their business and libelled them. In the background are Allyn W. Gibson, Allyn D. Gibson, Cashlyn Gibson, 11, David Gibson, and Lorna Gibson, on June 13, 2019, in Elyria, Ohio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruce Bishop/Chronicle-Telegram via AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is disproportionately (though not exclusively) at the elite private research universities like Yale, Columbia and Harvard, and the smaller liberal arts colleges like Oberlin, where <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/557315/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind-by-greg-lukianoff-and-jonathan-haidt/9780735224919">debates about trigger warnings, cultural appropriation and the deplatforming of conservative speakers have made headlines</a> and helped polarize American politics. The excessive educational privilege of American colleges create incidents like an earlier Oberlin controversy around <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-food-fight-at-oberlin-college/421401/">cultural appropriation of international food which made national headines</a>. </p>
<p>In this case, the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/11/08/college-administrators-are-more-liberal-other-groups-including-faculty-members">excessive political interventions by Oberlin staff</a> and the <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674059092">lack of political diversity on the faculty, as at many colleges</a> give Donald Trump a target to scapegoat campus liberals.</p>
<p>Scapegoating helps hide the reality that it is the Republican Party that is the major <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GDf4DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA31&dq=dark+money+in+US+politics&ots=4aoEo8x-O6&sig=QcmTBoa1s0g320VfjS9jF1Kl86Y#v=onepage&q=dark%20money%20in%20US%20politics&f=false">defender of privilege and class inequality</a>. </p>
<p>American liberalism’s commitment to equality in education, however, is compromised by an unwillingness to address the distorting effect of private universities. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/upshot/student-loan-debt-forgiveness.html">Elizabeth Warren’s and Bernie Sanders’s plans to clear off massive student debt</a> do not confront the tuition inflation that is created in the private, not the public, sector of higher education.</p>
<h2>Private system: Incubator of culture wars</h2>
<p>Oberlin College must help their students learn how to combine the <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CPFHBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT9&dq=Oberlin+college+left+history&ots=pPaGzDJd6D&sig=PklnCQ85Z2AVcxbvBbsw5LzpDKg#v=onepage&q=Oberlin%20college%20left%20history&f=false">proud history of progressivism the college has been a home to since the days of the underground railway</a> with a more disciplined concern with respect for different views. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/01/us-provides-some-clarity-about-tax-endowments">Taxing the wealthy private colleges</a> could help pay for free public tuition, taking down the stakes in this national cultural war over education. The irony is that taxing <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/If-Republicans-Get-Their-Way/241659">the most affluent college endowments was promoted by Republicans</a> and <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/12/20/endowment-tax-passed/">has been opposed by high-profile Democrats</a> when a left version of this tax makes good sense.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/the-publicly-shamed-sue-oberlin-college-verdict/591379/">The Oberlin administration let their students down by not being the adults in the room,</a> and may have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/new-election-map-ohio-colorado-no-longer-swing-states-n937646">strengthened Trumpism in a traditionally key swing state before 2020</a>. Competition for students paying tuition in the range of $50,000 to $70,000 in U.S. private colleges likely make administrators more interested in keeping students happy and safe rather than educated with politically diverse views. </p>
<p>Sociologists have rightly addressed significant pieces of the problems in American higher education <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/lower-ed">by exposing the exploitation of for-profit colleges</a>, the <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo24663096.html">underfunding of public universities</a> and how <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=J9qv-A3q01wC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=elijah+anderson&ots=B_kvOFIJci&sig=WDumNDQskEqLKns4F9nF1SFpeJs#v=onepage&q=elijah%20anderson&f=false">racial profiling incidents and racism play out in everyday life.</a></p>
<p>Scholars need to go further by confronting the fact that American private universities are part of the broader problem of inequality. Educators around the world should not see the American private system as the gold standard but as a deeply flawed incubator of cultural wars. Social democratic and public alternatives must be protected and fashioned in order to promote quality scholarship and provide broad access to higher education. </p>
<p>But the issue cuts deeper, as a university system led by elite privates lays the seeds for incidents that inevitably benefit the populist right, create tuition rates that leave far too many in debt and produce colleges not willing to tell the truth to students when they are in the wrong.</p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published July 2, 2019. The earlier story used an incorrect figure for Oberlin College’s endowment.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil McLaughlin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is a $25 million judgement against Oberlin College going to chill free speech – or is the wealth of a publicly subsidized private college helping polarize debates about race and politics?Neil McLaughlin, Professor of Sociology, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1189422019-06-17T22:00:39Z2019-06-17T22:00:39ZRaptors victory: Feel-good multiculturalism masks reality of anti-Black racism in Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279928/original/file-20190618-118510-1as8cn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Carding and racial profiling continues unabated - even as the multicultural unity of Canada seems to be at an all time high after the Raptors' NBA victory as seen here at the victory parade on June 17. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>During what was probably one of the most exciting and gratifying moments of his professional life, moments after the Raptors’ NBA finals victory on Thursday, a California sheriff’s deputy stopped Raptors president Masai Ujiri <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/2019/06/14/raptors-president-masai-ujiri-being-investigated-over-possible-altercation-after-game-6-victory-reports-say.html">from walking onto the court for the Raptors’ trophy presentation</a>. The deputy carded him and asked him for his credentials.</p>
<p>Even though he is the president of the Toronto Raptors’ basketball team and even though it was his own team’s victory ceremony, as a Black executive, he was treated with suspicion, as if he was trespassing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279889/original/file-20190617-118505-jugkpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, centre left, with guard Kyle Lowry after the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Authorities are investigating an incident between Ujiri and a sheriff’s deputy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tony Avelar)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That same day, a conflict studies and human rights student at the University of Ottawa and vice-president of academic affairs for the program’s student association, <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/humiliating-black-uottawa-student-cuffed-in-campus-carding-incident">Jamal Koulmiye-Boyce, was also racially profiled, carded and harassed by security on his own campus</a>. According to Koulmiye-Boyce, as well as bystander accounts with audio and video recordings, he was skateboarding on campus when security asked him to stop. </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/living-and-breathing-while-black-racial-profiling-and-other-acts-of-violence-118437">Living and breathing while Black: Racial profiling and other acts of violence</a>
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<p>Security guards then demanded he show ID. When he explained that he left his wallet with his ID in his on-campus student office, the guards accused him of trespassing, and aggressively handcuffed and detained him. They then called the police. </p>
<p>Koulmiye-Boyce was held for several hours in the back of a police car before he was allowed to leave. The only reason guards held him? Skateboarding without a wallet. Even though Jamal is like many other students on campus, he was treated as a security threat because he is a Black student. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1139281306771238912"}"></div></p>
<p>For too many Black Canadians, this type of scrutiny is a reality.</p>
<p>How do we reconcile the daily racism that Black people face in our country with our public expressions of multicultural pride? </p>
<p>Canadians loved watching the Raptors achieve their dream of becoming NBA champions for many reasons: the tough losses and inspired comebacks; the “business trip” attitude the players maintained under extreme pressure; the giant parties emulating Jurassic Park popping up all over the county. </p>
<p>But I believe that for many Canadians, one of the most exciting aspects of the Raptors’ playoff victory was its feel-good multiculturalism.</p>
<h2>Multiculturalism and anti-Black racism</h2>
<p>Many Raptors’ fans are proud that Ujiri is the first African GM in the NBA. Ujiri often praises Canadian multiculturalism and makes jokes about how much better Canada is than the United States when it comes to welcoming immigrants, thanking “<a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/raptors-president-ujiri-highlights-team-represents-toronto-canada/">Donald Trump for making Toronto an unbelievable sports destination</a>.” </p>
<p>The sight of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/navbhatiasuperfan/?hl=en">superfan Nav Bhatia</a> leading what he calls a “beautiful rainbow” of Canadian fans after a Raptors’ win in the land of Trump sure feels good. And media stories about fans like <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-raptors-inspiring-city-and-country-1.5149411">15-year-old Yasmin Said help as well.</a> Said matches her red hijab to the Raptors’ logo when she plays basketball with the Hijabi Ballers, a group that encourages young Muslim women to get involved in sports. As a nation, we seem delighted by these beautiful multicultural moments.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/ByrVBbDhz0n/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Many Canadians were also incensed when <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kyle-lowry-mark-stevens-shove-tensions-nba-1.5162567">Mark Stevens, a white co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, shoved Raptors’ Kyle Lowry in Game 3 when he bumped into courtside fans</a>. Canadian outrage about American racism feels good. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-white-people-wake-up-canada-is-racist-83124">Dear white people, wake up: Canada is racist</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But as journalist <a href="https://muslimlink.ca/component/k2/author/1967-chelbydaigle">Chelby Daigle</a> argues, sometimes Canadians prefer to talk about “<a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2016/09/unlearning-anti-black-racism-101-stop-canadiansplaining">the multicultural wonderland of Canada as opposed to the evil U.S …</a>” as a way to minimize the trauma of anti-Black racism in Canada and as a way to deflect blame and responsibility. Our multicultural pride also “<a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2016/09/unlearning-anti-black-racism-101-stop-canadiansplaining">reduces the Black experience in the U.S. to just being victims of racist violence, while ignoring the agency, creativity, ingenuity and resiliency of Black Americans.”</a></p>
<p>Canadians, Daigle contends, are letting themselves and the entire nation off the hook because Canada doesn’t suck as badly as <a href="http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2016/09/unlearning-anti-black-racism-101-stop-canadiansplaining">“the nation could possibly suck.</a>” </p>
<p>Canadians may cherish the idea that we are more open, more multicultural and more benevolent than Americans, but the realities of systemic racism in Canada are real and well-documented. White Canadians are <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=2YWtRn0l7a4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=where+the+waters+divide&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5kuqEmqTcAhUlw1kKHZFHAJAQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=where%20the%20waters%20divide&f=false">less burdened by pollution than other racial groups</a>. They have <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/jcie/index.php/jcie/article/view/4575">longer life expectancies, higher incomes and better educational opportunities</a>. White Canadians are <a href="http://diversityhealthcare.imedpub.com/the-impact-of-inequality-on-health-in-canada-a-multidimensional-framework.php?aid=1943">more likely to receive better health care</a>. They are <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/29768333?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">less likely to be incarcerated</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10439463.2011.610198">to be stopped and searched by police</a> and <a href="http://johnhoward.ca/blog/race-crime-justice-canada/">to face bias in the Canadian criminal justice system</a>.</p>
<p>These issues are not isolated or random events, but are part of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3874373?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">long historical, structural and ongoing acts</a> of <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/policing-black-lives">“state-sanctioned violence and concerted neglect of Black people.</a>” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quiet-canadian-ugly-american-does-racism-differ-north-of-the-border-81388">Quiet Canadian, ugly American: Does racism differ north of the border?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Carding has been banned but continues anyway</h2>
<p>What happened to Koulmiye-Boyce also raises questions about security policies and the abuse of power by campus protection services. According to the University of Ottawa’s security regulations, “<a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/administration-and-governance/policy-33-security">members of the protection services are authorized to request proof of identity from persons on campus</a>.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1139372887599546372"}"></div></p>
<p>New rules banning random carding by police came into effect in Ontario in 2017. These regulations are supposed to <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/160058">ban police from collecting identifying information arbitrarily or based on a person’s race</a>. However, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/ontario-carding-ban-1.3939558">many community groups don’t think these changes go far enough</a>. Why are security guards allowed to randomly ID people on campus while police officers are, in theory, not allowed to infringe on people’s rights in this way?</p>
<p>At the University of Ottawa campus, we need resources, events and supports specifically dedicated to combating anti-Black racism and supporting Black students, staff and faculty as well as recruitment and retention related to Black students, staff and faculty. And white campus members need to learn about anti-Black racism and do the work of sharing this knowledge with other white people as well.</p>
<p>If the purpose of university protection services, according to the university’s regulations, is “<a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/administration-and-governance/policy-33-security">to enhance the security of persons and their property, to ensure that their rights are protected</a>,” then we have to ask, whose security and rights is the university safeguarding? Certainly not Jamal’s.</p>
<p>While displays of Canadian multicultural unity may feel good, including expressions of Raptors fandom in the form of parades and jerseys, as long as Black Canadians are singled out for greater scrutiny in Canadian society, multiculturalism acts as a facade that allows anti-Black racism to continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corrie Scott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How do we reconcile the daily racism that Black people face in our country with our public expressions of multicultural pride?Corrie Scott, Associate Professor at the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1184372019-06-12T23:10:34Z2019-06-12T23:10:34ZLiving and breathing while Black: Racial profiling and other acts of violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279816/original/file-20190617-118526-7wk9xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=113%2C56%2C3677%2C3200&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">During Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Mark Stevens, a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, shoved Toronto Raptors player Kyle Lowry. Stevens's actions can be read as a public act of racism and a declaration of 'ownership' of Black bodies.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently, Shelby McPhee, a young Black male graduate student presenting at the largest Canadian academic gathering, <a href="https://www.congress2019.ca">the 88th annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences</a>, hosted by <a href="http://www.ideas-idees.ca/">the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences</a> and held at the University of British Columbia, was stopped by two white delegates and accused of stealing a laptop. He was photographed and followed. Congress volunteers <a href="https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/black-student-racial-profiling-ubc-academic-conference">called the police</a>; both UBC campus police and the RCMP arrived on the scene. </p>
<p>McPhee adamantly refuted the charges but said he was silenced, detained and interrogated by police after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nova-scotia-student-says-he-was-racially-profiled-at-ubc-held-congress-1.4668201">the two accusers gave their testimony</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279184/original/file-20190612-32335-h7szvg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=989&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shelby McPhee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by Shelby McPhee</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I attended Congress as a <a href="https://www.congress2019.ca/associations/309">York University scholar of global health, ethics and human rights</a> and a member of the <a href="https://www.africancanadianstudies.com/">Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA)</a> founded in 2009. The Congress “brings together academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to share findings, refine ideas, and build partnerships that will help shape <a href="https://www.congress2019.ca/about">the Canada of tomorrow</a>.” </p>
<p>This act of <a href="http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Racial%20Profiling%20and%20Human%20Rights_Canadian%20Diversity.pdf">racial profiling</a> sadly reminded me that African/Black and Indigenous peoples are often <a href="https://www.straight.com/news/1253376/running-while-black-vancouver-police-say-no-racial-profiling-stopping-man-rushing">policed and surveilled in traumatic and violent ways</a>, in not only public spaces but also in what <a href="https://www.blackpressusa.com/racial-profiling-and-teaching-while-black-at-vcu/">should have been a safe scholarly space</a>. </p>
<p>Defending oneself against this type of <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/5/11/17340908/racial-profiling-starbucks-yale-police-violence-911-bias">racist profiling and surveillance</a> is an act of resistance. As a health scholar, political scientist and psychotherapist working in racialized communities, I can attest to the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/balancing-academia-racism/424887/">detrimental impact this fight for survival has on our health</a>. </p>
<h2>Trauma</h2>
<p><a href="https://whyy.org/articles/temple-university-cops-sued-over-alleged-racial-profiling-incident/">More and more cases</a> of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-lrt-racial-profiling-excessive-force-peace-officer-transit-belvedere-1.5061976">racial profiling</a> or “<a href="https://www.lawtimesnews.com/author/gabrielle-giroday/damages-awarded-in-racial-profiling-case-13653/">living and breathing while Black</a>” are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43981366">being shared</a> in both mainstream and social media. Recently, individual cases of racial profiling have been reported: <a href="https://www.straight.com/news/1253376/running-while-black-vancouver-police-say-no-racial-profiling-stopping-man-rushing">Running while Black</a>; <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/old-navy-racial-profiling-apology_ca_5d02dca4e4b0985c419aa02a">Shopping while Black</a>, <a href="https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/humiliating-black-uottawa-student-cuffed-in-campus-carding-incident">Skateboarding while Black</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cree-woman-making-a-statement-against-racial-profiling-1.5166782">Shopping for food while Cree</a>, to name a few. </p>
<p>And the news media has reported McPhee’s story. But the story is told of him <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nova-scotia-student-says-he-was-racially-profiled-at-ubc-held-congress-1.4668201">as an individual</a> and not identified as systemic. What happens when media is no longer interested? Individualizing racial profiling in media misses the point of systemic violence. </p>
<p>The humiliation, embarrassment and trauma experienced by this <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/04/24/over-policing-in-black-communities-is-a-canadian-crisis-too/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1d807cc8db25">blatant act of racial profiling, however, is not solely about these individual incidents</a>. Rather, it is part of an intensified daily experience of systemic racist and <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-impacts-your-health-84112">intersectional violence that impacts our health</a> and tries to dictate and incarcerate, the spaces and places we occupy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-impacts-your-health-84112">Racism impacts your health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The impact that racial profiling has had on this young Black scholar and so many of us in the African/Black community on a <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-report-reveals-racial-disparities-in-toronto-polices-use-of-force/">daily basis is insidious and systemic</a>. </p>
<p>The constant fight to be treated humanely; the battle to prove ourselves innocent when always accused first as guilty, and the resistance and collective mobilization needed, shows our dedication and aptitude to survive in a world where we are continuously restricted and publicly violated.</p>
<h2>Public shaming and spectacles</h2>
<p>The white community <a href="http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html">“lynching”</a> of McPhee, a young Black male scholar, was an open spectacle, reflecting historical and <a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text2/slaveauctions.pdf">current anti-Black racist spectacles of the enslaved auction block</a>, <a href="https://www.rifemagazine.co.uk/2019/04/black-people-on-display-the-forgotten-history-of-human-zoos/">scientific racist human zoos</a>, <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm">Jim Crow laws in the southern United States</a>, the <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/pass-laws-during-apartheid-43492">apartheid pass laws in South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/street-checks-halifax-police-scot-wortley-racial-profiling-1.5073300">carding and “random” street checks in Canada and globally</a>.</p>
<p>I saw a current example of this type of public humiliation of Black people during the NBA Finals. <a href="https://newsone.com/3853845/kyle-lowry-pushed-by-warriors-part-owner-mark-stevens/">Mark Stevens, co-owner of the Golden State Warriors, pushed</a> the Toronto Raptors’ point guard Kyle Lowry during Game 3. Stevens’s actions can be read as a declaration of “ownership” of Black bodies, hence easily violating them. Lowry upheld dignity and constraint. This constraint is too often a <a href="https://view.publitas.com/perryundem-research-communication/black-american-survey-report_final/page/14">requirement for Black men after dealing with public racist violence</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279815/original/file-20190617-118518-lz6iui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toronto Raptors basketball team general manager Masai Ujiri was carded while trying while trying to join his team on the court to celebrate their first NBA championship. He is accused of hitting a sheriff’s deputy in the face to bypass him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another instance is the booing from some of the Canadian fans of the Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant, after he fell to the ground with an injury in Game 5 of the NBA finals in Toronto. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/06/11/toronto-fans-blasted-cheering-after-kevin-durants-brutal-game-injury/">Raptors players quieted the crowd</a>. But the Raptors fans’ reaction reflects a publicly sanctioned humiliation of Black people that are seen as subhuman or having <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/04/04/do-blacks-feel-less-pain-than-whites-their-doctors-may-think-so/?utm_term=.8c1d9f7fa729">little feelings.</a> </p>
<p>Masai Ujiri, the president and brilliant strategist responsible for Toronto’s Raptor’s 2019 NBA championship, of Nigerian and Kenyan ancestry, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ywye5j/it-sure-looks-like-raptors-president-masai-ujiri-was-carded-last-night">was racially carded after Game 6 at Oracle arena</a> as he tried to enter the court during what should have been the jubilant celebration with his team. The attempt to publicly humiliate Ujiri with accusations of an “alleged assault” of a Alameda County Sheriff <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/06/14/raptors-president-masai-ujiri-under-investigation-allegedly-shoving-sheriffs-deputy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d39711793d9c">through widespread media coverage is violence</a>, aimed at trying to disqualify his achievements; demonize/criminalize and question his character and “put him in his place.”</p>
<p>Canada and other nations have worked to create the myth of the <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2015/01/distorted-exaggeration-black-black-crime-ignores-much-americas-criminality/">“dangerous Black”</a> or the <a href="https://theconversation.com/media-portrays-indigenous-and-muslim-youth-as-savages-and-barbarians-79153">“Indigenous savage”</a> as part of its nation building story — that Canada belongs to <a href="https://socialequity.duke.edu/news/affluent-blacks-wealth-doesnt-stop-racial-profiling">“law abiding white folks”</a> while <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137032447_4">continuing to decimate</a> Indigenous and African/Black communities by delegitimizing their humanness by subjugating us to apartheid-like <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/147/Dark-MattersOn-the-Surveillance-of-Blackness">public humiliation and scrutiny</a>. </p>
<h2>The equity myth and requesting systemic changes</h2>
<p>Acts of racial profiling have been occurring with frequency <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/25/hate-incidents-still-rise-college-campuses">on university campuses</a>. In fact, <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190418-black-academic">academia is often a site where inequity and violence are reproduced</a> as unearned white privilege is upheld.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279057/original/file-20190612-32373-ws8fqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Booker T. Washington addressing a crowd of African American men in Lakeland, Tennessee, during his campaign promoting African American education. Ca. 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>University of Alberta political scientist Malinda S. Smith and six other critical race scholars across Canada discuss these issues in <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/the-equity-myth"><em>The Equity Myth</em></a> from the perspective of racialized scholars. They argue that we are quite far from achieving equity on university faculties and administrations. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, back at Congress, McPhee was eventually released, no charges were laid and RCMP said they found the charges to be groundless. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1136075163001221120"}"></div></p>
<p>McPhee said: “I felt embarrassed … and I felt there was not a safe place for me at UBC or for my colleagues ….” He also mentioned the fragility of his career: “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nova-scotia-student-says-he-was-racially-profiled-at-ubc-held-congress-1.4668201">I was an invited speaker, so my credibility was now called into question if I’m paraded as a criminal</a>.”</p>
<p>McPhee sent a statement addressed to Congress. Based on <a href="http://www.ideas-idees.ca/sites/default/files/sites/default/uploads/congress/congress2019/congress_code_of_conduct.pdf">the zero tolerance policy</a> of the Federation, he requested the two delegates who accused him be expelled from the gathering. He also asked for a public statement and commitment to ending racial profiling and anti-Black racism. </p>
<p>The BCSA wrote a letter to Congress to <a href="https://twitter.com/BlkCdnSA/status/1136075163001221120">echo the young scholar’s requests and to state four distinct demands they believe will help counter systemic anti-Black racism</a>. </p>
<p>Congress has <a href="http://www.ideas-idees.ca/media/media-releases/federation-presidents-update-regarding-racial-profiling-and-anti-black-racism">replied with statements</a> to say they are: “taking action to address this issue” and that they “ …denounce anti-Black racism, racial profiling, harassment and discrimination of any kind.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberta K. Timothy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Last week a young Black scholar at a Canadian conference was detained. Defending oneself against racial profiling has a detrimental impact on the health of racialized people.Roberta K. Timothy, Assistant Professor, Global Health, Ethics and Human Rights School of Health, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054552018-11-13T11:44:25Z2018-11-13T11:44:25ZMeasuring racial profiling: Why it’s hard to tell where police are treating minorities unfairly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242831/original/file-20181029-76393-1xqjpxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stop and frisk has often been criticized as a way to target minorities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/city-safety-security-policeman-watching-order-290146856">Dmitry Kalinovsky/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-chicago-police-should-use-stop-and-frisk-tactics-to-curb-shootings/2018/10/08/a4afaaa0-cb0f-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html">Donald Trump has waved</a> the words “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/stop_and_frisk">stop and frisk</a>” around like a banner call to cure violent crime in American cities.</p>
<p>That means it’s time to take a look back at one of the primary criticisms of this police practice: racial profiling.</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/racial-profiling-definition">defines racial profiling</a> as “the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” This includes police using race to determine which drivers to stop for routine traffic violations or which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband.</p>
<p>The inevitable question is what percent of minorities the police should stop, statistically. But the default methods for deciding who is guilty of racial profiling are not statistically sound. We are working with the Bureau of Research and Analysis at the St. Louis County Police Department to create a stronger metric. </p>
<h2>Census-based benchmarking</h2>
<p>In general, there are two types of tests used to identify patterns of racial profiling. </p>
<p>The first, “benchmarking,” simply involves comparing the percentage of stops for people of a specific race with the percentage of that minority in that geographic area. </p>
<p>Benchmarking was used in an often-cited 1999 report by the New York attorney general on <a href="https://www.nyclu.org/en/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices">the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices</a>. Officers were patrolling in and around private residential buildings and stopping individuals they believed were trespassing. In 1999, 25.6 percent of the city’s population was black, yet comprised 50.6 percent of all persons stopped. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/05/theres-a-lot-of-chatter-about-stop-and-frisk-here-are-the-facts/">In a 2013 federal court case</a>, the judge ruled that stop and frisk had been used in an unconstitutional manner. </p>
<p>However, in benchmarking, the numbers are based on census data, which can give a highly misleading view. For example, take <a href="https://www.ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/public-safety/2017agencyreports.pdf?sfvrsn=2">Town and Country, Missouri</a>, a city with only a 12.2 percent nonwhite population. More than 20 percent of last year’s traffic stops involved minorities. However, Town and Country has two major interstates running through it. How are the tens of thousands of motorists driving on those interstates captured in the benchmark?</p>
<p>Census data doesn’t account for any nonresidents. For all of the St. Louis County Police Department patrol areas, only 44.6 percent of drivers stopped by police actually lived in St. Louis County. This alone shows that census data is not a viable source for determining racial profiling. </p>
<p>What’s more, officers are often ordered to patrol “high crime” areas. Statistically speaking, these are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2781995">predominantly minority areas</a>. So, inevitably, there will be more stops in those designated high-crime areas. As data is usually observed on a city, county or precinct level, the demographics of these high-crime areas are obscured. </p>
<h2>Hit rate</h2>
<p>Another type of test looks at stop-and-frisk’s “hit rate” – that is, the percentage of searches that actually lead to the discovery of weapons, drugs or other contraband. </p>
<p>In some states, like North Carolina, while a higher percentage of one minority was searched, there was <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2016/06/28/stanford-researchers-develop-new-statistical-test-shows-racial-profiling-police-traffic-stops/">actually a less likely chance</a> that the officers discovered illegal contraband. This was shown as evidence of racial profiling. </p>
<p>An issue here is that most hit rates involve all searches, regardless of the type. This includes searches after <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/20/supreme-court-arrest-warrant-search-seizure-utah-drugs/86134884/">arrests for outstanding warrants</a>. That means that the final hit rate may be misleading, including searches done as part of routine processing. </p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2016/06/28/stanford-researchers-develop-new-statistical-test-shows-racial-profiling-police-traffic-stops/">researchers at Stanford</a> published a new type of test that analyzes four variables: race of the driver, department of officer making the stop, if the stop resulted in a search and if illegal contraband was found. This metric is designed to give a “snapshot of the officer’s threshold of suspicion before searching person of a given race.” </p>
<p>However, as the authors notably discuss, there is no way to definitively conclude that the disparities shown by this metric necessarily stem from racial bias. What’s more, Stanford’s metric is too complicated for every precinct in the U.S. to use due to lack of detailed data and the complex analysis required.</p>
<h2>A proposed metric</h2>
<p>Given the drawbacks of current methods used to detect racial profiling, the U.S. needs a new way to detect racial profiling among police officers. We suggest something that is simple, understandable and easily applied across the country: a method called intrapopulation comparison.</p>
<p>Say one precinct has 100 police officers. Some officers stop fewer minorities, some stop more, while most officers are somewhere in the middle. Each officer is assigned a score, showing how far he or she individually deviates from the average. If the officer deviates too far, he or she is flagged and that case is looked at more carefully. </p>
<p>This concept was first introduced in the <a href="http://doi.org/10.3818/JRP.3.1.2001.63">early 2000s</a>. Why aren’t more precincts using this method? Most likely the same reason most practices stay in place past their prime: habit. We’re currently collecting data and studying how this metric might work for the St. Louis County Police Department.</p>
<p>Intrapopulation comparison allows us to flag individual officers, while addressing the issues that come with benchmarks or hit rates, like commuters and census data. The officers are compared with other officers in similar situations. The basis for identifying an officer in this system is that he or she is statistically different from the peer group.</p>
<p>A glaring issue with this approach is that an entire precinct could be racially biased. But, inevitably, there will be major outliers. </p>
<p>Racial profiling is a critical issue for law enforcement and the nation. Police departments have to demonstrate that they serve citizens in an impartial manner. We believe that this metric is simple and understandable, and it serves as an early warning system that will get closer to the root of the problem – individual officers who racially profile.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colby Dolly works for the St. Louis County Police Department in the Bureau of Research and Analysis.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liberty Vittert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Police practices like stop and frisk are often criticized as racial profiling. But it can be tricky to figure out from the data which officers are the worst offenders.Liberty Vittert, Visiting Assistant Professor in Statistics, Washington University in St. LouisColby Dolly, Ph.D Student in Political Science, University of Missouri-St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1011562018-08-07T10:43:07Z2018-08-07T10:43:07ZSmith College incident is latest case of racial ‘profiling by proxy’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230803/original/file-20180806-191013-1ii8qnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racial minorities face profiling on campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/retro-filtered-campus-security-sign-on-185887085?src=t_NFegO6wavRrTJnSUb5MQ-1-0">Mr. Doomits/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smith College has <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">opened an investigation</a> into a July 31 incident in which a staff employee called campus police on a black student who supposedly <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">“seemed to be out of place.”</a></p>
<p>It turns out the student, <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">Oumou Kanoute</a>, who had a summer job with the college, was <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">simply eating lunch</a> in a common area. </p>
<p>This incident did not happen in isolation. It is just the latest in a string of cases <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-race-triggers-a-call-to-campus-police-97507">referred to</a> as <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/police-perspectives/avoiding-profiling-by-proxy">profiling by proxy</a> – instances where police are summoned to a situation by a biased caller.</p>
<p>We make this observation as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aPbFPvkAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> with a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F6a4jNt7BEIwL64bgB5mcaoq8p41IcWqHBgKHYv3ZW2oSvFbBlWEVfC232Y0PhHrpUKRJky4E7VYKODpbpmH7MrLj8iIEDHFh4Y1D6xhf-rH5bI8hA&user=CCiMc5IAAAAJ">keen interest in how race comes into play</a> during day-to-day interactions with police both in and outside of college campuses.</p>
<h2>Outsiders on campus</h2>
<p>College campuses are often thought of as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23044032">safe spaces</a> and commonly regarded as forward-thinking environments. However, as the Smith College incident and other events demonstrate, merely being a student or even a faculty member does not always equate to acceptance and inclusion, particularly if the student or professor is a member of a minority group on campus.</p>
<p>Consider, for instance, two recent incidents on college campuses that involved racial <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/police-perspectives/avoiding-profiling-by-proxy">profiling by proxy</a>. One incident took place in Colorado on the campus of Colorado State University earlier this year during a campus visit and tour. Two prospective students, who were Native American males, were accused of acting “odd” due to their quiet disposition and clothing by a parent of another student on the campus tour. Due to her heightened suspicions, she <a href="https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/05/04/colorado-state-university-police-body-cam-video-shows-response-native-american-students/581924002/">called the police</a> on the two teens. The other incident took place in Connecticut earlier this year on the campus of Yale University. In this instance, a white student <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">called the police</a> on a black female graduate student who took a nap while writing a paper in their dorm’s common room.</p>
<p>All of these cases serve to show how racial micro- and <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814776186/">macro-aggressions</a> aren’t limited to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716212446299?journalCode=anna">neighborhoods</a>. They surface on college and university campuses as well. These recent incidents come not even two years after the hashtag <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/11/i-never-felt-safe-blackoncampus-stories-flood-social-media-after-missouri-protests/?utm_term=.07cd4b360e5c">#BlackOnCampus</a> flooded Twitter, exposing the daily occurrences of racism experienced by black students and leading to protests focused on race relations on <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/here-are-the-demands-from-students-protesting-racism-at-51-colleges/">over 50 college campuses</a>.</p>
<p>Campuses have often been described as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ss.56">“microcosms of society,”</a> so these incidents send a troubling message that the racist attitudes and behaviors that were part and parcel of American history endure in the present. They also highlight the need to move beyond policies addressing the legal restrictions that historically limited access to spaces and places to certain racial groups. Moving beyond this negative aspect of our nation’s past requires a shift in the current discussion from one that focuses on law enforcement and campus safety towards one in which we candidly discuss shared historical fallacies about the much-maligned “other.” This unpacking necessitates an understanding of how we, as a society, got to where we are today. </p>
<h2>The myth of black criminality</h2>
<p>From a historical perspective, American society was based on social constructions of race, ethnicity, gender and other identities. As a result, an <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Wf-TAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=Bolton,+Kenneth,+and+Joe+Feagin.+2004.+Black+in+blue:+African+American+police+officers+and+racism.+London+and+New+York:+Routledge+Publishers.&source=bl&ots=5fvJ5OCrqH&sig=Sw0I4Jq4qsqaWXsF_yRhKIvMKI8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1wZi9pMjbAhWmt1kKHXXeDKoQ6AEIQzAF#v=onepage&q=Bolton%2C%20Kenneth%2C%20and%20Joe%20Feagin.%202004.%20Black%20in%20blue%3A%20African%20American%20police%20officers%20and%20racism.%20London%20and%20New%20York%3A%20Routledge%20Publishers.&f=false">American narrative</a> that defined being different from the majority as <a href="http://leeclarke.com/courses/intro/readings/becker_definingdeviance.pdf">deviant</a> became embedded within the framework of American society, as well as the nation’s legal system. </p>
<p>One example of this that appeared after the Civil War was the enactment of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes">black codes</a>, which greatly restricted blacks’ labor and movement. The different-as-deviant narrative still affects American society to this day. Public policies and governmental actions have often reinforced these notions of “otherness” by marginalizing those who are considered <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61060.pdf">undeserving and uncapable</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sign reading ‘waiting room for colored only, by order Police Dept.’ Ca. 1940s or 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/sign-reading-waiting-room-colored-only-245961340?src=MeCjJmkJIRr5kQtLCIZIFA-1-3">Everett Historical/www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human beings have often been described as having an affinity for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330220225">myths</a>. One myth that continues to permeate society is known as <a href="https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol23/iss1/2/">Black Crimmythology</a> – or the myth that conflates blackness or otherness with criminality. </p>
<p>Black Crimmythology, as the converging legacy of the <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674012424">social construction of race</a> and the <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Stigma/Erving-Goffman/9780671622442">stigma</a> that accompanies it, continues to blemish our society. As such, it has a constraining limiting effect that impacts a person’s meaning, destiny and value – all based upon their physical appearance. </p>
<p>Political constructions are public policies that were created to reinforce the social construction of Black Crimmythology. Public policies – both before and after the Civil War – limited the spaces and places to which blacks and other people of color had access, with criminalizing effects. Implementing Black Crimmythology and the policies that legally reinforced it required the assistance of public servants – that is, law enforcement officers – and the support of white citizens who made up the dominant class. </p>
<p>The incidents at Smith College, <a href="https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/05/04/colorado-state-university-police-body-cam-video-shows-response-native-american-students/581924002/">Colorado State University</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">Yale University</a> highlight how all these things – race or Black Crimmythology, practices of contemporary police officers and “support” from members of the dominant racial group – resulted in a negative interaction or encounter. The police were called to address each caller’s implicit or explicit bias or prejudiced anxieties. These incidents reflect the lasting nature of the old narrative of defining one who is different as deviant, even during what some have described as our <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/12238/">post-racial</a> or <a href="https://www.greenlightbookstore.com/book/9781439177556">post-black</a> society.</p>
<h2>Toward ‘brave’ spaces</h2>
<p>In order to make progress and lessen the potential for negative encounters between members of minority groups and campus police, society must be willing to enter into <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/From-Safe-Spaces-to-Brave-Spaces-A-New-Way-to-Frame-Arao-Clemens/75c56a5dba81efd0954597ea39eb7d55acc7a202">brave spaces</a> – that is, spaces where people find the courage to risk engaging in uncomfortable and unsettling dialogue around issues of race and racism. </p>
<p>This effort requires more than just acknowledging the pain of others, but actually acting upon it.</p>
<p>One tool that can help in this regard is the <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/227/threat-assessment-flowchart-rev-3b.pdf?1533746388">Handy Guide for Objective Threat Evaluation</a> utilized by the University of California-Irvine Police Department. This tool asks that prior to calling the police, members of the public should ask themselves a series of questions: Does someone seem suspicious because of something that they are doing? Does someone seem suspicious because of how they are behaving? Or, is it because of their appearance? If it is because of their appearance and not because of their behavior, the assessment advises not to call.</p>
<p>This tool was created to help the public identify when situations and incidents necessitate calling the police. If the callers at Smith College, Colorado State and Yale would have followed this guide, officers never would have been summoned in the first place.</p>
<p><em><strong>Editor’s Note:</strong></em> <em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-race-triggers-a-call-to-campus-police-97507">article</a> originally published on July 16, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Marie Headley has received funding in the past from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics to conduct research on police-community relations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian N. Williams and Megan LePere-Schloop do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An incident in which a Smith College employee called police on a black student who ‘seemed out of place’ is just the latest in a string of cases of racial ‘profiling by proxy,’ three scholars argue.Brian N. Williams, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, University of VirginiaAndrea M. Headley, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, BerkeleyMegan LePere-Schloop, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/975072018-07-16T10:38:07Z2018-07-16T10:38:07ZWhen race triggers a call to campus police<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227465/original/file-20180712-27024-1x74689.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">College campuses can be unwelcoming environments for racial minorities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/retro-filtered-campus-security-sign-on-185887085?src=t_NFegO6wavRrTJnSUb5MQ-1-0">Mr. Doomits/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a beautiful spring afternoon on a picturesque college campus, two campus police officers responded to a black professor’s “good afternoon” with a request to see his identification.</p>
<p>The professor paused for a moment but decided to comply. He wondered if perhaps his attire – slacks, a button-down shirt and loafers – didn’t signal that he belonged. </p>
<p>As he presented his ID, another group of colleagues – all white – arrived and asked what was happening, so the professor told them. His colleagues asked the officers – in a sarcastic way – if they needed to show identification as well. The officers hurriedly returned the professor’s ID and didn’t respond to his colleagues’ inquiries.</p>
<p>This isn’t fiction. It happened to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F6a4jNt7BEIwL64bgB5mcaoq8p41IcWqHBgKHYv3ZW2oSvFbBlWEVfC232Y0PhHrpUKRJky4E7VYKODpbpmH7MrLj8iIEDHFh4Y1D6xhf-rH5bI8hA&user=CCiMc5IAAAAJ">one of us</a>. We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aPbFPvkAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> with a keen interest in how race comes into play during day-to-day interactions with police both in and outside of college campuses.</p>
<h2>Outsiders on campus</h2>
<p>College campuses are often thought of as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23044032">safe spaces</a> and commonly regarded as forward-thinking environments. However, as our anecdote and recent events demonstrate, merely being a student or even a faculty member does not always equate to acceptance and inclusion, particularly if the student or professor is a member of a minority group on campus.</p>
<p>Consider, for instance, two recent incidents on college campuses that involved racial <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/police-perspectives/avoiding-profiling-by-proxy">profiling by proxy</a> – that is, instances where police are summoned to a situation by a biased caller. One incident took place in Colorado on the campus of Colorado State University during a campus visit and tour. Two prospective students, who were Native Americans males, were accused of acting “odd” due to their quiet disposition and clothing by a parent of another student on the campus tour. Due to her heightened suspicions, she <a href="https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/05/04/colorado-state-university-police-body-cam-video-shows-response-native-american-students/581924002/">called the police</a> on the two teens. The other incident took place in Connecticut on the campus of Yale University. In this instance, a white student <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">called the police</a> on a black female graduate student who took a nap while writing a paper in their dorm’s common room.</p>
<p>Both cases serve to show how racial micro- and <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814776186/">macro-aggressions</a> aren’t limited to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716212446299?journalCode=anna">neighborhoods</a>. They surface on college and university campuses as well. These recent incidents come not even two years after the hashtag <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/11/i-never-felt-safe-blackoncampus-stories-flood-social-media-after-missouri-protests/?utm_term=.07cd4b360e5c">#BlackOnCampus</a> flooded Twitter, exposing the daily occurrences of racism experienced by black students, and leading to protests focused on race relations on <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/here-are-the-demands-from-students-protesting-racism-at-51-colleges/">over 50 college campuses</a>.</p>
<p>Campuses have often been described as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ss.56">“microcosms of society,”</a> so these incidents send a troubling message that the racist attitudes and behaviors that were part and parcel of American history endure in the present. They also highlight the need to move beyond policies addressing the legal restrictions that historically limited access to spaces and places to certain racial groups. Moving beyond this negative aspect of our nation’s past requires a shift in the current discussion from one that focuses on law enforcement and campus safety towards one in which we candidly discuss shared historical fallacies about the much-maligned “other.” This unpacking necessitates an understanding of how we, as a society, got to where we are today. </p>
<h2>The myth of black criminality</h2>
<p>From a historical perspective, American society was based on social constructions of race, ethnicity, gender and other identities. As a result, an <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Wf-TAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=Bolton,+Kenneth,+and+Joe+Feagin.+2004.+Black+in+blue:+African+American+police+officers+and+racism.+London+and+New+York:+Routledge+Publishers.&source=bl&ots=5fvJ5OCrqH&sig=Sw0I4Jq4qsqaWXsF_yRhKIvMKI8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1wZi9pMjbAhWmt1kKHXXeDKoQ6AEIQzAF#v=onepage&q=Bolton%2C%20Kenneth%2C%20and%20Joe%20Feagin.%202004.%20Black%20in%20blue%3A%20African%20American%20police%20officers%20and%20racism.%20London%20and%20New%20York%3A%20Routledge%20Publishers.&f=false">American narrative</a> that defined being different from the majority as <a href="http://leeclarke.com/courses/intro/readings/becker_definingdeviance.pdf">deviant</a> became embedded within the framework of American society, as well as the nation’s legal system. One example of this that appeared after the Civil War was the enactment of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes">black codes</a>, which greatly restricted blacks’ labor and movement. The different-as-deviant narrative still affects American society to this day. Public policies and governmental actions have often reinforced these notions of “otherness” by marginalizing those who are considered <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61060.pdf">undeserving and uncapable</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sign reading ‘waiting room for colored only, by order Police Dept.’ Ca. 1940s or 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/sign-reading-waiting-room-colored-only-245961340?src=MeCjJmkJIRr5kQtLCIZIFA-1-3">Everett Historical/www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human beings have often been described as having an affinity for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330220225">myths</a>. One myth that continues to permeate society is known as <a href="https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol23/iss1/2/">Black Crimmythology</a> – or the myth that conflates blackness or otherness with criminality. Black Crimmythology, as the converging legacy of the <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674012424">social construction of race</a> and the <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Stigma/Erving-Goffman/9780671622442">stigma</a> that accompanies it, continues to blemish our society. As such, it has a constraining limiting effect that impacts a person’s meaning, destiny and value – all based upon their physical appearance. </p>
<p>Political constructions are public policies that were created to reinforce the social construction of Black Crimmythology. Public policies – both before and after the Civil War – limited the spaces and places to which blacks and other people of color had access, with criminalizing effects. Implementing Black Crimmythology and the policies that legally reinforced it required the assistance of public servants – that is, law enforcement officers – and the support of white citizens who made up the dominant class. </p>
<p>The incidents at <a href="https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/05/04/colorado-state-university-police-body-cam-video-shows-response-native-american-students/581924002/">Colorado State University</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">Yale University</a> highlight how all these things – race or Black Crimmythology, practices of contemporary police officers and “support” from members of the dominant racial group – resulted in a negative interaction or encounter. The police were called to address each caller’s implicit or explicit bias or prejudiced anxieties. These incidents reflect the lasting nature of the old narrative of defining one who is different as deviant, even during what some have described as our <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/12238/">post-racial</a> or <a href="https://www.greenlightbookstore.com/book/9781439177556">post-black </a> society.</p>
<h2>Toward ‘brave’ spaces</h2>
<p>In order to make progress and lessen the potential for negative encounters between members of minority groups and campus police, society must be willing to enter into <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/From-Safe-Spaces-to-Brave-Spaces-A-New-Way-to-Frame-Arao-Clemens/75c56a5dba81efd0954597ea39eb7d55acc7a202">brave spaces</a> – that is, spaces where people find the courage to risk engaging in uncomfortable and unsettling dialogue around issues of race and racism. </p>
<p>This effort requires more than just acknowledging the pain of others, but actually acting upon it.</p>
<p>One tool that can help in this regard is the Handy Guide for Objective Threat Evaluation developed by Hobart Taylor and utilized by the University of California-Irvine Police Department. This tool asks that prior to calling the police, members of the public should ask themselves a series of questions: Does someone seem suspicious because of something that they are doing? Does someone seem suspicious because of how they are behaving? Or, is it because of their appearance? If it is because of their appearance and not because of their behavior, the assessment advises not to call.</p>
<p>This tool was created to help the public identify when situations and incidents necessitate calling the police. If the callers at Colorado State and Yale would have followed this guide, officers never would have been called in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Marie Headley has received funding in the past from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics to conduct research on police-community relations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian N. Williams and Megan LePere-Schloop do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A longstanding view of minorities as outsiders contributes to negative encounters with campus police. A researcher argues how greater empathy can lessen the urge to call the police in the first place.Brian N. Williams, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, University of VirginiaAndrea M. Headley, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, BerkeleyMegan LePere-Schloop, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974182018-06-04T13:49:48Z2018-06-04T13:49:48ZHow CCTV surveillance poses a threat to privacy in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220930/original/file-20180530-120505-j9xs87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CCTV cameras are becoming a “normal” feature of public life, tracking peoples’ movements as a matter of course.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Locational privacy is a fairly new and novel aspect of privacy rights. It refers to the right of people to move about freely, without having their movements tracked. </p>
<p>But as CCTV cameras become more widespread in public spaces for use in a range of functions such as crime-fighting, it’s becoming more difficult for people to protect this kind of privacy in public spaces.</p>
<p>The cameras, linked to a display monitors, can be used to monitor human movements in particular spaces, including streets and shopping centres. A video recorder can also be added to record activities. But, the problem with CCTV is always the human capacity to process the information gleaned from the cameras. The cameras can only film fixed areas. Unless they are ubiquitous, they cannot be used to track movements.</p>
<p>The need for human monitoring places a natural limit on the analysis of camera footage. But, with digital tools of analysis, this is changing. When linked to a computer loaded with software capable of algorithmic analysis, huge amounts of footage can be analysed. These camera based surveillance systems can capture information about a person’s physical location. Some may only provide real time information, while others may record information for further analysis.</p>
<p>But governments of a more authoritarian bent can misuse this information to establish people’s movements, political activities and associations. People may not participate as robustly in democratic life as they would if they feel that they are being watched, and their movements tracked.</p>
<p>Invasive forms of data analysis such as number plate and facial recognition are being introduced in South African cities without any public debate about the implications for privacy in public spaces. Likewise, there’s no debate about about their implications for the ability of citizens to practice a range of rights in these spaces, such as the right to assemble.</p>
<h2>Ubiquity</h2>
<p>Increasingly, CCTV cameras are becoming a “normal” feature of public life, tracking peoples’ movements as a matter of course. Video analysis tools also allow for more sophisticated analyses of footage. </p>
<p>Computer analysis enables CCTV to be turned into “smart dataveillance” devices (that conduct surveillance through the collection and computerised analysis of data), which make individuals and their movements more visible to the state. These are meant to assist in “smart” policing, whereby police use data tools to enhance the effectiveness of policing.</p>
<p>Another example is facial recognition technologies. These can be used to identify a particular person from a facial database. Potentially, these technologies can, and are, being used to identify people engaging in politically activities, such as protests. This triggers concerns that governments may be tempted to use them for anti-democratic purposes. </p>
<p>South Africa has followed international trends in street-level surveillance and embraced technologies whose affect on crime fighting and intelligence work are, at best, unclear and contested. International academic <a href="https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203814949.ch3_2_c">research</a> points to CCTV systems being most effective in specific contexts, such as parking lots, and least effective in open spaces.</p>
<p>Other kinds of crime such as white collar crime and domestic crime, are not recorded by street cameras, which perpetuates an ideology of crime being street crime perpetrated by strangers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Eyes-Everywhere-The-Global-Growth-of-Camera-Surveillance/Doyle-Lippert-Lyon/p/book/9780415696555">Critics</a> have also blamed the use of CCTV systems for displacing crime, rather than deterring it. Where reductions in crime levels have taken place because of CCTV, they were localised and often not statistically significant.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A security officers monitoring activity captured on CCTV.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The difficulties of assessing the impacts of CCTV on crime is made harder by the fact that local authorities have not been undertaking independent impact assessments (including on privacy). This means that the public is forced to rely on the state’s version of events, which for public relations purposes, emphasises the positive impacts. Yet, in Cape Town in 2015 for instance, the police were criticised for making only 107 arrests following 2640 criminal incidents <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/technology/111529/sa-police-not-using-cctv-footage-to-catch-criminals-da/">caught on camera</a>.</p>
<p>In 2016, the City of Johannesburg <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/06/26/City-of-JHB-installs-smart-cameras-around-city">announced</a> that it was rolling out smart CCTV cameras complete, with automatic number plate and facial recognition technologies, as part of its <a href="http://www.gautengfilm.org.za/news/news-archive/2008/december-2008/360-making-the-inner-city-safer-a-city-of-joburg-initiative">‘safe cities’ initiative</a>. </p>
<p>Yet at the time of writing, the City had enacted no requirement for signage at the entrance to an area under CCTV surveillance – a key privacy protection requirement. The City was in the process of finalising a policy on the roll-out of CCTVs, coupled with a master plan, but these were still at draft stage, pointing to the fact that the technology had run ahead of the policy.</p>
<p>CCTV rollouts tend to <a href="http://www.saflii.org/khayelitshacommissionreport.pdf">“follow the money”</a>. In other words, they tend to follow patterns of wealth in the major metropolitan cities in South Africa. This contributes to the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/209473/joburg-is-looking-at-making-big-changes-to-boomed-suburbs/">enclosure of city spaces</a> by private capital, and consequently to the privatisation of public spaces and the reproduction of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094215618595">spacial inequalities</a>.</p>
<p>It’s not at all clear if the growing capacity of local governments to collect street-level data on peoples’ movements is making a substantial contribution to policing, as the police do not use this data routinely.</p>
<h2>The risk of dumbing down policing</h2>
<p>Technology is being used as a silver bullet for policing of public spaces, when more basic interventions may be more appropriate (such as improving investigative techniques), risks dumbing down policing. Yet, at the same time, the regulation of CCTV for its impacts on privacy is lagging behind the actual rollout of the technology.</p>
<p>Data-driven surveillance tools, such as smart CCTV, consistently over promise but under deliver in fighting crime. Yet, governments are adept at creating panic about crime to obscure these failings. People’s fear of crime, and their need to feel protected from it, should not stop them from asking the critical questions that need to be asked. </p>
<p><em>This is an edited excerpt from the author’s latest book, <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/stopping-the-spies/">Stopping the Spies: Constructing and Resisting the Surveillance State</a>, published by Wits University Press.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Duncan receives funding from the Open Society Foundation for South Africa. She is affiliated with the Media Policy and Democracy Project and the Right 2 Know Campaign. </span></em></p>As CCTV cameras become more widespread, it’s becoming more difficult for people to protect their locational privacy in public.Jane Duncan, Professor and head of the Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/934132018-03-28T22:56:09Z2018-03-28T22:56:09ZEmotional intelligence is life and death where I’m from<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212374/original/file-20180328-109190-17nyizo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A program called Generation Chosen offers marginalized Black youth from Toronto's Jane and Finch community mentorship, community and the tools of emotional intelligence.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Rhianne Campbell)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jermaine Brown became <a href="http://library.humber.ca/digital-archive/sites/default/files/coven/Mar30_2006_Vol36_No20.pdf">Toronto’s 15th homicide victim</a> of 2006. His murderers shot him five times — once in each of his legs, twice in his torso; the final bullet maliciously tunnelled through his neck and out of his side.</p>
<p>Jermaine Brown was my older brother. </p>
<p>I often imagine how he felt, as he laid on the cold concrete, motionless as the life left his body. The pain. The fear. The loneliness.</p>
<p>It always brings me back to the profound sadness and anger I felt when I was 15. The restless nights where my mind would do nothing but wander and cogitate revenge.
<a href="https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/28752/ssoar-jexpsocpsychol-2009-4-gollwitzer_et_al-what_makes_revenge_satisfactory.pdf?sequence=1">That was a word I fixated on — revenge — a word that began to govern each of my breaths</a>. I was slipping down an emotional slide from which a return could be impossible.</p>
<p>This emotional slide is not unique to me. It is a commonplace narrative of despondency among youth in the <a href="http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2014/03/13/jane-and-finch-neighbourhood-deemed-torontos-least-livable.html">Jane and Finch community</a> of Toronto — a neighbourhood where nearly a quarter of residents are on social assistance and high school graduation rates are low. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/mental_health/en/">Mental health</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgUCyWhJf6s">emotional intelligence</a> <em>must</em> be a focus in communities like this — communities that are home to marginalized Black youth.</p>
<p>If it wasn’t for basketball, a few caring mentors and teachers, family and my brother’s constant reminder to, “focus on ball and school… be the best,” <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2009/06/06/suspended_sentences_forging_a_schooltoprison_pipeline.html">I don’t know where I would be today</a>.</p>
<p>As a teacher with the Toronto District School Board and a PhD candidate in York University’s Faculty of Education, I now focus my research on mental health and its influence on the success of Black youth throughout our education system. </p>
<p>I am also the co-founder of a program called <a href="http://www.generationchosen.ca">Generation Chosen</a>.</p>
<h2>We need to invest in mental hygiene</h2>
<p>The federal government has announced it is <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/black-canadian-politicians-reflect-on-the-importance-of-funding-for-their-communities-1.4561803">setting aside $19 million over five years to research culturally-appropriate mental health programs and support for vulnerable Black youth</a>.</p>
<p>Mental health experts say <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/19-million-for-mental-health-programs-in-black-communities-sorely-needed-1.4558513">this funding will help improve access to treatment for a vulnerable sector of the population</a>.</p>
<p>However, although treatment is important, our society is far too treatment-oriented. </p>
<p>We should consider investing into programs that focus on the development of mental hygiene.</p>
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<p>Generation Chosen, an inner city program tailored to the needs of disenfranchised youth, does exactly this. </p>
<p>The focus of the program is on mental health, emotional intelligence, education, jobs and recreation – keystone items we have identified as dictating the social mobility of those most vulnerable in our society.</p>
<h2>A program that saves lives</h2>
<p>Generation Chosen tackles monthly themes that are often conceptualized as being taboo, such as fear, hate, forgiveness, resilience, love, stress, vision and <a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/docs/default-source/project-documents/black-experience-project-gta/black-experience-project-gta---5-identity.pdf?sfvrsn=7499d70_2">identity</a>. </p>
<p>Each topic is addressed through four components: Anchor Sessions (30 minute hands-on group activities that build team work, catalyze introspection, elicit vulnerability and promote meaningful relationships); Anchor Talks (30 minute themed talks infused with multi-media and provocative discussions); Educational Workshops (monthly visits from professionals who are culturally similar to our youth and can speak about their work experience); and finally a ChozenTrip (a field trip that brings everything discussed and experienced in the month together).</p>
<p>The program has been very successful in creating positive change for its participants in its two years of operation. </p>
<p>We have helped 13 participants apply to get into college and university programs, connected youth with various job opportunities, helped homeless youth obtain shelter, inspired youth to disassociate themselves from gangs and repaired broken family relationships. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Joseph Smith and Dwayne Brown offer a look inside the Generation Chosen program.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Many have even said that the program saved their lives.</p>
<p>One such instance of this was in July 2016. Some of our youth were reluctant to attend programming that evening, as the offer of driving around with neighbourhood friends seemed like a more appealing evening plan. </p>
<p>Dahir and friends made the difficult decision to attend Generation Chosen that evening with the intention of meeting up with their friends later. That would be the last time they saw one of their friends. Shortly after they were dropped off, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jane-sheppard-shooting-1.3677965">there was a drive-by shooting that targeted the vehicle they were in.</a> </p>
<p>At the word of the news, the young men began sobbing uncontrollably, tasking us with the duty of consoling and building back up these vulnerable men. “That could have been us,” said Dahir.</p>
<h2>$19 million is not enough</h2>
<p>In 2016, <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/171025/dq171025b-eng.htm">Statistics Canada reported about 1,198,540 people of the Black diaspora living in Canada.</a> </p>
<p>I am of the philosophy, “<a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/LearningforAll2013.pdf">what’s essential for some, is good for all</a>.” I also believe that all people of the Black diaspora suffer from trauma that can lead to <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-impacts-your-health-84112">a wearing down of their mental</a> and <a href="https://thelocal.to/the-health-affects-of-anti-black-racism-ee565fff5805">physical health</a>.</p>
<p>Let’s crunch some numbers. </p>
<p>If we assume the <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-002-x/2004/03/07604/4072459-eng.htm">population of Black youth 15-24 years of age</a> has stayed at around 17 per cent of the Black population since 2001, the total number of Black youth between the age of 15 and 24 years would be about 203,752. </p>
<p>Using this value, the promised $19 million investment for Black youth amounts to an allotment of approximately $93.25 per person over five years. That is about $18.65 per person per year.</p>
<p>This is an embarrassing amount that does not consider long-term outcomes for the Black community, especially when <a href="http://depression.informedchoices.ca/types-of-treatment/counseling-or-therapy/how-much-does-therapy-or-counseling-cost/">the cost to see a counsellor or other mental health specialist ranges from $50 to $240</a>. </p>
<p>Although some services may be covered by private health insurance, $19 million is not enough!</p>
<h2>Life over death for Black youth</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/docs/default-source/project-documents/black-experience-project-gta/black-experience-project-gta---7-institutional-and-interpersonal-racism-in-everyday-life.pdf?sfvrsn=b66a9a55_2">Institutional racism</a>, economic disadvantage, <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/policing-black-lives">racial profiling</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/24/un-report-on-canada-to-address-anti-black-racism.html">and social exclusion</a> are daily realities for the youth we serve and there is no escaping this. </p>
<p>What we can do is provide them with the skills they need to weather the storm of <a href="http://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Bell-Hooks-Transcript.pdf">white supremacist capitalist patriarchy</a>, and navigate the complicated world before them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212364/original/file-20180328-109193-10vluci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants in Generation Chosen, in the Jane and Finch community of Toronto.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Rhianne Campbell)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There need to be more programs in the Black community that, like Generation Chosen, focus on the development of emotional intelligence. Or we will continue to lose our youth. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/teen-killed-in-targeted-shooting-id-d-as-caheem-monteith-1.3859723">Take for example my nephew, Clayshawn “Caheem” Monteith</a>, who was murdered in 2016 just after his seventeenth birthday. </p>
<p>Or <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/marks-street-victim-id-1.4135946">Edmond Clovis, one of our participants who was murdered in Thunder Bay</a> after making a step to turn his life around. </p>
<p>Or the many other people I knew and grew up with like Delaine, Jeremy, Skippy or Byron who would have benefited from a program like Generation Chosen. </p>
<p>If the killers of my brother and all these other youth had a program like Generation Chosen it would probably have led to a shift in the culture of hopelessness.</p>
<p>An investment of $19 million is a good start. It shows the government is finally listening. But it is definitely not enough. </p>
<p>With a more sustainable funding amount, invested in the right kinds of programs, the government can show it values life over death in our communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dwayne Brown is affiliated with Generation Chosen. He is the co-founder of this not-for-profit organization.</span></em></p>Black youth need programs that develop emotional intelligence – to combat institutional racism, social exclusion and white supremacy. The government’s promised $19 million is not enough.Dwayne Brown, PhD student in Education, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/828132017-08-23T21:20:49Z2017-08-23T21:20:49ZArpaio pardon could encourage more civil rights violations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183211/original/file-20170823-6615-9d9a82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is joined by Joe Arpaio at a campaign event.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who illegally used racial profiling to enforce immigration laws, on Aug. 25.</p>
<p>It’s true, <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-trump-use-the-presidential-pardon-to-thwart-the-russia-investigations-81296">Trump has</a> the <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/71/333/case.html">legal power to pardon</a> pretty much anyone. But pardoning Arpaio may <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/07/the-president-just-endorsed-rough-rides/535335/">send the message</a> that state and local officials can aggressively enforce federal immigration law, even if it risks racial profiling and violating the due process rights of citizens and noncitizens.</p>
<h2>Legal limits on immigration enforcement</h2>
<p>Arpaio has long been known for his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/08/23/what-you-need-to-know-about-former-arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaios-record-on-illegal-immigration/?utm_term=.2cd98383761b">harsh practices</a> like requiring inmates to work on chain gangs and live in outdoor tent cities in the scorching Arizona heat. He prioritized immigration enforcement at the expense of crimes like sexual assault. </p>
<p>In 2011, a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/05/arpaio-contempt/482766/">federal court found</a> that Arpaio’s sheriff’s department unconstitutionally racially profiled Latinos. The court additionally noted that state and county officials had no authority to enforce federal immigration law without authorization from the federal government. Arpaio had no such authorization. </p>
<p>As a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department civil rights lawyer, I know that state and local cooperation can be helpful in enforcing federal law. But as I teach my constitutional law students, when it comes to immigration, federal law usually <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/11-182">preempts state law</a>. State overenforcement of immigration law can actually interfere with federal policy. So, state officials should enforce federal immigration law only where the federal government asks them to.</p>
<p>More fundamentally, no federal or state official can legally <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/422/873.html">target people</a> for immigration-related stops and questioning just because they look Latino. And as the Supreme Court has stated, even noncitizens have the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-7791.ZS.html">right to due process</a> and to be free from racial discrimination, as long as they are <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1195.ZS.html">present in the U.S.</a></p>
<p>Arpaio’s detentions and questioning thus broke the law by violating individuals’ due process and Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The court ordered Arpaio and his office to stop using race as a factor in its enforcement decisions. His deputies could detain individuals based on probable cause that they had violated some state law, but not merely because they suspected them of being in the U.S. illegally. </p>
<h2>Consequences of a pardon</h2>
<p>In July, another federal judge <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ex-sheriff-joe-arpaio-convicted-of-criminal-contempt/2017/07/31/26d9572e-7620-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.76bd493bf144">convicted Arpaio</a> of criminal contempt for intentionally violating the first court’s prior orders. His sentencing hearing is set for this October.</p>
<p>It is unusual for a president to pardon someone before he or she is sentenced. Doing so suggests that Trump felt Arpaio did nothing wrong.</p>
<p>The pardon may encourage like-minded state and local officials to racially profile Latinos, too. More broadly, it may encourage state and local officers to aggressively enforce federal immigration law. Many experts and law enforcement officials criticize such state and local enforcement, saying it erodes trust with immigrant communities, making them too fearful to report local crimes and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-police-immigration-enforcement-20170412-story.html">cooperate with police</a>. </p>
<p>Arpaio’s pardon does not mean a complete clean slate for him. It would not erase a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/13/us/sheriff-joe-arpaio-contempt-charges/index.html">separate court ruling</a> from 2016 that found him in civil contempt of court. Civil contempt is a noncriminal finding, which could require remedial measures like court-ordered reforms, reporting requirements and the like. These do not <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/267/87/case.html">fall under the reach</a> of the president’s pardon.</p>
<p>Nor does a pardon mean that he or his department are allowed to return to their unconstitutional practices. Arpaio himself is now out of office, having lost his most <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/joe-arpaio-arizona-sheriff.html">recent election</a>. And the Maricopa County Sheriff Department is still under a court order to refrain from racial profiling and other illegal immigration enforcement efforts. But the pardon may embolden immigration hawks and infuriate Trump’s opponents – which, in the end, might very well be the intention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82813/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Mulroy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pardoning a man who has illegally used racial profiling to round up Latinos could send a message to law enforcement that aggressive tactics are OK by the president.Steven Mulroy, Law Professor in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Election Law, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/701872017-01-03T01:54:16Z2017-01-03T01:54:16ZTrump’s immigration policies will pick up where Obama’s left off<p>In 2017, the Trump administration will likely continue and expand the Obama administration’s focus on removing immigrants convicted of crimes. Whether Trump will break ground for a <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-i-would-force-mexico-build-border-wall">wall</a> along the U.S. border with Mexico is far less certain.</p>
<p>Ramping up immigration enforcement by focusing on the criminal justice pipeline for removals has proven to be an efficient strategy. Immigrants in jail are not hard to find. And, removing criminals raises far fewer civil rights concerns than, for example, locating and removing laborers through the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-trumps-immigration-enforcement-could-affect-families-and-communities-69019">workplace raids</a>. </p>
<p>Immigrants with criminal arrest records and convictions have few political allies and defenders. Resistance to their removal has not been as great as resistance to removing other groups of immigrants, such as <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/why-us-colleges-should-welcome-undocumented-immigrants/385049/">undocumented college students</a>. </p>
<p>That may explain why Donald Trump began <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-undocumented-asians-adv-20161206-story.html?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=a38df6438b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-a38df6438b-76278113">his presidential campaign</a> by claiming that Mexico was sending criminals to the United States, and promising to deport them en masse.</p>
<p>To increase crime-based removals, the Trump administration will probably seek greater state and local assistance in federal immigration enforcement. Under President Obama, these efforts led to the removal of a disproportionate number of Latino immigrants. <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2046328">My scholarship</a> sheds light on how Trump’s immigration proposals may similarly affect Latinos.</p>
<h2>‘Latino removal system’</h2>
<p>President Obama’s administration prioritized removing immigrants who had been convicted of crimes. However, the U.S. criminal justice system is notorious for producing racially disparate results. African-Americans and Latinos continue to be disproportionately criminalized and incarcerated as they have throughout U.S. history, as described in Michelle Alexander’s powerful book <a href="http://newjimcrow.com/">“The New Jim Crow</a>.” </p>
<p>As <a href="https://casetext.com/posts/doubling-down-on-racial-discrimination-the-racially-disparate-impacts-of-crimmigration-law#!">a result</a>, the U.S. immigrant removal system yields similarly unequal results.</p>
<p>The Obama administration created programs that allowed state criminal justice systems to directly feed immigrants into the federal immigration removal system. That, in turn, made it possible for his administration to set removal <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661">records</a>. In <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/16/u-s-immigrant-deportations-fall-to-lowest-level-since-2007/">some</a> years as many as 400,000 people were removed. During the eight years of his presidency, more than 2.5 million noncitizens were deported – more than during any other U.S. presidency.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ice.gov/removal-statistics/2016">Immigration and Customs Enforcement data</a> show that, in fiscal year 2016, crime-based removals represented more than 90 percent of the noncitizens removed from the interior of the United States.</p>
<p>Under a program called <a href="https://www.ice.gov/secure-communities">Secure Communities</a>, state and local law enforcement agencies shared arrest information with federal immigration authorities, and detained immigrant criminal offenders. Criminal offenders were then taken into custody by federal immigration authorities. In November 2014, the Obama administration replaced Secure Communities with the <a href="https://www.ice.gov/pep">Priority Enforcement Program</a>, which was somewhat narrower in scope.</p>
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<p>Today, more than 95 percent of removals in the United States are of Latino noncitizens, despite the fact that the total immigrant population in the United States is much more diverse. Latino immigrants <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol66/iss4/8/">comprise</a> only about 50 percent of lawful immigrants, and around 70 percent of undocumented ones. Because removals are so heavily skewed toward Latinos, some refer to the modern U.S. removal system as the “Latino removal system.” </p>
<h2>Mandating state and local assistance</h2>
<p>Trump is likely to encounter the same resistance that Obama did in working with state and local governments on immigration enforcement. </p>
<p>The Trump administration may seek to mandate state and local assistance in federal immigration enforcement. To do so, it might challenge “<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-history-of-sanctuary-spaces-and-why-do-they-matter-69100">sanctuary cities</a>,” as Donald Trump <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/sanctuary-cities-trump-immigration-232449">has done</a> rhetorically. However, there is no firm definition of what sanctuary cities are – only the suggestion that they are not fully cooperating in enforcing immigration laws. Trump has <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-address-on-immigration">threatened</a> to defund such cities, a step that would seemingly <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/dec/01/bill-de-blasio/new-york-city-mayor-says-president-cant-defund-san/">require</a> congressional authorization. </p>
<p>If Congress were to pass such legislation, state and local governments may be able to challenge it as infringing on the constitutionally protected authority of the states.</p>
<p>Needless to say, any challenge to sanctuary cities is likely to meet formidable resistance from some quarters. The California legislature already has been <a href="http://sd24.senate.ca.gov/news/2016-12-05-california-legislature-takes-immediate-action-protect-immigrant-communities">preparing</a> a game plan for a showdown with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement. For example, legislators have proposed legislation that would limit information sharing with the federal government about immigrants.</p>
<p>Some state and local law enforcement leaders worry that immigrants lose trust in local police when they are perceived to be deeply involved in federal immigration enforcement. Loss of trust, in turn, can reduce the <a href="http://www.policylink.org/sites/default/files/INSECURE_COMMUNITIES_REPORT_FINAL.PDF">willingness</a> of immigrants to help authorities combat crime. This concerns local police who say they need the cooperation of all people in the community, including <a href="http://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/chapman-law-review/vol18/iss2/6/">lawful and undocumented</a> immigrants, in reporting crime and aiding criminal prosecutions.</p>
<p>To that end, the Los Angeles Police Department’s <a href="http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/SO_40.pdf">Special Order 40</a> limits police inquiry into the immigration status of crime victims, witnesses and suspects. The idea is to separate criminal law enforcement from federal immigration enforcement. Such separation is consistent with the Supreme Court’s finding in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/11-182">Arizona v. United States</a> in 2012 that the federal government has the authority to admit and remove immigrants. And, ordinary law enforcement primarily is handled by local law enforcement agencies. </p>
<p>The new administration will also need to grapple with how local police involvement in immigration enforcement impacts the civil rights of Latinos. Such impacts are real. This year, a <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/ortega-melendres-et-al-v-arpaio-et-al">federal court</a> found the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona, in the guise of assisting federal immigration enforcement, had engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination.</p>
<p>These civil rights abuses show the potential costs of state and local law enforcement assistance in federal immigration enforcement efforts. The same risks will exist for the new Trump administration in 2017.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In his first year of office, Trump’s immigration policy will likely focus not on building an expensive wall, but rather on the work that earned Obama the nickname ‘Deporter in Chief.’Kevin Johnson, Dean and Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.