Chief James Ramer of the Toronto Police Service speaks during a news conference releasing race-based data at police headquarters in Toronto.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin
Strip searching is a police practice that evokes racial and sexual trauma, and it’s also ineffective. It’s finally time to talk about ending this oppressive police practice.
A person holds a sign calling for to defund the police during an October 2020 protest in Ottawa after a police constable was acquitted of manslaughter in the 2016 death of a Black man, Abdirahman Abdi.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Around the world, policing — as an institution — is being challenged. But calls to defund the police will fall short if they do not address the history of policing.
There are currently at least four major calls to defund police forces in Canada. Here, hundreds of people participate in a Black Lives Matter demonstration in front of Saskatchewan’s Legislative Building in Regina on June 2, 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Taylor
Another world is possible when we defund and reimagine policing as we know it. A review of police budgets could mean more money towards community initiatives.
Bicycle police officers keep an eye on Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto on Sunday, May 24, 2020. Warm weather and a reduction in COVID-19 restrictions has many looking to the outdoors for relief.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Claire Wilmot, London School of Economics and Political Science
The provincial government has funding to support non-police safety and well-being initiatives — but 99 per cent of it just supplements police budgets.
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.
(AP Photo/Ragan Clark)
Research on excessive use of force by police and the sociological context and psychological characteristics of killer cops point to useful policy measures.
Malaysia Hammond, 19, places flowers at a memorial mural for George Floyd at the corner of Chicago Avenue and 38th Street on May 31, 2020, in Minneapolis.
(John Minchillo/AP Photo)
There is no good police versus bad police. Police are police. They are the states’ organ of repression. There are a myriad of better scenarios than the current one.