“POLICING AS AN INSTITUTION IS INHERENTLY RACIST, CLASSIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC AND TRANSPHOBIC”
“In the Face of Power,” a panel held on Sept. 11 at the University of Ottawa, discussed police violence and systemic racism in Canada.
This panel was put together by the same group of community organizations that recently filed a lawsuit in the Ontario small claims court against the Ottawa Police Services Board. This group of plaintiffs, which includes the U of O Black Student Leaders Association, has claimed that the Police Services Board is restricting their freedom of expression during in-person board meetings.
The panel featured discussions not just of the upcoming lawsuit, but of the systemic oppression and white supremacy underlying law enforcement as an institution in Canada. The experts invited to speak on these topics were Yavar Hameed, a lawyer and human rights advocate; Robin Browne, a community organizer at 613-819 Black Hub and one of the lawsuit plaintiffs; Sam Hersh, a political activist; and Helyeh Doutaghi, a doctoral candidate in law and legal studies.
What unites these speakers and the organizations they represent is the belief that community action is crucial to social transformation. Each speaker sought to question the limits of the authority exercised by law enforcement institutions.
“Policing as an institution is inherently racist, classist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic,” said Jeffrey Bradley. “This is evident in the hyper-policing of certain communities and the use of surveillance tactics. There have also been violent responses to vulnerable community members.”
He recalled an incident in the past where an elementary school student made a vulgar gesture to policemen standing outside his school bus. The policemen reacted by boarding the bus and threatening to take the child into their cruiser, then going to the child’s school to make a formal complaint to his principal.
“The role and presence of police is so present in society that it is expected that there must be deference,” said Bradley. “There must be respect for officers at all times. And that respect is not a thing that police officers earn. They use their force to command respect.”
Panels like this challenge the normalization of police force as an unquestioned authority in society, bringing together community organizers to imagine the deconstruction of oppressive hierarchies.
Correction: This article was updated Sept. 25 at 10:00am to attribute a quote to Jeffrey Bradley; the previous version attributed Yavar Hameed.
