Defund the police

..pdf file

Defunding the Police:

Defining the Way Forward for HRM

..police as enforcers

The Institution that Remains: the Manitoba Developmental Centre and Disabled Confinement in Manitoba

Institutions, be it prisons, personal care homes, group homes, or psychiatric institutions are designed to segregate, isolate and invisibilize disabled people, particularly those labelled with intellectual/developmental disabilities. These institutions are unique, but are intricately woven together with carceral logic–which rationalizes confinement and control.

The Manitoba Development Centre (MDC) is one of the last two remaining large-scale institutions for people labelled with intellectual/developmental disabilities in Canada. For well over a century it has been used to forcibly remove disabled people from their communities and isolate them. The provincially operated institution has inflicted violence on disabled people who have spent lifetimes incarcerated in the MDC.

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Labour and Deinstitutionalization

While most institutions across Canada closed in the 2000s, including BC, Ontario and Alberta, in 2004, the NDP government in Manitoba invested $40 million into upgrades of MDC. How did Manitoba become the national face of institutionalization and confinement of disabled people?

Liat Ben-Moshe’s Decarcerating Disability draws the important parallels between the role of labour unions organizing in maintaining institutionalization and incarceration. In Manitoba, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union (MGEU) perfectly demonstrates the connection between institutionalization and incarceration.

MGEU is the leading force for the defense and proliferation of carceral spaces across the province. MGEU represents 32,000 workers, 360 of which are employed at the MDC, and 120 of whom are employed in prisons. This is but a fraction of their large workforce, yet MGEU has spent considerable hours invested in their proliferation.

James Wilt and Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land examine the role of MGEU in Manitoba’s growing carceral landscape, noting that “...while the trend toward punishment and securitization is not unique to Manitoba, the MGEU is a key piece in solving the puzzle of how new jails and police have become a project of the social democratic left.”

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MGEU has levelled two primary arguments to justify the institutionalization of disabled people in Manitoba. The first, carceral ableism, which justifies that some level of disability requires institutionalization. To do so, MGEU relies on the narrative that the people incarcerated are too disabled and too complex to live in community, a blatant lie used to justify incarceration. There is no level of care, no form of disability that requires incarceration....

Support the Defund the Police by 50% Campaign

SURJ is organizing to support the demand from Black Lives Matter Toronto to defund the Toronto Police Services by 50%. The movement to defund the police is growing. By mobilizing and empowering residents of Toronto to organize their communities, we believe we can demonstrate the widespread support of that movement. We need to pressure councillors to consider a budget that reflects a shift towards a future free from unjust systems of policing, violence, and carceral approaches to justice.

Toronto Councillors will debate and vote on the budget on February 17, 2022.

The Toronto Police Service is asking for an increase in their budget – we can’t let that happen! We must demand that our councillors dramatically change the City’s funding priorities to reflect what's needed. By reallocating money away from the police and de-tasking police, we can reduce harm and over-policing, while addressing Toronto’s inequities by properly funding housing, and public community services.

You can make a difference. Be a part of our movement to invest in community.

Want to make a presentation or written submission to the Toronto Budget Committee?

Depute on Monday, January 24 and Tuesday, January 25, 2022 (via zoom). You can also submit your written comments to Budget Committee by email. Learn more at the City of Toronto site here.

..wow!

Let’s re-imagine a new system

As public outrage at police brutality grows, a movement to redirect public resources away from traditional policing has taken hold around the country. Now, we take a look at a few of the real-world alternatives to the police services.

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VIOLENT CRIME

One common refrain in opposition to defunding the police assumes that our society will not be able to effectively respond to violent crime. But we have to remember that police do not prevent violence. In most incidents of violent crime, police are responding to a crime that has already taken place. When this happens, what we need from police is a service that will investigate the crime, and perhaps prevent such crimes from occurring in future.

Policing is ill-equipped to suit these needs. When victims are not the right kinds of victims, police have utterly failed, and at times refused to take the threat seriously. Why would we rely on an institution that has consistently proven that it is rife with systemic anti-Blackness and other forms of discrimination that result in certain communities being deemed unworthy of support? Instead of relying on police, we could rely on investigators from other sectors to carry out investigations. Social workers, sociologists, forensic scientists, doctors, researchers, and other well-trained individuals to fulfill our needs when violent crimes take place.

Police intervention into an ongoing violent crime is rare. But, In the event that intervention is required while a violent crime is ongoing, a service that provides expert specialized rapid response does not need to be connected to an institution of policing that fails in every other respect. Such a specialized service does not require the billions of dollars we waste in ineffective policing from year to year.

..from another thread. this is the role of the police as set out by the federal gov. with input from the provinces. and as we see in the natural resource sector a tool for corporations.

..this is not an issue of reform it's an issue of the control of people by the powers that be. we can't via representative democracy control those powers that be but it is still possible to make change at the municipal level via direct democracy.  

Canadian police expanding surveillance powers via new digital “operations centres”

Jan 13 / 2022

Canadian police have been establishing municipal surveillance centres to support law enforcement, deploying digital technologies that expand surveillance powers with the help of major US corporations, according to government documents seen by The Breach.

Working around-the-clock in special rooms or wings of police stations, these so-called “real-time operations centres” are the cornerstone of a shift to confront what police call the “new challenges” of a digital age.

They are intended to provide “virtual backup” for police officers in any situation, supplying them with information drawn from deep social media monitoring, private and public closed-circuit televisions (CCTV), open-ended data collection, and algorithmic mining. 

Over the last 10 years, the surveillance centres have been quietly set up within police forces from Halifax to Vancouver, with no public debate about their functions, corporate relationships, or impacts. 

Described by police as “force-multipliers,” they are already being used to monitor demonstrations. And analysts and experts are warning that the reliance on digital surveillance tools, and databases filled with details drawn from practices like carding, risk “supercharging” discriminatory and racist patterns of policing when delivered to officers in real-time.

According to government documents, the centres are modeled after fusion centres created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security post-9/11. The U.S. fusion centres, which began with a focus on combatting terrorism but later expanded to criminal and political activity, have been criticized for indiscriminate surveillance and civil rights violations..... 

..have a look at post #11

Angela Davis: Abolishing police is not just about dismantling. It's also about building up

..from the video

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, the call to defund the police is, I think, an abolitionist demand, but it reflects only one aspect of the process represented by the demand. Defunding the police is not simply about withdrawing funding for law enforcement and doing nothing else. And it appears as if this is the rather superficial understanding that has caused Biden to move in the direction he’s moving in.

It’s about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions — mental health counselors, who can respond to people who are in crisis without arms. It’s about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. All of these things help to create security and safety. It’s about learning that safety, safeguarded by violence, is not really safety.

And I would say that abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. It’s not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of, but it’s about reenvisioning. It’s about building anew. And I would argue that abolition is a feminist strategy. And one sees in these abolitionist demands that are emerging the pivotal influence of feminist theories and practices.

..and this

ANGELA DAVIS: Well, I want us to see feminism not only as addressing issues of gender, but rather as a methodological approach of understanding the intersectionality of struggles and issues. Abolition feminism counters carceral feminism, which has unfortunately assumed that issues such as violence against women can be effectively addressed by using police force, by using imprisonment as a solution. And of course we know that Joseph Biden, in 1994, who claims that the Violence Against Women Act was such an important moment in his career — the Violence Against Women Act was couched within the 1994 Crime Act, the Clinton Crime Act.

And what we’re calling for is a process of decriminalization, not — recognizing that threats to safety, threats to security, come not primarily from what is defined as crime, but rather from the failure of institutions in our country to address issues of health, issues of violence, education, etc. So, abolition is really about rethinking the kind of future we want, the social future, the economic future, the political future. It’s about revolution, I would argue.

[quote=Paladin1]

There was an insightful video taken on the scene where Seattle protesters took over city blocks to create police-free 'autonomous zone' in 2020.

An assault was taking place and you can hear people in the video shouting where are the police and someone call the police.

..if your looking for a pure movement that has no contradictions your on the wrong discussion board. not to say that that comment you heard was some kind of capitulation by someone who wants defunding.

HOW TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE RESPONDS TO VIOLENCE WITHOUT THE CARCERAL SYSTEM

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But this newfound hunger for abolition is accompanied by questions and concerns about how to implement abolition in practice. People wonder how society would hold people who commit violence accountable for their actions, and in particular, use sexual violence as an example.

One way abolitionists have confronted these questions is through the development of Transformative Justice (TJ) processes. These processes, which have roots in Indigenous practices, model a different set of skills and principles for approaching harmful and dangerous situations.

Abolitionists argue we should eliminate all forms of policing and incarceration, and instead fund life-giving, community-based social services. They understand that properly executing such services requires shifting values and resourcing the development of valuable relationship skills to give communities the tools they need to disrupt and intervene in patterns of harm. That’s where TJ comes in.

What Is Transformative Justice?

Abolition is not a new idea; it’s been theorized, practiced, and advocated for by Black feminists like Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Rachel Herzing for decades. They argue the carceral state emphasizes individual acts of harm, labeling those who commit harm as criminals to justify dehumanization, isolation, and punishment.

As demonstrated by the violence of policing, as well as the demographics of incarcerated populations, this is a mechanism of control over the most marginalized in American society: Black and brown people, Indigenous people, and often those who are poor, trans, sex-working, and/or disabled.

Those same people are proposing ways to exist and solve problems outside of this violent system.

In other words, abolitionists identify the punishment bureaucracy as a source of harm itself. Leila Raven is a queer mama, prison abolitionist, and organizer with Decrim NY and Hacking//Hustling, who points out that “a thousand people are killed by police every year, Black people are three times as likely to be killed as white people, and half of those killed are people with disabilities. Sexual assault is also the second most common form of police brutality, primarily used against Black women and women of color who are also frequently criminalized for the strategies that we use to survive.”

While the state is actively harming folks at the margins, transformative justice seeks to do the opposite.

According to Mia Mingus, a writer, educator, and community organizer for disability justice and transformative justice, the process is “a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence and/or engaging in harm reduction to lessen the violence.”

Je’Kendria—a fat, Black, disabled, non-binary femme who is the Executive Director of Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)—argues TJ  necessitates an understanding that the carceral system does not actually protect or heal survivors, but rather “thrusts [them] into cycles of harm and trauma.”

Like other abolitionists, she points out that sexual harm is still so prevalent despite having carceral systems in place. Not only is sexual violence prevalent within the carceral system, but she says that most rapists are not actually incarcerated. Instead, many have “prominent positions of power.”

Erin Gar-Yun Andriamahefa is a queer, genderfluid, Malagasy, Chinese person, who volunteers with CASS. She describes TJ as a framework through which people can begin to understand and address why harm is happening, while emphasizing collective responsibility to seek accountability when it happens.

It is a humanizing process, she told Shadowproof, that “equips us to move beyond shame and punishment to normalize navigating conflict, seeing it as a portal for accountability, transformation, and healing.”

CASS facilitates the creation of such a portal to accountability, transformation, and healing. Je’Kendria describes the organization as a small grassroots group that “trains and supports communities, workplaces, bars/restaurants, and collectives in building safer environments that address harassment and assault through an intersectional, anti-carceral lens.”

By prioritizing the survivors’ consent, safety, and healing, TJ ensures that carceral culture and systems aren’t recreated within communities.

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It’s not easy work, as it requires us to focus on ‘killing the cop in our heads’ and owning when we commit harm or enable others to do so. As we begin to actualize a world without police and prisons, we have to do the work to build communities of trust, with infrastructures of care to prevent the resurgence of carcerality as a solution.

..that 8.5 million could come from the police budget.

Women’s organizations denounce VPD spin on arrest outside women’s center; renew calls for real safety in face of increasing gender-based violence

(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C – Women’s organizations in the Downtown Eastside renew calls for community-led safety following an arrest made outside the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center.

The calls for action come after the Vancouver Police Department sent a press release on January 17, sharing details of an arrest made near the Women’s Center where a man wielding a knife attempted to enter.

“It was our staff’s quick actions, experience, and training, not police action, that kept women safe from any potential harm, and we reject the VPD attempting to turn this into a media opportunity to look like heroes,” said Executive Director of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center, Alice Kendall. “In their own press release, the VPD acknowledge that the man had already dropped the knife and walked away.”

Women’s organizations in the DTES continue to see sexualized and gender-based violence daily. Women and front-line staff respond and deal with, aggressive and violent predators and incidents that often remain unreported. When police say, “many violent crimes go unreported in the Downtown Eastside,” this is a painfully long-standing and well-known fact to women and women’s organizations. Fear of further retaliation, or of repercussion due to engagement in criminalized and stigmatized activities such as sex work or drug use, is real and extremely harmful.

The VPD’s press release is particularly egregious given that every day we witness how current policing practices, such as coordinated street sweeps, do not contribute to women’s safety and just waste municipal resources.

“We also witness how ongoing disappearances and reports of missing women, particularly Indigenous women and girls, muster grossly inadequate responses from the VPD and RCMP. Despite a provincial inquiry and a national inquiry into the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, trans and two-spirit people, there is no recognizable change in policing practices nor adequate supports for communities and families who are searching for their loved ones,” further states Kendall.

The Downtown Eastside Women’s Center, along with the WISH Drop-In Centre Society, Battered Women’s Support Services, and Atira Women’s Resource Society, are renewing calls for a community-led coordinated response. One year after expressing outrage of the ongoing sexualized and gender-based violence in the neighbourhood and no discernible outcome, we are once again calling on all levels of government for an action plan.....

Committee tasked with defining 'defunding police' releases final report

A committee created to define what it means to defund the police has released its final report, touting widespread reforms to Halifax Regional Police practices, oversight and accountability.

The work of the committee, created by the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners in August 2020, is the culmination of an extensive public consultation process and research by committee members and its support team.

Committee chairperson El Jones, a well-known community activist and educator, said the 219-page report is just the beginning of what she hopes will be ongoing public engagement in reforming policing in Nova Scotia's capital and beyond.

"It's not the last word. It's certainly not a final stopping place," Jones told CBC Radio's Mainstreet on Friday.

"We believe we have started up a very important process that is allowing communities, service providers, representatives of the police and government to really engage seriously, not even necessarily with the idea of defunding police, but the broader conversation around public safety, prevention and what makes our communities livable and healthy."

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The public consultation process included a survey with 2,351 unique responses. It showed 56.8 per cent of respondents expressed support for the idea of defunding the police, while 43.2 per cent did not.

Support for defunding was higher among women and gender diverse people than among men.

ENDORSEMENT OF THE DEFINING DEFUNDING THE POLICE REPORT

Wellness Within welcomes and fully endorses the recently released report Defunding the Police: Defining the Way Forward for HRM, prepared by the Board of the Police Commissioner’s Subcommittee to Define Defunding Police.

Wellness Within’s work and advocacy is deeply rooted in our commitment to decarceration and defunding the police. We have called on Halifax to defund, disarm, and dismantle the Halifax Regional Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Policing in Canada is founded on colonialism and is characterized by racism, misogyny and homophobia/transphobia. Too often police are responsible for, violent arrests of parents in front of their children, and the mishandling of sexual assault files.

We urge HRM council to adopt all recommendations put forward in this report. The recommendations to create and fund a third-party reporting program to refer survivors of sexual assault to a non-police community organization and to address funding gaps in sexual assault prevention and response programs are especially welcome and should be a high priority for council.

We look forward to collaborating with HRM council to envision a future beyond policing for our city. 

..maybe. but there is this.

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“It was our staff’s quick actions, experience, and training, not police action, that kept women safe from any potential harm, and we reject the VPD attempting to turn this into a media opportunity to look like heroes,” said Executive Director of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center, Alice Kendall. “In their own press release, the VPD acknowledge that the man had already dropped the knife and walked away.”