posted November 6, 2006

FROM DAVID ANDERSON: AN ENCOUNTER WITH POLICE AT DUFFERIN GROVE PARK

Last week, as I was knee-deep in preparations for the Night of Dread, I began the afternoon with an interesting encounter with three of the young guys who hang out under the veranda of the field house where Clay and Paper Theatre is centred. When I rode up on my bike found myself in the middle of a discussion. A young man who identified himself as “Persian” was enthusiastically praising the wonder and joy of the celebration of the end of Ramadan. He was especially proud of the fact that he had invited some of his “white” friends to the celebrations and that they and he had had such a good time. He included me in the conversation as he went on and on about the goodness of multi-culturalism! He was boasting to us about how much his Irish friend had enjoyed the celebration.

I left them there still talking about Ramadan and went to the rink house to continue preparations for Night of Dread. Around five o’clock I rode my bike and trailer back to the field house with some materials I needed to drop off. The guys were still there (as they often are) but there were now six or seven more, and there were two police cars which soon became four, with eight police officers surrounding the young men. What I witnessed next seemed to me something one should not expect in Canada. Also witnessing their behaviour with me were two Dufferin Grove employees, one of whom eventually got a clip board and took down as many of the officer’s numbers as time would allow. All of the young men were men of colour. The police were aggressive, demanding I.D from each of the young men. Many, perhaps all, of the young men were searched. Only one of them was eventually charged with something and he was taken into custody and put in a car. There was much arguing. In one particularly hair-raising moment, one of the young men (who I see often at the field house and who was one of the original three), a handsome, slouchy, swaggering guy, was arguing with an officer and stepped slightly towards that officer. The officer shouted: “Stand back! Back up!” again and again. The young man stood his ground, then, shrugging, took a couple of small shuffling steps backwards. Good move, I thought. But the policeman kept shouting, put his right hand on the gun on his right rear/rump, stepped into the space that the young man had just yielded, and shouted, “Do you see my hand is on my gun? Back up! Back up! I told you to back up!”. Though the young man’s pride was clearly keeping him at the edge, his friends successfully got him to back away sufficiently to satisfy the mad policeman. Eventually the police’s fishing expedition was finished and they drove off.

So what did the police teach those young men ( and me)? I have always believed that a citizen is not required to give the police I.D. unless charged with a crime. (And that I have a right not to be searched unless charged!) Wrong! Did we learn that the police are above the law, and that, although I am not (technically) required to give the police my ID unless I’m charged with a crime, if I am a person of colour or young or I’ve got a little attitude, the police are not constrained to abide by the charter of rights and freedoms. Yes, that seems to be the lesson.

- David Anderson