Winnipeg Copwatch

Created by: Criminology.com

Thursday April 19

noon-3pm

Inner City Campus  - 527 Selkirk Ave.

Please join us in celebrating the launch of Racialized Policing: Aboriginal People’s Experiences with the Police, by Elizabeth Comack.

Dr. Comack will deliver a talk as well as a question and answer session.

This event is free to all.

Policing is a controversial subject, generating considerable debate. One issue of concern has been “racial profiling” by police, that is, the alleged practice of targeting individuals and groups on the basis of “race.” Racialized Policing argues that the debate has been limited by its individualized frame. As well, the concen- tration on police relations with people of colour means that Aboriginal people’s encounters with police receive far less scrutiny. Going beyond the interpersonal level and broadening our gaze to explore how race and racism play out in institutional practices and systemic processes, this book exposes the ways in which policing is racialized.

Situating the police in their role as “reproducers of order,” Elizabeth Comack draws on the historical record and contemporary cases of Aboriginal-police relations — the shooting of J.J. Harper by a Winnipeg police officer in 1988, the “Starlight Tours” in Saskatoon, and the shooting of Matthew Dumas by a Winnipeg police officer in 2005 — as well as interviews conducted with Aboriginal people in Winnipeg’s inner-city communities to explore how race and racism inform the routine practices of police officers and define the cultural frames of reference that officers adopt in their encounters with Aboriginal people. In short, having defined Aboriginal people as “troublesome,” police respond with troublesome practices of their own. Arguing that resolution requires a fundamental transformation in the structure and organization of policing, Racialized Policing makes suggestions for re-framing the role of police and the “order” they reproduce.

The Run For Rights benefit is coming up, featuring Ridley Bent, Scott Nolan, and Claire Bestland Band.

Contact wpgcopwatch@gmail.com for tickets! Support Winnipeg Copwatch and other Winnipeg social justice groups.

April 4 is Refugee Rights Day – Axe the Refugee Exclusion Act!

Do you know about the new Refugee Exclusion Act tabled by the Tory government and Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney?

It creates a discriminatory two-tier system of refugee protection, mandates incarceration for many refugees, and revokes permanent residency for many who have already been granted refugee status. This is a racist and repressive new bill that we need to resist.

Here are some ways to take action:

1. Raise awareness by sharing information online about the act:

No One Is Illegal Joint Statement:

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/no-one-illegal/2012/03/noii-alert-axe-refugee-exclusion-act

No One Is Illegal-Toronto Axe the Refugee Exclusion Act Video:

Human Rights Watch statement:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/16/canada-vote-no-migrant-detention-bill

2. Sign & share Amnesty’s appeal to MP’s – an easy way to send a message:

http://www.amnesty.ca/iwriteforjustice/take_action.php?actionid=843

If you would like to send your own message, here are two sample letters:
http://scr.bi/GNtvx2 and http://is.gd/jCeRm6
You can find your MP’s contact info here http://bit.ly/mfMkVq

3. Post on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites about the Refugee Exclusion Act and migrant justice issues. 

4. Stay updated:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nooneisillegalvan/

http://wwww.twitter.com/nooneisillegal

http://www.youtube.com/NoOneIsIllegalVan

http://www.flickr.com/nooneisillegal/

Shurli Chan, from the Downtown Eastside Power of Women Group (Vancouver), shares her experiences with policing and mental health as part of the In Our Own Voices writing project.

Read her story here: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4077

Kristian Williams speaks in this audio interview about his first book, Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America, about recent articles about community policing and the counterinsurgency training shared between the U.S. military and domestic law enforcement agencies, and about the growing movement calling for the abolition of police in the United States, and the Pacific Northwest in particular. The show aired on Asheville FM on August 12, 2011.

The show is downloadable here:

http://ia700705.us.archive.org/15/items/PoliceAbolitionAnInterviewWithKristianWilliams/afm-final-straw-08122011.mp3

“Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance” Documentary Screening:
Wednesday, July 20th
Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre, 91 Albert St. (3rd floor), 7 PM

Launch of “The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation” with co-author Gary Kinsman
Thursday, July 21st
Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse 91 Albert St. 7 PM

Dance Party and Art Auction
Friday, July 22nd

More events TBA…

Gabrielle Giroday has an article in today’s Winnipeg Free Press about the police response to the epidemic of missing & murdered women. It features Bernice and Wilfred Catcheway, who aren’t relying on the police to uncover what happened to their missing daughter.

“We just go on searching,” said Bernice Catcheway, who spent $10,000 to excavate a dump in Grand Rapids in the search for the Portage la Prairie teen after she went missing in June 2008.

“We’re not waiting for the police. They say, ‘Oh, we’re with you, we’re with you.’ We don’t see that, we have no communication,” said Bernice Catcheway.

Their daughter’s case garnered intense media coverage after it happened, with the family organizing searches and gathering tips. Their experience with police had been frustrating, they said, and that frustration continues.

Update 10:57am: Global has a related story today titled Where are Manitoba’s missing women?

The Ontario Provincial Police have decided not to press charges against Ottawa police for their in-custody treatment of Stacy Bonds. “It is the sixth incident OPP were asked to investigate involving the handling of people in the cellblock. In all cases, the OPP found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.”