Winnipeg Copwatch

Film the police

shelagh — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:41:23 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out this remake of N.W.A.’s F*** the Police:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyT1buoyTnY&feature=youtu.be

Mental health and police violence

shelagh — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:13:14 +0000

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

Recent audio interview with Kristian Williams

shelagh — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:42:15 +0000

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

Upcoming events the week of the International Copwatching Conference

macho — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:34:02 +0000

“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
Negative Space, 253 Princess street, 10 PM

More events TBA…

Are police listening to families of missing & murdered women?

macho — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:37:03 +0000

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?

OPP clear other police yet again

macho — Sat, 28 May 2011 02:06:24 +0000

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.”

Copwatch Conference Fundraising Film Fest

Buck — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:09:09 +0000

An (almost) Fortnightly Fundraiser for Winnipeg Copwatch’s International Conference featuring the following films:

June 1: Serpico
starring Al Pacino
directed by Sidney Lumet

“The true story about an honest New York cop who blew the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

June 15: The Departed
starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson
directed by Martin Scorcese

“Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy’s identities.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

June 29: Rambo: First Blood
starring Sylvester Stallone

“A mentally unstable Vietnam war vet, when abused with a small town’s police force, begins a one man war with it.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

July 13: Changeling
starring Angelina Jolie
directed by Clint Eastwood

“A grief-stricken mother takes on the LAPD to her own detriment when it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child, while also refusing to give up hope that she will find him one day.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

July 20: Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

IMDb: “A film account about the military 1990 siege of a Native American reserve near Oka, Quebec, Canada and its causes.”

Or: A documentary by Alanis Obomsawin about Mohawk resistance to neo-colonialism in Quebec.

Click here to view the embedded video.

All films will be screened starting at 7pm at:

Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre
91 Albert Street, 3rd Floor

Minimal donations accepted, no one will be turned away.

Bring your appetite because there will be popcorn, candy and drinks for sale.

This building unfortunately does not have an elevator is therefore not accessible for people who have trouble climbing stairs.

Visit our conference website to learn more about the panel, discussions, workshops and films we will be presenting; register for the conference, sign up to ride share and billet/be billeted.

Conservatives quietly look to expand internet policing powers

macho — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:10:05 +0000

The Harper Conservatives, with their new majority government, have promised to look to pass an “Omnibus” crime bill in the near future, which groups together 11 bills they couldn’t pass as a minority government. The bills generally look to increase prison populations and punitive measures. This is happening despite a significant majority of Canadians preferring preventative measures to punitive methods of dealing with crime, Canada’s decreasing crime rate over the past twenty years, and the evidence that increased incarceration does not reduce crime.

One component of the bill that has gotten little public attention and little debate in parliament is a provision called “lawful access,” that affects Internet policing powers. It will require your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to provide the police with your personal information without any oversight from a court. Up until now they would need to present a judge with a good reason, and get a warrant.

It will also force your ISP to put in place technology to allow real-time surveillance of your activities, and those of their other customers, and give “several new police powers designed to obtain access to the surveillance data.”

Michael Geist’s column in the Toronto Star gives more details about “lawful access”, and discusses the privacy and free speech concerns raised.

UPDATE 25 May: Yesterday, Jesse Brown’s excellent show Search Engine took on the issue of Lawful Access, interviewing the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association’s Micheal Vonn. Have a listen!

Orlando copwatcher faces up to 6 years for filming police

macho — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:18:08 +0000

On January 1st John Kurtz of Orlando, Florida, videotaped a police incident that “included the use of tasers, a violent take down, and a pepper spraying after the suspect was subdued and in handcuffs.” After asserting his right to witness the incident, he was arrested by an officer who is “one of the top taser users on the force,” and who had previously arrested a corporate news cameraperson in 2007 (picture is from this incident). It’s not known what happened to Kurtz’s camera and footage, since police didn’t enter it into evidence, and it wasn’t returned to him when he was released on bail.

He is facing charges including obstruction of a police officer, which could result in up to 6 years in jail. Police in Canada and the US have been eager to arrest or otherwise prevent people from lawfully filming them in recent years. So far, US courts have upheld people’s rights to film police, but it remains to be seen whether this will continue in Kurtz’s case.

What constitutes police brutality?

macho — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:08:08 +0000

Writing in Nexus, Alicia Gilmour raises questions around the double-standards in treatment of police who commit what would normally be criminal offences. Her article follows the announcement by the Vancouver Police Department that no charges will be laid against a Victoria officer who appeared in a YouTube clip last year at an incident outside of a bar.

“If kicking someone when they’re down isn’t using excessive force, then what is? …. Why wasn’t the officer charged when anyone else would have been? …. The Victoria men clearly could have been restrained without the use of excessive force. It’s a duty of officers of the law to set an example for the public and to rise above the situation and stop the cycle of violence in our communities.”

The 57 second YouTube clip is included below.

Click here to view the embedded video.