Winnipeg Copwatch

Winnipeg Copwatch has recently been getting inquiries from people across the country looking to take action against police brutality, including Vancouver and Whitehorse. A group in Montreal interested in cop-watching has invited us to participate in a workshop at the end of the month including Lorenzo Kom’boa Irvin, one of the co-founders of the first Copwatch in Berkeley, California, in 1990. And a new group of cop-watchers are preparing to take to the streets in Saskatoon.

If you’re considering working to end police impunity in your community, please get in touch with us to share resources, news, strategies, and solidarity.

The Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) has responded to Winnipeg Copwatch’s complaint about illegal camera seizures and arrests of camera-people by recommending the Winnipeg Police Service change its policy.

In a letter to Winnipeg Copwatch, LERA Commissioner George Wright says:

[T]wo issues have been identified that may have caused or contributed to an alleged disciplinary default. They are:

• The detention of citizens using recording devices.
• Seizure of cameras and cell telephone recording devices.

He goes on to say:

I am writing to Keith McCaskill, Chief of the WPS and Glen Laubenstein, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) City of Winnipeg recommending that appropriate changes be implemented to ensure that
police officers are aware of their legal authorities relative to these
two issues.

Winnipeg Copwatch is also today initiating another complaint around the issue of police intimidation of people with cameras with Aborginal & Community Law Enforcement, and is still waiting to hear back about another complaint made with the Ombudsman.

Chief McCaskill has so far ignored Copwatch’s attempts to address the issue with him directly. We’ll soon see if he’s open to recommendations and oversight from public bodies.

International Day Against Police Brutality
Saturday March 13th, 2010

12:00 – March and rally in solidarity with those who have experienced violence by police and in celebration of community power. meet at the park next to Ndinawe (472 Selkirk). March to 430 Langside for hot beverages, delicious food and a movie. Return Bus tickets will be available.

2:30 – Free movie! Either march with us or meet us at the Magnus Eliason Recreation Center (430 Langside). Help yourself to popcorn as we watch “Cowboys and Indians: The J.J Harper Story”. Free Childcare available.

These events are supported By: Winnipeg Copwatch, Elizabeth Fry, New Socialist, International Workers of the World, Femrev, The Anarchist Black Cross and The UN Platform for Action Committee Manitoba

After a spate of police confiscations of cameras belonging to journalists and citizens over the past five years, and an ignored attempt to resolve the issue with Winnipeg Police Service Chief Keith McCaskill, Winnipeg Copwatch is today launching a campaign to help protect everyone who takes pictures or films in public, with three initiatives:

• In partnership with the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties (MARL), Copwatch is initiating complaints with the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) and the Manitoba Ombudsman about a string of incidents over the past five years in which Winnipeg Police Service officers appear to be illegally confiscating video and still camera equipment from journalists and citizens, sometimes destroying some of the contents. The complaints are asking for recommendations that the Winnipeg Police Service change their policy to explicitly recognize the rights of individuals to take photos and video in public.

• Copwatch is distributing a new “rights card”, which is a wallet­-sized reminder for people about their rights while filming or taking photos.

• A new email account, mobile@winnipegcopwatch.org, has been set up for people to send photos to from their cellphones. If someone has an email­-capable phone and is worried about it phone being confiscated, sending the photos will protect them from police deletion.

Dany Villanueva, the older brother of Fredy Villanueva, who was killed by the Montreal Police in August 2008, has learned that the Canada Border Services Agency will begin the process of trying to deport him from Canada, by attempting to remove his permanent residency status.

Dany is scheduled to testify as a key witness at the coroner’s inquest into the circumstances of his brother’s death.  Dany has been a permanent resident of Canada since 1998, and has lived here since he was twelve years old.

No One Is Illegal Montreal comments: “The removal proceedings against Dany are highly suspect. They amount to interference by the CBSA of the coroner’s inquest into Fredy’s death.”

Winnipeg Copwatch is hosting a free workshop on how to safely and effectively witness police interactions. It will include sections on camera and recording skills, de-escalation techniques, knowing your rights, and more. Whether you’re interested in witnessing on your own to prevent police misconduct, starting a copwatching group with friends, participating in Winnipeg Copwatch patrols, or just learning more skills, this workshop is for you.

Come to the Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre, on the 3rd floor of 91 Albert Street, Saturday 20 March 2010 from 1:30-3:30pm. The workshop is free, and volunteers will be there to provide childcare.

Winnipeg Copwatch’s February 2010 newsletter is now out. It includes articles on

• the WPAB report on newcomer’s experiences with the police in Winnipeg
• this past year’s transgender day of rememberance
• policing-related news briefs
• and more…

The Winnipeg Police Service Professional Standards Unit has decided to end its investigation of allegations officers beat Stephanie Kay Warren without taking action against any officer involved. She was 18 years old last year when she says the beating took place at the notorious Hartford station, with officers shouting racist comments at her.

This is another case where police investigating police has led to nothing. The community must continue to support Stephanie’s grandmother, Roanna Hepburn, in her push for an independent investigation into the incident.

For background information, please listen to this radio program.

Yesterday, a video was presented in court showing Winnipeg police officers beating a man in a parking lot in downtown Winnipeg almost a year ago.  CBC says the video shows four officers pinning the man to the ground, while others kick, knee, and punch him, as well as taser him twice. The police earlier claimed the man had resisted arrest, but there was no evidence of this in the video.

His lawyer, Dan Manning, is quoted as saying that when he saw him the next morning,  “I honestly did not recognize him. His face was swollen to twice its normal size. His eyes were black. There was blood around his face — dried blood.”

This recording is yet another demonstration of the importance of the right to observe and record police interactions, a right that Chief McCaskill has refused to acknowledge, and that Winnipeg Police Service officers have repeatedly violated.  Winnipeg Copwatch will continue to fight for people’s right to observe and record the police, and for police accountability.

This incident is also representative of a pattern Winnipeg Copwatch has observed in violent arrests. Whenever a violent arrest is made, there will almost certainly be accusations or charges laid for resisting arrest or assaulting the police.  Often, evidence surfaces showing no resistance on the part of the person being arrested. We can only understand this to show that police use the charges and accusations to justify the violence of their arrests, and to tie people up defending themselves against criminal charges instead of pursuing the police for their abuse.

Family, friends, and supporters have raised the profile of Wilfred Asham’s death in custody of the Winnipeg Police Service in 2007 to the level that an inquest has been called.  The inquest will only examine the circumstances that led to his death, and not result in charges or punitive action being taken against anyone found responsible.