Winnipeg Copwatch

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.

A report by the Winnipeg Police Advisory Board has revealed the negative experiences of many new immigrants in the city when interacting with police. Some of the items the report touches on are

• “Lack of respect by some police toward the newcomer community in general”
• “General harassment of black youth during everyday activities”
• “Unwarranted combative/assaultive behavior… used by some police officers in the early stages of a contact, or after arrest”
  • “i.e. stories of being beaten with a phone book so no marks are left”

Have a look at Winnipeg Copwatch’s first ever newsletter and keep up to date on police accountability issues in Winnipeg.

Two years ago today, on September 2nd, 2007, Wilfred Asham died inside Winnipeg’s Public Safety Building under mysterious circumstances. His family is inviting community members out tonight to a vigil they’re holding on the second anniversary of his death.

Asham’s family have been looking for answers after the police failed to answer a number of questions around the death of this otherwise healthy nineteen-year-old, including how he came to have a seizure when he has no history of seizures, and how police account for his bruised face and altered nose.

The vigil takes place tonight from 9 to 11pm outside the Public Safety Building, at 151 Princess Street.

The M.s. Citizenship Feminist Collective is encouraging people to sign a petition to return the definition of sexual assault on the police’s CrimeStat service to one that includes attacks where the perpetrator is known to the victim.

“As of January 1 2008, Winnipeg Police Services’ CrimeStat service changed the definition of sexual assault to ‘an offence that combines the components of assault with circumstances of a sexual nature where the suspect is not known to the victim’ (emphasis added) from the definition based on the Criminal Code which includes sexual assaults where the suspect is known or unknown to the victim.  Over 78% of assault in Winnipeg is perpetrated by a suspect known to the victim (Statistic found in ‘Mean Streets?’ Comak, Chopyk and Wood, p.7). This definition change is not in line with Crimestat’s stated principles of disseminating accurate information and promoting transparency and accountability. Winnipeg is the only Canadian city which reports on sexual assaults in this way (As reported by Gabrielle Giroday in the article “ Board wants police website to report all sexual assaults” in the Winnipeg Free Press, May 29, 2009)

We believe that finding holistic and effective solutions to domestic and sexual abuse begins with being given accurate information.”

Saturday, June 6th, 2009 at Kildonan Park (South Picnic Shelter)
Run start time – 9:30 a.m.

Support social justice and human rights by joining the Run for Rights. You can walk, cycle, run, wheel or rollerblade a 5 km or 10 km route.  If you would like to help raise funds for Winnipeg Copwatch, print off and fill out the pledge form. You do not need to pre-register or sign up in advance.
Donation forms will also be available at the registration table.  Registration will start at 8:30 a.m. on the morning of the run.  There is no minimum amount required to participate!

Winnipeg Copwatch is discouraged to hear of another case of Winnipeg police illegally seizing video equipment.  Local media have reported the seizure on Wednesday of a video camera belonging to local filmmaker John Paskievich, known locally for his book of photography, The North End.  To our knowledge, the police have yet to comment publicly on the matter.

The seizure is not an isolated incident.  Last summer, Paul St. Laurent reported that he had the memory card of his camera confiscated by police, and was arrested for “intimidation of an officer,” though he explains that he was at least as far from the incident as other bystanders.

In late 2007, Winnipeg police confiscated the camera of CBC cameraperson Don Scott and arrested him after he refused to stop filming an incident.  Charges were later dropped.

Jon Schledewitz, a photographer then working for the Winnipeg Sun, was arrested and had his camera taken by police in 2006 while taking photographs of police arresting participants in the Critical Mass bicycle ride.  Allegations of police misconduct arose at the event.

Other people known to Copwatch have reported having equipment confiscated, being intimidated into turning their cameras off, and being instructed to delete footage and still photos from digital cameras.

“These incidents are especially worrisome to Copwatch because they have the potential to compromise the rights of all citizens, including those in our group, to oversee the police,” said Copwatch volunteer Alex Paterson.  “Given the great power police wield, transparency and scrutiny are of the utmost importance.”

Kelly Toughill, board member of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, warned last month that “[t]he police practice of obstructing journalists engaged in crime reporting is disturbingly common in Canada.”

Copwatch is calling on Chief McCaskill to clarify the Winnipeg Police Service’s policy when it comes to recording equipment.  In particular, we are asking him to publicly recognize

• the right of citizens and journalists to use recording equipment in public, and to record interactions involving the police;
• that police cannot demand that people stop recording in a way that does not interfere with police;
• that police cannot demand the deletion of photos or footage;
• that police cannot arbitrarily seize equipment;
• that police cannot arrest people for making recordings;
• that police cannot make spurious arrests with the aim of seizing equipment or footage;
• that police cannot themselves destroy footage taken by others; and,
• that taking footage or photographs of police in itself does not constitute “intimidation of an officer”, or any other criminal code offence.

Copwatch would also like the chief to clarify what disciplinary action is to be taken when officers are in violation of these rules.

Roanna Hepburn is a resident of Winnipeg, community activist, grandmother and great grandmother currently campaigning the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for a full and independent investigation into an act of violence committed against her granddaughter by members of the Winnipeg Police Service.

• Listen to a radio interview with Roanna Hepburn on police brutality in Winnipeg.

“Whereas, the highest rate of acts of violence against women in Canada are committed against First Nation’s Women; And whereas, Canadian police services are supposed to help stop those acts from occurring and not perpetuate them; And whereas, police violence targeting First Nations peoples and communities is a systemic problem across Canada and especially in Manitoba; And whereas, allegations of police brutality committed against Stephanie Kay Warren on March 1, 2009 by Winnipeg police are incredibly serious and demand full investigation;

We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba to hold a full and independent investigation into the case of Stephanie Kay Warren; Moreover, we demand that an independent provincial task force be created to investigate police brutality, especially against First Nations peoples and communities.”

• Download the petition.

Please return signed petitions to Mondragon, 91 Albert Street, or 485 Selkirk Avenue no later than May 14. They will be submitted to the Premier on or soon after May 15.

• Update: The petition drive has been extended, since the province will not accept it until after the complaint working its way through the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) is closed.  LERA is generally regarded as an ineffective accountability body; the independent investigation being called for in the petition would be much more valuable.  All this is to say that if you are still interested in helping with this initiative, please do!

“Racialized Policing Practices in Winnipeg”: public lecture by Elizabeth Comack, Sociology Professor and author of The Power to Criminalize: Violence, Inequality, and the Law. Wednesday, March 25 at 12:30, the University of Manitoba, 307 Tier Building.