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| Clown outfits demonstrate lack of pride in the SPVM |
"Premier François Legault said Monday he "stands in solidarity with people who denounce racial violence" — though he denied, once again, that there was a systemic problem in Quebec.I don't know if the Premier honestly believes what he says but frankly, it's a crock of bullshit.
"I think that there is some discrimination in Quebec, but there's no systemic discrimination, no system in Quebec of discrimination," he said, adding "it's a very small minority of the people who are doing some discrimination." Link
Sadly, Quebec remains the most racist province in Canada where discrimination exists on a societal level where minorities, especially blacks are discriminated against by landlords, police, employers and certainly the government and the civil service itself.
Worst of all is the police and specifically the Montreal police which by any standard is a disgraceful organization that very well may be the most racist police force of any major North American City.
That's right, I'm not mincing words.
The Montreal police force is as racist as it comes with officers regularly targetting people of colour, natives and Muslims for 'special' and unfair treatment.
It is an organization stuck in the 1960s built on racial profiling and rough treatment of potential suspects and arrestees.
The SPVM is largely unprofessional, corrupt, racist and downright thuggish, where the lack of pride in themselves and their organization is manifested in its treatment of citizens.
This lack of pride is underlined by the police union desecrating their own uniforms in adopting camo pants in a pay dispute, rendering themselves a laughingstock in the eyes of the public, like sad-sack clowns thoroughly unprofessional and untrustworthy.
And who can forget Montreal's most infamous cop, the egregiously violent, racist and cruel Stéfanie Trudeau, better known by her badge number "728" She was filmed making a violent arrest in a stairwell in east-end Montreal. She was also famously filmed gratuitously pepper-spraying peaceful demonstrators. She was finally fired for many acts of depraved police brutality and racism.
Problems of corruption were so bad that the Chief of the Montreal police was fired and the corps put under trusteeship after charges of gross misconduct and falsifying of evidence and documents were shown to be rampant.
Montreal police have never given up the discredited tactic of 'rousting' or as it's referred to in New York, "Stop and Frisk" or Carding as it is known in the rest of Canada where mostly minorities and particularly Blacks are stopped based on a flimsy excuse like jaywalking, spitting, loud talk and other such nonsense. The idea is to check the unfortunate detainees for outstanding warrants, drugs or perhaps illegal weapons.
New York's 'Stop and Frisk' policy ended in 2013 after the courts intervened and despite whining by politicians and police who claimed that their hands were being tied, the demise of the policy had no effect on the crime rate.
Here's a chart describing the unwarranted stops made by the SPVM.
Now before I continue I'd like to address those who are okay with rousting criminals on contrived grounds as long as honest law-abiding citizens are left alone.
And therein lies the rub.
Many, many minority and coloured law-abiding citizens are constantly stopped and humiliated by this policy which is an affront to their civil rights to be treated equally under the law. It is or should be offensive to all of us who believe in fairness and equality.
While the policy is rightfully on the trash-heap of history in most jurisdictions, it lives on in Montreal where police make unwarranted stops of not only criminals but law-abiding minorities as well.
Let's go back to the death of Fredy Villanueva, the most famous of all rousting incidents gone bad, which led to the death of his brother Danny after cops confronted a group of known miscreants in a city park over the trivial act of dice-playing. The confrontation escalated quickly and the rest is history.
The subsequent outrage over the death didn't rise to the level that we see today in the United States over the death of George Floyd but that's probably because the general public in Quebec was not too disturbed by the police action.
Here' is just a few interesting incidents of racial profiling and the Montreal police.
There are many, many more documented acts of police profiling;
"Following this week’s protest, here is a partial timeline of Montreal police interventions that have raised questions of racial profiling and sparked calls for change."
Months after they complained of being violently arrested by Montreal police for talking "too loud" a biracial couple now has video of the incident as taken by an eyewitness.
Kerwin Clarke was pulled over in Verdun last weekend by Montreal police officers — and he says, for no clear reason.
The Saint-Lambert resident was in the car with his daughter, Quinn, in the back seat when they were stopped.
Two Montreal Alouettes football players said Thursday they are considering filing a racism complaint against Montreal police in connection with an incident on Monday night.
Lateef Martin was walking along Messier Street in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood around 1:30 a.m. Saturday when he was ticketed for not using the sidewalk.
A black Montreal high school teacher arrested while waiting for takeout food has accused police of racial profiling and abuse.
Montreal police stepped in after the bar tried to book a performance by a group of hip hop musicians.
Police say the event was targetted by street gangs, and even though the show was cancelled, the Department of Alcohol decided to yank the bar's licence unless it agreed to never again host hip hop or rap acts.
Former high school teacher says he was roughed up by two officers in 2010 while waiting for take-out
Bernard’s positive attitude toward the police force changed dramatically last February after he says he was unlawfully arrested, handcuffed and ticketed while working as an Uber driver.
“I know this would not have happened if I was white,” Bernard said in an interview Monday.
The organization Quebec Native Women (QNW) has filed a complaint alleging systemic discrimination and racial profiling by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
How did the Montreal police react to this report?Racial profiling: Montreal police release damning report that reveals 'systemic bias' by its officers
"An independent study commissioned by Montreal's police department reveals that its officers stop people from visible minorities far more frequently than they stop white people.
The study, which focused on a three-year period from 2014 to 2017, found that in Montreal an Indigenous person was 4.6 times more likely to be stopped for a "street check" than a white person, and that a black person was 4.2 times as likely to be stopped. Arab Montrealers were twice as likely to be stopped as white Montrealers. ("Street checks" are interactions with police that do not result in an arrest). "
Montreal police have no plans to end street checks, despite concerns
Recently Montreal police Chief Sylvain Caron told the media that the SPVM is committed to eliminating any practice of racial profiling, but the announcement of this supposed policy has been put off time after time.
It is amazing how out of touch with reality and modern policing techniques Canada's second-largest police remains.
In 2017 the Montreal police adopted a pilot program where officers were outfitted with body cameras but rejected the idea after officers complained that they felt they were being monitored.
I'm not kidding.
Sadly, the Montreal police is a dinosaur organization that has little desire to change its racist culture and because the Quebec public is largely sympathetic, there is little impetus to change."After a year-long trial by 78 officers, the SPVM has concluded body cameras have little impact on interventions, present logistical challenges — and leave most officers who have to wear them feeling as if they're under surveillance.
Not only do police dislike wearing cameras, outfitting all 3,000 patrol officers with them would cost $17.4 million over five years, according to a 215-page report to be presented to Montreal's public safety committee Friday.
"The project did not unequivocally demonstrate that portable cameras promote the transparency of police interventions, strengthen trust between the police and the citizen and ensure the safety of police," says the report, which is already up on the SPVM' website." Link
Next time you hear complaints about police racism and brutality south of the border understand that Montreal's police are right up there with the worst, the saving grace being that the only reason violence is less pronounced here is because criminals are less violent.
