In June of 2010 I attended a conference in the wilds of New Mexico as the only Canadian. A participant from Texas approached me at one point and asked if I had heard about the violent protests at the G8 Summit taking place in Toronto. He showed me photos of the clashes on his tablet, including smashed store fronts and burning vehicles. I wondered if anarchists had hijacked the international gathering because it wouldn't have been the first time.
There were agitators and looters on hand, but we have since discovered that a massive police presence responded with what appears to be recklessness and brutality to everyone, including peaceful protestors and even folk simply trying to get to their places of work and their residences. Bewildered folk going to their downtown condos ended up being rounded up or "kettled" as it is called. Some were put in jail as though they were criminals. Others were physically assaulted. The respected TVO journalist, Steve Paikin, recently testified that he had never seen anything like what happened in Toronto. It was a dark time for democracy in Canada, and there are still repercussions. Supt. David Fenton is facing charges of unlawful arrest and discreditable conduct in relation to two “kettling” incidents. The detention of hundreds of people was under Fenton’s orders.
We have to wonder whether the increasing militarization of police forces leads to this sort of abuse of power. We all realize that the work of police is challenging and sometimes dangerous. But at least 90 percent of what police officers does not involve force.
In the United States this movement toward "combat ready" cops has come to the fore in light of what transpired in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of a black teen named Michael Brown. President Obama has expressed his concern about this adversarial approach which has been heightened by the availability of combat gear from the military.
As you can see, The Christian Century magazine explored this in a cover article back in September. It refers to Sir Robert Peel, the British peer who established modern policing during the 19th century. Peel's "Bobbies" a play on his first name, were intentionally unarmed and most British police officers don't carry firearms to this day. They were and are meant to be social peacekeepers, a role we would hope for in any civilized nation.
As people who are committed to justice, and who follow the Christ who was executed by a police state we need to be aware of shifts in our culture and speak to them.
Thoughts?
1 comment:
Situations involving peaceful, legitimate, dissent seem to get complicated. They get hijacked by organized trouble makers that want to provoke violence (sometimes, I suspect, undercover police who wish to fulfill some political agenda of the powers that be). The police respond in kind so that the whole ethos of peacefully seeking social justice gets undermined. Providing "military style" garb and weaponry create an inflammatory presence. Black shirted uniforms conjure up too many unsettling images from the past.
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