Pubdate: Thu, 06 May 2004
Source: NOW Magazine (Canada)
Copyright: 2004 NOW Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nowtoronto.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/282
Author: Ali Sharrif

CONSPIRACY FEARS

Activists Wonder If Cop Corruption Is Linked To Unsolved Black Crime

Chief Julian Fantino may not want a public inquiry into corruption in the 
force, but judging by a raucous gathering last Wednesday, April 28, on 
Arrow Road, there'll be no mending of black-cop relations without it. The 
meeting, called by the Black Action Defence Committee and the Jamaican 
Canadian Association at the latter's headquarters, was designed to counter 
Fantino's much-vaunted town hall meetings, which many here believe were 
mere PR fests.

 From 7 pm until 10, in a noisy venting session attended by 200 during 
which a tin can is circulated to collect war funds for the BADC, Fantino's 
name is invoked over and over followed by invective. While participants 
charge the chief with failing to solve the string of murders in low-income 
neighbourhoods, the most shocking complaints link the allegations of drug 
squad corruption and racketeering in the force to crime and shootings in 
the black community.

"The Toronto police will never solve the killings, the drugs and guns will 
not come off the street, because the police, in my view, are implicated in 
some of these problems," long-time BADC activist Dudley Laws tells the 
crowd. "People in my community believe that the drugs are recycled by 
corrupt police officers who, after arresting the dealers, have young people 
resell the drugs for them."

This statement - some might call it paranoid or delusionary, others might 
want to wait until the RCMP finishes its probe before commenting - is far 
from the only reference to rogue police infiltrating the community. One man 
who refuses to give his name tells me, "Look at how the newspapers talk 
about corruption and crime among police and you know that this force is 
capable of starting a secret organization to kill our youth and enslave 
them in the crime underworld."

More fury is unleashed around Fantino's use of town halls to put a sheen on 
the force's unsuccessful probe of black crime. A woman named Mary fumes 
from the floor, "The police chief has set clergy against clergy, community 
leader against community leader, and we are now divided between those who 
support him and those who don't, causing people in our community to hate 
and suspect each other."

At last, it is agreed that the meeting will ask the police services board 
to order the chief "to cease and desist from his various town hall meetings 
that have caused conflict and division."

Activist Akua Benjamin presents more recommendations, including skills 
training for youth and measures from three levels of government to stop 
racial profiling. But the most loaded proposal is that the special 
investigations unit be mandated to investigate police drug, gun and 
racketeering offences - and the relationship between these and crimes in 
the black community.

No, the trials of cops gone bad will simply not be enough.
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