| Community Action Policing - Who Does It Really Protect? Welcome to the year 2000. Welcome to an even longer summer of Community Action Policing (CAP), AKA Target Policing. This is a$1.9 million program initiated in 19 areas of the megacity for 11 weeks last summer. Its "official" purpose was to "target high crime areas". But, in reality, the police have been targeting homeless people and squeegee kids. This program was designed to "get rid of crime by getting rid of the criminals". But, all it's been doing is sweeping homeless people out of the core of the city. The police have just been given an extra $2.1 million dollars to expand the program to 16 weeks this coming summer. At the same time, City Council has approved less than $100,000.00 to expand access to recreational programs for low-income people, including youth and children. My question is where are their priorities? The people that this program was supposed to target were the prostitutes, gangs, and drug-related activities. The people who have really been affected have been homeless people, the poor, people of colour, new immigrants, youth and people with mental problems. Why were these people targeted? They were targeted simply because they were trying to survive on the cold streets of Toronto. People are getting tickets simply for jaywalking, littering, sleeping in the parks, and spitting. Some of these are things that we do every day without even thinking about it. None of us ever get harassed about it. The homeless are not being targeted because they're committing these "terrible" crimes; they're being targeted because they are poor and/or homeless. Another reason they are being hit so severely is because the City is vying for the 2008 Olympics. The City wants to "sanitize" the city so that visiting Olympic-goers won't see what they probably have at home anyway. What are the real effects of target policing? Here are a few examples:*Homeless people's belongings being confiscated, including much-needed medication and very important, hard-to-replace and costly pieces of ID, being forced out of the only places of refuge left to them, parks and squats... *Being photographed for no good reason. *This is really heinous, having their sleeping bags pepper-sprayed. That last effect goes completely against the Project's stated goal of improving quality of life. The City has clearly shown it's very hypocritical. One minute, it's giving out sleeping bags to the homeless so they will be warm. The next minute, it's pepper-spraying those same sleeping bags, making them impossible to sleep in. Where is this City's brain? Did it ever have one to begin with? These people are at the very edge of survival. There is no housing, the hostels are full to overflowing, and all they have left is their worn sleeping bag in a park. Why take that away from them? I really fail to see the logic in this program, not that this city is ever logical. The whole point of Community Action Policing is to criminalize poverty, in other words, make it illegal to be poor or homeless. Look at the Safe Streets Act. This was recently announced by the Province to target squeegee youth and panhandlers. This program goes after kids who are just trying to earn enough money to survive day-to-day. These kids are working and providing a service. Isn't that better than robbing people or doing b&e's to get their money? I would think the City would recognize them for that instead of harassing them, arresting them, and giving them $500.00 fines. Where are they supposed to get that kind of money? In this city, if you're poor or homeless, it seems you're a prime target for the cops. To talk to the cops, you would think that Target policing is the best thing to hit this city in quite a while. They will tell you that crime has decreased since CAP was instituted. They will also tell you that the citizens approve of CAP. What they won't tell you is that the only people they polled about the success or failure of CAP was the homeowners, Residents' Associations, etc. They didn't ask the people directly affected by CAP, the poor and the homeless who are just trying to survive. The polls were biased against the homeless people. This is how the City capitalizes on false perceptions of crime. Word is spread that certain neighbourhoods are hotbeds of crime and so must be targeted by CAP to make the neighbourhoods "safe" for the wealthy homeowners. Never mind the fact that homeless people are having their rights violated and are, sometimes, being hurt in the process. "Oh, we'll just sweep that under the carpet. Pay no attention to the cop with the night stick and can of pepper spray." Target policing is not about fighting crime, it is about harassing homeless people, confiscating possessions, writing tickets for really trivial offences, and photographing street youth for no reason. I know I mentioned this already, but I think it bears repeating. CAP is about charging people with camping without a permit. The problem is there are no permits available for camping. People are being charged for not having something that they can't get in the first place! DUUHH!! This program only serves to reinforce NIMBYism or neighbourhoodism. The mindset that says "help the homeless, just don't do it in my neighbourhood." This mindset also proposes that certain neighbourhoods are very undesirable and not fit to live in because of the "high crime" in the area. The cops didn't need to do this; the media does that quite well all on its own. Every time there is a demo or a march where there is violence, the media puts forward the view that the homeless ignited the violence. They don't say that the cops started the violence, as is so often the case. As a result, the public has a wrong perception of homeless people. (IE. "They choose to be homeless, it's their own fault, homeless people are dangerous.") We already know that Toronto cops are racist, this Program just underscores that view. There is also evidence of sexual discrimination in the Force. This was brought out in the "Jane Doe" case where a woman was used as "bait" to catch a serial rapist. Women and visible minorities who are homeless are much more vulnerable than housed people. Target policing is centered in areas where there are high poverty rates. These areas also have high numbers of homeless people, visible minorities, new immigrants, women, etc. This just adds to the discrimination already faced by these people. My last point is this; target policing takes money away from other needed solutions while masking the evidence of social inequality. The City needs to re-arrange its priorities. It needs to get away from persecution and punishment of homeless people and start moving towards healthy, humane programs that will help homeless people to move towards self-sufficiency. We need safe, affordable housing, safe hostel beds, permanent jobs with living wages and benefits, and harm-reduction initiatives for drug users so that everyone will be housed and treated humanely and respected. So, that's my article on Community Action Policing. I ask the question again; whom does it really protect? I think I have answered that question; it protects the rich and powerful. It protects big money and business. CAP does not protect the ordinary citizen, it does not protect the young person squeegeeing on the street corner, and it does not protect the homeless person trying to get a nap in the park. It violates the right of all of us to a decent style of living. It violates our right to live and just be. There are other aspects of CAP that I didn't touch on here; such as the violence of the cops towards homeless people. Witness the vicious takedown of the OCAP Safe Park last summer. People were hurt, some seriously, when the cops moved in during the early morning hours. One woman almost lost her baby as a result. We have got to put an end to Community Action Policing, NOW! If you want to join this fight, just come to the next meeting of the Committee To Stop Target Policing (CTSTP) or contact me: poetry33@hotmail.com. Let's make our city safe from the cops. Down with Target Policing! - Bonnie Briggs ===================================================== SPOUSAL ABUSE A thousand miles and maybe more The gulf between them grows The strain of trying to maintain The marriage starts to show She's losing weight, her nerves are raw She cannot sleep at night She lay's awake and think about Tomorrow's coming fight What happened to the love they shared Her stomach ties in knots The man she loved now comes home late A drunken angry sot She has five small kids to raise alone It is not an easy chore And little does she realize It won't last long much more The anger and the beatings grow The kids afraid to look Till finally in a drunken rage Her life he finally took The kids run screaming from the house As tears run down each face The father stands there staring down At what has taken place The smoking gun within his hand Last year he had acquired Is slowly raise towards his head And silently is fired The children pay the deepest price For these deeds that are done The scars they bear within their minds Will stay for years to come. by Frank Thomas Cochrane ====================================================== |
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