Canadian police killing people of colour

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/siu-investigate-hilda-street-arrest... man critically injured during arrest has died[/url]

And this on Facebook by Desmond Cole:

Quote:

A shocking update about Abdirahman Abdi, who was severely beaten by Ottawa police yesterday—he is dead. Unbelievably, doctors at The Ottawa Hospital now say he was dead 45 minutes before they were able to assess him. These doctors only told his family he was dead late this afternoon, more than 24 hours after he had been admitted to hospital. They told the family he was on life support. The family was waiting, hoping he might survive.

I cannot begin to express what this all means. All I know is that Ottawa police, and the staff at the Ottawa Hospital, have paid the ultimate disrespect to Abdirahman Abdi and his family. They acted as if his life did not matter. Now is the time to express solidarity with his family, and to demand answers from all those responsible for this unacceptable series of abuses.

In commenting on how police beat Abdirahman Abdi to death, Ron Melchers, a professor of "criminology" (yeah, that's a real thing apparently) at University of Ottawa, said that "all situations are so complex". That "complexity" is apparently what keeps the academic police apologists gainfully employed, so they can lecture to simple minds like ours. 

Here's how John Clarke, of OCAP, replied in a public comment on Facebook:

John Clarke wrote:

Where would this society's apologists and intellectual performing seals be without their favourite word 'complexity?' All the injustices they want to leave in place must be awarded the status of complexity, so as to ensure they are endlessly studied but never challenged. Poverty and homelessness are very 'complex' issues that must be pondered over the generations so as to ensure that 'simplistic solution,' like raising peoples' income, are not hastily applied. The killing of Abdirahman Abdi by Ottawa Police is also very 'complex,' according to Professor Ron Melchers. Actually, I think it was a very simple situation. In a gentrifying area that the developers want 'cleaned up,' a black man with limited English is accosted by cops. He is described by one of his neighbours as 'autistic.' A witness says they told him to lie down and he didn't so he was brought to the ground. Then, “they hit, they hit, they hit, they hit everywhere. Then he was unconscious." The cops focused on trying to confiscate the cell phones of those who'd recorded the incident but offered no assistance to their victim. I'm sure the good professor would think me boorish but I see not a trace of complexity in the beating death of Abdirahman Abdi.

What he said.

Dr. Dawg:

[url=http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2016/07/to-serve-and-protect-in-ottawa.shtml]To serve and protect in Ottawa[/url]

Quote:

Two days ago, an unarmed, autistic Black man, Abdirahman Abdi, was beaten to death by police, right here in Ottawa, in front of witnesses.

I feel more uncomfortable than perhaps I should in writing this. Several weeks ago Ottawa police officers came to my aid during a violent family situation. They were professional in every respect: prompt, thorough, and restrained in their use of force.

Abdirahman Abdi, on the other hand, was killed after what has been described by witnesses as a savage beating by a number of Ottawa police officers after he had been handcuffed. Medical treatment was delayed. Police attempted, illegally, to seize the cellphones of witnesses who had been filming the assault. (I gather that their owners were having none of that.) [...]

Was the killing racially motivated? That question, in fact all of the community’s anxious questions, are very likely to bounce off the blue wall. How can police be made accountable so that unarmed citizens cannot be beaten to death in front of witnesses with impunity? That’s the biggest question of all, of course—and it, too, may well go unanswered.

[url=http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-protesters-end-vigil... protesters end vigil with moment of silence for Abdirahman Abdi[/url]

Quote:

Two hundred people attended a vigil to honour the memory of Abdirahman Abdi, the Canadian-Somali man who died in police custody in Ottawa, and shed light on police racial violence north of the border.

“Just here in Montréal-Nord and in St-Michel, you have extremely high rates of police stopping young black persons. You have the police killing of Alain Magloire, another man who was in a mental health crisis who was shot by Montreal police,” social activist Robyn Maynard said.

Maynard is a member of Montréal-Noir — a non-profit collective that aims to end police racial profiling and systemic racism — which, along with the members of Justice for the Victims of Police Killings Coalition, helped organize the vigil that turned into a march.

The event was held at Norman Bethune Square right outside Concordia Univeristy’s downtown campus and started at 6:30 p.m.