Police shootings and public safety - the violence continues

travissmith wrote:

We should disarm the public further.

If police don't feel threatened by citizens then they won't respond with deadly force.
If the public at large was banned from owning/carrying all weapons then the incentive for police to shoot and or feel threatened would decrease significantly.

We could even have police who don't carry guns.

What are you getting at here? Most of the recent officer involved shootings have the police claiming they shot at people who had things like knives, machetes, and other various implements like hammers. I can't off the top of my head think of any shootings where the police claimed those involved had actual guns.

So lately we have had problems with random stabbings on the bus and random attacks with hammers. Despite the pandemic, the scary headlines about crime that Winnipeg is used to are still coming at us. The few of us who still move around downtown can see more people sleeping in bus shelters, no doubt a result of reduced shelter capacity due to social distancing requirements. The social ills of our city are laid bare for the few people moving about downtown and paying attention. I look to what is happening in Minneapolis, and am fearful that it's only a matter of time before the same thing happens here.

Far from uniting the city, the social distancing measures implemented to fight the pandemic are tearing the city apart. Offices have been closed. Major summer events that happen downtown have been cancelled, along with Jets games. The University of Winnipeg has been educating people online, and will continue to do so for months. Restaurants have been closed. That means that many members of the professional class who come into the downtown are separated from that reality. They don't see the social problems as they hide out from the pandemic in the safety of their own homes. Community service organizations that help the urban poor have reduced or outright eliminated volunteer helpers, and with all due respect, that is having an impact on service delivery. Community drop-in centres are closed, and for many people it's the chance to drop in and socialize with people is the greatest need they have. Additionally, panhandlers earnings have declined, as people are simply not around to give cash. All this is no doubt having an impact on physical health, but mental and emotional health as well. This is a perfect envrionment for things like drugs to flourish, along with the social ills that follow. Additionally, given the risks to health of urban poverty, why are the urban poor even worried about coronavirus anyways? There are so many bigger risks to people's health that we have ignored.

Police exercise in Winnipeg under fire:

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Gabriela Aguero was tending to her garden May 25 in the Wolseley neighbourhood when she heard gunshots.

"I heard about 10 or 20 shots being [fired] at the same time," she said.

She looked across the river and saw police in uniform at an abandoned building on Wellington Crescent. They had guns drawn, and were shouting and running.

"The first thing I thought is, 'a bullet is going to come to the other side of the river and I'm going to die,'" she said.

It was only a police training exercise — but Aguero didn't know that.

She ran into her home, while her son took video on his phone of what he could see across the river.

Aguero said the yelling and shooting went on for 15 minutes.

Why the hell is the Winnipeg Police Service doing that kind of exercise in a city, possibly even tying up their own 911 lines from people calling it in not knowing what was happening? Don't they have enough secure buildings and outdoor facilities in remote rural areas for this exact purpose?

Drugs an issue in smaller communities as well:

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A report on addiction resources says the city of Brandon needs medical detoxification beds, as well as people with lived experience to help those who want to recover navigate the system.

The five-page report was prepared by Westman Families of Addicts following consultations with families and those with first-hand experience going through recovery late last last year.

It was presented to Brandon city council on Monday night by Lonnie Patterson, the vice-president of the non-profit group, which focuses on advocacy and resources for families of people living with addiction. The group's website says its ultimate goal is bringing a detox and recovery centre to Brandon.

Patterson said the first major need that was identified in the group's report was a lack of medical detox beds in the city.

"This has been a reality in Brandon for years," she said.

The biggest challenge there is that Brandon is very good at pretending these kinds of social problems don't exist in the city, even though they have almost the entire time I have lived there. Lately they have become very strongly evident. I hope that shakes the complacency of the community and they take it more seriously.

Talk about adding insult to injury:

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A Winnipeg woman is dumbfounded after she received an ambulance bill for her common-law partner who was shot and killed by police in April.

Neveen Al-Fouakhiri said she recently found the $250 ambulance bill in her mail.

“I kind of cried in my house for six hours after,” Al-Fouakhiri told Global News Thursday.

This little bit over the ouster of James Favel from the Bear Clan:

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Favel envisioned a Bear Clan with a fully Indigenous executive and a majority-Indigenous board, but the current board doesn't represent the community the Bear Clan serves, he said. 

He also was concerned about the number of current and former police officers serving on the board, he said.

"Exactly what I was fighting against," he said.

In March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the province, police officers on the board led a voting block that shut down the nightly patrols against Favel's wishes, he said.

"That's one of the things that set us apart was that Bear Clan was consistent," he said. "That's what I was trying to maintain. The board decided that they were just going to pull the plug."

That sounds troubling, and raises the possibility of the Bear Clan being co-opted by the Winnipeg police. When it comes to public safety, there will be alliances between community groups and the police. The problem is that the police should be accountable to the communities they serve, not the other way around. If what Favel says is true, it is very concerning, especially in light of crap like this:

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A board member of Bear Clan Patrol in Winnipeg has stepped down from her position, days after a series of tweets she posted led to a petition demanding her removal.

The tweets from Rejeanne Caron's account, which is no longer publicly viewable, included one where she allegedly suggested people who want police budgets reduced be blocked from calling 911.

The board of the Indigenous-led, grassroots street patrol group was ready to remove Caron from her position at a meeting on Thursday, says Bear Clan co-founder and executive director James Favel. However, she resigned before that happened.

It's not just Winnipeg. Dauphin and Portage la Prairie have also seen murders in their communities this year.

Back in Winnipeg, an officer who shot a robbery suspect last fall has been cleared by the police watchdog.

Not seeing the bigger picture?

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A Winnipeg city councillor tried, and failed, to get a motion passed this week to purchase body cameras for Winnipeg Police Service officers.

Coun. Kevin Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) brought the motion to city council's Assiniboia community committee on Tuesday, calling the cameras "a reliable eyewitness" to incidents involving police. He argued they are needed even more in a climate in North America filled with accusations of racism and excessive force by police.

"This is the time now to put in accountability for everyone," Klein said.

"I think the residents are asking for it; officers are asking for it. There is no time like the present to do this. We have been ignoring the problem for a long time and we continue to push it off."

...

Klein's motion on Tuesday was defeated 2-1, with committee members Coun. Scott Gillingham (St. James) and Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) voting against it.

"I don't feel comfortable on this," Lukes said during the meeting of the community committee. "There is little proof it reduces use of force incidents."

Gillingham nixed the motion over concerns about the costs. He also suggested the community committee wasn't the place for a motion on body cameras for police, and that the city's police board was the appropriate venue.

Guilty plea in Brandon stabbing:

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A teen charged in the fatal stabbing of another teen in Brandon last summer has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

The accused, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, entered the plea in Brandon provincial court on Thursday morning. 

The stabbing happened at a home in the 500 block of Louise Ave., in Brandon's downtown area, just after 7 p.m. on Aug. 28, 2019. 

At the time, police said the 15-year-old victim had been stabbed and was found unresponsive. He was taken to hospital, where he later died.

How well is this going to go over?

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City and police officials have again decided on the Old Exhibition Grounds as the best choice for the new North District Police Station.

In 2018 the police service backed away from the site over community concerns it would impact the North Nomads football club and other recreation space on the property.

After an exhaustive search for private and public options, a new report to the Mayor’s Executive Policy Committee recommends the new station be built at the Old Exhibition Grounds describing it as the feasible choice.

The report said the station would be built at 80 Sinclair Street with a “revised” design to reduce the footprint.

...

The report said a city-owned building at 100 Sinclair St., which currently houses the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport Achievement Centre offices, would be demolished.

The plan has the organization’s administrative staff relocate to the Old Ex building where its programs are being run now.

Woman rammed in road rage incident caught on camera:

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Kiana Jobo was driving her father to the bank on Thursday at about 3 p.m. when she decided to make a left turn from Sargent Avenue onto Milt Stegall Drive.

Jobo says another driver going eastbound on Sargent was turning right at the same intersection, so she inched forward to ensure it was safe to make the turn.

"A man in ... a white Chevy Colorado aggressively drove up to my vehicle in the intersection and stopped right in front of my car and got extremely and unreasonably aggressive realizing that I was in his lane. And so he starts honking his horn and flipping me off," Jobo said.

The situation took a turn for the worse when Jobo says he followed her down the road and began ramming her four-door Hyundai repeatedly. When she managed to drive away, back down Milt Stegall Drive toward Sargent, she says he followed her.

"It was traumatizing," she said.

Jobo took off speeding, and says she was pursued by the man. She blew through stop signs, she says, going up to 80 kilometres per hour southbound on Valour Road, while being repeatedly rammed from behind, causing her to hit a number of other cars parked on the street.

Was this a random act of road rage, or is this a sign that people are starting to crack under the social distancing restrictions?

Here's a tragic holiday marker:

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Winnipeg police are investigating a homicide on the third Christmas in a row.

At about 5:40 p.m. on Christmas Eve, emergency responders were called to a house on Furby Street in the inner-city Spence neighbourhood, Const. Jay Murray said.

They found a badly injured man in his 30s. He was taken to hospital in critical condition but died of his injuries.

Homicide detectives are investigating, Murray said.

The death continues a grim streak for Winnipeg.

On Christmas Day 2019, Gordon Edward Pashe, 37, died after he was found badly injured near the intersection of Salter Street and Redwood Avenue in the city's North End.

On Christmas Day, 2018, Tyler Evan Smoke, 26, was found badly injured around in a back lane between Victor Street and Toronto Street in the West End. He was taken in critical condition to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

We are closing in on setting a record for the highest number of homicides in a year. Unfortunately I expect the trend to continue into January, and won't be surprised to see records continue to be broken on both a monthly and annual basis.

Bacchus wrote:

Hmm not in Toronto nor other major cities

We have been seeing more headlines about violent crime in Winnipeg in recent years even before the pandemic hit. I expect that trend will continue to accelerate in the New Year, and I expect Winnipeg to see the same kind of open social unrest we saw in places like Minneapolis and Kenosha this past year.