[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by LeatherFace

Can you define what 'systemic racism' means to you and where in Canadian society that you see systemic racism in action that always only seems to impact natives or black people and not any other minority group in any significant way?

Toronto/GTA is one of the top multicultural cities in the world and there are millions of minorities living here with hundreds of thousands of them living in poverty in the exact same neigbhorhoods as black families do and all their kids go to the same schools and hang out at the same parks and malls as black kids do and yet how come very few of those non-black minority kids turn to violence and crime?

Wouldn't we except that because they live in the exact same environment and poverty side by side with black people that they too would have more of their kids also being involved in crime, violence and gangs and yet that hasn't happened at all. I wonder why? Are they privileged too in some way that they're able to avoid all of that?:

So, Toronto Police Services has openly admitted there is a problem with the service being provided and calls for fundamental change, and not more funding. Directly from them, in 2017 and their action plan to address this exact issue:

• The evidence and best practices from other jurisdictions and organizations confirm that the limits of the existing model of policing have been reached.
The answer to outdated service delivery cannot simply be more public funding. To contain costs and ensure value for money, fundamental change is needed.

You can read the whole thing here: https://www.torontopolice.on.ca/TheW...ary-mobile.pdf

Reallocate and defund have the same meaning. If you “reallocate” funds, the division losing a portion of that funding has been “defunded”. If you’re hung up on that point alone, maybe get over it. “Reallocate police funding” doesn’t have the same ring. Nor does “Remember that black lives matter as well!” Then again, you could make this same argument for pretty much any press headline ever written, and you need to actually dive into the substance to understand what anyone is trying to say. That isn’t a new concept.

As for the racism problems in Toronto Police Sevices, here a recent report from the Ontario Human Rights Commission: http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/public-inte...mination-black

According to the 2016 Census, the population of Toronto was 2,731,571. “Visible minorities” made up 51.5% of population. The largest “visible minority” groups were South Asian, Chinese and Black, who made up 12.6%, 11.1% and 8.8% of the population respectively.[23] There were 239,850 Black people in Toronto.[24]

The name SIU is used throughout, remember that their cases only involve serious injury, sexual assault, or death by police. Here is the definition:

The Special Investigations Unit
The SIU is a civilian body and arms-length agency of the Ministry of the Attorney General with jurisdiction extending to all police officers in Ontario. The SIU’s mandate is set out in the Police Services Act. Its mandate is to conduct investigations into the circumstances of serious injuries and deaths that may have resulted from criminal offences committed by police officers, including allegations of sexual assault. It has the power to investigate police officers and lay criminal charges if there are reasonable grounds to do so.[48]

“Serious injuries” are defined by the SIU as:

“Serious injuries” shall include those that are likely to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim and are more than merely transient or trifling in nature and will include serious injury resulting from sexual assault. “Serious Injury” shall initially be presumed when the victim is admitted to hospital, suffers a fracture to a limb, rib or vertebrae or to the skull, suffers burns to a major portion of the body or loses any portion of the body or suffers loss of vision or hearing, or alleges sexual assault.[49]

The SIU does not have a mandate to investigate discrimination or officer misconduct. The SIU does not have the authority to investigate alleged violations of the Code or other forms of improper conduct, make findings of discrimination, or lay disciplinary charges for officer misconduct that proceed to a disciplinary hearing.[50]

Black people were over-represented in use of force cases (28.8%), shootings (36%), deadly encounters (61.5%) and fatal shootings (70%). Black men make up 4.1% of Toronto’s population, yet were complainants in a quarter of SIU cases alleging sexual assault by TPS officers.

Between 2013 and 2017, a Black person was far more likely than a White person to be involved in an incident involving Toronto Police use of force that resulted in serious injury or death. A Black person was:

- 3.1 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a SIU investigation
- 3.6 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a police use of force case
- 4.9 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a police shooting that resulted in serious civilian injury or death
- 11.3 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a police use of force case that resulted in civilian death
- 19.5 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a police shooting that resulted in civilian death.

The white guys probably have clean records though and go peacefully eh? At least significantly more often right? Negative:

Although there were more allegations of Black people (41.7%) resisting arrest than White people (25.5%), White people were more likely to have a criminal record (54.5%) and to have allegedly threatened or attacked police (61.8%) than Black people (44.4% – criminal record; 44.4% – threatened or attacked police).

61.8% of white people resisting arrest threatened or attacked police but they were 3-4 times more likely to be arrested without injury, and 11-19 times LESS likely to be choked or shot to death by police.

Back to “reallocation” of funding merits:

From 2013-2017, according to SIU reports, most civilians (70.4%) were not exhibiting mental health issues at the time of their encounter with the TPS that involved use of force. However, a large proportion of use of force cases involved people exhibiting mental health issues (29.6%).

30% of police calls that resulted in serious injury or death were mental health calls. Clearly this is worthy of having its own division to deal with these matters.