Judy Haiven on the evictions debacle : If

IF the police had not stormed the encampment at the old library…

IF the police had not pepper sprayed protesters, pedestrians and a ten-year-old girl…

IF the police had never arrested 24 people some who were living in a public park and supporters …  

IF the police chief, HRM’s CEO and the mayor had apologized instead of gaslighting us all…

IF even one HRM councillor had owned up to what they knew about the police “raids” on the homeless, and when they found out… 

IF even one member of HRM Council this week – other than Becky Kent – had admitted there were “unintended consequences” to the violence exhibited by police…

IF HRM’s CEO, Jacques Dubé had not excused the shocking police violence with the facile statement,  “everybody’s heart was in the right place here” …

IF Councillor Lindell Smith, chair of the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners,  had not insisted that the “…board can’t give operational direction and the board can’t tell the chief how to do things…”

IF not more than a handful of 16 HRM councillors had bothered to answer questions by the Chronicle Herald about police brutality

IF some police had not purposely removed their name tags…

IF some police had not worn the offensive “thin blue line” badge …

IF council had not screwed up so badly —

Does anyone think HRM Council would have opened their purse strings to spend $500,000 on hotel room stays and emergency shelters for the “unhoused”?  

I don’t think so.Contrast the paltry $500,000 to nearly $100 million Council voted for this year’s police budget.

Judy Haiven is on the steering committee of Equity Watch, a Halifax-based organization which fights bullying, racism and discrimination in the workplace. You can reach her at equitywatchns@gmail.com

See also: Three somewhat remarkable images from today’s protest