![Public statement by the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition (DPAD), on the Independent [Police] Street Checks Review](https://nsadvocate.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cardingsolhalFEAT-365x260.jpg)
Public statement: “This report has strengthened the Coalition’s position that street checks are illegal and should be banned:”
Angela Bowden remembers growing up Black in rural Nova Scotia, and reflects on the enduring damage done by abusive police practices over the generations. “I vividly recall, as do many of my peer group, police officers slowly driving by us numerous times, following us as we walk, asking us our names, where we are going, where we are coming from, and who our parents were.”
Robert Wright’s full response to the Wortley report, as delivered at this morning’s press conference at the Central library on Spring Garden Road. Robert Wright spoke on behalf of the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition (DPAD), one of the organizations that long ago demanded a moratorium on the racist practice of police street checks.
There is nothing in Wortley’s report about police street checks we didn’t know, or could not have known, or should not have known before. Sure makes you wonder…
Police chief Jean-Michel Blais against all evidence denied that racial profiling and rude cops were ever a problem in the Halifax police department. It’s a good thing he’s retiring.
“I conclude that random street checks, which take considerable time and effort for a police service to conduct, have little to no verifiable benefits relating to the level of crime or even arrests,” an Ontario judge concludes after an 11-months review, including extensive consultation with members of the Ontario Black, Indigenous and racialized communities, as well as police representatives.
It may not look that way, but poor Nova Scotia is just so very very racist.
Didn’t hear much about the police check study over the summer, but the NS Human Rights Commission recently launched an online survey asking all HRM residents about their encounters with police. We have long argued that what is needed is not yet another study, but an immediate stop to the racist practice, but maybe the survey has some redeeming qualities.
Jason MacLean, president of the NSGEU, was pulled over for driving with a tinted window. At least, that’s the police officer’s story. MacLean is convinced he was pulled over because he is Black.
Halifax police much more likely to arrest Black people for marijuana possession. Oh no, what could possibly explain that?