{"id":4336,"date":"2010-11-29T09:37:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T14:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingottawa.ca\/?p=4336"},"modified":"2013-01-21T09:06:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T14:06:12","slug":"the-violation-of-our-right-to-the-public-realm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2010\/11\/29\/the-violation-of-our-right-to-the-public-realm\/","title":{"rendered":"The violation of our right to the public realm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

No doubt the wording of the above communique from the Police Services Board concerning tomorrow night\u2019s community meeting about racial profiling would be different if it was written today. When that notice was first circulated, its author had no idea the city was about to be outraged by the revelation that a young black woman by the name of Stacy Bonds had been arrested and then detained and assaulted by the Ottawa police for nothing more than the crime of walking down the street. We expect that \u201cchat\u201d will now be a very mild description of the tenor of tomorrow night\u2019s discussion.<\/p>\n

The Spacing discourse doesn’t usually run to police and justice matters. However, in a week like this last one has been, it would seem pointless to discuss architecture and urban design and streetscape without acknowledging that there are fellow citizens among us who have to think twice before walking at night through the public space we cherish, because, somewhere in the back of their minds, they wonder if they will be the next to be abducted and assaulted — for that is not too strong a description for what happened to Stacy Bonds — by the very people our society employs to protect them.<\/p>\n

Several commentators have made the point that responsibility for this sorry affair lies with the Crown — specifically, the Attorney General of Ontario — for keeping the contemptible charges against Ms. Bonds on the books for two years. They argue that since the case was still before the courts, the Chief of Police was unable to intervene in what was still considered by the Crown Attorney’s Office — until a judge threw the case out last week — to be a perfectly legitimate prosecution.<\/p>\n

But to say the leadership of the Ottawa Police Service doesn’t share blame for what happened to Stacy Bonds would be a fantastic claim.<\/p>\n

Why? Because along with the disturbing images of the assault on Ms. Bonds, there is something else extremely worrying captured by of the video footage.\u00a0 It is\u00a0 the utter nonchalance of the officers’ body language as they brutalized their prisoner.\u00a0 One particularly tall officer walks back and forth in front of the camera scarcely giving the scene a glance as three other officers repeatedly hurt a young woman the size of a 13 year-old girl. Other than the female officer’s vicious knee-kicks, movements are slow and measured, almost leisurely, as they methodically seek out painful pressure points. Despite the fact that she is immobilized, they push her face-first into the floor; they know the location of a nearby riot shield so that her lower body can be even further flattened as they cut off her top and bra.<\/p>\n

We now know that Special Constable Melanie Morris – the one who twice knee-kicked Bonds –was also caught on video viciously kicking a homeless aboriginal man “like you wouldn’t kick a dog” according to the shocked judge who reviewed the footage<\/a>. After that incident, Morris was rewarded with a further five-year contract with the OPS. And then there is Sgt. Steve Desjourdy himself. As has been much discussed, the officer that cut off Bond’s bra has a record of prisoner abuse, abuse that includes the unauthorized use of a Taser. Abusive officers, working in an atmosphere where their abuse doesn’t raise an eyebrow. Can anyone watch this<\/a> and conclude that this was anything other than business as usual in the cell blocks on Elgin Street?<\/p>\n

If it is, it is not the Attorney General’s fault. It is the fault of a police department that has allowed a culture of contempt for citizen’s rights to exist<\/a>. We find ourselves wondering if the likes of Desjoudy and Morris will be punished because they abused, or for allowing themselves to be captured on video while their abuse takes place.<\/p>\n

We ask this because it is so difficult to believe that what happened to Stacy Bonds was an isolated incident. And it should be a matter of the greatest concern to all of us that in violating her rights, and the rights of others who have shared her experience, the right of every law-abiding citizen to enjoy the liberty of the public realm is also violated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No doubt the wording of the above communique from the Police Services Board concerning tomorrow night\u2019s community meeting about racial profiling would be different if it was written today. When that notice was first circulated, its author had no idea the city was about to be outraged by the revelation that a young black womanContinue reading “The violation of our right to the public realm”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[2654,796,2658,374,2650,2661,2241,2665,2663,2655,677,2664,1111,2652,2659,2651,2657,2656,2653,2662,2660],"class_list":["post-4336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-attorney-general","tag-author","tag-chief","tag-city-hall","tag-crown-attorneys-office","tag-desjoudy","tag-judge","tag-law-abiding-citizen","tag-melanie-morris","tag-officer","tag-ontario","tag-ops","tag-ottawa-police","tag-ottawa-police-service","tag-particularly-tall-officer","tag-police-services-board","tag-sergeant","tag-shocked-judge","tag-special-constable","tag-stacy-bonds","tag-steve-desjourdy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe violation of our right to the public realm - Spacing Ottawa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2010\/11\/29\/the-violation-of-our-right-to-the-public-realm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The violation of our right to the public realm - Spacing Ottawa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No doubt the wording of the above communique from the Police Services Board concerning tomorrow night\u2019s community meeting about racial profiling would be different if it was written today. 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