{"id":1250,"date":"2006-10-15T19:01:29","date_gmt":"2006-10-15T23:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:05:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:05:10","slug":"walking-while-black","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/10\/15\/walking-while-black\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking while black?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Edit – I received comments that my original version of this report included too much speculation. I have removed most of the speculation. Instead, I would like to discuss my reaction to this incident, and the broader issues<\/em>]<\/p>\n

I was waiting for the light at the corner of Brant and Richmond on Sunday just after 2:00 in the afternoon when I saw 6 or 7 police on bikes, in their bright yellow cycling jackets, taking a whole lane along Richmond. At first, I thought this was great — a kind of police critical mass.<\/p>\n

There were two young black men walking along the north sidewalk of Richmond, maybe 20 years old. Their appearance and behaviour was normal to my eye. As the police biked by, one of them slowed and stopped and started talking to one of the black men, who answered calmly. The policeman kept talking to him, and gradually let his bike drop and started talking to the guy more closely. The other black man had stopped a few yards away, as has the rest of the police. They then started questioning him too, and gradually they let their bikes drop and the four cops surrounded him. They had him spread his arms and started fishing in his pockets, and as I biked by when the light turned, I heard him spelling out his name. The two black men were calm and cooperative the whole time. I didn’t stick around to see the outcome.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard black men — including Ward 20 candidate Desmond Cole<\/a>, during the City Idol contest — say that being stopped and questioned by the police is something that they’ve experienced more than once. As I was watching this incident, I was really taken aback by it, and it seemed to be an example of this experience. But when I first posted this thought on this blog, I was taken to task for making this assumption based only on what I saw. Fair enough. It could be that the police had a reason to be suspicious that I wasn’t aware of. It could be that the police stop young men of many different ethnicities on an equal basis, and that the only reason I noticed this incident was because of the debate about racial profiling. Maybe most<\/em> young men, whatever their ethnicity, have been stopped and questioned by police while walking along the street, at one time or another.<\/p>\n

So my question to readers is, have you been stopped and questioned by the police while you were walking along the street? The issue is important, because it affects how people are able to use public space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Edit – I received comments that my original version of this report included too much speculation. I have removed most of the speculation. 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