{"id":49822,"date":"2014-09-22T12:17:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T16:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=49822"},"modified":"2014-09-22T12:34:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T16:34:59","slug":"lorinc-election-de-policing-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2014\/09\/22\/lorinc-election-de-policing-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: The election and the de-policing problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-lorinc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In less than a year, tens of thousands of tourists, sports fans, and athletes will descend on Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan American Games, a $2.5 billion showcase event that brings to a close the city\u2019s 20-year search for an international sporting event.<\/p>\n

The Games will bring publicity and hundreds, if not thousands, of media, and it has spurred construction on the West Donlands and other locales. But there will be another, and far less positive legacy, although its precise dimensions won\u2019t be known fully until next summer.<\/p>\n

That legacy will be the impact of the Games\u2019 whopping $239 million security budget \u2014 a topic that has generated zero discussion during the current election campaign, but is almost certainly worth closer inspection, given the fact that the next mayor will be the de facto<\/em> host of the event, and, in all likelihood, a Toronto Police Services Board member.<\/p>\n

While the budget is far smaller than the security outlays for the Olympics in Vancouver and Sochi, the Toronto 2015 security outlay grew well beyond what was initially projected, and includes an $81 million contingent of private security personnel<\/a>, in numbers not seen in these parts since the G20 in 2010.<\/p>\n

Security was a top-of-mind concern \u2014 and a highly visible presence<\/a> \u2014 at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, with senior officials expressing fears about violence related to the country\u2019s fight to contain the drug cartels.<\/p>\n

Will there be a similar show of force here? Unlikely, although it\u2019s difficult to predict how the ever-widening ISIS threat<\/a> will intersect with this kind of event (I feel confident, however, that security officials in Ottawa are thinking about the risk).<\/p>\n

More likely, the Pan Am will serve as merely another excuse for the police to harass homeless people, street addicts, or others in the east end who aren\u2019t wanted in the beauty shots of the city. In the run-up to the Vancouver Olympics, the city\u2019s police force stepped up patrols in the Downtown Eastside<\/a>, although the feared deluge of negative international publicity about the area\u2019s notorious injection drug scene never materialized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If anyone harbors doubts about the grave risks facing homeless people living in the vicinity of the Games\u2019 marquis events, a powerful and disturbing new documentary, “What World Do You Live In?<\/a>,\u201d depicts the rough treatment meted out by the Toronto Police Service during and after the G20 to a community of people who live in shelters or on the street and seek refuge at The Sanctuary<\/a>, a mission on Charles Street.<\/p>\n

Directed by veteran filmmaker Rebecca Garrett, the documentary \u2014 a must-see for those interested in Toronto\u2019s policing issues \u2014 will have its world premiere at The Roya<\/a>l on October 9, at 7 pm.<\/p>\n

As long-time sanctuary activist Doug Johnson Hatlem, who produced the film, told me on Friday, \u201cthere are already people talking about what Pan Am is going to mean for them.\u201d The sweeps that happened before the G20 and at all these sporting events, he says, represent a \u201cclear and blatant decision to make the city look better by cleaning up the rabble. There\u2019s a lot of fear in the Sanctuary community about what it\u2019s going to mean for them: more ticketing, and more arrests.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, possibly, brutality: Some of the film\u2019s most wrenching scenes involve interviews with the friends of Chris Gardian<\/a>, an alcoholic man who died in 2011 after being arrested and beaten by several Toronto cops behind an east end store. No one was charged. (The documentary also features an interview with a woman in her 80s who was roughed up by police, seemingly for loitering near an ATM.)<\/p>\n

These incidents have tended to receive less media coverage than the spate of highly publicized shootings of distressed individuals with mental illness, which were the subject of a triple inquest<\/a>, a major review by the Toronto Police Service,<\/a> and an ongoing inquiry by the Ontario ombudsman into use-of-force guidelines. After the release of the review, by former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, TPS chief Bill Blair pledged to implement training and organizational changes that will help the front-line police officers better recognize individuals who are suffering from mental illness\/addiction issues and are in the throes of a crisis.<\/p>\n

But one of the documentary\u2019s most thought-provoking themes is the case for less<\/em> policing, and in particular fewer calls to 911 in response to individuals, especially those on the streets, who appear to be in crisis mode. Too often, those calls can lead to violence and the criminal justice system as opposed to the sort of help that people dealing with substance abuse or mental illness actually require.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind, who is a criminal lawyer and knows these issues through the experiences of his clients, came out late last week with a \u201cpeace of mind\u201d policy platform<\/a> that picks up on the message in Garrett\u2019s film. He\u2019s calling for council to re-allocate $15-$20 million in TPS funds to create a network of non-police mobile mental health teams \u2013 psychiatric nurses, residents, social workers, etc. \u2014 that can be dispatched to respond to people in emotional crisis instead of police. (Goldkind also says council should establish a mental health committee, and undertake an audit of local mental health services to identify gaps.)<\/p>\n

Like the filmmakers, Goldkind argues that the presence of uniformed, heavily-armed police officer often serves to escalate a tense situation instead of defuse it. \u201cPolice are woefully ill equipped to deal with these issues,\u201d he argues. \u201cThis is a medical problem, not a police problem.\u201d And, as Goldkind points out, \u201cOnce you enter the criminal justice system, even a police computer, the future outcomes for that person will be problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledges that his proposed solution doesn\u2019t address situations where an individual may be armed or pose a threat to himself or others. But Goldkind\u2019s broader point is nonetheless compelling: how, he asks, did the police come to be the social workers of last resort? It\u2019s an excellent question.<\/p>\n

At a time when crime rates are plunging and politicians of all stripe are vowing to reign in the city\u2019s massive police budget, the issue of what de-policing actually looks like, operationally, is a critically important conversation for the city to have, especially as we await \u2014 with justified trepidation \u2014 the arrival of next summer\u2019s multi-million-dollar security extravaganza.<\/p>\n

photo by Sam Javanrouh<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In less than a year, tens of thousands of tourists, sports fans, and athletes will descend on Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan American Games, a $2.5 billion showcase event that brings to a close the city\u2019s 20-year search for an international sporting event. The Games will bring publicity and hundreds, if notContinue reading “LORINC: The election and the de-policing problem”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":49827,"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":[21758,2,21763],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-politics","category-services"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: The election and the de-policing problem - Spacing Toronto<\/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\/toronto\/2014\/09\/22\/lorinc-election-de-policing-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: The election and the de-policing problem - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In less than a year, tens of thousands of tourists, sports fans, and athletes will descend on Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan American Games, a $2.5 billion showcase event that brings to a close the city\u2019s 20-year search for an international sporting event. 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