`Listen to the communities that you serve': police board gets earful

More than 90 members of the public signed up to address the Ottawa Police Service board before a vote on the draft police budget Monday night.

Over the course of the afternoon and into the late evening, board members faced calls to freeze or cut police funding, and shift investment to health, community and social services.

Many delegates angrily denounced the response by Ottawa police and board members to protesters who occupied a downtown intersection last week to demand both an end to systemic racism and an OPS budget freeze. These are some of the voices heard:

ROBIN BROWNE, 613- 8 19 BLACK HUB

Despite previous conditional support for the draft OPS budget, Browne said his organization is now calling for a budget freeze at 2020 levels.

The change is due in part to the police service's actions over the weekend, Browne said, which make it difficult for Black community groups to support the OPS budget's ask for more money for neighbourhood policing teams with the stated goal of improving community relations.

“Removing, arresting and charging peaceful protesters supports the many Black community voices that say NRTs are just lipstick on the pig of the OPS's real aim: continued criminalization of poverty and dissent.”

LAURA SHANTZ, COURAGE OTTAWA MEMBER

Shantz rejected the idea that the size and budget of the police force need to increase to reflect Ottawa's changing demographics, arguing that this reality means it's time to think about a paradigm shift.

“Ottawa will never be as white as it once was, and to me that's a really good thing, that's a wonderful thing. But it also means we need to think about doing business differently, and I don't mean by hiring Black and Indigenous police officers,” Shantz said. “Demographics are shifting. New leaders are emerging in our community, and they are raising (their) voices to tell you that business as usual is not acceptable, that there needs to be bold and immediate change. That money is better spent on social services than on deploying police against peaceful protesters.”

CASSIE SLACK, INDEPENDENT DESIGNER AND ARTIST I N OTTAWA

Slack demanded a freeze to the police budget and the dropping of charges brought against protesters involved in the weekend demonstration demanding change for

Black and Indigenous people. She accused board members of failing to listen to the community, and told them they had days to visit the site of the protest and talk to organizers.

"You failed to show up for the people that you serve, and clearly there's something wrong when the city promises to meet with organizers and then the police go ahead and arrest them in the middle of the night anyways.

“I don't care if you didn't know about it, or I don't care if you're not supposed to be responsible for those decisions, you're responsible for the outcomes.”

SARP KIZIR, COALITION AGAINST MORE SURVEILLANCE

Kizir's address to the police board was cut off by chairwoman Diane Deans after he brought up the deaths of Abdirahman

Abdi and Anthony Aust, and told the board, “We are done waiting for change to happen, you are in charge of an organization where your employees are killing people.”

Deans later allowed Kizir to finish speaking after another delegate requested it, provided that he “refrain from making the type of comments that he is making about the police being murderers.”

I FRAH YUSUF, CO- CHAIR OF JUSTICE F OR ABDIRAHMAN COALITION

On behalf of the J4A coalition, Yusuf called for the proposed budget increase to be voted down, and for the funds to instead be transferred over to Ottawa Public Health and into services for Indigenous and Black communities.

In an apparent reference to an earlier comment by Deans that she can't support requests to cut or freeze the police budget at this time, Yusuf said Deans had “made it clear that (her) mind is made up, despite more than 40 public delegations two weeks ago, and the 92 scheduled delegations today.

“We ask you today to actually listen to the communities that you serve."

BIBI HAKIM, MEMBER OF MINORITY COMMUNITY AND YOUTH I N POLICING I NITIATIVE ALUMNI

Hakim took a position that ran counter to many fellow delegates and argued that defunding the police would do more harm than good. Given the lack of alternative services with 24/7 response capacity, Hakim suggested that a percentage of the operating budget be allocated to expanding the OPS mental health unit.

“By defunding the police or by refusing to pass this budget, chair and board members, you would be shooting yourself in the foot and be putting a greater risk and strain to the city. And I can guarantee you that your to-do list and agenda would only grow from here.”

Demographics are shifting. New leaders are emerging in our community.

REEM AL- ALMERIE, STUDENT AND RESIDENT LEADER WITH CITY F OR ALL WOMEN INITIATIVE

Examples of unnecessary police interventions are abundant, said Al-Amerie, recalling a recent experience observing a handful of police officers who showed up to address an argument between two people over their place in a lengthy lineup for a medical service.

“They created a chaotic situation over a small issue that could have been resolved if someone had called a community councillor, for example, trained in relationship psychology or de-escalation,” said Al-Amerie.

“The police are not necessary everywhere and it is possible to shift our systems.”