Police must name the officer who killed Andrew Loku
The hundreds of demonstrators who have been holding space in front of Toronto police headquarters since Sunday night never met Andrew Loku. Yet for four days, they’ve been calling out the name of the 45-year-old black father of five who was shot and killed by Toronto police last summer. The protesters, who are overwhelmingly black, heard the decision last week by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) not to criminally charge the officer who killed Loku, and have responded with outrage and resolve. They want justice and accountability from the police, for Loku and the series of black people who have died at the hands of police in recent years.
Nothing can return Loku to his family or erase the message of indifference to black life that has been communicated through the decision not to charge his killer.
But the significance of this week’s resolute public demonstration is clear: black people in this city know we are under attack and will stand our ground until we see real change in policing. That change can begin when police break their silence and name the police officer who shot and killed Loku.
The SIU, which investigates serious injuries, deaths and sexual assaults involving Ontario’s police, is not accountable to the public. The agency took eight months to investigate Loku’s death on July 5, 2015, then released a 700-word report clearing the subject officer who fired two shots into Loku’s chest.
SIU director Tony Loparco wrote: “I am satisfied that the subject officer fired his weapon believing it to be necessary” to shoot Loku, who was in his apartment hallway with a hammer in his hand. Loparco may be satisfied, but black Torontonians are disgusted that our lives are viewed so cheaply by the SIU.
Many questions remain even if we accept the SIU’s explanation, in the case of Loku or the scores of killings and beatings of black people that have passed without consequence in recent years. If the officer who killed Loku acted appropriately, why should his identity be kept a secret? Why do police, who are sworn to serve us, maintain the ability to harm or even kill us in complete anonymity?
The officer’s anonymity is all the more insulting when we consider the systemic racism in Toronto policing that constantly scrutinizes black bodies. Demonstrators also decry police carding, a racist form of documentation that forces black people to identify ourselves and justify our very existence where we live. Police demand to know everything about us, even though we are not hurting anyone. By contrast, police who kill us are not even named.
The courageous organizers of Black Lives Matter Toronto are holding space to demand justice for Loku, and for all those who experience police brutality and systemic racism. In sustaining this protest, they have opened a forum for others who face systemic racism and political indifference: injured migrant farm workers, indigenous people, the homeless, the undocumented. Many clearly see the disrespect shown to Loku and his family, and are standing in solidarity to bring about accountability.
Few demonstrators were surprised when police violently disrupted the protest on Monday evening, dismantling the tents they were sleeping in and extinguishing the fire that kept them warm. You can’t script this stuff: any attempt by black people to take up space in Toronto, whether at a public park for Afrofest or in front of the headquarters of their own police, results in a backlash, in excessive sanction, in lectures, in violence. We get it, but we’re not going to accept it any longer.
Mayor John Tory has reached across the Atlantic Ocean to condole with the families of those killed in the recent attacks in Brussels. As I write this, Tory hasn’t uttered one word about the SIU decision not to charge Loku’s killer. When the killing was under investigation, Tory, who put himself on the police board, said he was obligated to remain silent. His silence now, along with that of the entire elected city council, is an endorsement of the ongoing police disregard for black lives.
The officer who killed Loku has likely been on the job since he took the South Sudanese refugee’s life last year. We do not know if he hurt anyone before Loku or has hurt anyone else since then. There is no way to hold police accountable if they can harm us and remain anonymous.
To begin the process of accountability, police must release the subject officer’s name.