Stepping up

Sadly, we live in a world where it’s all too common to let racist acts go unchallenged.

Happily, that isn’t the case in Durham Region, where the police chief, Paul Martin, rightly stepped up to confront bigotry, even though it did not occur under his direct purview.

Nor did he stop at condemning a racist image he called “hateful and disgusting” that was shared and “liked” in a private Facebook group for the region’s current and retired officers.

Instead, Martin spoke out against it, launched an investigation and warned that “anyone employed by our service involved in this kind of incitement will be investigated and disciplined to the fullest extent possible.”

His announcement addresses the contents of a comic that depicts two officers beating a man with dark skin.

One holds a long stick; the other is pointing his gun at the man and has his foot on the man’s head. “My dad is my hero,” the drawing says with an arrow pointing to one of the officers. The drawing would have been sickening at any time. But it is especially so considering that it was apparently posted during the trial of off-duty Toronto police officer Michael Theriault and his brother, Christian Theriault. They are charged with assaulting a young Black man, Dafonte Miller, in Whitby in 2016.

The retired Durham employee who posted the cartoon denies it was a reference to the trial and called Martin’s response “overkill.” He couldn’t be more wrong. It is silence that too often allows racism to flourish. Chief Martin deserves kudos for calling it out.

In doing so he has set the standard for police forces across the land.

It is silence that too often allows racism to flourish