In its heyday, the still popular Rap group, Public Enemy, released several popular hits, most notably among them one titled 911 Is a Joke.
As nice and apropos as the music and literary ingredients were, 911 wasn’t a song to hit the dance floor and release… it was music to listen to, speaking to reflecting their reality in the hardscrabble lives of many. We see images of that circumstance regularly on TV, in newspapers and magazines, etc.
More importantly we see the people who are victims and impacted by hardscrabble the images… sometimes including death. Public Enemy has made an international name for itself by highlighting those social, political and other issues.
Montreal is no exception to some of those physical/tangible/mental images. Take the shootings of Black males for example.
The name Anthony Griffin immediately comes to mind when one thinks of police shootings of Black civilians in this city. The name of the shooter and victim are etched on the minds of Montrealers who care to remember that day in Montreal’s history.
On November 11, 1987, the 19-year-old Black man was shot and killed by Montreal police officer Allan Gosset in NDG. Major shocking news at the time in the city. Also the beginning of conversations/discussions/protests about community-police/race relations with the city’s growing Black community.
Unfortunately, other similar shootings happened in subsequent years, but under different circumstances… and over time people seemed to become desensitized, given
official explanations and usual gossip all of which are tragic nevertheless .
At a certain point in time, multiple shootings of Black and other peoples were becoming the norm, but often resurrecting the name Anthony Griffin whenever one speaks of police shootings…
There’s never been any announcement by police signalling the end of the egregious pastime, shooting of Black men. By that I mean innocent people just going about their normal lives; as far as we know not engaging in so-called “shady activities.” As the general public has come to understand that has a way of taking care of itself.
Which is perhaps the reason why the BEI (Quebec’s Police Watchdog) outfit, which leads investigations of police shootings of apparently innocent Quebecers, wasn’t watching closely enough to notice how the people they’ve been charged with investigating function when they’re out and about “investigating” other and recent police-related matters involving gunplay.
And they probably weren’t on scene to prevent that Black man of Haitian background, 37-year-old Jean-René Junior Olivier from being shot and killed by Repentigny police a few couple weeks ago.
For the record, and we’ve heard and seen various news stories in recent months about “racial profiling” and lack of “minority representation” complaints being levied against police of that off-island Montreal suburb by Black residents and visitors alike. We’ve heard some of them on local news expressing their personal experiences…
A matter which the political power brokers as well as police themselves have been promising to address.
On the other hand we’ve heard some of the majority homogeneous types on local news expressing their satisfaction (with the make-up of their force).
So when police shot Jean-René, maybe some of them and residents alike (who prefer the homogeneous make-up of their force) thought of it as a sort of comeuppance for the small Black community and their periodic complaints…
It was inevitable then, when news broke on that August 1 police shooting of another Black male in Montreal. I could sense resounding “I knew it” thoughts and rumblings of Black Montrealers.
According to a family member, at the request of the mother of the deceased man, a 9-1-1 call was made to the police for assistance on behalf of the son who “was in distress and in need of help.”
She didn’t call the police “to kill her son,” we heard her say on local television news.
The family told reporters “they called police because they were concerned for his well-being and wanted him to get help. Instead, they said, he received three bullets in the stomach…”
“Why three bullets?” The family of the victim is quoted as asking, and hoping to get answers from the police.
Truth is, it had been sometime since police found a reason to turn their gun on an innocent citizen who, from laypersons’ perspective, posed no threat to them. “A butter knife” as a dangerous or deadly weapon?
As usual laypeople find that excuse difficult. But the police will always see things and argue from a different vantage point. Such as that oft-used one: “I felt like my life was…”
Yes! “Why three bullets?”
Given the victim’s mental state at the time why not employ the taser, call a psychologist, social worker, someone with training in mental well-being to prevent the loss of life?
As far as we know, on both sides of the language divide the Black community has abundant human resource in the professions in question that might’ve been able to prevent the loss of life.
A blatant message to the Black community to understand that in some minds: Black Lives Don’t Matter.
Apparently the BEI is investigating the shooting . So far, it has disclosed that officers responded to a 911 call about a man in distress and found someone who was holding a knife and approaching their vehicle.
Truth is, it had been sometime since police found a reason to turn their gun on another Black male. The last one was in October 2020 when police shot and killed Sheffield Matthews in NDG. He too was experiencing a mental crisis and officers were responding to a 911 call about a man in distress. He ended up dead.
And I was under the impression and came to the silly conclusion that Montreal police had declared a moratorium on the shooting/killing of Black men.
If you or someone’s in crisis, think one two… ten times before calling 911. Public Enemy warned us years ago: it’s a Joke…
But nothing to laugh about though.
Just Google Walter Wallace Jr., who was killed by Philadelphia police under 911 circumstances…
911: PERIL, NORM, OR GAMBLE?
