Accountability

The video that circulated after police was called for an altercation following a party on de Maisonneuve west early Sunday morning October 16, was troubling enough.
The young man was on the ground obviously hurt. People around him are agitated and can be heard shouting as if to the police that he is bleeding and unconscious. The police could be heard telling them to back off.
The youth obviously lost consciousness during the incident. He was taken to the hospital and was reported to be in stable condition.
The news report that followed quoted a statement from Quebec’s independent investigation bureau (BEI) stating that it will be investing the incident that led to the 25-year-old’s injury after he had “fallen and hit his head on the ground.”
The police are quoted as saying that they responded to the call and tried to arrest the youth and he resisted.
Not having any information as what really went down, we’re in no position to comment on the incident.
What we do know that on too many occasions when police and Black youth confront each other in hostile situations it does end well for our children.
There’s evidence aplenty of police officers over-reacting and abusing their powers when dealing with us.
There was a time when our community was well positioned to respond to those abuses by effective advocacy on the political front and sometimes by manifestations on the street.
Those days are long gone as many of the loud voices have become silent.
But our community is still vulnerable and many of our young ones are still victims of police heavy handedness.
Truth is, the time has come for us to shoulder our share of responsibilities in those situations of hostilities.
That particular incident happened around 5:00 AM following a party and might be a lot of blame to go around that led to the police intervention.
Our young ones will party and most do so in peace, showing love respect to each other.
But there‘re times when all the stakeholders including party promoters, organizers as well as venues invest all they can to make sure that these events take place without incident before, during and after.
Party-goers also have that responsibility to show respect to each other… even as they party hard.
Things are tough enough for us in this province as the politics of language and culture continue to marginalized us as a double minority.
So we have a responsibility to do it right as much as we can, because it’s difficult to win in this place.
Let’s see what the results of the BEI investigation bring.

Egbert Gaye