10 GOOD REASONS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 10th DEMONSTRATION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY
WEDNESDAY MARCH 15, 2006 5PM AT BERRI SQUARE

COBP-MONTREAL CALL-OUT FOR MARCH 15, 2006
10th INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY

1) Police harass. The police consistently harass the homeless (with over 22 000 tickets issued in Montreal between 1994 and 2004), youth, people of colour, immigrants and refugees, Native people, activists, you and me...

2) Police are violent. Everyone heard about the shocking brutalization and arrest of Anne-Marie Péladeau, which was filmed by a TVA helicopter November 12, 2005, but we rarely hear about the majority of police brutality.

3) Police rape. Agent Benoît Guay, with a 13 year long career with SPVM, was arrested January 25, 2006 with 22 counts of armed sexual aggression, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, assault, and threatening death against seven women and girls aged between 15 and 20, between 2004 and 2005.

4) Police murder. December 1st, 2005, an unidentified SPVM officer shot two bullets and killed 24-year-old Mohamad Anas in Côte-des-Neiges. Months later, we are still waiting for the report of the Quebec City Police.

5) Racial profiling. Police are racist and systematically accuse, suspect, search, arrest and brutalize people who are not white; Natives, blacks, latinos, asians, muslims and asians are targeted because of the colour of their skin or their religious expression.

6) Social cleansing. Police harass certain people on the street (panhandlers, squeegee kids, punks, homeless people and sex workers), in order to move them out of view from tourists and other rich street dwellers.

7) Political repression. The police arrested more than 3600 protesters between 1996 and 2005 in the province of Quebec, with 2200 of those being in Montreal. The court procedures are ongoing for years, with bail and probation conditions, tickets, and criminal records.

8) Police are corrupt. Denis Dubé, a senior officer with the Internal Affairs Division of the SPVM, was charged with a breach of trust for stealing a SPVM credit card and using it for personal gains.

9) Police lie. Central to police function is their law of silence (Omerta). The police cover up and lie in court and to the media. The SPVM spends $150 000 per year to fund the destruction of ‘secret’ documents.

10) Police are above the law. With limited recourse of action when police abuse their privileges, people are left defenseless when they are harassed, beaten, raped, killed, profiled, discriminated against and targeted by police. The law is easy on them, as are their colleagues. It is rare enough to see them charged, and even rarer to see them put behind bars for crimes they themselves have committed.

These facts are only some examples of the atrocities that police commit here in Quebec, but it is the same story everywhere that police exist. They talk to us about peace and security, but the police do nothing but serve the state and the rich. The public danger that the police pose is reflected in the general mistrust that people have with them; it is hard not to be defensive of someone who is often and visibly toting a gun. Their pledge to the law goes only as far as it serves them and their colleagues.

FOR ALL OF THESE REASONS AND MORE, COME JOIN US IN SOLIDARITY TO DENOUNCE THE POLICE, THE STATE AND THEIR BRAND OF ‘JUSTICE’!

COLLECTIVE OPPOSED TO POLICE BRUTALITY (COBP)
Tel.: (514) 859-9065
E-mail: C...@HOTMAIL.COM
Website: HTTP://COBP.ATH.CX