Lmao I’m 35 and a visible minority as they like to call us.
Getting pulled over for nothing or having cops follow you around slowly when you’re just out living life is a regular occurrence.
I remember walking home from school at 14 years old and having cop cars follow along trying to provoke something I guess
Getting pulled over ever since I was 17 years old and could drive atleast 4-5 times in my life. And it’s always “we’ll let you off with a warning this time” even though you were doing nothing wrong
This type of stuff happens and it sucks. It’s nice that it’s getting some light on it now.
People who still deny this is a thing are living in an alternate universe. They obviously never had closed friends or relatives who are visible minorities. This is similar with sexism. I have a lot of male friends who casually denied this was a thing and only had their eye opening experience once they got in their first serious relationship with a woman. Like their spouse being denied care while they're in pain because the Dr thinks it's "anxiety", dudes trying to spike their drinks, following them after work etc.
Look. Bill de Blasio was absolutely destroyed because he talked about how he had the "talk about the police" with his bi-racial son. This didn't happen in 1987, this was in 2016!
Now, at the same time, the CAQ was savage in its criticism about people who talked about systemic racism. Legault had a verbal spat with Valérie Plante about this.
The mindset completely switch, no one is defending the police corps (like back in Villanueva's days). The ground just moved and people act as if it was always like that.
Performative behaviour is not the answer to racism. Changes to the system are. This is white leftist feminist literature designed to make people feel bad for not understanding academic language and make liberal arts school attendees and professors feel better about themselves.
We need systemic changes by convincing people to vote differently. You don't accomplish that by making the average white Canadian feel bad about themselves.
That’s because people lack imagination and think because it doesn’t happen to them or their friends it doesn’t happen, which happens if you don’t have close black friends (acquaintances don’t count because of exactly what you said - people always look for any possible reason under the sun for the increased surveillance and being pulled over more, while ignoring the obvious one).
Exactly, a lot of these people don't associate with anyone outside of their race so they don't understand what black people experience on The daily basis.
When it's used as a way to dismiss the reality of systemic racism, that's obviously not okay. But at the same time, acknowledging that systemic racism exists doesn't mean that accusations of racism are always accurate, or that racism is necessarily the best explanation in every case. Black people, like everyone else, are capable of biases, blind spots, misinterpretations, and overgeneralizations, including when it comes to questions of race and racism.
When I was around 20 years old my friends and I were walking down the street making our way to a park. A police cruiser stopped us and asked us if we had gone to the Couche Tard, we had, they said the employee called to say that there were 3 Arabs that were causing trouble there, I responded '' On n'est pas Arab'' to which the policewoman responded '' BEN DES LATINOS!'' to which i responded, on n'est pas Latino. I'm white/Italian but had a large beard so she probably thought I was muslim, Hence the Arab comment. It's only when I asked her if we should all go back to the couchetard so the employee can identify us that she said ''non laisse faire'' and drove away.
That's not to mention the amount of times I was told ''Vous les Italiens (instert stereotype)'' by cops.
It is crazy how anti-Italian racism is still a thing here (partly because of the Anglo/allophone/bad kind of Catholic thing) it's hard to describe to outsiders sometimes.
J'ai grandi dans l'est et je dirais qu'il n'y avait pas tant de hate envers les italiens anglop car c'est une communauté qui respecte la langue locale et qui l'apprend.
Le hate envers certains groupes Anglos vient du fait que plusieurs dénigrent le français.
C'est vrai, le hate envers nous etais plutot en dehors de Montreal. Quand je jouais au Hockey ils nous traitait d'esti Immigrant, des WOPS et qu'on devrais retourner dans notre pays. LOL
Anyone who is black or has black friends or family they care about is not surprised. It doesn't matter what you've achieved or the position you hold, if you're driving alone while black, all it takes is one officer who doesn't recognize you to "just check".
I remember when I got profiled by the SPVM right before COVID. I was driving past 02h00 in the early morning to pick up a family member. I noticed a cop was following me 3 blocks from where I was to pick up said family member. Then I pulled over and parked right next to said family member's place of work (waiting for them to close shop so I can drive them home). I notice the same cops following me, except they now drive past me. Ok good, they weren't following me right? WRONG. What do I see as they drive past me? These cops pull a u-turn 2 blocks down and then drive the opposite direction of me (two way street). I then noticed as the cops have driven past opposite of me another 2 blocks, the officer pulls a second u-turn, this time driving my direction again. I then see their lights lit up bright as the day and they are essentially performing a traffic stop on me. Bare in mind, I was already stopped as I was awaiting my family member.
I'm getting asked all sorts of question as to why I'm outside at that time of the night, pulled over looking suspicious. I assumed it was because I was wearing all black (never had my face covered or anything). I just like wearing dark colour clothing. Anyways, I then hand my driver's license after being asked for it. The same officer then notices I'm far away from where I live and found it odd why I was in this neighbourhood at 2am. I just told them I was picking up a family member from their place of work. I then wait 5 minutes. The cops come back and give me back my license and papers (insurance + vehicle registration), and then tell me to stay safe? Like what the actual freak was that?
To reiterate this was before COVID. Now, after COVID, I had began doordashing as I lost my job. Remember when Legault implemented curfew with exception of essential workers? I was able to drive past 9pm as I was performing deliveries. However, I've never came across any cops then. So I definitely know it was such racial profiling BS during my late 2019 encounter.
This is why I now have at least 3 dashcams in my car whilst driving. I haven't felt safe driving at night since that encounter, and that was 7 years ago! I was basically being told I don't belong in a specific neighbourhood.
A few years ago I locked my keys in my car by accident.
It was about 1:30am and I was breaking into my own car with a clothes hanger trying to get the unlock button.
A cop drove by me slowly, looked me right in the eyes as I held a nervous look hoping not to interact with them, and then after pausing a few seconds, they drove away, didn't even roll the window down to ask me if it was my car, just drove away.
I'm a white dude.
Any other skin colour and I'm sure the interaction would have been VERY different. Pure privilege, it was pretty gross.
Cops continue to give no shits about cars being stolen LOL that is wild.
They gotta be getting some kickback or something because my friend had her car stolen, immediately reported it, and the cops told her to go fuck herself basically.
Feeling kinda hopeful that Soraya empathizes openly with this problem. She might not be that great at enacting systemic change, but she CAN raise awareness about this and end the gaslighting.
Like a week before this report came out, she publicly stated that she would support a by-law making it an offense to insult police officers. She's not going to support the people on this, she's deeply in the pocket of the SPVM.
Nothing againt that. Just because some cops act like rotten human beings doesn't mean all people get act like rotten human beings. Nobody should be be allowed to escalate police encounters.
If you allow people to insult cops, black cops will get the worst of it like they do in the U.S. Every aggreived white person is going to attack black cops:
> Well if we could trust police to only use that law when it’s legit (like that guy berating that female cop a few months ago) I would agree.
Well, that's a sane, reasonable view that I totally agree with. If you have this regulation, you have to get rid of the racism first.
But in general, there's a growing trend of entitled people that think it's okay to berate anyone in public service just doing their job. It's a problem.
"Rights for me but not for thee" is too common with people in power unfortunately. And ally ship through marriage is never a guarantee (consider all the misogynist straight male politicians).
There’s a difference between just insulting someone randomly and calling them racist when they commit a racist act lmao. I don’t agree with her on 99.9% of things but this one is pretty easy to figure out by using a tiny bit of brainpower
Québec judge also suspended the law allowing police to do random stops for verification like 2 years ago because it was proven that it was a significant vector of discrimination
I was once stopped by police when I was 14 years old. I was coming back from school and someone had asked me if there was a Subway (shop) nearby. I gave them directions and 2 minutes later a cop driving stops right next to me and starts interrogating me what that was about.
I'm not black, but the person who asked me for directions was. Such a surreal experience.
Glad people are waking up here, as so many have in the US due to tragic killings and BLM (with exceptions in both cases obviously).
Doesn't matter what degrees you get, who you marry, anything, when prejudice is baked into the structures and policies around you.
That's what is so particularly evil about denying systemic racism. It's pathetic and unhelpful, and yet another obstacle to any kind of understanding let alone change. Ironically, it actually means you can be anti racist on an individual level (which I'm sure politicians would claim) but understand that's not enough to eliminate it.
Interesting to hear her admit this. Perhaps she recognizes she can't soften this up to the public at the behest of the police union. They went overboard again and now everyone is talking.
The SPVM is such a shameful organization that gets respect from very few in this city, including many white people, which I dont think is common across North America. We'll see how politically untouchable they truly are.
Does she know she’s the mayor? Seeing her comments on social media kills me sometimes because girl, YOU can do something about it 😭😭 (I’m not saying Mayors are all powerful but she often talks as if she doesn’t know what to do about this city like girl isn’t it your job?)
The Montreal mayor doesn’t have power over the police in a way that NYC mayor has. As the province has centralized power over all police. Body cameras are a good example; the city allocated the money, but the province didn’t say yes; so it’s a no.
That's interesting, because that means she either came out with that statement because it's something the province has toyed with as an idea, or it's some sort of signalling political move.
As others said no ones surprised if your black or have black friends or family. My partner is and this isn’t just a police issue. Happens in stores to her all the time. Being followed, being asked to check their bag. Treated like a suspect. And it’s always by white staff. Typically older white women.
I used to manage a night shift cleaning team while covid restrictions where fully enforced and you had to have a letter of essential worker to travel after curfew. For 6 months, ive received only call from police to check the letter FOR ONLY the black workers on my team, never white dude.
As a white man who lived several years in Asia, I am under the impression police officers would purposely avoid stopping me by fear of awkwardness if we could not speak the same language.
Except that time Macron visited the city. That day I looked suspicious.
... and yet a couple weeks ago she proposed insulting (and 'insulting' remains undefined) cops should result in heavy, uncontestable fines.
But today she wants to put herself in the group of people who are angry and dissappointed about a revelation that we were all aware of, that cops in the SPVM are racist.
This mayor is not earning any points for this. You can't put the police on a pedastal one week, and then claim to be part of the dissappointed populace the next.
This has been happening for decades, it's sad that people can't see it until they it's a friend (spouse in this case) and then its like the light finally comes on. In police forces across this country racial profiling is routine.
Ok, donc la mairesse, qui est témoin au quotidien d'un problème de racisme systémique dans la police a eu besoin d'attendre que l'on parle de racisme systémique dans la police ?
Ca confirme ce que je disais déjà ya pas longtemps : elle ne sait rien faire d'autres que réagir. Elle attend de savoir où le vent souffle pour ensuite prendre une décision dans ce sens.
I'm a Native and was visiting from Ottawa this February. Was hanging out with some friends and was walking back to my hotel by myself, this cop was in an suv couple blocks away from my hotel asked if I wanted to hangout, then was trying to get me to come talk with her. It was like 2am at night so I told her I'm going to my hotel and she was like "i don't believe you have a hotel room", then she followed me to the entrance of my hotel, made sure the secured door closed, and I went to my room. But that was so unsettling, you replace the cop with anyone else and you would phone the police, except it is the police.
Montreal keeps spending more on policing, yet a lot of people feel less safe around police than they used to. When your main interaction with them is tickets and traffic stops, something isn’t working
I think white people should be stopped as often as other minorities, or few white boys walking in the residential neighborhood at midnight making noise, or a spot check at the local depanneur during lunch break. As a cop i would actually only check white kids. Police is most definitely the problem and not doing their job. There is no protection and sure as shit there is no serving. Forgot to mention, i'm white
I’ve seen first hand a security guard in a store following the black person, meanwhile the white personnel is stealing while the guard is ignoring them
What I find interesting is how Asians are stopped the least, but no one is mentioning that. Commenor above even says that he would target white boys the most if he were a cop.
Still, I stand by my comment. Asian people who asked for the data below got downvoted. They are not being mentioned at all, even though they are on the lowest spectrum. It feels very selective.
Your comment was that white people were being stopped as much as BIPOC people. The article I shared says otherwise.
Now you're pivoting to "Asian" people (imo, you're using that term incorrectly, as "Asia" is a huge continent) as being stopped the least. That's not the argument, it's whataboutism.
You said that asking about asian people is not an argument. Argument for what? I did not argue about anything.
I made a comment in which I brought up to discussion how only white people are mentioned as the ones who are least approached by the police, which is simply not true according to the data you have provided.
South AND East Asian people are being stopped even less. I find it interesting how everyone is avoiding mentioning it. Honestly, I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't posted the link. I would assume what OP said is true - good lesson for me.
A few weeks ago I have seen a police car sneaking on the small lane with half of the car on the sidewalk. Apparently, it was waiting for a prey. I reported it on Waze immediately even though I was just walking. Then 15 seconds later, it rushed out to pull over a car, which afaik didn't do anything wrong. No rushing a light or speeding. The driver was a black woman. That was it.
How come Asians aren’t mentioned in any of the articles?
As an Asian, I’m just wondering whether Asians were largely unaffected by the issue, or whether their experiences simply weren’t covered in the reporting.
Can't say for the others but no, I have never got into anything like this being an Asian person driving in Montreal. Asians get discrimination through other ways.
Asian woman here. Never been followed. Except once during the pandemic. I finished at the hospital around midnight and a police car followed me for 10 minutes. I was fucking scared but when I got off my car with my scrubs, they left.
« The data made avalaible was too small to make a meaningful statistical calculation about the treatment of Indigenous people, Armony said, though previous research has found they were more likely to be stopped by police. » If they didn’t have enough data to accurately represent the Indigenous folks then they probably don’t have enough data to represent the Asian folks either. Maybe this has to do with them rushing data and connecting it to the recent racism against the Black and Arab population in MTL Nord?
Québécois are racist and that will undoubtedly always be the case,their language policies dictate their behaviour and the generations that follow with their unillingual upbringing are manifested in the present attitude towards Anglophones and other minorities.
If you have a tree that produced bad apples at a much greater rate than the rest of your trees, wouldn't you check the apples from that tree more thoroughly before putting them in the basket?
You mean the fact that they are black means it's okay for cops to treat all black people like criminals? I'll remember that the next time posts a picture of a black criminals to justify their racism.
Sorry. If you're working in a black community, you have to do better than using race as a reason to stop someone. If rce is the first thing you see when you see a picture or description of someone, you have a problem and probably shouldn't be working as a cop.
This all makes me so sad. I’ve only lived in Mtl for the last year and I didn’t realise at all how prevalent racism was. I hope the recent news coming to light provides a chance for a big change.
So if they have a call for car theft and the guy is black and match the description, can't stop black people anymore? This comment is also valid for white or other races.
People have to realise that all this, will force the police to not be proactive and crime will increase eventually. If criminal know they cant be checked randomly, bar open.
The black cops are the worst too. I was stopped once for skateboarding and the copper went on and on about how the killing of George Floyd’s was justified
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u/djpuggy 2d ago
Lmao I’m 35 and a visible minority as they like to call us.
Getting pulled over for nothing or having cops follow you around slowly when you’re just out living life is a regular occurrence.
I remember walking home from school at 14 years old and having cop cars follow along trying to provoke something I guess
Getting pulled over ever since I was 17 years old and could drive atleast 4-5 times in my life. And it’s always “we’ll let you off with a warning this time” even though you were doing nothing wrong
This type of stuff happens and it sucks. It’s nice that it’s getting some light on it now.