The Daily GRRR! - April 10th, 2015

Welcome, I am your host Dan Kellar and you are listening to The Daily GRRR! Waves Through Walls: Prison Radio, on 100.3fm, CKMS in Waterloo, Ontario. Soundfm.ca on the web, today is Friday April 10th, 2015.

We are broadcasting from the centre of the Haldimand Tract, the occupied Grand River Territory of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations).

The Daily GRRR! is a project of the Grand River Media Collective; and is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

The intro music for this episode was from the opening buildup from The Rebel Spell's tune The Tsilhqot'in War

The audio clip that kicked off the show is a piece in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal from Dr. Cornell West entitled "Urgent Alert Save Mumia Abu-Jamal!" Check prisonradio.org for more of Mumia’s podcasts.

Today’s feature is a read of Julian Ichim's response to the police's reaction to the killing of Beau Baker in Kitchener compared to their reaction to someone pouring red goo on the "Lion and Lamb" statues in front of the Waterloo precinct as an act of protest against the killing.

Now we will start with today’s headlines:

The Daily GRRR!
HEADLINES for April 10th, 2015 
1. Vigil, Demo, and Autonomous Action Responding to Police Killing of Beau Baker
2. Peterborough Police Facing 2nd SIU Investigation in a Week After Cop Kills Man
3. Cop Kills Injured Worker And Mental Health Advocate Don Dunphy
4. Seeking justice for Jermaine Carby
5. Keeping Count of People Killed By Police in North America

Today we focus on the uptick of killer cops in Canada and start right here in Waterloo Region.

1. Vigil, Demo, and Autonomous Action Responding to Police Killing of Beau Baker

On Thursday April 2nd just after 9pm, the first officer on the scene as the Waterloo regional police responded to a call for a "man in distress", gunned down 20 year old Beau Baker within moments of arriving. The special investigations unit is investigating the shooting, and meanwhile Waterloo Region police chief Bryan Larkin has decided that the cop who shot Beau will remain on active duty with his name kept a secret.

Beau was killed in front of several of his friends and roommates in front of the apartment building in Kitchener where he lived, and many of them are now organising to demand #Justice4BeauBaker. As one of Beau's friends said of that night: "He needed to be helped, not to be killed"

Speaking on the current use of force model that cops are trained with, Laura Berger of the CCLA told the CBC "It trains police officers to ratchet up their response for each level of perceived defiance from the individual… In particular in the context of individuals with disabilities or mental health issues, there have been concerns that that might not be an appropriate way to respond."

After 8:30pm on Monday April 6th, over 100 people gathered in front of the apartment where Beau lived for a candlelight vigil. The crowd was sharing stories of Beau amongst each other and one Beau's friends sang a song. The evening was mostly sombre but you could feel the mix of emotions in the air - anger, sadness, fear.

In the afternoon on Tuesday April 7th, 75 or so people gathered in front of city hall in Kitchener to remember Beau and demand accountability from the police and an end to police violence and brutality. Beau was remembered as a "big brother" who would always try to help others even when struggling with his own health.

And while some where calling for the cop who killed Beau to be fired outright, others called for more training, more body cameras and more tasers for the police, others just wanted to know the name of the cop who shot Beau so they could work to avoid him in the streets - they were scared. People wondered why the killer cop did not de-escalate the situation and stand down instead. There was anger in some voices "Fuck The Police" was yelled more than once, but the demo ended with a big group hug inspired by one man's fine words "This Is Kitchener, We Love Kitchener, and in Kitchener we love one another."

A separate action took place in the late morning on Tuesday, as an individual poured red liquid all over the statues of the Lion and the Lamb which sit in front of the Waterloo police station. Also left at the scene was a copy of the KW record with the word "de-escalation" circled in red on the front cover's story about Beau Baker. While refusing to be more peaceful themselves, the cops have called for "more peaceful" protest around the killing of Beau Baker and are looking to charge the individual responsible for the statue action with mischief.

While some moved to distance the autonomous action from the demands for Justice for Beau Baker, and questioned the strong language some used when they were speaking at Tuesday's demo as possible "incitements", i'd respond by saying that the initial inciting came from the cops when they killed Beau. At Tuesday's demo there were people that were angry as well as sad, and shocked, and otherwise emotionally impacted, and rightfully so. People were calling for justice and accountability, and for the name and the job of the officer who fired 7 times. I think if people feel the need to express what they feel when there is trauma, it makes for a more honest
movement for justice. The call for #Justice4BeauBaker is just starting, and there will likely be a diversity of anger at different times from the people involved and those who have been directly impacted. We will need to respect that diversity and not shut out those who are angry. The demo on Tuesday was a good start and i hope the call for justice builds in the coming weeks and months. The strength of those who spoke on Tuesday is amazing, and i'm inspired by their courage"

For those wondering what is next, a friend of Beau's, @kayteebaybee420, announced on Wednesday on twitter:
"Another protest will be held for Beau in the coming weeks. #Justice4BeauBaker."
We will keep folks updated on what's next there, but you can check in on the facebook page created as well: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ripbeaubaker2015/1034142926600749

A celebration of Beau's life is being held Friday April 10th in Kitchener.

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As additional editorial, i'd like to add that in response to the Death of Beau Baker, people have been calling for more training for cops and more access to tasers for front line officer and body cameras for police. I'm critical of these ideas, as i want a world without police and i wonder whether any such reforms will only further entrench the police as they expropriate resources from municipal budgets. With more training and resources, police will be better able to pacify all "perceived threats" which if they operate as they are intended, means a reduction in freedoms for all - with those in already targeted communities feeling any impacts first, and with the most force.

For instance is the new model being developed in Hamilton, where a social worker is teamed with a cop to respond to mental health calls a progressive reform, or a further acceptance of the criminalisation of mental health?

In regards to the cop that killed Beau, it is clear he lacked the training necessary to avoid putting himself in a situation that he found himself using deadly force, however, as twitter user @prisonculture said as they were responding to the terrorism of the police in America
"These killings are not singular. They're historical. They're structural. They're unending. We won't train, diversify or reform our way out."

We need to think to a world beyond the repressive and dominance based tactics which the police use. We need to think of unarmed crisis intervention teams, community accountability, and neighbourhood protection, we need to start discussing the myriad of other alternatives to the thuggish police forces we have today.

2. Peterborough Police Facing 2nd SIU Investigation in a Week After Cop Kills Man
Late on April 4th, a Peterborough cop shot and killed a 23 year old in the street after a "disturbance" was reported at a Tim Horton's in the city.

The police allege that the shooting took place after an altercation when the man was confronted by the police. Few other details have emerged in the case.

On March 28th, the Peterborough police chased a man into his car at in a Walmart parking lot after "a man with a gun" was reported. After a brief standoff, a gunshot was heard and the man was found dead inside his car.

3. Cop Kills Injured Worker And Mental Health Advocate Don Dunphy
Don Dunphy, a resident of Mitchell's Brook - St. Mary's Bay in Newfoundland was shot and killed in his home by a member of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary on Sunday April 5th. Dunphy had gained a following on twitter as he was critical of the sitting provincial government and was as an advocate for injured workers and people struggling in their mental health.

And it was apparently threatening comments on twitter which led the officer, who is also a member of Premier Paul Davis's security detail to Dunphy's home where a conversation allegedly led to a standoff which saw the officer shoot Dunphy dead. While the @sculpen account has been disabled, user @BaridTom posted a screen cap of Dunphy's alleged threats, which clearly show no threats are being made at all.

Community members held a candlelight vigil for Don on Thursday night and the family is awaiting the results from an RCMP investigation into the slaying.

An interesting write up with some good questions about the situation were posted by Sue Kelland-Dyer.
http://nlpost.blogspot.ca/2015/04/judicial-inquiry-or-coroners-inquest.h...

4.Seeking justice for Jermaine Carby
To get folks updated on the ongoing case of Jermaine Carby, a 26 year old black man who was killed by Peel police in late September of 2014 after being ordered out of a car at a traffic stop, I encourage people to listen to the podcast from Talking Radical Radio on the topic. In this piece Scott Neigh speaks with La Tanya Grant who is the chair of Justice for Jermaine Carby committee on the tragic events of that night, the work done by the committee, and the ongoing struggle against racist police violence in Canada.

Little information has been released around the murder of Jermaine Carby and the SIU has even kept the family in the dark as they investigate the slaying of the unarmed man.

5. Keeping Count of People Killed By Police in North America
As the rates of people being killed by police continue to climb, there are several crowd sourced or grass roots projects underway to track these killings, both in Canada and in the US.

On such project, http://killedbypolice.net/, based in the US is a daily updated list of deaths at the hands of the police with links to associated media. There have been more that 300 killings by American cops in the first three months of 2015, with cops killing more people in March (117) than cops in the UK have killed since 1900.

Two other lists are worth quickly mentioning here, one is the wikipedia page of "Killings By Law Enforcement Officers In Canada" which is admittedly incomplete. The other is the spreadsheet maintained by Travis Lupick of the Georgia Straight which lists those killed by cops in BC along with useful information on their death. That list has added a couple new names in the past month as well.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aLNSF4Hkk9XdVKeuVU6ZrRO6GtSxT4t8TiMiQ6ptLrY/edit#gid=0

Thats all for the headlines, now for some
Midway Musichere is The Black Venoms: with a 21st century re-mix of the classic Sound of The Police.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9OTHahBgGw

And we are back, you just heard The Black Venoms: with a 21st century re-mix of the classicSound of The Police This one made it on the stimulator's favourite anti-police songs list for 2015.

You are listening to Waves Through Walls edition of The Daily GRRR! Today is April 10th, 2015, my name is Dan Kellar and we are now moving into the feature portion of our broadcast.

Today’s feature is a read of Julian Ichim's response to the police's reaction to the killing of Beau Baker in Kitchener compared to their reaction to someone pouring red goo on the "Lion and Lamb" statues in front of the Waterloo precinct as an act of protest against the killing.

That was a read of Julian Ichim's response to the police's reaction to the killing of Beau Baker in Kitchener compared to their reaction to someone pouring red goo on the "Lion and Lamb" statues in front of the Waterloo precinct as an act of protest against the killing.

This has been the The Daily GRRR! for April 10th, 2015. We are on weekdays from 9-10am on 100.3fm CKMS in Waterloo region, and http://soundfm.ca on the web. Check out all our past shows and other Grand River Media Collective work on our webpage http://grandrivermc.ca

The Daily GRRR! is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Stay tuned in for more Grand River Radical Radio after we close the podcast with a song, here is Rob Hustle featuring Bump with the track Call The Cops

Thanks for Listening.

END OF SHOW