Yarmouth, N.S. (Canadian Press) - Angie Lawrence is 67 and has never attended a protest, but after hearing allegations that off-duty police officers insulted and provoked a fight with two black youths, she’s gathering a carload of black church women to attend an anti-racism demonstration on Monday in Digby, N.S.
The soft spoken former nursing home worker decided to attend on Sunday, while listening to an impassioned account from Rev. Michael Alden Fells of how his son Nathaniel, 19, and William Drummond, 20, fought with off-duty police officers in Digby’s town’s centre on June 22.
“I never went before (to a protest), but I surely feel that this time it’s a must that we should stand with one another,” she said as she left the 150-year-old Sharon Assembly church in Yarmouth, about 100 kilometres south of Digby.
The fist fight in Digby has drawn frustrated reactions across several generations and communities of Nova Scotia’s black minority.
The RCMP has launched an inquiry into the incident to see if charges should be laid and determine if on-duty officers who used a stun gun that knocked down Drummond took the proper steps to control the situation.
Darlene Lawrence, a black member of Digby’s race relations committee, said she’s seen enough from a video recording taken by a street camera to believe Nathaniel Fells’s allegation that he was racially insulted and that officers provoked the fight.
“These two young men were backing up, with their hands up and there was a group moving towards them,” said Lawrence, a distant relative of Angie Lawrence, in an interview.
“This needs to be addressed. The black community has been traumatized. This incident is another in a series of incidents over the last several years.”
Lawrence said the black community in southwestern Nova Scotia has painful memories of a previous RCMP detachment commander who was accused in 2005 of racist and sexist treatment of female staff.
In January 2008, RCMP assistant commissioner Ian Atkins apologized to the black community at a full-house public meeting, saying the force was “disappointed and embarrassed” by the incidents.
Rev. Fells says the RCMP must back up its apology with action.
“God has given us a responsibility, we must make a difference,” he told the Yarmouth congregation, one of two he ministers to in the area.
“We are saying to them, you have a responsibility. We’re all royal Canadians, not just those in uniform, and I want to be treated like a royal Canadian.”
The fight began shortly after Nathaniel Fells and Drummond walked by a black van filled with off-duty police officers from police departments in Halifax and New Glasgow, as well as from the RCMP.
Fells and Drummond say they were racially insulted by a man who appeared to be drunk and was leaning against the van.
They say they were then taunted into fighting by five or six off-duty police officers who emerged from the vehicle and pursued them down the street.
In Digby on Sunday outside the Bethel Temple church, Nathaniel Fells and a group of his friends prepared for the protest by making signs.
He and Drummond were joined by several other black youth, who allege they have been mistreated by police as well. They expect about 40 people to attend the protest.
“There’s a van load coming from Halifax. They’re coming from Annapolis, a few from Digby. We’re going to make it loud and clear that what happened that night isn’t acceptable by any means,” said Nathaniel.
“We’re not having it any more.”
Drummond said he still suffers pain from the stun gun shots to his side, leg and stomach.
“I’d like to see it stopped and have a racist-free world,” he said.
In a previous interview, RCMP Staff Sgt. Phil Barrett, the new commander of the Digby detachment, said he has hired an almost entirely new staff and is planning to set up cameras and audio recorders in every police car to see how incidents are handled.
RCMP Cpl. Joe Taplin, the force’s spokesman in Halifax, said Barrett wasn’t willing to comment further until he “sees how the public protest turned out” on Monday.
Taplin said officers in Digby have received race relations and multiculturalism training.
And he said the video of the incident hasn’t changed the Mounties’ position.
“We believe the on-duty RCMP officers conducted themselves in a very professional manner,” Taplin said.
The Halifax and New Glasgow police departments are doing internal reviews of how their off-duty officers behaved. There’s been no indication of whether off-duty RCMP officers will be the subject of an internal review.
Halifax police will also look into why a van belonging to the force was used by the group of officers in Digby. The van was loaned to the officers, who rode motorcycles to the Digby area to participate in a charity event.
Last Monday before the internal review was announced, the police department in Halifax said its officers had done nothing wrong during the incident.
Darlene Lawrence said she has asked the police to bring in Raymond Winbush, an expert in race relations from Morgan University in Baltimore, Md., to help suggest longer-term solutions to the racial conflicts in the community.
She wants funding to create a black community centre for youth, along with detailed race relations workshops for the police.
“At the end of the day, we will submit a five-year plan to address some of these issues for black youth,” she said.
4 responses so far ↓
1 RCMP Watch // Jul 14, 2008 at 21:31
Racism protest at Digby’s RCMP detachment
Jeanne Whitehead (Nova News) - The rain was at times heavy and so was the message. Rev. M. Alden Fells of Digby’s Bethel Baptist Church quoted Martin Luther King’s dream that children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Fells spoke Monday at a protest in front of Digby RCMP detachment and told fellow protesters and news media that black people are subjected to both racism and racial profiling by police officers.
“It’s happening in Canada and it’s happening in Nova Scotia and it’s happening in Digby,” he said.
Fells also referred to the June 22 incident when a Digby RCMP officer shot William Drummond, a 20-year-old black man, with a Taser. Fells’ son Nathaniel was with Drummond that night.
The person whose racial slurs triggered the fight was left alone by the police, while Drummond was targeted, said Fells, adding that the person making the racial slurs was himself an off-duty police officer.
Angie Lawrence, a Yarmouth grandmother in town to join the protest, said, “If it affects one community, it affects us all.”
Lawrence said she has been the target of racism all her life. In her job at a Yarmouth bakery, she was routinely told to “go out back” if it looked like a customer was about to enter the store. Lawrence said that she would like to say there is less racism now, that things have gotten better, but racism is still a fact of life for black people in Nova Scotia.
Fells 23-year-old son Brian said he experienced racism as a student at Digby Regional High School, “both from teachers and other students.” Fells is now a student support worker and he hears comments from young black people in Weymouth about racism in the schools.
Digby mayor Frank Mackintosh wouldn’t comment about racism in his town, but at least two of the people eager to replace him had viewpoints to express.
Bob Handspiker, the councilor who chairs the police committee said “I think it (racism) was here in the past. But the RCMP and black people have been working together and they’ve made real progress.”
Sherri Lewis said racism has been evident for many years in Digby, in both the school system and the community at large. “Although steps have been taken to educate people and encourage better relations through understanding, there is obviously more work required,” she said.
“I would encourage everyone to take a look at how racism affects their own lives and ask, what can I do to change it?” she said.
2 Calvin Lawrence // Jul 15, 2008 at 11:11
Racism Defined: One race maintaining dominance and control over another race in the nine major areas of people activity which are: Economics, Education, Entertainment, Labour, Law, Politics, Religion, Sex, and War.
The usage of the term racism is used as if racism was a stand alone process or thing. We talk of racism as if we catch it like a cold or it is in a bottle on a shelf. Racism should be described as “RACIST BEHAVIOR”. This usage would denote an act or omission by an individual. The individual should never be called a racist because it is not proveable. The individual should be accused when warranted of racist behavior which is provable. The difference between racist behavior and non-racist behavior is “DECEPTION”. Remove deception and we remove racist behavior. By deception I mean lies, miss information, and no information.
In this particular conflict we are dealing with the area of LAW ; to be exact Law Enforcement. For example; if a police officer takes an oath and violates that oath; that is a form of deception.
There has been a long history of Racial Conflict in Nova Scotia. This is well documented in books. Most of the books are not required reading in the school system. Possible deception in the area of Education?
The Freedom Seekers –Blacks in early Canada-Daniel G. Hill
The Spirit of Africville
Racial Discrimination in Canada –The Black Experience –James W. Walker
Growing up Black in Canada- Carol Talbot
The Survival of Nova Scotia’s Blacks – 1600-1800 – Bridglal Pachai
The Survival of Nova Scotia’s Blacks- 1800-1998 - Bridglal Pachai
Forgotten Canadians- The Blacks of Nova Scotia-Francis Henry
People of the Maritimes-Bridglal Pachai
Black Islanders (PEI) –Jim Hornby
The Blacks in New Brunswick-W. A. Spray
Colour-Coded- A Legal History of Racism in Canada 1900-1950- Constance Backhouse
History, like truth and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The racial conflicts in Nova Scotia as it relates to this particular incident will not be resolved unless we start talking about the elephant (Racist behavior of individuals) in the room.
The diameter of our knowledge dictates the circumference of our activity.
Calvin Lawrence
CGL Consulting
3 tracker07 // Jul 24, 2008 at 11:41
U.S. race expert to help in Digby
Academic will meet with black community on RCMP’s dime
By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter
Wed. Jul 23 - 8:33 PM
“Raymond Winbush is a psychologist and director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md.”
Full story: http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1069078.html
Police officers must live up to high standards
By PETER DUFFY
“WITH the possible exception of judges, no one is held to a higher standard of behaviour than the police.”
“Even when officers are off duty. Especially when they’re off duty!”
Full story:
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1067341.html
4 Calvin Lawrence // Jul 27, 2008 at 11:10
Please remember that a police officer is never “off duty”. A police officer is off his or her “tour of duty”. A police officer’s powers or oath do not end with his or her shift.
Police officers must use common sense and good judgment when taking action while off their tour of duty. (EG: Have they been drinking alcohol? Does the offence warrant actions by them other than being a witness or calling a police officer who is on their tour of duty?)
Calvin Lawrence
CGL Consulting
You must log in to post a comment.