It’s been over seven years since an Indigenous man from Regina was wrongfully arrested with excessive force.
On Dec. 10, 2014, Simon Moccasin experienced what he calls “racism within a system” after officers of the Regina Police Service (RPS) stopped him while he was walking near the casino.
The officers were searching for a robbery suspect and even though Moccasin said he did not match the description, he was arrested anyway.
“I got stopped under false pretenses,” said Moccasin. “My heart was beating fast, I didn’t know what was going on because that’s never happened to me before.”
Moccasin filed the incident with the Public Complaints Commission and also the Human Rights Complaint against the Regina Police Service, which is now settled. Four years after the incident, Moccasin was given a formal apology from RPS, acknowledging the hurt suffered by Moccasin as a result of his detention and the force used against him.
To this day, he still feels like he has no trust in the police system. And he is not alone in that. According to recent data from Statistics Canada, Black and Indigenous people are twice as likely as others to report that they have little or no confidence in police.
This data does not come as a surprise to many. A professor from the University of Regina who is a researcher on this topic said the data isn’t news to him.
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“This is not a pointing and accusing of an officer,” said Dr. Taiwo Afolabi. “It’s a system that we’re talking about here.
“As long as that system continues to thrive on colonization of discrimination and racism, then we’re not going to change anything.”
Tiro Mthembu is a member of Heritage Helpers which is a local organization that looks to create solidarity in the Heritage neighbourhood. He said looking at the recent data from StatsCan is about the accepting and listening to the origins of why there is little to no confidence in police for the Black and Indigenous peoples.
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“The first police services was to round up runaway slaves,” he said. “Indigenous communities know that the first people who robbed and took their children to residential school were police. It’s part of our colonial history.”
Mthembu said Heritage Helpers find ways to mediate situations in the community to find better solutions. But speaking on his own behalf, Mthembu said in order to better relations with police,
“It’s hard for me to see a way to reform an institution,” he said.
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