Rave Radio: Offline (0/0)
Email: Password:
News (Media Awareness Project) - CN ON: Officer Had 1993 Profiling Ruling
Title:CN ON: Officer Had 1993 Profiling Ruling
Published On:2004-09-18
Source:Toronto Star (CN ON)
Fetched On:2008-01-17 23:30:33
OFFICER HAD 1993 PROFILING RULING

Stopped Black Man In Earlier Contentious Case

Criticized This Week For Targeting Man Due To Race

One of the two Toronto police officers whose arrest of a young black
motorist has been ruled a case of racial profiling had a prior
controversial traffic stop involving a black man.

In that case, a judge found that Detective Glenn Asselin, then a constable,
and his then partner, Richard Shank, had no "reasonable basis upon which to
stop and demand identification from a citizen ostensibly walking to a
parked vehicle."

"The officers," Mr. Justice Peter Cumming of the Ontario Court, General
Division, wrote in a 1997 ruling, "were not seeking to stop the person
because of anything to do with his operating of the vehicle or to see
whether it was roadworthy.

"The officers were simply acting intuitively on a hunch, as in their view,
the area is a `drug-infested area' and the vehicle might be stolen."

Cumming's ruling upheld an earlier acquittal of Paul Reece, who had been
arrested by Asselin and Shank at his home in 1993, charged with failing to
give proper identification, driving while under suspension and assaulting
police. No drugs were discovered. Reece testified he wasn't the man who
police saw walking to the car.

He later alleged in a civil suit, which named the Toronto Police Services
Board as the defendant, that he was taken to a cemetery while en route to
the police station and "savagely" beaten, his civil lawyer, Peter Abrahams,
told the Star yesterday.

Police admitted there had been a stop at a cemetery, and said Reece had
tried to kick out a window in the cruiser and had to be subdued. Videotape
entered as evidence at Reece's initial trial showed Reece, apparently
unconscious, being taken into the station.

The civil case was settled out of court by the board for "tens of thousands
of dollars," Abrahams said.

"Race was clearly the spine of our case. You didn't call it racial
profiling then, because it wasn't a common word then," Abrahams said. "We
sued them because clearly it was a breach of duty, and racial profiling."

Reece, originally from Guyana, is now in his 30s and lives in Toronto,
Abrahams said. He couldn't be reached for comment.

Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino also could not be reached for comment.

Following the settlement with the police board, Abrahams said, he also
attempted to sue Asselin and Shank, but the case was dismissed because of a
release he had signed, essentially a case of "double jeopardy."

When Abrahams opened up his newspaper yesterday and saw Asselin's name, he
remarked to a man sitting next to him in a restaurant, "I know this guy."

On Thursday, Madam Justice Anne Molloy of the Superior Court of Justice, in
written reasons for acquitting a black motorist of a drug charge earlier
this summer, found that Kevin Khan, 29, "was targeted" three years ago by
Asselin and former Toronto police officer Craig James "because of racial
profiling: because he was a black man with an expensive car."

Khan's lawyer said the decision marks the first time a Canadian judge had
found that a motorist had been stopped solely because he fit a racial
profile. Fantino has ordered an internal investigation into the case.

A kilogram of cocaine was discovered in the car -- drugs the judge ruled
did not belong to Khan. Khan had lent the car to his brother.

Malloy found the officers later fabricated evidence, and that the evidence
was "overpowering" that the officers' testimony was "untrue." The judge
said Khan deserved to have his name cleared.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation yesterday lauded the decision, which
it said builds upon a previous Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that
acknowledged the existence of racial profiling by Toronto police, and
"clears the way" for a civil action.

"A series of civil actions against police for this sort of behaviour will
stop racial profiling in its tracks," the foundation's chair, Patrick Case,
said in a news release. "It also supports the need for very deep and
significant changes" in the police service, he said.

The Toronto Police Association, in a news release of its own yesterday,
said its board is "disturbed and disappointed" by the ruling in the Khan
case, and reiterated sentiments shared on previous occasions by Fantino.

"The Toronto Police Service does not practise racial profiling -- never
has, never will, end of story," acting association president Al Olsen said
in the release.

In an early morning interview yesterday on MOJO Radio 640 AM, Fantino said
the issues raised by the judge in Khan's case, such as evidence tampering,
are of "grave concern" and that officers must have legal justification for
stopping a vehicle.

"You don't pull people over because they are black and happen to be driving
a nice car," he said.

At the same time, he said he was not yet ready to "sell our people out,"
and called for a full investigation into the matter. And he expressed
concern about the case tarnishing the "credibility" of his officers, 99.9
per cent of whom are honest and hard-working.

Fantino noted that because of the arrest, a kilogram of cocaine was not on
the streets. When the interviewer pointed out that was not the point of the
ruling, he agreed.

The chief would not say whether he supports the association's position that
an appeal be launched.

The police association news release said Olsen believes the officers
decided to stop Khan -- a teacher and real-estate agent, pulled over
shortly after noon on Oct. 21, 2001, in his Mercedes-Benz -- "solely
because of what they considered to be suspicious behaviour," and that there
is no reason to believe that racial profiling had anything to do with the
decision.

Asselin's partner in the 1993 incident, Richard Shank, made headlines four
years later for his involvement in the fatal shooting of Hugh Dawson, a
suspected drug dealer police believed was in possession of a gun. Dawson,
31, who was black, was shot to death March 30, 1997, in a botched police
takedown. He was unarmed.

Shank was charged with manslaughter and later acquitted.
Member Comments
No member comments available...