CONSPIRACY FEARS

Activists Wonder If Cop Corruption Is Linked To Unsolved Black Crime

Chief Julian Fantino may not want a public inquiry into corruption in the
force, but judging by a raucous gathering last Wednesday, April 28, on
Arrow Road, there'll be no mending of black-cop relations without it. The
meeting, called by the Black Action Defence Committee and the Jamaican
Canadian Association at the latter's headquarters, was designed to counter
Fantino's much-vaunted town hall meetings, which many here believe were
mere PR fests.

From 7 pm until 10, in a noisy venting session attended by 200 during
which a tin can is circulated to collect war funds for the BADC, Fantino's
name is invoked over and over followed by invective. While participants
charge the chief with failing to solve the string of murders in low-income
neighbourhoods, the most shocking complaints link the allegations of drug
squad corruption and racketeering in the force to crime and shootings in
the black community.

"The Toronto police will never solve the killings, the drugs and guns will
not come off the street, because the police, in my view, are implicated in
some of these problems," long-time BADC activist Dudley Laws tells the
crowd. "People in my community believe that the drugs are recycled by
corrupt police officers who, after arresting the dealers, have young people
resell the drugs for them."

This statement - some might call it paranoid or delusionary, others might
want to wait until the RCMP finishes its probe before commenting - is far
from the only reference to rogue police infiltrating the community. One man
who refuses to give his name tells me, "Look at how the newspapers talk
about corruption and crime among police and you know that this force is
capable of starting a secret organization to kill our youth and enslave
them in the crime underworld."

More fury is unleashed around Fantino's use of town halls to put a sheen on
the force's unsuccessful probe of black crime. A woman named Mary fumes
from the floor, "The police chief has set clergy against clergy, community
leader against community leader, and we are now divided between those who
support him and those who don't, causing people in our community to hate
and suspect each other."

At last, it is agreed that the meeting will ask the police services board
to order the chief "to cease and desist from his various town hall meetings
that have caused conflict and division."

Activist Akua Benjamin presents more recommendations, including skills
training for youth and measures from three levels of government to stop
racial profiling. But the most loaded proposal is that the special
investigations unit be mandated to investigate police drug, gun and
racketeering offences - and the relationship between these and crimes in
the black community.

No, the trials of cops gone bad will simply not be enough.