One friend request and one group invitation: that’s what Facebook offered me one morning last week.
The group was named "Police killed teen, we can't let them get away!" It intrigued me. Just about 600 members were commenting and arguing about the death of Junior Alexander Manon. Within five minutes of joining this group, I learned that Manon, an 18-year-old from Toronto, died after being pursued by police.
According to initial reports in the Toronto Star, he died of a heart attack. But his official cause of death was under discussion in the group.
There are more than 19,000 members in the group now, and many argue a different series of events took place after police pulled over his car on May 5.
Perhaps the most chilling was the Star's report, “Paramedics arrived at the scene to find the man with no visible injuries.”
On May 8, the paper wrote that after viewing Manon's body at the coroner's office, the family’s lawyer, Selwyn Pieters, said, “There was blood all over. He had a neck brace on. His eyes were black and blue. The issue of a heart attack is a fiction. It seems that he died from physical force. He was a healthy young person."
Since that day last week, I decided to help in the mobilization against police brutality. As vice-president of Brothers and Sisters Looking After Carleton Kinship (BLACK), a new organization devoted to the unity and co-operation of the black and minority population at Carleton, I saw no better way to spread the word on this very pressing issue.
Even though I did not know Manon personally, I empathize with his story. As a Toronto native, I have witnessed police harassment and considered it a part of life. The scary part is that Manon could have easily been my brother or my father. That is not a loss I am willing to sit down and accept.
Police and media insist any witnesses or people with tips contact the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to help with the investigation. The SIU is called to investigate whenever the police are involved in an incident and a civilian is seriously injured or dies.
John Sewell of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition said the SIU is operated primarily by a number of ex-cops.
“Not very many police officers are even charged after an SIU investigation,” he said.
The SIU’s own data supports this. In their last annual report, the SIU wrote they reviewed 246 occurrences in the 2007-08 period, but only seven occurrences, or about 3 per cent, resulted in charges. After much searching, I was unable to find any information about resulting convictions.
BLACK has taken Manon’s story, and those of others abused by police, and is determined to make a change.
We have planned a rally for June 3 on Parliament Hill addressing police brutality.
There is also a fundraiser barbeque and panel discussion in the works.
One of the members of the Facebook group I mentioned earlier took the initiative to create an online petition against any harassment and excessive force used by those whose job is to serve and protect. The link to her petition can be found on the Facebook group’s page.
In my opinion, the police have been increasing their aggression towards our youth for much too long. As much as BLACK and I give support, everyone's help is needed. While we are waiting for our great futures to come, some are praying they get a chance to have one.