Black community leaders call for recent charges against Hamilton youth to be dropped

A group of Black community leaders is calling for all charges against the Hamilton youths arrested by police last week to be dropped.

"There should be a [judicial] inquiry into all the actions that took place at J.C. Beemer [Park] and the Hamilton police station, and we're calling for an end to encampment evictions," said Kojo Damptey, executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, at a press conference held Wednesday.

A week ago, on Nov. 24, dozens of bylaw officers moved to evict people who had been staying at J.C. Beemer park. Protesters with the Hamilton Encampment Support Network (HESN), who tried to stop the evictions, were confronted by police, leading to the arrest of two people — a 33-year-old man charged with obstructing police and a 27-year-old woman charged with assaulting a police officer.

Two days later, during an encampment eviction at Beasley Park, police arrested HESN member Sarah Jama. Her arrest sparked a protest outside Hamilton Police Service's central station, leading to three more arrests.

Videos and photos captured on Nov. 26 show officers tackling several members of the group outside the station, and, from Nov. 24, an officer pinning a woman to the ground with their knee.

Rowa Mohamed identified herself this week as the person with the police officer kneeling on top of them.

She said she was yanked to the ground and her hijab pulled off "as the man put the full weight of his knee and his body onto my neck and my head."

Late Tuesday, Ontario's police watchdog — the Special Investigation Unit — said it is investigating after a 24-year-old woman was seriously injured during her arrest by Hamilton police on Nov. 26.

One of the speakers Wednesday, Leo Johnson, had several questions for Hamilton Police Chief Frank Bergen: "Do we always have to use violence? Can't we see that it hasn't worked and it will not work? Do we always have to resort to the fact that somebody has to get hurt?"

Last week, police told CBC Hamilton the officer was using a "shoulder pin" to gain control for an arrest, adding the tactic is taught at the Ontario Police College. Bergen also released a statement Saturday saying at J.C. Beemer park demonstrators had broken through police tape and "compromised the area established for the safety of workers cleaning the area, encampment residents, city staff and outreach workers." 

But on Wednesday, Johnson said the "charges must be unconditionally dropped," noting that Hamilton police will not find solutions if it puts the same people it's trying to find those solutions with on trial.

"We are just trying to find ways to dig ourselves out because every time we pop our heads out, it's like you press it back down. Every time we feel we are at a place where maybe we could sit down and talk, where maybe we can sit down and look you in the face and testify to the things that we are still feeling, it seems like one more thing you just do to put us back right back to remind us," Johnson said. 

"We saw a knee on the neck. Can we not use any other means of engagement? Does it always have to be done? Is that the only way we can train our police force? Is that the only way we can respond in these times?"

Ruth Rodney of the Hamilton-based Afro Canadian Caribbean Association also spoke at the news conference, as Toronto-based activists and authors Desmond Cole and Robyn Maynard, as well as other members of the Hamilton community, looked on.