By David P. Ball
---
Ex-Vancouver Police Department (VPD) officer Lorimer Shenher says police forces have a long way to go to recognizing their own racism and biases — and so far all he's seen is empty promises.
The former VPD detective is speaking out about city council's decision to freeze the force's budget last week, after months of pushing by Black Lives Matter, Indigenous and drug user community advocates.
Police officers told council said they feel unfairly targeted with hostility in the community, and leadership have suggested that not increasing their funding $6.4 million as requested could harm their ability to save lives from overdoses or maintain citizens' safety.
Black Lives Matter advocates say that it will take much more than more a diverse police force or bias training to change what they call an "inherently" violent and racist institution.
One former member of the force, Lorimer Shenher, said the police have done too little to address their internalized biases and racism, and many promised reforms have come up too small and empty. The police need to stop being defensive, the author said, and start changing.
Shenher, currently at BCIT, is author of That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away.
"They've taken a defensive posture as opposed to a responsive posture in terms of the needs of the community," Shenher said. "They haven't taken a very helpful stance on this … I think there is a more a mainstream push for re-imagining of policing.
"I think the police continue to believe that the people asking for change and reform in policing are a fringe element that doesn't need to be really addressed. It's a lack of recognition that this is the community they serve."
Black Lives Matter Vancouver says that people's experiences of racism at the hands of police are not something new nor an accident — and just because attention is on them now does not mean they haven't always been part of policing in Canada.
"Policing is an institution rife with racism and is inherently violent," the group said on Twitter. "Policing uses fear and intimidation to gain respect and complicity … Let’s continue to reach out to our reps and demand that they defund the police."
Last week, as council debated its budget, two VPD officers were charged in the beating and tasering of a Black UBC football player, Jamiel Moore Williams downtown — who was initially charged with assaulting the officers until video emerged of the man being repeatedly kicked in the head.
"We watch and wait to see whether the Crown will hold these officers accountable for beating and tasering Jamiel Moore Williams," Black Lives Matter Vancouver said on the group's Facebook page.