OCAP Women of Etobicoke Defend Their Community And Take On The Cops

The August 30th action in the Mount Olive Toronto Housing project to challenge the transfer of resources from poor communities to the bloated Police Budget succeeded before it began.

OCAP Women of Etobicoke had announced that it would march on the site of the new headquarters of the 23 Division and put up of a basketball court in the project for the community to use. Two days before, a crew of workers from Toronto Housing showed up to fix up the run down court and clean up the whole area. The housing authority was horrified by the local support for the upcoming action and realized that using cops to stop people creating a basic recreation for their long neglected community to use was not an option. So, in a bid to save face, they put up the court themselves and declared that an official tenants' barbeque was being held on the 30th. (Their nervous officials also tried to tell us that the project could not be used as a 'staging area' for a demonstration against the cops but this dictate was contemptuously ignored).

Given the victory that had been won, August 30 had the feeling of a celebration. There was lots of good food, music, basketball games and the painting of a mural. Dozens of local people, joined by supporters from across the City, marched to the site of the new police station that will soon cast its ugly shadow over Mount Olive. Parents, youth and young children stood together and faced a line of cops who had been placed in front of the place. A range of community speakers spelt out the intimidation and racism they are subjected to by the cops and demanded that the overstocked Police Budget be cut to provide the resources needed by poor communities.

This City's 'progressive' Mayor, David Miller, may boast that he has put more cops on the streets than ever before but the people of Mount Olive know what side they're on. They know that the biggest threat to their safety is the Police. They know that their housing is poorly maintained, the services they need are in short supply and their income is grossly inadequate, while governments can put up $17 million for a new police station on their doorstep. There is money to send troops to Afghanistan and money to send cops into poor communities but no money to ensure children don't face eviction or go to bed hungry.

The action at Mount Olive points the way forward for poor communities under attack. The Police Force that harasses you is paid for out of the cuts to the services you need. If we organize to demand decent housing and adequate income and call for the cops to be cut to pay for these things, we start to remove the two most unwelcome things in our communities - Poverty and the Police.