‘We understand there is a lot of hurt’: Chief acknowledges Peel police’s own troubles with region’s Black community
Photo from Wikimedia Commons/singlespeedfahrer
“If we are to assume that we understand without sitting and listening and acknowledging that in many communities there are hundreds of years of mistrust that have been rooted in with the state, whether it be government or policing, if we do not acknowledge and listen to them, then we can not even begin to build mutual understanding.”
“We understand there is a lot of hurt,” Duraiappah continued. “We can not shy away from it.”
North America has been rocked by explosive protests against ongoing anti-Black racism following the death of George Floyd who died after a police officer’s weight pressed down on the man’s neck for nearly ten minutes while he hopelessly pleaded for mercy.
Most of the boiling reaction, including rioting and looting, has occurred south of the border. But Peel has its own brutal legacy of anti-Black behaviour, which the new chief, Nishan Duraiappah, isn’t hiding from.
Published in The Pointer Brampton and The Pointer Mississauga on June 1, 2020
