Cops Patrolling Superstore?!

 

Cops Patrolling Superstore Store is making people living in poverty scared to even enter Super Store!

By Kendall Worth!

 

Lately, a lot of people in the community I advocate for, have told me that seeing uniformed police at the entrance to Atlantic Superstore is making people living in poverty nervous, and scared to enter. What needs to be understood is that even though most welfare recipients have to use food banks, it does not mean that people living in poverty have no business being at a grocery store. Lately we have also been hearing about this issue from the wider community.

In addition to hearing about uniformed Police Officers patrolling Superstores around Metro Halifax/Dartmouth lately, the following showed up on Twitter recently:

https://twitter.com/kaijajussinoja/status/1554959627804180482?s=20&t=oEmI5RH2h_TD4JjVf9Yz9Q

Finding a post like this on twitter this on Twitter is concerning to folks in poverty, and on social assistance, because some of the people I advocate for (safe to say 10% or Less out of 100% of income Assistance recipients) have had issues where, even though they were just minding their own business, in public, and not causing trouble, got approached by police or private security and got accused of something -- for appearing wrong/ performing “inappropriate body language”. If you click on this link you will see where I touched on this issue in the past in the Nova Scotia Advocate.

I previously wrote another blog post where I saw someone acting inappropriately – just their body language – but did not call the police.

Anyway here is another Twitter post that shows what happened when Kaija Jussinoja returned with her Press pass.

https://twitter.com/kaijajussinoja/status/1554959629150523393?s=20&t=oEmI5RH2h_TD4JjVf9Yz9Q

 

These tweets certainly have the folks I advocate for – worried!

Of course, we have no idea who this person is, who is being mentioned ion Twitter. We do not know why the police felt they needed to ask him to provide ID or why. However, if this person was just shopping, paid for his purchases, and was just minding his own business and not causing trouble, then that police action toward him was uncalled for.

It is my hopes that the person was not a welfare recipient with mental health issues because, if he is, then this action is going to make him (potentially) never want to return to a grocery store, or do his Income Assistance cheque day errands, unaccompanied. And even though I have written about this issue a good many times, I want to take a moment here to remember this story. https://nsadvocate.org/2020/01/06/kendall-worth-complaining-about-harassment-by-police-and-security-guards-gets-you-nowhere/ .

In this article, I provide very broad reasons why this harassment from police toward poor people makes people feel this way. When police treat poor people, especially those with mental health issues, like the man in the tweet referenced above, the poor person with mental health issues, wants to do something to project their anger onto the police or private security.

But, people living in poverty with mental health issues, just like the rest of the population, know and understand the importance of remaining calm, cool and collected, and the importance of cooperating with police. Also in that same article I illustrate that complaining about police or security, harassing you, for your appearance or body language, just falls on deaf ears.

I want to end this article by making it clear that most people on welfare, after they pay for monthly necessities, have little to no money to spend at grocery stores, which is why almost everyone visits and relies on food banks for a large part of their food. But there are always things that you cannot get at a food bank – and so almost everyone has to visit grocery stores regularly. For example, to visit the pharmacy to get a prescription filled. Maybe it is income assistance cheque Day and they are buying their special diet products they cannot get at the Food bank, or they have a pet and need pet food. Also food banks are getting busier and now not all staples can be found every week at the food bank!

Police, Private Security Guards, stop scaring people living in poverty and allow people to go about minding their own business!