By Kendall Worth!
Over the years, on my blog, I have written extensively about some welfare recipients who have issues where they were harassed by police and security while they were just minding their business and not causing trouble. More specifically in this post, I talk more about being accused of loitering when this happens. This article posted long ago in the NS advocate is still relevant and is explicit about the kind of things they are regularly accused of.
Just this past week a group of 5 people, 4 of whom I have interviewed in the past, spoke about issues getting approached harassed and accused by Private security while in public places. In some cases the police have been called because of complaints from people who were not feeling comfortable with their behaviour. Before getting into the new story, first I want to remind you that there have been times when Income Assistance recipients have tried to make complaints as in this Open Letter. I also wrote to the employers of private security guards, and for a specific examples of these complaints just going in one ear and out the other of private security companies and mall management see: https://nsadvocate.org/2020/01/06/kendall-worth-complaining-about-harassment-by-police-and-security-guards-gets-you-nowhere/
Now , to get into the story I just learned about last week!
The welfare recipient I just interviewed on this subject told me what happened to him. After asking him if he would like me to name him, he said to me “Kendall, lets just use the name Person X. This way no-one will know who I am in order to stigmatize me. So call me Person X.”
Person X is a welfare recipient who pays $900.00 a month in rent, with everything included. He get $81.00 for 3 special diets along with the standard household rate. He does not get the Special Needs Telephone allowance. During the interview he told me that he has an arrangement made with a neighbour of his, for people like his Doctors office, Etc., to leave messages for him on their phone. He lives his day-to-day life going to Hope Cottage for 10am then Souls Harbour for 1pm, then back to Hope Cottage for 5pm. Then on weekends between Supper at Hope Cottage and the 10am open time at Hope Cottage he is socially isolated in his apartment.
Person X had 2 recent incidents' where he was just minding his business and not causing trouble. These incidents happened on 2 different days. He wanted to come to me with his story because after complaining about him getting approached In the first incident by police and the second by private security, he made complaints, and those complaints just went in one ear and out the other.
First – In the first incident he was walking through the Commons just minding his own business on his way to Souls Harbour. Two Police officers approached him and started talking to him about how they were receiving complaints about people not feeling comfortable with his fidgety behaviour and him staring at people. After he told police All I am doing is minding my Own business while on my Way to Souls Harbour, the officers took out their breathalyzer and made him take a test to confirm he was not drinking. They told Person X they had to confirm this because of what the people who called police complained about. After Person X finally got on his way when I arrived at Souls Harbour he used the phone there to call his MLA. They assisted him with making a complaint. The response? Nothing can be done about his complaint because people had the right to right to call to make the complaints that the police received.
Second – It was income assistance cheque day on September 27th. He was at a mall doing his check day errands, and he got approached by private security. Again, he was just minding his own business, doing what business he had at the mall that day, and not causing trouble. This time, once again, he was accused of behaving like he was intoxicated and fidgeting. He told the private security to leave him alone. Then they told Person X that he cannot be staring at people or fidgeting. Security told him that people were complaining. Following that encounter, Person X went straight to mall management and tried to make a complaint. Again the complaint just went in one ear and out the other.
The important thing is that Person x knew and understood the importance of remaining calm, cool, and collected. The other 4 in the group did not want to give me updates on their situations this time around, even though I have reported on them in the past. They just came with Person X for support while he was giving me his story. Person X told me that a volunteer at Souls harbor introduced him to those other 4 after telling the volunteer what happened.
Hopefully someday a solution can be found!
Comments
Post a Comment