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Quentrel Provo knows a lot of people along Lake Major Road in North Preston. All those people, friends and family, asked him a lot of questions one day after the police pulled him over for speeding. He was embarrassed, he says, especially because he was working as his church’s youth pastor.
“I was actually really hurt by it because I felt like I never did anything wrong,” says Provo. “I’m just driving a sports car and it’s almost like you’re not supposed to have that car.”
Provo, 28, is studying to be a paralegal, already having made a mark in the community as an anti-violence activist. Often his volunteer work has involved police, not an easy task for him, he says. He’s had a tense history of police interactions, despite having no criminal record at all.
That afternoon, Provo drove his Mustang from East Preston onto Highway 7 and up Lake Major Road. As he left East Preston, Provo says he saw a police car do a U-turn and follow him. Once they hit Lake Major, on came the lights.
“I pulled over thinking that he had a call or something. He pulled behind me and asked me to get out of the car, said I was speeding,” says Provo. “I was like, ‘How am I speeding? You were behind me the whole time.’”
He says he ended up avoiding a ticket, and arranged a meeting with the local RCMP detachment. He wanted to discuss how he felt the officer had profiled him, a black man driving a nice car.
“He must have thought, stereotyping, ‘From North Preston, what is he doing? Is he selling drugs? Is he out there pimping?’”
Provo had probable cause to suspect racial profiling: Proportionately, black people are ticketed twice as often as white people, according to data we obtained through freedom of information legislation.
The Coast received Halifax Regional Police numbers for summary offence tickets and charges from October 2010 to October 2014, broken down by race and gender. Police warn the numbers may be slightly inaccurate, due to the ticket recording system going digital in recent years. Race and gender are selected by police in the case of tickets, and are self-reported for charges. These numbers also do not include RCMP data, which would cover much of the municipality.
Summary offences are less serious crimes dealt with in a guilty or not guilty plea. That’s anything from disturbing the peace to speeding.
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On average, white individuals receive half as many tickets as black Haligonians. Using Statistics Canada population data with the ticket numbers shows that the average black person in Halifax received 0.73 tickets and 1.3 charges over the four-year span. White people averaged half the tickets—0.37—and a single charge per person. Halifax’s population is 3.6 percent black, roughly 90 percent white.
Provo is the founder of Stop the Violence, an organization dedicated to the memory of his cousin, Kaylin Diggs. In 2012, Diggs was killed on Argyle Street after trying to help out a friend being assaulted by a group of men.
“With tragedies, you’re never at peace,” says Provo. “You just try to go on with life. They say it gets better with time. It really doesn’t, but you learn how to be stronger. You learn how to cope.”
Provo works with youth, visiting schools to talk to students about avoiding violence. For two years, he’s run a well-attended march against violence to bring the community together.
“There’s more good coming out of us in North Preston and East Preston than there is bad,” says Provo, “but the bad is what gets highlighted. Me as a young man and a few other young men that I know are just trying to be the positive role model to set the example.”
In the same way, one bad interaction with police can make it hard for a community to trust the whole force.
A couple years ago, Provo says he was assaulted at a party, the man jumping him from behind.
“Bang, bang, bang, just started hitting me from behind, punching me in the face.”
He then fell, hitting a bicycle rack. Provo says his face is scarred from the bruising. Despite his requests, Provo says police didn’t press charges.
“I got through it, and that’s why I’m so passionate about Stop the Violence. That’s the thing a lot of people don’t understand. I could have lost my life that night.”
Constable Shaun Carvery works as HRP’s diversity equity coordinator and oversees related training. It was the RCMP who dealt with both of Provo’s situations, but avoiding racial profiling is why Carvery’s position exists.
“The complaint comes up a lot. People feel that they’re being profiled,” says Carvery. “Just looking for that explanation of, ‘Why am I being stopped?’ In reality, if you don’t have a good reason for stopping somebody, then we’re acting upon our own biases.”
That training is mandatory, says Carvery. From Halifax’s north end, Carvery joined the police force in part because as a black man he didn’t see himself reflected.
“You’re going back into your own communities and people say, ‘I know you. You look like me. We’re from the same place’,” says Carvery, now a 14-year veteran officer.
Provo says he’s working towards the same goal, but it’s a tough gig. That’s especially true, he says, when he sees police put their hands on their holsters when talking to tipsy people downtown, or when he hears of an officer charged with drunk driving.
“To this day, that’s why I stay close to the police, but in a certain way, where I’m not close with them. I respect them and what they do,” says Provo, “but just to be offering help to them and trying to partner with them, it’s hard. It really is hard.”
Related Stories
Overrepresented in the stats
“Diversity” initiatives may be popular, but they are failing
Questions linger over Halifax police’s street check data
Racial profiling still a problem in Nova Scotia
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2015.
Maybe black people should stop committing crimes and furthering the stereotypes? All you have to do is Google North Preston and take a look at the first three results. Own worst enemy.
@Mwagon…of course you would say something like that as that is the only thing you ever see in the media is negativity about North Preston. Did you see in the media the other races communities and the mistakes, violence, thefts, etc that they commit? Of course not, North Preston is an easy target. Systemic racism, damn shame! You don’t see the families that care for one another when the systems fail you, the love, the educational successes, career successes and so on when you Google. Mwagon, find peace with God.
not just the black communitys but all the people they have done wrong in this coming years..Native communitys dont trust the R.C.M.P either. its going to take a long long time for our People to forgive and hope that one day justice is done they stop doing wrong. what happened to the protect and ser–. not for the People thats for sure.
I know many educated, well mannered middle class black people who drive nice cars and refuse to turn their music up out of fear of being profiled. I also know many who have never encountered profiling at all.
Here is my problem though, I see many defensive, agressive, angry, uncooporative, disrespectful, racist young black males and females who are contributing to this matter.
To be fair, I was in North Preston at the community center a few weeks ago and was also met with very strange looks and I swear I heard snickering . I’ve never felt that way in East Preston ever Being white and all.
I’m a strong believer that you cannot ask for respect unless it given. Does it not occur to the so called black community that the image being perceived is based on behavior. I feel like there is a sence of entitlement to be treated a certain way even when you go out of your way to make a situation worse.
Attitudes need to change from every angle, not just how the black community is received but how others are received in those communities. I’m met with alot of judgment because I have a mixed race child. I will teach my child to be a respectful and contributing citizen. My child will hopefully act as such. Leaving no room to question my child’s place in society.
@cantbelievethiscrowd just some responses to your comments about the community of North Preston. I agree with you that sometimes teenagers are defensive, angry, aggressive and disrepectful but this is regardless of their race. Your comment about these young black females and males being racist is a fallacy and demonstrates that you don’t really understand the concept of racism. Your confusing racism with prejudice. Everyone has prejudice but everyone can’t be racist. You talk about the black community’s feelings of being entitled to be treated in a certain way and yes they are entitled to be treated with respect and human dignity but are often not. Your comments make it seem like you expect black people to make you feel comfortable and of course you would because black people have been making white people feel comfortable for hundreds of years in the sense that we slaved for them for hundreds of years and were treated with disdain. In my opinion your experience at the community if true gave you some insight into how a black person feels on a daily basis. Think about that. The perception of the community by others is filtered through a lense which is tainted by stereotypes. It’s not our behavior that is a problem. It’s how society though the media skews our behavior so that it fits with stereotypes. If your child is half black I hope for his or her sake that you reflect on your own biases because your comments about the so called black community (it’s not so called but an actual community of black people) speaks volumes. North Preston is a very welcoming community, in my experience they will accept you when no one else will. From your comments I can see that you like your black people well mannered, compliant, and acquiescence but you’re just not going to get that in North Preston. They will look at you sideways if you’re not Authentic. I think that’s probably what happened in this case.
Crimes are committed in the south end, North end, timberlea, tantallon even peggys cove. I mean when we were young growing up in beechville you couldn’t purchase weed in beechville, you had to go to the white communities surrounding. But these people were never bothered even though everyone knew and even though there was a steady stream of traffic at their houses. What it comes down to is who the police want to pursue and what kind of story the media wants to write. A prime example of the way things are conducted is a group of white supremacists planning to shoot up the mall aren’t charged as terrorists and their white supremacists affiliations were never mentioned in the mainstream media. What kind of message does that send? As long as your enemies aren’t white you’re just a bunch of “misfits”. Other races are expendable. Why are things reported the way they are in the media? To create division and make whites feel comfortable that it is not happening in their neighborhood. The whites in Nova Scotia are the majority so the media and politics and curriculum is all set up for them. The truth is when blacks get jobs here they often work twice as hard as their white coworkers because you’re constantly under the microscope. People saying they feel they were mistreated in a black community is laughable because every day people venture out from these small black communities and are treated like that everywhere else. When you’re subjected to being the only white in the room and being looked at or laughed at that one moment how you felt is how I’ve felt most of my life. Going to predominantly white schools and being forced to read books about slavery when you’re the only black in a class of 30. The only thing you learn about your history is being owned by whites. Or everytime the n word is mentioned. Yeah I’ve heard those laughs, except I couldn’t just leave. White people who lost their minds because you dated their daughter or hung out with their son. Yeah I know those feelings way to well. Work places where you’re the only black and people are cracking their offensive jokes or their waiting for you to commit the slightest infraction in order to fire you because they just can’t be themselves with you around. When it gets to the point that your white coworkers notice that you’re working twice as hard but theirs always an issue with you even though you’re not doing anything they aren’t doing. Unions that fight for the white guys job but there’s never a rep in the office when you have a problem and nobody ever even contacts you even though you paid your Union dues. Yeah I know it way to well. But when white people experience it it’s shocking, it’s painful, when we experience it it’s normal, it’s business as usual. We’ve come to expect it, even somewhat except it. But in a city that’s 90% white who do you really think commits most of the crimes? But who ends up on the front page when they commit a crime? To who’s benefit is that? Just because you’re going to teach you’re mixed race child to act a certain way doesn’t mean that he will be received by others a certain way, coming from a mixed race child. See Halifax doesn’t care if it’s only a drop of black they will see you as black and treat you as black. But he must still be very young. Your eyes will soon be opened to the racism of your own people, by the sounds of it you’re not ready.
When TV news show the accused I see black and white people. I don’t keep count.
Mr Williams needs to watch TV news more often, the reporters don’t care if the accused is black or white, they just report who was in court.
Fenwick MacIntosh, elderly white male, was on the TV news for many days and now he’s in jail in Nepal.
After all…..Rap music is super cool and HRM is the Wannabe Gangsta Capital of the World.
HRM-Home to some of the biggest morons and their children I have ever seen in my travels.
Nice place though,lots of trees and parks……….and a few wannabe ghettos,no big deal I guess lol