As surely as Dalhousie University warns its students not to have “unsanctioned street parties” at this time of year, hordes of young people wearing Dal shirts gather for the annual Homecoming party in the residential neighbourhood just north of Dal’s Studley campus. HoCo 2022 started on Jennings Street, with public drinking—and urination—happening under the watchful […]
Halifax Regional Police (HRP)
Posted inNews + Opinion
Board of Police Commissioners has no control over moonlighting cops
Halifax Regional Police does, in fact, have a policy governing police moonlighting in grocery stores, but no one is allowed to see it—yet. It was brought up at this week’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting by city councillor/board chair Lindell Smith because of recent media attention. The only available public policy on cops using taxpayer-funded […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Police board tries to get ready for next week’s evictions from People’s Park
The Board of Police Commissioners met on Wednesday, July 6, in person at City Hall for the first time in a long time. Commissioner Yemi Akindoju brought muffins for everyone. It was a nice gesture for a meeting dominated by gun violence and a prolonged discussion about what to do about our unhoused neighbours. The […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
On the final day of cop Nicole Green’s hearing, race enters the discussion
Friday was the last day of the Nova Scotia Police Review Board convened for Nicole Green, the Halifax Regional Police constable who tasered a man on Quinpool Road in December 2019. The three-day hearing was for both sides to present evidence about whether or not Green was justified in tasering a man The Coast is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Taser cop Nicole Green was scared of being attacked with an alleged pen
Today was the second day of the Nova Scotia Police Review Board hearing where Halifax Regional Police constable Nicole Green is attempting to clear her name. Green made a violent arrest on Quinpool Road in December 2019, tasering a man we are calling Fred, and an HRP investigation determined she used inappropriate force, earning Green […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cop tasers innocent man, gets lightly punished, appeals to erase that punishment
At a Best Western hotel this morning in Dartmouth, after some tech delays, a panel of three white adjudicators listened to two white lawyers argue about whether or not a white cop, Halifax Regional Police constable Nicole Green, was justified in her tasering of an unarmed Black man. The HRP had already decided Green was […]
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Halifax Regional Police 2022-23 budget demystified (but not defunded)
To really understand the police budget means starting with the acronyms, not the numbers. HRP—the Halifax Regional Police department—wanted more money in its budget this year. HRP told its governing Board of Police Commissioners, the BOPC, which agreed with the department, so then the BOPC went to its higher power: HRM, the Halifax Regional Municipality. […]
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What defunding the police means in Halifax
On Monday, January 17 the final report from the defining defunding the police subcommittee of the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners was presented at the commissioners’ virtual meeting. The 218-page report is the culmination of months of work by committee members El Jones, Tari Ajadi, Julia Rodgers, Harry Critchley and others. “The report is the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
New instructions to police expected to strengthen ban on street checks
A new law enforcement directive is meant to strengthen the existing ban on the racist practice of police street checks, which targeted Black Haligonians six times more often than white residents. Liberal and NDP critics for justice and African Nova Scotian affairs say they’re pleased with the change, but there’s more work to be done. “It’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Police board seeks independent advice on independent review of shelter siege
Exactly two months after the shelter siege of August 18, Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners met to discuss the possibility of an independent review of police actions that day. A petition calling for such a review was started by the East Coast Prison Justice Society and signed by nearly 5,000 people over the past eight […]
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Halifax police chief Kinsella defends use of force at the Memorial Library shelter protest
Halifax Regional Police chief Dan Kinsella, who was not present at yesterday’s chaotic arrests and protest, says officers “responded appropriately” when using pepper spray which hurt at least one child. In a media availability Thursday afternoon, following 24 arrests made August 18 as police forcibly removed shelters and tents inhabited by unhoused Haligonians, the police […]
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Despite a year of calls to defund the police, council adds $2.7 million to HRP’s budget
If the words of Mike Savage, quoting Joe Biden—”Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value”—are true, what does Halifax Regional Council’s approach to police budgeting say? In a year teeming with calls to defund or at least reallocate police money, and in a meeting where […]