The recent illegal closure of the Duke Street Corner Store by the landlord in collusion with the downtown business association and corrupt magistrates backed by police that serve and protect the rich and a sheriff just as corrupt as the sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood stories is part of the larger picture of incorporating the OIPRD model of community policing based on the failed PSNI model of policing (for more info check the following link http://32csminternational.blogspot.com/#!/2013/01/on-psni-influence-on-canadian-police.html )in which the community is policed to defend the interests of the ruling class despite the wishes of the people. Downtown Kitchener has been going through a process of gentrification in which the poor people have been pushed out of the downtown core to make room for the rich. One can see the dividing line on Queen street where on the one side you have the seedy area past Fredrick street Eby, Ceder, Madison where people live in squalor and the streets are full of sex workers, Fentanyl, crack and what ever else people sell or use to get by economically or mentally, the buffer zone which is king between Frederick and Queen where you have the dollar store, the working centre etc. and then the gentrified area which includes the wine rack which no longer sells sherry a drink of the poor and in turn is allowed to stay open till 11 to placate the google workers who live in the condos on this side of the street as well as stores and restaurants that cater to the needs of such yuppie filth. This summer many low level dealers and users such as filly learned the mistake of what happened if you congregate in front of the dollar store to meet your narcotic needs (heavy heavy jail sentences) and many panhandlers have learned what happened if you ask for spare change in the gentrified area (the police would come down with the full force of the law ranging from tickets to beatings).
In this climate Nadine a store owner saw more and more displaced people wandering downtown and one of them stole from her store. Like Saul on the road to Damascus she had an epiphany, if people were given a chance to work have a roof over their head and a tab as well as access to food would they steal? Borrowing from her experience in Jamaica she started tabs for street people, let them spend the night in her store, offer free food and give people a sense of ownership of the store and within a short space of time she noticed a difference. Street people no longer stole, many would volunteer to work to keep the store clean and would pay their tabs when their welfare came in. Those given a chance to work behind the till not only did not steal but contributed to the upkeep of the store. Problems were solved internally through de escalations and sit down and poor people were able to identify the problems they face discuss them with their peers and come up with solutions. One could see the difference because what Nadine did was create a society within a society a state within a state where the people themselves were the decision makers and no one was left to fend for themselves.
This brought down the wrath of Ramen noodles a yuppie restaurant that moved in across the street with the promise that Nadines store would shut down and sent on their way, the downtown business association which saw this place as a blight on their gentrified core, since her store was on the wrong side of Queen street and the police who could not patrol and control that area since the people solved their own problems. The landlord gave Nadine a five hour notice to vacate the premises which she refused and a whole legal and political battle started. After several months despite the fact that in court she won a stay of eviction she was removed by force of arms by police. As one can see in the documents above the court ruled Nadine could stay, a lawyer said a court decision was a mistake and the police3 and sheriff waited till everyones guard was down invaded the place and removed her despite the fact her belongings are stil inside and that they pulled the plug on her fridge destroying her perishables.
The modern bourgeoise state is dealing with poor people today by forcing them in certain areas to contain them one need only go to Vancouver to see the future of Kitchener Main and Hastings for the poor commercial drive for the rich. With Nadines store closed now we will see what community policing is all about. In the past if one was stoped by police at night they had a “reason to be out” now they don’t. Police carding , a vile process that targets poor people as well as minority communities, particularly black people, will be back with a vengeance. The name of the game is now where are you coming from where are you going and what are you doing. Poor people as well as undesirables caught in the gentrified areas will feel the full force of the law, and we will truly know what fascism is a boot stepping on a human face again and again and again.
julianichim 