Squandrous

Toronto hospitality.

There was a large, cacophonous group of protesters walking down Yonge Street a few minutes ago, and I could hear them as they passed my apartment. Intrigued, I went downstairs to read some of the signs, find out what they were protesting about, and snap a few photos.

As I stood there, in front of the door to my own building, a police officer (and it was surely a police officer, not one of the hired security guards) pointed at my face and said,

“Hey you. Move on. Get off the sidewalk. Someone that looks like you standing in front of a building is suspicious.”

I’m not making this up. Those were his exact words. He didn’t say them to anyone else standing on the sidewalk — and there were dozens —gawking and taking photos. Just to me, with a finger pointed in my face.

I can’t stand in front of the door to my own home because someone that “looks like me” can be considered suspicious. Sigh.

Glad to know police officers in Toronto can be just as racist as police officers everywhere else.

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UPDATE: I didn’t realize how much traction this little post would get. Thanks to everyone for all their comments on Twitter and Facebook.

An hour later, I’ve had some time to think about the incident, and while I’m still shocked and appalled by it, I realize that it is unfair to characterize an entire police force, much less an individual officer, by a comment that he made.

It’s quite possible that the officer in question is a perfectly nice person, without any real overt prejudice — maybe he thought he was doing me a favor by letting me know that other people may not take so kindly to my loitering on the sidewalk, and he was giving me a warning of that. Maybe he was tired and hot — after all, this has been an excruciatingly exhausting week for the police across the city — and in his exhaustion and frustration he misspoke. Maybe he was saying similar things to everyone else on the route and I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I’m not excusing the officer of his comments: they were inappropriate and uncalled-for. I’m just saying that perhaps there were circumstances and context beyond my comprehension that led to his comments, and it is unfair of me to characterize an entire police force because of the misguided comments of a stressed-out officer.