Read on Twitter
Ottawa residents are chalking up Dundonald Park after City washes away anti-racist messaging following a complaint yesterday https://twitter.com/waikenup/status/1307737687009431553
Here’s a thread and responses for your background. Anti- racism chalk messages are not vandalism https://twitter.com/mspratt/status/1307649739148734464
. @okaymarnie was writing anti- racist messages on the sidewalk when someone called the police on her. Some of the messages called for defunding police. Three officers responded. City cleaning crew called in to wash it away. https://twitter.com/colbeta_/status/1307391022952075264
Here is the mayor’s response to #ChalkGate https://twitter.com/jimwatsonottawa/status/1307716131369750529
In the meantime a man who calls himself an “Ottawa street cop” on his Twitter profile @DepolicingNow boasts he’s made a video likening Chief Peter Sloly (Ottawa’s First Black police chief) to Hitler. https://twitter.com/threadreaderapp/status/1307436263075708931
Mayor @JimWatsonOttawa called on @OPSChiefSloly to tell his officers that they shouldn’t be wasting resources responding to calls about anti-racist chalk messages. If the Chief does this wont he be accused of not supporting officers while he fights against systemic racism? https://twitter.com/okaymarnie/status/1307383136196624387
The Ottawa Police Association is livid the Chief says there is systemic racism in the service. But 3 Cop’s show up at a complaint over chalk messages that are critical of police? https://www.google.ca/amp/s/ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/police-union-boss-says-chief-sloly-has-failed-the-leadership-test/wcm/a9019052-8fbc-4ee4-a3df-d91a8075761f/amp/
No systemic racism in a police service where someone feels it’s fine to compare Ottawa’s first Black Police Chief to Hitler? And really headline-“appears” to target Sloly? Sloly is named in the video https://www.google.ca/amp/s/ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/online-video-appears-to-target-ottawa-police-chief/wcm/29254787-5d81-4f5e-8772-743f60e59be4/amp/
Criticize the Chief - but to use such a deplorable comparison is racism. The first time I saw this video wasn’t on social media. It was flagged to me by an Ottawa Police officer describing the mood inside the force as a “Texas Standoff - a friggen race war”
Where are the voices denouncing this? So far there is former Chief Bordeleau who was also attacked for pushing to diversify the force. https://www.iheartradio.ca/580-cfra/podcasts/listen-now-former-ottawa-police-chief-charles-bordeleau-speaks-out-over-video-appearing-to-target-chief-peter-sloly-1.13537725?mode=Article
And racism isn’t just something white people do. We’re all guilty of it. It’s vital to be actively anti-racist because silence is complicity. Read this thread. https://twitter.com/aishasherazi/status/1307074473636569090
I hold myself accountable too- that I have been reluctant to call racism out in terms of media coverage, not pushing back on word changes in copy or ignoring community issues stories because they’re “complex and I’m busy”
But the ignoring of stories of race discrimination big and small builds up and is part of the perpetuation of systemic racism. It exists in media. It exist in policing. It exists in politics. It exists in a response to chalk messages.
Since George Floyd- I’ve interviewed many BIPOC people- what I’ve heard is that it’s not enough anymore to acknowledge racism we have to be actively anti-racist.
As a journalist I’m not going to be any less critical in how I approach the issues I cover, but it does mean I’m going to analyze my own reporting through a racial lens and actively look for blind spots. Leaving you with this now. Anti-racism musical solidarity #Chalkgate -30- https://twitter.com/roughchopottawa/status/1307761941612572673
