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November, 2001
A Police Response
In the September newsletter a letter from Nancy Winsor commented on a puzzling gun search of the regular basketball players, by police. Jutta Mason called Sergeant Bob Guglick of Fourteen Division and both Sgt.Guglick and later Constable Terry Lucko very promptly responded to her request: to find out whether there was reason to worry about criminal activities in the park. Both inquiries were very reassuring on that count: there had been no alarming park-related reports to the police that they could find in police records.
That was good news, but it raised the question of why police came several times and searched the basketball players. No arrests were made, but these searches had a strong effect on the youth. Several years of gradually increasing cooperation between the youth and park workers and other park users were undone. The youth became convinced that racial issues were at play. During one search, police told the youth that they were responding to community complaints about them being in the park too much. Since there is no law against people being in a park, Jutta Mason wrote to Superintendent Paul Gottschalk of Fourteen Division, asking to come and speak to him about such searches. He replied in a very brief letter: "I have reviewed the circumstances referred to in your letter. I am satisfied that the actions taken by 14 Division officers were appropriate and lawful." The request for a meeting was declined.
The letter is printed on the Toronto Police Service stationery, which has a motto at the bottom of every page: "To serve and protect - working with the community." Since this is one in a long series of examples when the motto seems to have been ignored, this most recent letter will need a thorough follow-up. One has the impression that objections to searches may be seen by police as a kind of "bleeding heart" liberalism. In fact such searches have practical (negative) consequences in a neighbourhood. They reduce the trust built up between different groups in the park, and therefore they reduce the harmony and good order of the park.