EXAM 1 Flashcards
why Canadians don’t view indigenous death as human death?
- victims fault
- frame death as unintentional
- framing death as misunderstanding
- framing death as inevitable
allowing indigenous to be killed with impunity serves what two purposes in colonialism?
- reasserts settler control over indigenous land and people (if you can kill w out punishment, you have power over that space)
- demonstrates to indigenous ppl that they are not fully human (this makes humans feel more justified for controlling them)
myth #1
there is an easily identifiable group of criminals
- 2 groups: criminals and non criminals
- everyone breaks the law
- so where is the line
myth #2
everyone who commits a crime, gets convicted
- not all laws are enforced or enforced fairly
- some go uninvestigated or unsolved
- not enough evidence sometimes
myth #3
everyone who gets convicted, committed a crime
- some cannot afford lawyers
- pressure to plead guilty
- some ppl don’t understand what will happen to them
myth #4
all immoral activity is illegal
- some bad things are not illegal
- bone reading: # of ppl that die from murder vs unnecessary surgeries
myth #5
police enforce the law and protect us from dangerous crimes
- police break laws against women, trans, ex convicts
- most of the time is public service not fighting crime
myth #6
crime ridden neighbourhoods exist
- no such thing
- there’s just more police presence in poor communities, rich ppl don’t get caught
liberal model
focused more on hiding inequality and poverty rather than solving it
- late 70’s-80’s
- created emphasis on public order offences
welfare state model
treated poverty as a collective problem to solve, attempted to find and solve root of problem
- late 40-50’s to late 70’s
disorderly conduct offences
includes causing disturbances in public places, swearing, getting drunk, loitering, etc
- way that certain groups can be controlled and contained
- purposely VAGUE
quasi criminal law
provincial and municipal law (fishing, highway laws, health, property, etc)
- different from federal law
- developed during a massive social change during end of feudalism and beginning of capitalism
feudalism
no owner of land
- land was shared between peasants and wealthy and peasants were allowed to survive on the land w out labour
perpetuating factors #1: news media and journalists
- can choose route, lang, tone, images, etc for article
- can question those in power
- certain laws protect their safety
- could be working for news outlets w a short time frame creating pressure
- see simp imper. and news thresh.
perpetuating factors #2: entertainment media (crime dramas)
- violent crimes are shown the most although happen the least
- irl violent crimes happen in heat of moment, not premeditated
- necessity of police exaggerated
offender always convicted (this is not the case)
perpetuating factors #3: general public
- gets info from news media and other ppl
- benefit from sensationalization of crime (bonding w peers over oversimplified narrative of crime)
- responds better to simplicity
- gives ppl sense of identity; “I am not a criminal bc I don’t do the things that I read about”
perpetuating factors #4: police
- police maintain the idea that there is lots of dangerous crime that they need to protect us from
- police publicize their work
- Politian’s tend to support these ideas/policies (“lock em up attitude”)
- Politian’s tend to align themselves with police and claim a moral high ground
simplification imperative
reduce the way they tell the story, only certain amount of parts, oversimplified actors, dividing people into heroes, villains, etc,
cherry beach express (Toronto)
- police picked up black, gay, homeless, etc ppl in the streets and bring them to cherry beach to desert them there, ended in 1996
vancouver olympics
- another way police removed these individuals out
- claimed they were removing them to make the city more presentable for visitors
hostile architecture
- environmental design features to keep homeless out of the public (rails on benches, spikes on ground, bus station glass not all the way down)
- ppl saw poverty as a security problem as a threat that would scare away investors
Ontarios safe streets act
- made it illegal to squeegee windshields at traffic lights
- goes along w trend that poor ppl are unwanted
starlight tours
- police driving individuals (indigenous or minority) and drive them out of town in the middle of winter and take their shoes/coats so they would freeze to death
- one count happened in Alberta 2019
- hardly any investigation bc no one was alive to say what happened
- police used term unarrest instead of drop-off
- neil stonechild was victim of this
neil stonechild
- 17 yr old indigenous boy who had strange cuts on his wrists and broken. nose
his friend witnessed him getting carted away begging for his life - police burned his clothes
- this death was only investigated 10 yrs later when two other bodies were found
defence of necessity
- someone is forced to do something in relation to particular circumstance
- circumstance that would happen to them is worse than breaking law
defence of duress
- a person experiencing a threat from another person
- bodily harm, death, etc if they don’t comply
- some offences excluded; murder, sexual assault
defence of automatism
- state of impaired consciousness
- accused has no voluntary control over actions
- sleep walking, certain brain tumours, dissociative states
defence of intoxication
- self induced is almost never used as an excuse
- extreme intoxication only when similar to mental disorders / automatism; severe
defence of provocation
- committing a criminal act in an incredibly shocking situation which caused the person to act in heat of the moment
- reaction to the kind of situation that a reasonable person would lose control
- clear that person did not intend to cause death or harm
- this defence doesn’t give a full acquittal but can be used to reduce charges
defence of self defence
- accused believes that force was being threatened against them
- caused must not have intended death or harm when defending themselves
- most be considered reasonable in circumstance
- must believe they couldn’t survive without
- relies on the perception of imminent danger
super humanization bias
the tendency to attribute supernatural characteristics to black people
- individuals believe black ppl are more physical and powerful therefore more feared
- mike brown case where police officer Darren said his body was expanding, running through bullets
vice crimes
- gambling
- crimes related to porn/ prostitution
- alcohol and drug abuse
- often seen as victimless crimes
female refugees act
- allowed to arrest women between 16-35 for promiscuous behaviour
- being pregnant and not married
- drinking
- walking alone
- effective till 1964
1908 opium act
- anti immigration attack on Chinese businesses in Vancouver’s chinatown
- deputy went to deal w it but ended up banning opium for non medical use
- says he discovered opium in Chinese community and decided it was a problem that needed to be fixed
- seen as tactic to restrict Chinese immigration
radicalization against black communities
- drug use was channeled into black neighbourhoods
- gambling and drinking would be allocated to black communities, which brought drugs and crime
- police were less dismissive of drugs and sex work
