In a situation reminiscent of the Paris riots of 2005, an angry mob took to the streets of Montreal last night, looting stores and attacking emergency services workers after police fatally wounded a teenager on Saturday.
According to police, in the course of making an arrest in Henri Bourassa Park, several officers were surrounded by a large group of teenagers. The officers felt threatened, and when some of the youths charged at them, the police opened fire. Three were shot.
One of those shot, 18-year-old Freddy Alberto Villanueva, later died in hospital. The other two are in stable condition.
Diana Serrano, a friend and classmate of Villanueva, said the youths were all friends from childhood who were just protecting themselves:
“I know there are gangs here and there are drugs going on, but … they were only playing marbles, so it’s really not fair what they did. He didn’t sell (drugs), he didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink. … He was really smart. … It’s heartbreaking.”
(Source: Montreal Gazette)
The neighbourhood of Montreal North is home to many immigrants, especially from the Caribbean. Villanueva was Honduran. This has prompted some residents to question whether the shooting was racially-motivated.
The Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force, immediately launched an inquiry into the shooting.
However, assurances of a swift and impartial investigation were not enough to cool the pent-up anger of the community. Rioting began on Sunday night when protesters set cars on fire, and then threw bottles at responding firefighters.
Some of the rioters then began to smash windows and loot stores. About 20 businesses, one of them a butcher shop, were broken into:
Men and women of all ages could be seen running down the street clutching TVs, cigarette cartons and slabs of meat.
A backdrop of three-metre high fireballs from about a dozen flaming propane tanks illuminated the looters’ paths as they headed down the darkened streets.
An elderly woman carrying her newly acquired stereo laughed with her friend as they made their escape.
Some looters stood on the sidewalk and watched the action, drinking freshly swiped beer from the store.
(Source: CP)
According to police, three officers have been injured in addition to an ambulance worker who was struck in the head by a Molotov cocktail.
On some streets, members of the mob even took up arms and fired on the officers. One of the injured police was shot in the leg and is now recovering in hospital.
“It was sick,” said Patrick Parent, who lives on the street behind the store.
“I had a guy shoot a gun next to me, that’s how bad it was. The guy shot two shots. I ran home. It was terrifying. This was bad. I never thought I would see this in my life.”
(Source: CP)
As of today, calm had been restored to the neighbourhood following the deployment of more than 500 Montreal Police and Sûreté officers.
The cops did not pull their weapons as the first response to seeing Fredy. They approached and and were violently confronted by Fredy’s friends. The police have a responsibility to not allow themselves to be intimidated by street level offenders. They are there to protect me and those like me who respect the law and want to live in a country that does not have room for violent criminal activities.
This officer ‘killed’ Fredy, But he did not ‘Murder’ him by any stretch of the imagination.
People who break the law and resist police who are upholding Laws that our country holds as important, risk their very lives in their activities and law-abiding citizens need to support officer LaPointe and his partner.
If any of the people who were rioting can be caught, they should be held responsible for the damages they caused to business owners and private property. Also if it can be shown that they are immigrants to Canada who participated in violent or destructive crime, they should be immediately deported as non-desirable elements in a peaceful society. If they were born in Canada, the people who were affected by their crime should have a say in consequences for the offenders. Minimum sentences should also be implemented for rioters. Peaceful demonstration to change laws and fight tyranny and corruption are the most effective means of solving our society’s problems. Rioting is simply an intolerable situation when there are other options available to voice protests. Rioting undermines the peaceful goals of our Laws.
I am not shedding any tears over this event. It was a fair shooting as far as anyone can tell and the riots, would have been at least partially understood by the rest of Canada if they occurred AFTER the judgment on the officers was passed down. Instead, those riots simply harden the hearts of the rest of Canada against the people that were violently reacting to the officers simply doing their job.
I would support a change in Laws and investigation techniques if the shooting appeared even remotely unjust and the cops got away with it. That is how we affect change in Canada, not intimidation by street level thugs who have no respect for what the officers represent, ‘The common will and good of Canadians and more specifically Montrealers.’!
Eye for an Eye is an archaic concept that ignores facts and simply allows human passion to be the source of law.
After consideration, I would retract my previous comment about people affected being able to determine consequences for the offenders…