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JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
About 50 people gathered outside the downtown police headquarters at a rally Sunday to defund and abolish police.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a municipal election coming up, and I want you to consider how the money is spent in your city,\u201d Schindle said outside of the police headquarters building. \u201cA third of the budget goes to police, and you can look at their annual reports, they do not do what they say they\u2019re going to do. They do not keep us safe \u2014 we keep us safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The International Day Against Police Brutality began in 1997 in Montreal, where marches are held yearly.<\/p>\n
Several marchers carried signs recognizing Eisha Hudson, a 16-year-old girl who was shot by police on April 8, 2020, and 19-year-old University of Manitoba student Afolabi Stephen Opaso, who was shot and killed by police on New Year\u2019s Eve in 2023.<\/p>\n
An inquest into Hudson\u2019s death is currently underway, and Opaso\u2019s death was one of six deaths the province\u2019s chief medical examiner announced he would be calling inquests into last month.<\/p>\n
Schindle said what\u2019s being done to investigate the deaths and ensure they don\u2019t happen again isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n While marching downtown, protesters stopped outside of the Canada Life Centre, where a Winnipeg Jets game was underway, before ending the march at the Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre.<\/p>\n \u201c(Police) react to the symptoms instead of addressing the root causes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey shouldn\u2019t be in wellness checks, mental health crises, and if you talk to police, they\u2019ll often agree that some of the money should be put towards social causes.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Several marchers told the Free Press they felt frustrated by the city\u2019s response to instances of police violence and wanted to see the city promise a portion of its $339 million police budget \u2014 or 27 per cent of all city spending \u2014 on other resources.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope it\u2019s on the agenda,\u201d one protester, who declined to give her name, said. \u201cI hope people are thinking about police brutality and the increased spending on police in this city, when it comes to our municipal elections. There\u2019s so much more to be investing in right now. Our community organizations need money.\u201d<\/p>\n Winnipeg\u2019s municipal election day is Oct. 28.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Several protesters carried signs recognizing Eisha Hudson, a 16-year-old girl who was shot by Winnipeg police in 2020.<\/p>\n No Winnipeg Police Service officers appeared to be on site at the protest or blocking traffic for protesters. A WPS spokesperson said police were aware of the event and pre-emptively shut down in-person reporting at the station while the protest was underway. The station re-opened to the public about two hours later.<\/p>\n malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Several protesters said they felt frustrated by the city\u2019s response to instances of police violence.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Malak Abas Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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