LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

RUN FOR RIGHTS:

The following event is sponsored by the Winnipeg Copwatch.

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Run For Rights - Winnipeg Copwatch
Time Saturday, June 4 · 8:30am - 11:30am

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Location Kildonan Park
2021 Main St.
Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Created By Winnipeg Copwatch
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More Info

Winnipeg Copwatch in a volunteer-run, grassroots organization that monitors the police, working to end police brutality and misconduct and increase police accountability http://winnipegcopwatch.org/about-copwatch .

Run For Rights (http://runforrights.org/ ) is organized by a coalition of Winnipeg groups working for human rights, including Winnipeg Copwatch. There are multiple ways in which you can help out:
*You can go to the Run For Rights website and download and
print off a pledge form for Winnipeg Copwatch, if you would
like to participate in the Run yourself.
http://runforrights.org/pdf/2011/RFR_Copwatch.pdf

*You can participate on behalf of the entire coalition where
all the funds you raise get spread out amongst the 17 coalition
members, also visit the Run For Rights website and download
and print a Coalition pledge form.
http://runforrights.org/pdf/2011/RFR_Coalition.pdf

*You can message Winnipeg Copwatch on facebook or at our
email address (wpgcopwatch@gmail.com ) letting us know how
much you would like to pledge one of our volunteer runners,
along with your phone number so we can get a hold of you.

*For those out-of-towners on our friends list who would like to
contribute, we will (more than) gladly accept mail-in donations
of cash, cheques or money orders. Please mail those donations
to:

Winnipeg Copwatch
2F-91 Albert St.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3B 1G5
Canada

Copwatch does not receive any funding from the government or private funders, but from supportive community members, so this is a very important fundraising event for our organization. This year in particular, our 5th anniversary, when we are organizing an international conference (http://conference.winnipegcopwatch.org/ ), funds will not only go to our regular operating costs, but also to bring in fabulous keynote speakers, panelists, workshop presenters and will ensure that we put on the best conference about policing that we can.

If you would like to participate in the event, you are encouraged to do so in any way you feel comfortable, either 5KM or 10KM:
*Run
*Walk
*Wheel (skateboard, wheelchair, bike, scooter, rollerblade)

It's a fun, non-competitive event that is a great way to spend a Saturday morning! Everyone is welcome.

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

RUN FOR RIGHTS BENEFIT:

Coming up at the end of this month (April 29) a benefit concert for the Winnipeg Copwatch group and their annual 'Run For Rights'. Here's all the details:

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Run for Rights Benefit Concert
Time
Friday, April 29 · 7:00pm - 11:30pm
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Location
Ukrainian Labour Temple
591 Pritchard Avenue at McGregor
Winnipeg, MB
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More Info
Please join us at the beautiful and historic Ukrainian Labour Temple for a great night of music and fun celebrating the 10th Annual Run for Rights!
Our featured bands are:
Rosalyn Dennett & Allison DeGroot http://www.myspace.com/songsfromtheholler
Romi Mayes with Jay Nowicki http://www.romimayes.com/
Andrew Neville and the Poor Choices http://www.poorchoices.ca/home.html

Tickets are just $15, and are now available at Music Trader in Osborne Village and at the Folk Festival Music Store down in the Exchange.

Info on the show? Call Allan at 471-6426 or e-mail to rosco55@mymts.net

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

COPWATCH TRAINING WORKSHOP:

Next Wednesday, down at the Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre. Here's the blurb.:

@W@W@W@W@W

Watching the Cops Workshop

Location 3rd floor 91 Albert St.

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Created By Winnipeg Copwatch - est. 2006

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More Info Winnipeg Copwatch is hosting a free workshop on how to safely and effectively witness police interactions. It will include sections on camera and recording skills, de-escalation techniques, knowing your rights, and more. Whether you’re interested in witnessing on your own to prevent police misconduct, starting a copwatching group with friends, participating in Winnipeg Copwatch patrols, or just learning more skills, this workshop is for you.

Come to the Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre, on the 3rd floor of 91 Albert Street, Wednesday 28 July 2010 from 7:00-9:00pm. The workshop is free, and volunteers will be there to provide childcare.

LOCAL EVENTS-WINNIPEG:

START YOUR OWN COPWATCH:

The following is from the Winnipeg Copwatch group. The group is hoping that others here in Winnipeg will imitate their initiative, and thus they are offering what is basically a DIY workshop on watching the conduct of the police. Here's the announcement.

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Start Your Own Copwatch - Workshop

As Part of Indigenous Sovereignty Week:
Host:
Winnipeg Copwatch - est. 2006
Date:
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Time:
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location:
MERC
Street:
430 Langside
City/Town:
Winnipeg, MB
Description
5PM: Winnipeg Copwatch will be hosting "Start your own Copwatch" Magnus Eliason Recreation Centre, 430 Langside

Police Brutality and systemic/Institutional racism are a daily reality for Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Winnipeg and around the world. Police forces exist as forces of occupation of land stolen or misappropriated by governments for the benefit of the elite settler population.

Copwatching as a response to police brutality, racism and colonization can be a useful tool and skill to have when searching for self-determination of your reserve, neighbourhood or community.

Copwatch is offering this workshop on starting your own copwatch as non-indigenous supporters of Indigenous sovereignty week.

LOCAL NEWS- WINNIPEG:

WINNIPEG COPWATCH NEWSLETTER:

The first, and hopefully not the only, Winnipeg Copwatch newsletter is now out on the wire. You can view and download it from the Winnipeg Copwatch website or the Winnipeg Copwatch Facebook group. Lots of interesting stuff. Headlines include:

***Have Your Story Heard-Winnipeg Copwatch Audio project Coming Soon

***Protecting the Right to Copwatch

***Seeking Justice for Wilfred Asham

***Police Accountability News Briefs

***Tips for Recording the Police

***The basics of Arrests and Detentions:Searches, Silence and Showing Your Identification

Drop on over to one of the sites and see what it's all about.

LOCAL EVENTS-WINNIPEG

WILFRED ASHAM BENEFIT SOCIAL:

Seems like a lot will be happening across the country this August 29. Here in Winnipeg the Winnipeg Copwatch (see also the Winnipeg Copwatch facebook page) will be holding a fundraising social for the family of Wilfred Asham who died under unclear circumstances while in Winnipeg City Police custody. Here's what's happening.

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Wilfred Asham Benefit Social:

Fundraising Social

Wilfred Asham died while being held by the Winnipeg police in the Public Safety Building on September 2, 2007. The police have been unwilling to provide his family with answers, for almost two years, as to how this young and healthy man could have suddenly died in police custody. The mandatory inquiry into his death is no where in sight. The autopsy results failed to mention bruising, redness and scratching on his face, in addition to an altered nose.

His family is initiating a lawsuit against the city and the police to get some answers and in hopes that it will make cameras mandatory in every interview room, holding cell, elevator and stairwell in every police station in this city. Please join us for a fundraising social to help this family with legal costs.

Saturday August 29, 2009

8:00PM - 1:00AM

Northwood Community Centre

1415 Burrows Ave.

Tickets are $10 and are available at Mondragon (91 Albert Street), Organic Planet Worker Co-op (877 Westminster Avenue) and Elizabeth Fry (544 Selkirk Avenue) or by calling Winnipeg Copwatch at 942-1588.If you are unable to attend the social, but want to support the efforts of Wilfred's family, donations can be made through Winnipeg Copwatch.

Thank you and hope to see you there,

Winnipeg Copwatch

LOCAL ISSUES-WINNIPEG:

IT'S A MATTER OF DEFINITION:

I've often suspected that there was some "cooking the books" involved in the reported CrimeStats provided by the Winnipeg City Police and dutifully reported by the local media. The decreases in some categories of crime have seemed to be too good to be true. If one were to extrapolate from what has been published one would hazard a guess that in 5 years the city police would have little else to do besides hunt down all those vicious jaywalkers and those who spit on the street. The reality is something different than the picture portrayed by the CrimeStats.

There are many ways of lying with statistics. Perhaps the most common way for such projects as CrimeStats is to change definitions in midstream. This can work both ways. Not only can numbers be erased by removing certain acts from the definitions of incident (to make the police look good). Should there be sufficient political pressure and the promise of increased funding other categories can be artificially inflated. The issue of "street gangs" which is in the news recently here in Winnipeg would be an easy target. How many kids are in "street gangs" depends upon your definition of such, and by manipulating the definition you can easily produce a number 10 times higher than the previous one (and, of course, show success in subsequent years-after the money has been doled out- by gradually shrinking the definition).

Here is one example from the Winnipeg Copwatch site of how one category of crime, sexual assault, has had its definition altered. There is also a link to a petition to change the definition back to the previous one where when the victim knows the attacker it is still considered sexual assault. It's an interesting and actually troubling way for stats to be cooked.

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CrimeStat no longer recognizes sexual assault where the attacker is known to the victim:
The M.s. Citizenship Feminist Collective is encouraging people to sign a petition to return the definition of sexual assault on the police’s CrimeStat service to one that includes attacks where the perpetrator is known to the victim.

“As of January 1 2008, Winnipeg Police Services’ CrimeStat service changed the definition of sexual assault to ‘an offence that combines the components of assault with circumstances of a sexual nature where the suspect is not known to the victim’ (emphasis added) from the definition based on the Criminal Code which includes sexual assaults where the suspect is known or unknown to the victim. Over 78% of assault in Winnipeg is perpetrated by a suspect known to the victim (Statistic found in ‘Mean Streets?’ Comak, Chopyk and Wood, p.7). This definition change is not in line with Crimestat’s stated principles of disseminating accurate information and promoting transparency and accountability. Winnipeg is the only Canadian city which reports on sexual assaults in this way (As reported by Gabrielle Giroday in the article “ Board wants police website to report all sexual assaults” in the Winnipeg Free Press, May 29, 2009).

We believe that finding holistic and effective solutions to domestic and sexual abuse begins with being given accurate information.

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THE PETITION:

Please go to the Winnipeg CopWatch site to add your name to the following petition.

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We the undersigned, demand that Crimestat and Winnipeg Police Services restore the original definition to include those sexual assaults perpetrated by someone known to the victim. We believe that finding holistic and effective solutions to domestic and sexual abuse begins with being given accurate information.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-WINNIPEG:

UPCOMING ANARCHO-EVENTS IN THE PEG:

There's a couple of "anarcho-events" coming up in the next week here in the pulsating centre of the universe known as Winnipeg. You mighty want to check them out. First...

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Whose Law and What Order?:

A presentation and discussion on police, power and justice
Event Info

Host:
Copwatch
Type:
Education - Lecture
Time and Place
Date:
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Time:
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location:
Crossways in Common
Street:
222 Furby Street
City/Town:
Winnipeg, MB

View Map

Description
Wednesday, October 22, 7pm

Crossways in Common

222 Furby Street at Broadway

Featuring:

*Tamar Hopkins (Victoria, Australia)

Tamar Hopkins is an Australian lawyer who has been working on police violence issues faced by newly arrived African and Afghani Australian communities for the past three years. She is researching police accountability strategies that meet the needs of victims of police rights abuses.

*Nahanni Fontaine (Winnipeg)

Nahanni Fontaine is the Director of Justice for the Southern Chiefs' Organization.

*Elizabeth Comack (Winnipeg)

Dr. Elizabeth Comack is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manitoba. She has published in the areas of policing inner-city communities,social inequality and the law, the criminalization of women, and gender and violence.

Everyone is welcome & admission is free.

Snacks and bus tickets provided.

Children are welcome. Child-minding available.

Generously sponsored by the University of Winnipeg Institute for Women's and Gender Studies

Presented by Winnipeg Copwatch

wpgcopwatch@gmail.com

http://www.winnipegcopwatch.org/

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And then....

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Anarchist Black Cross Fundraiser Brunch:

Abolitionist and Delicious!

Event Info
Host:
Winnipeg Anarchist Black Cross
Type:
Causes - Fundraiser

Time and Place
Date:
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Time:
11:00am - 3:00pm
Location:
Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse
Street:
91 Albert St.
City/Town:
Winnipeg, MB

View Map
Contact Info
Phone:
2049427390
Email:
winnipegabc@riseup.net
Description
Come show your support for prison justice and help us raise funds for those inside...and don't forget to bring a book for our books to prisoners project!You can look forward to catching up with what we've been up to over the past few months, all over delicious vegan treats! Yum!