Reodica story

On a recent Saturday, a march and rally was held in downtown Toronto, marking the first anniversary of the murder of seventeen year old Jeffrey Reodica by Toronto Police.

The aim, as with most marches, was to exert pressure on the authorities. The Reodica family, and the Community Alliance for Social Justice, a largely Filipino community group, demand a speeded up coroner's inquest and report. They hope this will yield enough evidence to have a charge laid against the policeman who shot Jeffrey.

A further aim is to "keep the issue alive", to insure that these same authorities do not decide "it is just the Reodica family and their lawyer" and that they can stone-wall until the matter is forgotten. People are being urged to write to the Attorney General of Ontario, Michael Bryant, to act to prevent such stonewalling.

One thing frustrating these aims is the media's tendency to frame the incident as a problem of the Reodica family, or of the "Filipino community." This ignores other groups also wanting answers, and implies the killing was the fault of the victim and of the Filipino community. Of course, this shooting is a symptom of a quite serious problem for all of society.

The roll of such victim's names is growing longer and older; Buddy Evans, Edmund Yu, Otto Vass. These are a good cross section of Toronto's population. Yet people do not seem to become aware of the problem until it hits home to them; in their family or community.

Earlier, Jeffrey's sister had described , to the best of her knowledge, what happened;

In the Reodica family's quiet neighborhood in Scarborough, a group of "white" youths had taken to harassing Filipino and other minority youths, trying to prevent them from passing through a park. A group of Filipino youth decided to travel as a group through the park, as a way of preventing trouble. Ordinarily this would be a good idea.

They were confronted by a gang of "white" kids, at least some brandishing clubs, and hurling racial slurs. When this was stood up to, one of these "white kids" cell-phoned police and "who knows what they said."

Two plainclothes policemen arrived at the scene. They were seen to tell one of the "white" kids to put a bat back in the trunk of his car. Then they confronted the Filipino kids, including Jeffrey, who was holding a rock. They never identified themselves as peace officers. Jeffrey dropped the rock and got down on his knees when ordered.

The policeman , with his pistol drawn, pushed Jeffrey to the ground with his foot. A short time later the policeman fired three shots into Jeffrey from a distance of eight feet while he was on the ground; two hit him in the back and one in his side, as though he were turning.

As Jeffrey lay dying in hospital, police stood at his door, ready to charge him if he regained consciousness.

After the shooting, the Special Investigation Unit rounded up Filipino witnesses, many thirteen or fourteen years old, without telling their parents where they were. Many parents were frantic, not knowing if their children were safe. It seems the "white" kids involved in the incident were never questioned.

The killer's name is Dan Belanger. He is a detective and has been a member of the Toronto Police for some time. He has a reputation for picking up youths of racial minorities and beating them up. He is still working at 41 police division in Scarborough with a gun.

Jeffrey's sister said; "If a policeman is afraid of a one hundred twenty pound seventeen year old with a rock, he should not be in the police, he should be doing something else".

The March made a short stop at police headquarters at 40 College, and ended at the coroner's court on Grosvenor street, where the rally was held. The turnout of several hundred people, on one of the first warm days of the year, was impressive.

The change in police chiefs has not changed the overbearing way the police deal with demonstrations; they persist in the dangerous practise of "boxing in" crowds.

One speaker pointed out that police are now constantly pulling out guns and charging at people in exactly the way they came at Jeffrey and his friends. A Torontonian is now dying as a result of contact with police, on average, every two months and this is accelerating.

Another speaker said that a wedge was being driven between the public, and the police and courts. Faith in rule of law is being destroyed, which can only lead to social breakdown.

Another speaker said that only when people begin to work together can we begin to stop the police from killing and terrorizing our children.

Jeffrey is in a way privileged to be part of such a strong family as the Reodicas; willing to fight so hard to bring justice to him. If the rising abuse of police power in Toronto is reversed, the Reodicas will be partly to be thanked. Canada is privileged to have the Reodicas.