Halifax police chief takes part in heated debate over street checks
HALIFAX — Marcus James said he’s been arrested three times while locking up the library where he works in Halifax’s historically black north end — twice by police officers he had trained about diversity.
His was one of several concerns fielded by Halifax Regional Police Chief Jean-Michel Blais and two other panellists on Thursday evening during a heated, and at times, confrontational discussion about so-called street checks.
Police released data earlier this year that showed black men in Halifax were three times more likely than whites to be subject to street checks. For many in the crowded room, the numbers confirmed long-held suspicions about racial profiling by police.
But according Blais, the “mistrust” between law enforcement and the African-Nova Scotian community goes both ways.