The SIU has cleared the Toronto police of any wrongdoing in 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon’s death last May. We sought reactions from people in Junior’s community.
We interviewed four residents of the Jane-Finch community, ranging from age 18 to 40, all of whom have been recognized for serving their community in positive mentorship roles and in positive community-based projects and initiatives for youth.
They will all remain anonymous.
“It’s the police investigating the police, what do you expect?
“…It’s like sending a child to their room and having them decide what the punishment should be…. Read more…
Toronto Police beat to death unarmed 18-year old in broad daylight at York University
by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan – BASICS Issue #20 (July/Aug 2010)
Running from the police is not a crime punishable by death in Canada. Yet this is the sentence 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon received on the evening of May 5, 2010 when he ran from the police near York University in Toronto. And by looks of what became of the young Dominican teenager, it’s no surprise that youth like him run when confronted by Toronto police.
Around 6:30pm, Manon jumped out of a car and fled police after a random pull-over on Founders Road and Steeles. Police claim that Manon spontaneously collapsed and died of a heart attack while trying to run from them, despite witness testimonies and a pool of blood to suggest otherwise.
The other passenger of the vehicle reported that: “They beat him up, he was on the floor, he wasn’t resisting. Two officers on him, punching him in the face, one kicking him in the ribs… And then five more come and jump on him… He’s not that big for seven boy’dem [cops] to be on him like that.”
by M. Cook – BASICS Online
On Thursday, May 20th residents of the Jane and Finch community, along with residents from across Ontario, responded to the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) call for action against the provincial government’s anti-poor budget. However, upon arriving at their local MPP Mario Sergio’s office, the Jane and Finch residents were locked out by one of Sergio’s assistants.
On the morning of Friday, May 7, around hundred attended a rally held outside 25 Grosvenor St. in downtown Toronto. The occasion: the Ontario Coroner’s autopsy being performed on the body of police-murdered Junior Alexander Manon – beaten to death two days prior on the evening of May 5.
From 9:00am onwards, family, friends, and throngs of supporters outraged by the police terror rallied to make statements to the press and to the crowd.
While the rather clueless reporters from the Toronto Star, CityNews and Global News continued to pose their deluded questions about Junior’s “collapse”, members of the Manon family and other community activists spoke out against Junior’s violent death at the hands of Toronto Police Services.
Struggling to hold back his tears, Junior’s father Alejandro Manon told reporters: “I’m here looking for justice because they killed my son, they killed my son like an animal… It was a crime what they did, and it’s justice that I want. I feel destroyed on the inside, he was my son, he was my child… We would like the police to stop being so brutal – the police are supposed to protect, not to kill. There’s ways of making an arrest that don’t involve killing – they didn’t have to kill him.”
Family friend and a long-time resident and community organizer in the Jane-Finch area Chakanda Gondwe, also a lead organizer with the African People’s Socialist Party delivered a powerful message to the crowd, situating Junior’s violent killing within the broader strategy of police containment of African-descended working class peoples in their communities. Gondwe spoke to the widespread nature of the terror being inflicted on African working-class people across Toronto and North America.
Also speaking to the rally outside the Coroner’s Court was Kabir Joshi-Vijayan from the Justice for Alwy campaign, which was created back in 2007 in response to the police murder of 18-year-old Alwy Al-Nadhir: “This organizing is not something that’s going to end here – it’s going to be happening up at Finch where Junior was living, it’s going to continue at the site of the murder, it’s going to be happening everywhere that police are pursuing violence and terrorism against the community.”
A candlelight vigil has been organized for tonight, Friday, May 7 at Founders Road and , the site of Junior Manon’s murder.
by S. da Silva – BASICS Online
Rally called by family for Friday, May 7 – 9:00am, 25 Grosvenor St. (see below for details)
Running from the police is not a crime punishable by death in Canada. Yet this is the sentence 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon received on the evening of May 5, 2010 when he ran from the police near York University in Toronto. And by looks of what became of the young Dominican teenager, it’s no surprise that youth like him run when confronted by Toronto police.
31 Division raids Jane/Finch home, terrorizes family, finds nothing
BASICS #16 (Nov / Dec 2009)
by Wasun
On Sunday November 1st, 2009, 31 Division conducted a raid at 40 Turfgrass Way, Apartment 113 in a TCHC complex in the Jane and Finch area. That night, 18 year-old Brandon Miller, his 14 year-old sister, Shaquel Miller along with their mother, Dorolee Miller, were brutally assaulted and left feeling terrorized by this unjust search for guns in their home, in which nothing was found and no charges were laid.
Shortly after 1 a.m. in the morning, police broke down the door of the Millers while the family slept. Officers first handcuffed the mother, and she adamantly tried to stop them from beating her son in his room, but one of the cops shoved her into her dresser. Dorolee informed police of her various health conditions which they chose to ignore dragging her down the stairs in handcuffs and pointing a gun in her face. Soon thereafter they brought her 14 year-old daughter down in handcuffs.
While Dorolee and Shaquel were under the gun guarded by police in the living room, 18-year-old Brandon was being beaten upstairs in his room. One officer held Brandon down his boot on his neck. Brandon begged him to remove his boot from his head but the officer replied, “Stop whining”. The raid turned up no guns and no charges were laid. But their house was in shambles, and an innocent family was terrorized by this occupying force in the Jane/Finch community. In the words of Dorolee who was traumatized by this incident: “This shouldn’t happen to nobody at all. They come in my house and didn’t find anything. They didn’t even say sorry, just ‘Tonight’s your lucky night’.”
Morolee Miller and her son, 18-year-old Brandon Miller, were both the victims of a brutal raid on their home by Toronto Police of 31 Divsion which yielded nothing but terror and a ransacked home.
