Two undercover Kingston police officers came to the Rock Against Racism show on Saturday April 11. They first arrived at 9:30pm, and refused to pay the $5.00 admission, stating that as police officers they should have free access. After the person in charge of admission insisted, one police officer paid the fee while the other officer continued to refuse. They asked organizers about the name of the band that was currently playing, and stated that they would return later to "observe" the headline Montreal Oi! band: ‘The Street Troopers’. At no time did they show any identification, and organizers were left wondering if indeed they were police officers, or if they were Heritage Front sympathizers.
The Street Troopers were featured in an interview on the front of the Kingston Whig Standard Entertainment section on Thursday April 9th, and the article prominently displayed a picture of the band and the artwork on their album cover. The picture on the album cover is of a riot cop wearing a patch that reads: "TO SERVE AND PROTECT THE RICH".
The two, as yet unidentified, undercover police officers returned at 12:00am and immediately searched an individual on the pretext that he might possess marijuana. It should be noted that alcohol and drugs were not permitted at the concert and the organizers had their own security throughout the entire show in order to maintain a safe, friendly environment. One officer was heard telling the youth: "Don’t give me any shit!" and "I know you have something you little prick". The youth was a Montreal Francophone who spoke very little English, and the officer made no attempt to communicate with him in French. The officer proceeded to frisk the unfortunate youth until satisfied. The officer had not identified himself or provided any identification to the youth, who afterwards told organizers he had not even realized the man was a cop.
At the same time that the youth was being harassed, the other officer was asking organizers inside about the location of the Street Troopers. When informed that the concert was over and that the Street Troopers had already exited the venue, the officer said "Bullshit!" and rushed outside in an attempt to find them.
The officers then approached one band member on the pretense of "showing him a picture" and led him around the block to their vehicle. The other band members and the organizers, concerned for the safety of their friend, followed the officers to their vehicle and demanded to see their identification. The officers stated that: "We don’t have to show you anything". After the group insisted that it was their right, they agreed and presented their badges.
The police had seen the band’s picture in the Kingston Whig Standard interview, and had searched the mug shot book for any skinhead who looked vaguely like a band member and shared a common first name. The officers asked the band members where the individual in the picture was hiding and why he was not present at the concert. The Street Troopers repeated that they did not know the person in the mug shot and that no one in the band resembled him.
Unless the police regularly search for criminals on the entertainment page it seems that this band was singled out. Why? Was it because they are critical of the proliferation of racism and brutality within Canada’s law enforcement agencies? Or was it because they are associated with Anti-Racist Action (a group known to be disliked by police for its aggressive opposition to Nazis)? Or was it just because they were the headline act at an anti-racism benefit concert?
Only the Kingston police officers can tell you what their motive was. When it turned out that the mug shot was not the picture of a Street Trooper, the officer said: "I guess I lost a bet tonight."
When police officers start betting amongst themselves whether or not they will succeed in arresting a supporter of an anti-racism benefit concert, then it is clearly a case of selective policing. The surly, hostile attitudes of the officers that night, combined with the searches and threats that youths received outside the venue, leads one to question whether the Kingston Police Force is currently engaged in a plan to dissuade anti- racists from meeting and promoting anti-racist, feminist and gay positive views.
