Once more
A Toronto police officer
Is absolved
Of any charges
For shooting
A mentally ill person.
They say
They're making progress
In how
Officers respond
To these type of calls.
Hollow words
As the preventable deaths
Mount up.
Where are
The mental crisis teams
Promised
So many years ago?
Or
A supervisor
Who's authorized
To use
A Taser?
Given
The nature
Of the call
To 911.
How many more deaths
Does the SIU
Need to investigate
Before political will
Forces real change.
And not
Just empty words
To appease
The chattering class.
Until
We find ourselves
Reacting
To another shooting death
Of a mentally ill person
By Toronto police.
Therisa © 2016
Author's note: On Friday, March 18, 2016, The Special Investigation Unit (SIU), a provincially appointed unit that investigates any time, a civilian is injured or killed, by the police, in Ontario, which cleared an unnamed Toronto police officer, in the shooting death of Andrew Loku ( a refugee, from South Sudan, who suffers from mental illness. The following is, a link to the case:
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