Every Mohawk a Suspect
Editor’s Note: The following is presented as part of CRE’s commitment to ventilating the viewpoints of all stakeholders in the contraband tobacco debate. See here.
From: Real Peoples Media
Why drugs raids in Kanehsatake feel like police invasions
by DAN DAVID (originally published in 2011 in The Dominion)
KANEHSATAKE — “You didn’t see anything?” my neighbour asks. Apparently, another big police raid is taking place. We stop to listen for a second but hear nothing. Nobody phoned. I hadn’t listened to the radio all morning. I’ve been mowing the lawn. I haven’t seen or heard anything unusual. I haven’t seen a single police car. Looking up, we hear a helicopter. It doesn’t sound like a police chopper. We’ve learned to distinguish the sounds of military, police and civilian helicopters.
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My neighbour says news reports estimated that a combined force of 500 police officers were raiding Kanehsatake. We agree that a drug raid is long overdue, but we question the numbers and the need for such massive raids. The numbers imply a ratio of about one cop for every three Mohawks—man, woman and child—living at Kanehsatake.
