Montreal cops give squeaky clean lesson

A delegation of Brazilian police officials met with Montreal police officers, politicians and police watchdog and community groups last week--and humbled them with accounts of law enforcement in lawless Sao Paolo. >> A civil police director described how, in one Sao Paolo district alone, there were 45 homicides and 500 armed robberies each month. Prisons are jam-packed: each prisoner, entitled by law to six square meters in a cell, has 37 square cm now because of overcrowding. And prison stays disproportionately hit the young: more than 90 per cent of the prison population in Brazil is aged 19 and under. >> The delegation was in town as part of a country-wide tour to learn about Canadian-style policing, especially new community policing initiatives. >> But a darker side of Montreal policing was also pointed out to the delegation during their visit. Yves Manseau of the Coalition opposée à la brutalité policière told the delegation of the MUC police's "war on youth" and passed around photos of a young man whose head was thrust into a planter by Montreal police when they handcuffed him. >> A member of the delegation later told municipal councillor and participant Sam Boskey that seeing a less-than-squeaky-clean version of Canadian policing was "refreshing." --Jacquie Charlton