Mending fences

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by Craig Segal

A local copwatch group accuses the police of stalling on their promise to install a fence at a downtown police station where an arrested man fell 30 feet to his death in February. So they brought their own fence to a press conference at the station last week.

"They've had permission to put up a fence for two weeks, but they haven't done it," says Yves Manseau, founder of Mouvement Action Justice. Manseau says his fence is a bargain at $900, since it would stop anyone else from accidentally falling to their death. He points out that the Ville-Marie expressway south of the station has a similar fence to ward off stumbling pedestrians.

But the fence doesn't mean much to the dead man's parents, who don't accept the police version of their son's death. Police say they arrested 19-year-old Michael Kibbe for robbing a McDonald's in the gay village using a syringe as a weapon. Following his arrest, police say he ran past police and hurdled a low wall at Centre opérationnel sud at 980 Guy. He died in the hospital two weeks later.

Manseau says the lack of a fence is symbolic of a lack of concern on the part of police for a long line of arrestees who died in custody, including homeless man Jean-Pierre Lizotte and taxi driver Richard Barnabé. Police refused to comment.