[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto Somalis say they were victimized by police in Dixon Road raids"

[rfmcdonald]

Jennifer Pagliaro's Toronto Star article about a controversial raid by Toronto police in a substantially Somali-Canadian neighbourhood touches upon a few Toronto issues: crime, race, poverty, scandal.

Saeda Sidin Hersi woke to what sounded like gunshots.

When police arrived at the Dixon Rd. complex where she lives early morning on June 13, the woman told a news conference she was startled awake.

“It was like a loud, repetitive thunder. It reminded me of gunshots,” the 65-year-old woman said, her story told through a written translation. “I was pinned against a wall, rubber handcuffs holding my hands behind my back and I was pushed onto the floor by what looked like a soldier.”

[. . .]

Later, the woman tells her story inside the apartment where she says police officers in tactical gear broke down her door, threw in a flash bang and tried to handcuff both her and her 96-year-old mother while they arrested her son as part of the sweep — a year-long operation that culminated with the raids last week targeting guns, drugs and alleged gang members.

Her apartment at 340 Dixon Rd. is part of a complex of six buildings known as Dixon City that was the focus of the raid and where police say the alleged gang members of the Dixon City Bloods are based.

But the complex in Little Mogadishu has also been the subject of much controversy after it was linked to a video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine.

Sources have told the Star police became aware of the existence of the video during surveillance for Project Traveller.

And after reports of the video shown to two Star reporters were published, sources said that during a meeting with staff, the mayor blurted out two units at Dixon Rd. where the video could be located.

Another address on Windsor Rd., which was also subject to a search warrant, was the setting of a now infamous photo taken of Ford and three men — one who was shot and killed in March, and two others who were arrested as part of the sweep.