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Statement from Chantal Godin - Victim of Police Brutality at #ACT07

Below is a statement from Chantal Godin - the female demonstrator who was singled out, assaulted, cuffed and ticketed at our demonstration this last Sunday. We are putting this statement up here in solidarity with Chantal and to remind everyone that this campaign is critical of police and the role of policing and that we will ALWAYS support demonstrators who face police violence.

I was the women assaulted and handcuffed by the two Niagara police officers at the closing day demo at Marineland. There seems to be a lot of confusion seeing how only the end of the incident was captured on film. Basically, after ushering people to come into the park, people began to flood the dolphin show at which time we decided to go back and encourage more people to jump the gates. In the process of jumping back over the fence, I felt someone grab hold of me and push me down. Not knowing who was assaulting me, I swung my arm to free myself from this person. Once I saw it was the female police officer, I became extremely upset with the amount of unnecessary force she used, and began shouting at her telling her not to touch me, and asking her why she’s going after me while there were over a hundred protesters actually in the park protesting the show. I believe this is where my frustration escalated and the cursing came in. The “macho” stereotypical male cop then intervened, by randomly manhandling me, and pushing me backwards (which as you can see I deflected and pushed back), after which he smirked and walked away before returning to cuff my hands. I don’t feel such force was necessary, and I will not stand for that shit. Just because I am young, and just because I am a women does not give any police officer the right to treat me with such disrespect. They were extremely aggressive with me up until he whispered to her “you’re being filmed,” and after that her entire demeanor changed and she eventually released me (after bringing me to her cruiser at the front of the park) with a fine of 65$ for trespassing. I will be fighting this fine and I will most definitely be taking action. I felt violated and completely singled out. I do not regret this, as I feel my actions were necessary in the face of such injustice at Marineland. I believe the arrest was only to intimidate, or make some futile example and I was the scapegoat. Either way, this asshole of a cop will be dealt with, that I can promise. Thank you for the support as it has uplifted me a great deal and I hope this energy and passion is sustained and that we have this much strength for the opening day demo ! (Hopefully the place has been shut down by then)