"Caledonia man launching OPP racial profiling complaint"

By Lynda Powless, Editor

A Caledonia man is accusing the Haldimand County OPP of "racial profiling" after an armed OPP Emergency Response Team (ERT) team descended on his Thistlemore Street home last Thursday night.

Rick Fletcher said he was in bed when his son came running into the house about 11 p.m. Thursday saying there were armed police outside.

"I pulled on my pants and went outside and Jesus Christ they were everywhere. They were all over my property."

He said "when I asked one OPP officer what was going on, he pointed a gun at my chest and started yelling at me like he was in the middle of a Viet Nam movie, that he was there to protect me."

He said it started when a female OPP patrol officer came up to the house and began questioning his son's "native friend Mason."

He said "This officer was in a cruiser going by and saw my son and his friends in the garage where they had been visiting all evening and went up and started questioning Mason (Thomas)."

He said "she kept asking him why are you here. Why are you here."

He said the two young men told her he was visiting.

Fletcher said when his son came in to get him, "his girlfriend said the officer went back to her cruiser and said 'he went in the house. Come on in. Come in.'" "She made the call to make a strike against my sleeping family."

He said his neighbours were all out wondering what was going on.

"There were OPP everywhere. They came over my back fence, they were in my front yard, they had a dog. They came up in a van and at least three armed guys came out of it, and the was the canine cops. There was a lot of OPP on my property."

He said almost as fast as they descended they left without charging or arresting anyone.

"It was a clear case of racial profiling. They went after my son's friend Mason who was standing next to my son. They were in the garage visiting. Mason is big," he said.

Fletcher said he learned there had been a car chase on Fifth Line on Six Nations that ended with the car being dumped and the driver running all the way to Caledonia. OPP Communications officer Mark Foster originally told Turtle Island News he had no report of the Caledonia incident but after checking a second time he found an "assist Six Nations."

"It was a Six Nations call so there is no incident report on our part."

He said OPP assisted with a canine track plus two emergency response teams and a patrol officer.

He said the suspect's track went from Fifth Line and ended in the Canadian Tire (on Argyle Street) area.

He said OPP were dispatched through the subdivision looking for "the people responsible for this vehicle."

He said he had no report of a description of who the OPP were looking for.

Six Nations Police put out a description saying the suspect driver is described as "a Native male, with a dark complexion and thin build, approximately 18-20 years of age, last seen wearing a turquoise jersey and a matching hat worn backwards."

Mason Thomas was not wearing a turquoise jersey and at 290 lbs, he says he doesn't have a thin build. "I'm a big guy. Not a chance they could mistake me for a skinny guy."

He said he had "just had an operation to remove a cist from my back. I have to have a bag with a tube attached to

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my back. I'm not running anywhere."

He said he was visiting.

"We were just hanging out, watching tv, when out of nowhere an OPP officer came up asking questions," he said.

He said she demanded IDs and asked how they got there from Hagersville and if they just got there. "We were just hanging out. We'd been there almost all day."

"So Justin went to get his parents but by the time they got there there was a SWAT team all over with big machine guns. The canine unit. I was scared."

OPP Mark Foster said he did have information showing the "only guns were the ERT members."

ERT members are one level below the OPP Tactical level and assist canine units, he said.

He said there has been no complaint of racial profiling received by the OPP.

"That's a different issue and all I can say is it is not a media event until we have a registered complaint. Until that person comes forward."

He said at this point "the accusation is unfounded. I am not able to make any comments on it."

When told OPP initially had no report of the incident Fletcher said "I am absolutely shocked they have no record."

He said he made two attempts on the weekend to register a complaint.

"I went after work Saturday and rang the buzzer and no one answered. I went Sunday and saw an officer in the parking lot and gave her my name and phone number. She said she would give it to the staff to call me back."

He said Monday morning he called the OPP station in Cayuga and spoke with the OPP complaints bureau is registering a complaint.

"This is crazy. It was so obviously racial profiling. This kid was standing in my garage next to my son and he got targeted."

He said "it was so blatant all my neighbours who were standing around watching couldn't believe it happened. Everyone knows Mason, he's a good kid."

Fletcher has lived on Thistlemoore for five years. "It bothers me that no one is accountable for what happened. The OPP are not accountable for treating me and my family like trash or for what they did to poor Mason. They harassed him because he is a native guy standing there with buddies in a garage. Just because some woman OPP decides something that happened four miles away is suddenly in my back yard."

He said one of the officers began screaming at him. "It was like he was in freaking Viet Nam yelling we are here for your protection."

He said almost as soon as they came they left.

"Then they are taking off. It was like it was out of a movie."

He said the OPP reaction has not gone unnoticed in Caledonia. "It's not unbelievable. This is exactly what we all expect from the OPP and the exact reason why people have issues with the OPP. They can do anything they want and there is no accountability. They can write down anything they want and treat you like crap. They don't even say sorry wrong guy."

He said "It was racial profiling at its finest in Caledonia."

He said his son's friend, "Mason" lives nearby on Sixth Line of Six Nations.

"Mason is apologizing to us for what the OPP did and doesn't want to come over here anymore. He doesn't want to cause us any problems and he is in no way responsible for what the OPP did."

He said "Mason was harassed because he is a native guy standing in a garage with his non-native buddies."

Mason said now he's embarrassed to come to his friend's home. "I feel bad for his parents and family and ashamed that it happened."

He said he was racially profiled.

"They came after me. I was their target 100 percent. If there was no problem they would have come in the front door and told us what was going on they wouldn't tell us anything. They kept saying it private.

He said his mother is upset.

"My mom was upset and scared for me. She said she was very worried the OPP might be targeting me," the 17 year-old McKinnon Park Secondary School student said.

"I don't know what to do now. I guess be careful. I feel threatened by police now."

He said he will file the complaint. "Someone needs to be accountable. I want someone to say this is wrong and shouldn't have happened.

"Being an OPP officer doesn't give anyone the right to invade a family's privacy. And just cause a guy is native it's lets go get him. It's not right."