Shades of the Vietnam era, when so-called conscientious objectors escaped conscription into the armed forces by taking up residence in Canada. Some would have you believe we are at war again. This time, the battle lines have supposedly been drawn by the police who have declared open season on blacks.
The fear of being shot in the street by racist cops was enough to unseat Salem, Ore., resident Kyle Canty, who has asked Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board in Vancouver to grant him refugee status.
CBC News quotes Canty, 30, as saying, “I’m in fear of my life because I’m black,” adding “this is a well-founded fear.” No it’s an ill-founded self-delusion. Many black people suffer from it nowadays.
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Canty argues that black people are “being exterminated at an alarming rate” in the U.S. and included examples such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri and the death of Eric Garner in New York City at the hands of police. [Emphasis added]
Compelling evidence: A common thug fresh off a strong-arm robbery is killed when a police officer’s weapon discharges as the two grapple for control of it; an obese man who is resisting arrest dies accidentally by a police officers efforts to subdue him.
But it’s not the fate of other black men alone that accounts for Canty’s desire to to flee the U.S.:
He told the IRB that in every state he resided, police have harassed him and targeted him because of his race.
As part of evidence submitted to the board, Canty edited together multiple point-of-view videos of his interaction with police, including one where he was arrested for trespass in Salem, Oregon, when he spent two hours talking on the phone and using free Wi-Fi at a bus station.
“I got bothered because I’m black,” he said. “This is a history of false arrest. My name is ruined because of the false arrest.”
But none of the collars in Canty’s lengthy arrest record were ever demonstrated to be false or unjustified. His claim that he is harassed because he is black is likewise unproven.
This is illustrated vividly in another example of police harassment he cites:
He described another video submitted to the IRB that shows a police car driving past him and then stopping.
Two officers emerge. Canty asks them why they are stopping. The officers reply they believed he was flagging them. When Canty says no, they depart without incident.
Sadly, the article notes, “no more than 10 U.S. citizens are granted asylum by the IRB in Canada each year.” The U.S. would be much better off if more of Canty’s kind took up residence elsewhere. Before anyone accuses me of racism, “Canty’s kind” refers to neurotics suffering from a persecution complex.
