Graffiti memorial to police victims
Montreal is no stranger to graffiti, in fact some of the most celebrated graffiti artists in recent memory, such as Roadsworth, call or have called Montreal their home and some walls, especially in the Plateau neighborhood, boast some of the nicest underground art around.
Sadly, Montreal is also no stranger to police brutality, police repression and in particular police killings. Yves Francoeur, president of the Montreal Police Brotherhood, said that “repression is our job,” which is a philosophy that seems to have guided their attempts to ban masks at public protests and their actions at recent events such as the Anti-Police Brutality March and even the St Patrick’s Day Parade. Sadly, last August, SPVM (Service de la Police de Montréal) officers carried out the ultimate form of repression when they killed 18-year-old Montréal-Nord resident Freddy Villanueva.
memorial graffiti in Montréal-Nord
Villanueva will not be forgotten and to make sure of that, an anonymous group of activists have given him a memorial on the spot in Parc Henri-Bourassa where he was killed in the form of graffiti. The spraypaint simply states his name, age, the date he was killed, the fact that he was killed by police and a website, www.flics-assassins.net.
This right-to-the point approach has been employed all over the city to commemorate the spots where the 43 victims of police shootings since 1987 when 19-year-old Anthony Griffin was shot dead outside a police station in NDG. On the website, you can see pictures of all of the memorials and read information and posts about police repression in Montreal.
memorial graffiti in NDG
The website makes it clear that it is merely a catalogue of this graffiti and does not condone any illegal acts. Also, while it links to information provided by groups like the Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP) it makes it clear that the members of the linked groups have nothing to do with the website or in particular the graffiti.
It seems fitting that people killed by the police are being eulogized in a way that is in itself a challenge to the authority of those who killed them. It also may be the only way for these people to get any sort of monument at all.
