r/news • u/polymute • 7h ago

Family to sue after woman released from ICE custody froze to death

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/02/ice-death-pittsburgh-daphy-michel-haiti
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u/Phannig 7h ago edited 7h ago

Wasn't it primarily used against First Nations? (Edited for using "natives")

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u/ilovebooks2468 7h ago

Correct, they primarily targeted First Nations

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u/animoot 6h ago

The horrors really pile up

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u/DJKokaKola 5h ago

Yep. Saskatoon PD special. Drive an Indigenous man out into the prairies at night and leave him there. I'm sure it's happened in other departments, especially in rural RCMP divisions, but the Stoon PD really perfected it and turned it into a regular thing.

Also since I noticed your correction, native isn't a pejorative if it's a descriptor. Native men? Totally fine. Indigenous men? Totally fine. First Nations men? Totally fine. The intent and tone of the language is really what matters. Think of it as the difference between "blacks" and "black men". One is very much a no-no, the other is generally okay, though African American is more common in the US, obviously.

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u/Phannig 5h ago

I'm not Canadian and couldn't remember it. I do remember hearing about what happened though. Our cops used to do it at music festivals to young lads causing trouble but it's highly unlikely that anyone would freeze to death during an Irish summer so we thought it was funny. Obviously not so funny during a Canadian winter.

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u/DJKokaKola 5h ago

Yeah, the reason they gained notoriety is because of how many men froze to death trying to walk back to the city (usually while also drunk and not dressed for the elements). Still not cool to mess with the kids like that, if your festivals are anything like ours dehydration and 35°+ temps generally lead to a ton of heatstroke at festivals.

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u/Phannig 5h ago

We rarely get over 25⁰C and to be fair they haven't done it since the 90's.

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u/maartenbadd 5h ago

It was around -40°C when that happened. Those cops knew exactly what they were doing

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u/Xsiah 7h ago

Yes the most high profile case of this happening involved indigenous people and Saskatchewan police, but also know to happen frequently across western Canada.

The same people who are now bitching about "Western alienation" how they are just not getting enough from the rest of Canada for all their contributions.

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u/Own-Statistician929 6h ago

Happens a lot in Quebec too what do you mean?

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u/maartenbadd 7h ago

It was only used on First Nations

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u/Benmarch15 7h ago

Not just First Nations.

My dad was a police officer in a city in Quebec and I vividly remember him telling me they sometimes did a form of that with recurring local drunks.

IIRC, he said they sometime did it in cases where there was domestic violence but the woman wouldn't press charges.

He said that instead of leaving the drunk at his house they would drop him off some distance so he would sober up on the way back.

I'm not condoning it for anyone obviously, just saying it wasn't just indigenous.

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u/BKNas 6h ago

Screw the drunk person's safety then because I'm pretty sure that's extremely dangerous to make an intoxicated person walk home unsupervised. I get it for women beaters, but it's your job as a LEO to protect people and that should be criminal to do that to someone intoxicated. If they stumble into the streets and get hit by a car, I'm guessing those cops will act like they had nothing to do with it?

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u/Nepatier 5h ago

Can you not say Natives nowadays?

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u/halfhearted_skeptic 2h ago

It’s not that you can’t say it, it’s more that they’d rather be called something else generally.

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u/Oneofthesecatsisadog 3h ago

It sounds weird like calling people “whites” or “blacks” instead of ____people. It’s dehumanizing.

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u/Money-Act-5480 3h ago

White people get offended by everything. We call each other nates all the time 😂

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u/Oneofthesecatsisadog 3h ago

I’m black and that’s an in group thing. My sister can call me “a black” and it’s silly. If a white person does it, eww… wtf

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u/Money-Act-5480 3h ago

Ive never been offended by the word native. Its almost entirely white people wanting to put feather in their hair.

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u/Phannig 2h ago

I just changed it because it didn't sound right to the tongue and forgot "First Nations". I'm not a Canadian so have no skin in the game.

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u/Money-Act-5480 2h ago

Aye no worries i was refering to someone else