BREAKING: BLM activists swarm Toronto police headquarters to protest against body cams, police budget

Protestors have gathered outside Toronto police headquarters on College Street to rail against the police budget and the use of body cams. The group organizing the event is called No Pride in Policing Coalition.

On their Facebook page, the group claims that “Toronto City Council is clinging to its history of police violence, and voting to increase police budgets and surveillance, while other cities defund police and re-invest in communities.”

“Even worse, the Toronto Police Services Board is holding consultations after city council has already voted to increase the budget,” the group continues. “We will not be fooled, and we will never alter our demands to defund, disarm, de-militarize, and abolish the Toronto Police.”

The group's demands include:

• No to Body Cams and No to Expanding the Police Budget
• Defund the Toronto Police Budget by 50% and Invest in meeting Community Needs
• Demilitarize the Police
• Remove Cops in Schools
• Reduce the Scope of the Police
• Document Police Violence
• Decriminalize Poverty, Drugs, HIV and Sex Work.
• Dismantle Special Constables and TTC Fare inspectors
• No Police $ Transfers to Criminalizing, Psychiatrizing Institutions
• End Anti-Trans Violence and the Two-Gender Binary
• Create Alternatives to Policing

Protestors chanted “No justice, no peace, abolish the police,” and “the system isn’t broken: it was built this way.”

At 9 a.m., the Toronto Police Services Board began their fourth town hall meeting on “police accountability, reform and community safety priorities”

City council, last month, voted against a police budget cut and instead proposed policing changes such as the addition of body cameras and anti-racism measures.

The group believes the measures will not bring on nearly enough change. They are against body cams and want the police force budget to drop by 50 percent with the remaining funds going towards community programs.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.