BY DAMIEN WOOD

The future of Somali-Canadian society is getting killed every day, Calgary Imam Abdi Hersi told the city’s top cop, Rick Hanson.

Education gaps, income gaps and public perception between “mainstream” Canadians and Somali-Canadians are leading to prejudices on one side and bad choices by the other, Hersi told Calgary’s police chief Saturday in Forest Lawn.

That gap needs to be narrowed, he said, before another young Somali man like 26-year-old Abdullahi Ahmed dies in a hail of gunshots at a New Year’s party.

Or before another young Somali man, like 23-year-old Murat Omar, loses his life to violence in an a city alleyway.

“We’re trying to find solutions. The community is trying to do whatever it can on this end to stop the killings of young Somali-Canadian boys,” Hersi said.

Hersi suggested the community would like to see Somali police officers with Hanson when he’s in the community, as he was Saturday evening as an invited guest at a community hall meeting.

“There is one so far. We want more than that,” Hersi said.

And Hersi suggested the community should play a role in rehabilitating young Somalis behind bars.

“So we can visit them. So we can explain to them the other options they don’t see in their lives,” he said.

Invited to address those gathered, Hanson said he agreed with the gist of it, saying the gap needs to be bridged.

And he said there’s a sincere interest on both sides to move forward in that regard.

The police chief pointed to a group of young children running about and playing in the corner, and said it all begins with them.

Hanson said it begins with communication and building trust between a community and its police force at a young, formative age.

“In Canada, the police are an arm of the community,” he said.

“We are not an arm of the state. We can only do our jobs if we work with you.”

There’ll be misunderstandings along the way, Hanson said, no matter how hard either side tries and when that happens communication is the only course to come back from it.

“Respect is a two-way street,” he said. You have to give respect if you expect to receive respect.”

Source: Calgary Sun