On August 8th 2007, a group of traveling kids were in the city of Toronto celebrating the 21st birthday of Nicole Kish. While on Queen St., an altercation was to occur that would end in the death of a one Ross Hammond, Nicole sustaining a severe stab wound, and the arrest of four of the traveling kids that were present that night, one of whom was Nicole Kish. It was to be dubbed almost instantaneously as the “panhandler stabbing” in what was to be an unprecedented massive media blitz before little about what had transpired that night could be known. Anti-homeless laws were passed or existing ones vehemently enforced, and massive police round ups of the homeless were made, with many of those arrested serving up to 90 days under the guise of Ontario’s Safe Streets Act - safe from what and from whom, well that was to go without saying.

“A Menace to Society”: Crooked Cops, Hoboes

On August 8th 2007, a group of traveling kids were in the city of Toronto celebrating the 21st birthday of Nicole Kish. While on Queen St., an altercation was to occur that would end in the death of a one Ross Hammond, Nicole sustaining a severe stab wound, and the arrest of four of the traveling kids that were present that night, one of whom was Nicole Kish. It was to be dubbed almost instantaneously as the “panhandler stabbing” in what was to be an unprecedented massive media blitz before little about what had transpired that night could be known. Anti-homeless laws were passed or existing ones vehemently enforced, and massive police round ups of the homeless were made, with many of those arrested serving up to 90 days under the guise of Ontario’s Safe Streets Act - safe from what and from whom, well that was to go without saying.

More than three years later, after the initial charges were dropped on three of her former co-accused, Nicole Kish was convicted of 2nd degree murder on March 1st 2011. Thus, an illusion was cast that the police and the courts had done an honorable job in administering justice. Also, that the mainstream media could wrap up their three years of headline news with the official story they were instrumental in painting, unchallenged. However, the media establishment and the police accomplished this not by carrying out their assumed public function but rather by subverting it. In short, Nicole Kish was wrongfully convicted by public opinion and personal political ambition. This is all in spite of no DNA, no positive identification, two surveillance videos being lost while in police custody, and finally Nicole’s former co-accused confessing to having owned and pulled the suspected fatal knife.

By reinforcing the tragedy that had occurred instead of what contributed to it or the actual evidence presented in the case against Nicole, the integrity of both the judicial system and industrial media complex was upheld in terms of public opinion. At trial it came to light that what fueled the confrontation was that towards Nicole and her other female friends, Ross Hammond and his friend George Dranichak made aggressively sexual and derogatory remarks. While the media, on their own initiative, described him as a Internet marketer, self-described porn marketer and friend/co-worker of Hammond (as well as the Crown’s main witness), George Dranichak, testified on the stand that a woman had approached the two of them panhandling, to which they responded that she should whore herself out for the money and then continued with further sexist and derogatory remarks during the verbal confrontation that followed. This verbal confrontation was to escalate into a street melee that involved a number of males, identified as “street kids”, becoming primary participants in the events that followed. Furthermore, many witnesses testify that Hammond was the aggressor, shouting, “Who’s next?” after beating Faith Watts boyfriend unconscious and being described as “full of rage” by others. In addition to the witnesses that had described a different narrative to the “official” story, there were others at Nicole’s trial that testified that Nicole Kish was crying out for help and shouting “Stop, stop!” throughout the altercation.

There are two witnesses, however, (Molly Stopford and Jonathan Paget) who testified to seeing a woman with a knife that night, but neither can positively identify the woman in question and out of the 20 witnesses that testified, there were no witnesses who testified that they saw anyone stab another person. In combination with Nicole being there that night and stabbed, this evidence is what provided the grounds for the prosecution and subsequent conviction of Nicole Kish. However, this is in spite of the physical evidence gathered that night and the compelling testimony provided by her former co-accused Faith Watts, which falls perfectly in sync with all other evidence provided at Nicole’s trial. While on the stand, Faith testified that Nicole never traveled with a knife and that not only did the knife in question actually belong to her, but that out of fear she had been the one to produce it that night. She went on to claim that she had stolen it while in Montreal with her boyfriend Douglas Fresh, who as well had stolen an identical knife. As said earlier, one would think that common sense and an immense amount of reasonable doubt would kick in when taking in the fact that Doug did have an identical knife and that Faith had, on her person, an empty pouch that belonged to the alleged knife. Furthermore, DNA further supports her testimony given that Hammond’s blood is found in nine different locations on Faith Watts.

To further cast an already foreboding storm of doubt over the conviction of Nicole Kish, Detective Sergeant Gary Giroux (the lead detective in the ongoing and controversial G-20 cases) testified more or less on the stand that the two separate surveillance videos lost while in police custody - with one video being recorded over and the other reportedly having just gone missing - were on the whole insignificant. However, these claims are preposterous when taking into account common sense and that both the surveillance videos would have captured the altercation that occurred. Furthermore, while Detective Giroux claimed he based his upgrading of the charges against Nicole on the two witnesses that had claimed to see a woman with a knife, it was suggested that Giroux had rushed to upgrade the charge on account of public pressure, which seems logical given that Nicole was the only one eligible for bail and that her bail hearing was to land on the day of Hammond’s funeral. As well, Giroux had an additional reason for upgrading Nicole’s charges - on the account of her being a “menace to society.”

In closing, Nicole Kish was like many of today’s traveling youth in that she was a social activist and singer/songwriter just trying to live a life free from a profoundly sick society. However, she suffered the same fate as many like her – being villainized through constantly being marginalized by the media. A manipulated public called out with utter disdain for the homeless with some, by no small margin, going so far as to call for the reinstatement of the death penalty. What had originated with an attack against poor women and cumulated into a fatal altercation became a call for eradicating, with state force, the most vulnerable of society, once again reinforcing the notion that the streets are safer with bands of misogynist men than homeless women.

* It is my belief that the nature of the actual charges may not political but, like Sacco and Vanzetti, the prosecution/conviction was. At the very least, everyone should inform themselves by going to http://www.freenyki.org/ and should respectively support her on face book at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Nyki/138497129550958