When the provincial Special Investigations Unit threw in the towel and said it couldn't identify the brutal, cowardly slimeball in a uniform who broke Dorian Barton's arm at the G20 last summer, the CBC story prompted a somewhat sarcastic response from the progressive blogosphere, including this.
Most of the arguments about police brutality, the Blue Wall, the culture of silence, the contempt for civilians and civil authority, the Good Germans analogy, and the rank hypocrisy of cop complaints about witnesses who don't come forward have already been made, usually by wiser observers than me. So there's not much to be gained by rehashing them. I'll provide links at the bottom if anyone's feeling nostalgic.
But the earnest editorialists at the Star, god love 'em, are willing to have another go. In so many words, they're saying the cops who can't identify the vicious pig in question are full of shit. The asshole's face is reasonably clear from the picture. The technology's there to blow up and enhance the resolution on that and on his badge number. And it's not as if his asshole buddies can't remember who they were on duty with or check the records and find out who was assigned to do what at the time of the assault. And yet we're supposed to believe that 11 Toronto Police officers (whom we're about to favour with a big fat raise, by the way) have no idea who the fuck he is.
The money quote:
If the Toronto Police Service had any desire to find out what happened in this case, Chief Bill Blair could call the officers involved into his office and simply ask them what happened. If that’s too difficult, the force could compare the photo of the “subject officer” to its own photos of staff members — and figure out his identity itself.
The silence surrounding this case makes a mockery of the appeals for information that police routinely issue to the public. Police regularly send out photos of suspects and ask civilians for help identifying them. They call on the public’s sense of civic responsibility and simple justice, and ask them to do the right thing. In the Barton case, police are showing they believe that basic expectation of citizenship does not apply to them.
I've gone on and on about citizenship and civic responsibility, so I really can't take issue with any of this. Simple, straightforward, and clearly argued.
A police culture that was serious about repairing its relationship with the citizens of Toronto wouldn't hide behind process or pull shit like this. A police culture that cared about its credibility wouldn't clam up and go silent to protect the assholes in its midst. Individual police officers who cared about their professional integrity wouldn't hide behind the Blue Wall. As one commenter on the Star piece puts it:
The next time ANY police officer in Ontario testifies their testimony should be rejected on the grounds that the word of a police officer is worth NOTHING.
We're well beyond a few bad apples here. What's clear by now is that there's systemic rot, from the top down and from the bottom up.
None of this is new, of course. But it ought to put the lie, once and for all, to any lingering illusions about whom the cops are there to protect and serve, and it ain't us. They don't give a fuck about us. They're here to kick the crap out of us, laugh at us, look the other way, and take our money.
Update: h/t Fern Hill. Great minds, etc.
Related posts:
- #G20, Robert Dziekanski, and police accountability
- Just another sleaze job from the Toronto Police
- What are we paying these people for?
- Fire up the Blue PR machine again!
- Now that the tribal display is over ...
- The Blue Wall is a threat to public safety
- The Blue BS machine
- They won't get away with this!
- The Blue Tribe spins up its PR machine
- Police budgets, and how a phony narrative gets manufactured
Exactly. Their word is worth nothing. They have no credibility and they are scum.
ReplyDeleteIf they want people to think differently about them, they know what to do.
It's always important to remember: the Police are not your friends, they are not working for you, they exist to maintain order and law... which are decided on many levels above your head.
ReplyDeleteThis just illustrates blatantly how little we can trust our police. Which, I think, rather points out that the rot in our system has trickled down to a level where it's not just widespread but endemic.
How difficult would it be to drag the entire Toronto Police Force up on charges of obstruction of justice and assault? If no one individual is guilty, perhaps it's time we threw out the baby with the bathwater?
Sometimes I lament just how sleepy and somnolent Canadians are. This kind of thing happening somewhere else might well bring down a government in an armed revolt.
How lazy and broken down we are, these days. Like cattle led to slaughter, or sheep being sheared.
Just the way They want us.
The Star does deserve credit; however, I think Joe Warmington at the Sun should get first prize for his efforts on this issue. From the very beginning he has beat the drums of justice in well thought out and argued columns.
ReplyDeleteThe mistrust that we should have in complete corruption in the police is simply an overt example of how corrupt our government is. Those protecting the corruption should be protected when they use corruption to protect the corrupt.
ReplyDeleteThere is a systemic problem in the type of people that are hired to become police. In short, we whose taxes pay police salaries should not allow the type of hiring practices which result in the psychopathic psychological profile of many of Toronto's police officers. We should also not allow the type of culture that exists inside the police force, no acountability, lying to obscure fellow-officers' wrongdoing, including theft, aggravated assault, murder, etc. Without our active intervention, nothing will ever be done, it will only get worse. We get the police force we deserve.
ReplyDelete