The capacity for critical thought - how do we build it?

Just as we wind down the first half of 2011 in preparation for Canada Day, three disparate blog posts are jumping out at me:

• At Sixth Estate, Government of Canada Issues Statement Opposing the Alphabet
• At Politics and its Discontents, Sun News Network – Full of Sound And Fury, Signifying Nothing
• At Porcupine Blog, The Hegemony of Authoritarian Ideology and the Vancouver Hockey Riot

#RCMP complaints body says it's playing ball with @cancivlib | #G20

Something about the Tumblr / Tweeter interface is not working ... (mumbling obscenities under my breath ... )

I'm sorry, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy - perhaps I'm being a little harsh | #G20redux

On reflection, maybe I ought to cut you a little slack. Maybe you really are committed to fixing the organizational and occupational culture.

Maybe you really do want to fix the bridges between the police and the community they're sworn to serve and protect.

@TorontoPolice Tweeter guy: Is this your idea of building relations? | #G20

Don't know what this guy was doing ...



... but even if we grant for the moment that the apprehension was lawful and justified, can you explain why the Toronto Police officers effecting the arrest decided they had to grind his face into the concrete while one of them put a knee on his head? Right around the 40-second mark.

@LacyMacAuley and my namesake: This is where we juxtapose, redux | #G20

"Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you—that would be the real betrayal."
She thought it over. "They can't do that," she said finally. "It's the one thing they can't do. They can't make you believe it. They can't get inside you."
"No," he said a little more hopefully, "no; that's quite true. They can't get inside you. If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any result whatever, you've beaten them."

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Chapter 7 


Related posts:

• @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy weighs in | #G20
• Mistakes were made, Bill Blair says | #G20
• G20 asshole cops = schoolyard bullies

#G20 anniversary: Queen & Spadina, one year later

Hundreds of citizens arrested on bullshit pretexts.

Detained arbitrarily in conditions that were gross violations of human rights.

Subjected to racist, sexist, misogynistic and homophobic slurs and harassment.

Assaulted indiscriminately.

Beaten, tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and paraded naked.

And after all this time, no public inquiry, the Blue Wall endures and only two cops charged.

Tell us again how the system is working, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy.

Creekside: G20 : Caught in the Act

Creekside: G20 : Caught in the Act: "When police stick to phony script : the Miami Model"

Have I mentioned that Alison rocks today?

A whole year of this self-important bastard? Christ on a crutch ...

Just realized: tomorrow marks exactly one year since the day OB jumped into the blogosphere. The inaugural post:

The G20 narrative: whose story is it?

Guess we're still struggling with that, but since you're all clamouring for a speech, I'll just keep it brief.

Shoutouts to Stephen Harper, Dalton McGuinty, Rob Ford, Julian Fantino, Bill Blair and, of course, Officer Bubbles and the Toronto Police. I wouldn't have done it without you ...

How to hold them accountable: let them embarrass themselves | #policeaccountability

Because there isn't going to be any meaningful institutional response.

But this might be even more effective. Just show them being assholes, and then let public scorn do its work.



If they don't act like this, they won't have to worry about being embarrassed.

Of course, enough of these recordings and we may be facing something like this ...

(h/t policewatch.ca)

Related posts:

• Care for a chaw, S-Supt. McGuire?
• @SousLePave: Best tweet from yesterday's #G20rally
• So the cops are using social media?
• @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy weighs in | #G20
• No name tag? You disgust me, Officer
• G20 asshole cops = schoolyard bullies

@SousLePave: Best tweet from yesterday's #G20rally

Please tell me someone got a picture ...

Related posts:

• The day they turned the Charter of Rights into toilet paper
• Care for a chaw, S-Supt. McGuire?
• No name tag? You disgust me, Officer

#Brigette DePape rocks the rally at Queen's Park

Guess it's good to have the occasional reminder. From Jason Kenney's favourite left-wing kook.



Related posts:

• That 'disrespectful' Brigette sparks the wrath of Ottawa's Villagers
• Re Brigette DePape: I will now eat my words
• Live tweets from the CCLA's G20 hearings
• Don Davies and Bill Blair spar over the G20
• The day they turned the Charter of Rights into toilet paper

@TorontoPolice Tweeter guy weighs in | #G20

... with a few nice words about accountability and regaining public trust.

Here are some suggestions for you.

• Do something about the assholes who brutalized Lacy MacAuley.
• Out the sons of bitches who kicked Adam Nobody in the face after he was cuffed and lying on the ground.
• Press criminal charges against the pieces of shit who did what they did to Sean Salvati.

Let's see them charged, handcuffed and doing the perp walk for the cameras. You know goddamned well who they are. Talk to us when you're ready to do the right thing instead of letting them hide behind the Blue Wall.

Talk to us when you're ready to stop insulting our intelligence.

Talk to us when you're ready to abandon this whole self-pitying narrative about how misunderstood and unappreciated you are.

Talk to us when you're ready to overhaul your whole sickening dysfunctional organizational culture.

Until then ... spare us.

Related posts:

• Clayton Ruby reflects on the police abuse of power at the #G20
• So the cops are using social media?
• Gerald Caplan reflects on the #G20

New poll finds ‘monumental shift’ in public perception of Toronto police because of G20 actions - thestar.com

New poll finds ‘monumental shift’ in public perception of Toronto police because of G20 actions - thestar.com

I might just have to revise my opinion of the Star again. This is clearly adding to the pressure for a public inquiry, although I'm not getting my hopes up given the amount invested in stonewalling and resisting it.

Of course, I wouldn't be surprised to see the emergence of some astroturf group along the lines of Citizens for Police or something in response, amplified by the Sun torquing the shit out of a "grassroots" Cops are Tops campaign. Fuckheads.

The Sean Salvati #G20 video: Abu Ghraib comes to Toronto

So apparently it takes three big strong police officers to manhandle one guy. Naked and handcuffed.



Don't know whether this is before or after they beat the shit out of him.

Mistakes were made, Bill Blair says | #G20

So Bill Blair's had some time to reflect on last summer's G20 clusterfuck, and good and loyal servant he is, he's graced us with a report. Among other things, he praises his officers for "facing danger and extreme provocation."

Indeed. Takes a special kind of guts to stand your ground in the face of a small woman blowing soap bubbles.

So Toronto cops think they're the #G20 whipping boys?

From ... guess which piece of birdshit-catcher. The usual "police morale is low" bullshit. A sample:

The situation has worsened with each new allegation of police brutality and little has been done to restore the faith in those sworn to serve and protect Toronto.
“It’s become embarrassing to say you’re a Toronto cop,” said one of several officers who recently spoke to the Toronto Sun on condition of anonymity.
He said it has become a daily concern and many cops are fed up with being “the whipping boys” for decisions they had no hand in making.
“Cops are leaving Toronto in droves,” he said, explaining many have either transferred to other forces, are in the process of doing so, or are getting out of policing.

@cityslikr on the danger - and stupidity - of looking for false equivalencies

An Open Letter To Councillor Josh Matlow « All Fired Up In The Big Smoke

There's nothing that says "balance" is sacrosanct. When one side of an argument is based on facts, reflection and careful consideration of evidence and the other side is based on sound bites, discredited ideologies and gut-instinct idiocy, there's no virtue in claiming that the truth lies somewhere in between.

Required reading.

'Respect for Taxpayers' is a load of crap

True, I may be undermining weeks of arguing for engaging the people we disagree with in a spirit of openness and respect. And name-calling isn't going to help us show them how they're actually voting against their own interests, or reveal the corporatist / continentalist / ruling-class Divide-and-Conquer strategy. Class warfare's tricky that way.

@marcusbgee is right about Bloor Street, but for the wrong reasons

Ah, Marcus. The Globe's ideologically reliable municipal-affairs curmudgeon is kind of like a stopped clock that way.

Of course, the analogy only goes so far, because you don't have to ask a stopped clock why it's right twice a day, and that's a degree of frequency and predictability that ... well, let's just say it's not in the same postal code as Marcus.

Friday night

Following the example of my friends impolitical and pogge.

A few years old, but like a fine wine, it ages well ...

Raising Your Voice...Trying to Stop an Echo by hammockmusic


Raising Your Voice...Trying to Stop an Echo by hammockmusic

On the Canucks Riot, Protest, and Division : Politics, Re-Spun

On the Canucks Riot, Protest, and Division : Politics, Re-Spun

And more.

Good lord, someone's actually pointing out the class dimension inherent in the Vancouver riot, and drawing the connection between that and the corporatist power structure's nasty little game of Divide-and-Conquer.

Not to mention the malignant influence of Don Cherry. You know, that guy who has a national platform on the "left-wing" CBC.

[drops teacup]

How unseemly.

The Sixth Estate » When You Don’t Know Your History, You’re Bound to Make Up S@@t

The Sixth Estate » When You Don’t Know Your History, You’re Bound to Make Up S@@t

And again.

Either the Vancouver Police and the corporate media are taking stupid pills, or they're serving some agenda.

Now let's think about this: who benefits from mischaracterizing the riots as the work of anarchists and political activists?

Whose interests are served by the blanket demonization of activism per se?

Conversely, whose interests would be harmed by acknowledging the connections among NHL product, overwrought ersatz nationalism, unfettered testosterone, economic privation and too much cheap alcohol?

Hmmm ...

Porcupine blog: Explaining Conservative Support Among “Ordinary People”.

Porcupine blog: Explaining Conservative Support Among “Ordinary People”.

I can't believe I haven't seen this until now.

@thekeenanwire, #TOpoli and that whole 'deserve' thing, redux

Go and read this piece from Ed Keenan in The Grid.

He's right of course, and you don't need a master's degree in public administration to know that public services cost money. And you don't need cheap childish gimmicks, either.

The troublesome part is that something so blindingly self-evident seemed to elude a majority of Toronto voters last fall. They were all too willing to buy into Rob Ford's bullshit about mountains of wasted cash and municipal inefficiencies and gravy trains, and worst of all, the idea that under David Miller, things were just so irredeemably awful that the only thing to do was to blow everything up.

On The Road To Metropolis « All Fired Up In The Big Smoke

@cityslikr's pal Urban Sophisticat on the Six Sigma sickness currently afflicting our municipal leadership. Read it now.

On The Road To Metropolis « All Fired Up In The Big Smoke

Opposing the #HarperRegime: thinking strategically over the next four years

Sorry, dear friends. This is going to be one of those times when I try to get cerebral, but not too cerebral, and end up sounding like a wanker. Business as usual, in other words.

In the context of last week's Twitter exchange with @thekeenanwire over the question of what we deserve, I admitted that I hadn't thought through all the implications of what I was saying or where I was going. To the extent that we could arrive at common ground in 140-character bursts, we managed to agree that "need" was probably a better word than "deserve" when we're talking about a police force, or a society, or a government. At least that's the impression I was left with; if I'm wrong, Ed, please feel free to correct me.

Sleaze, slush funds and the Auditor-General's report: This is supposed to make a difference?

With the release of Sheila Fraser's report detailing a record of malfeasance and misdirection regarding G8/G20 spending, a whole raft of familiar patterns re-emerges.

Sleaze, slush funds, money earmarked for border infrastructure spent in Huntsville (which, one hates to point out, is nowhere near the border). No transparency. No accountability. Blaming public servants. A fig for the public trust.

@thekeenanwire and the police / government / society we deserve

Over at The Grid, Edward Keenan's got a thoughtful and compelling piece about the police assault on Dorian Barton at last summer's G20, and the shameful saga surrounding the SIU's on-again, off-again attempts to investigate.

We all know how that song goes. The whole police force goes Tommy. Nobody saw anything. Nobody knows who the asshole cop is, even though his face and badge number are visible in the picture AND the force actually provided his name to the SIU, Mark Pugash says. Not even his roommate recognizes him. Chief Bill Blair can't or won't do anything about it. Mike McCormack insists that there's no Blue Wall of silence. And I'm not even going to talk about the police services board.

That 'disrespectful' Brigette sparks the wrath of Ottawa's Villagers

Really, it's just so awkward when the lower orders forget their rightful station in the order of things.

The harrumphing, glaring and disdainful sniffing from the self-appointed members of Ottawa's elite is palpable. The political and media establishment types are getting their noses all out of joint because Brigette DePape showed "disrespect" for the institutions of Parliament.

Re Brigette DePape: I will now eat my words

What was I saying about having to build an extra-parliamentary opposition?

This young woman shows us all how it's done. If saying she's got cojones makes me sound sexist, I apologize and beg your indulgence, because it's said in a spirit of unabashed admiration.



Clearly I'm not the only one who thinks so. Linkfest here, here, here, here, here and here, for starters.

As for chowing down on my own verbiage: A spirited red, please, sommelier, and preferably New World, but not too aged. I'll need something that can cut through the layers of sententiousness and stand up to the wankery ...

Related posts:

• Senate page explains her brave Stop Harper protest on floor of Senate today
• Working against a permanent Conservative majority
• Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold

Accountability from the #G20? Not gonna happen

From the Tumblr a couple of hours ago.

Related posts:

• We ain't gonna have no stinkin' inquiry
• SIU re-opens another G20 investigation. Stop me if you've heard this before
• Michigan and the shredding of government of, by and for the people