OIPRD says cops went apeshit during the #G20? No shit, Sherlock

Really?

The cops violated our rights?

The devil you say!

Police accountability in Toronto | #G20

From the Globe:

The Office of the Independent Police Review Director concluded constables Michael Adams, Babak Andalib-Goortani, David Donaldson, Geoffrey Fardell and Oliver Simpson used excessive force after tackling Mr. Nobody to the ground.

The report concludes that charges should be laid, too, but apparently because it's taken more than six months, the chief has to get permission from the Police Services Board. (Yeah, that's how criminal procedure works for everyone, isn't it.) From the Star:

Usually, charges must be laid within six months of the incident. In this case, the police services board would have to approve an extension before officers can be charged and a hearing ordered.A source told the Star Friday the board has granted Police Chief Bill Blair the right to lay charges.

Cue the whining from the poor misunderstood victims in all this:

"This is almost two years down the road getting to this and this has been very arduous for our members," Mike McCormack, head of the Toronto Police Association, told CBC News.

But we haven't even gotten to the fun part. You know, about the two assholes who kicked Adam Nobody in the face after he was arrested and cuffed.

Oh, and the story also talks about the investigator who identified these guys when hundreds of their buddies couldn't. According to the Globe account,

He went over videos of the incident frame-by-frame, cross-referencing them with photographs and police deployment sheets, which listed officers assigned to the area that day.In some cases, he picked out minor details to figure out who was who: Constable Adams, for instance, wore a distinctive carabiner on his belt; Constable Farrell wore long sleeves.

So in other words, this guy – acting Detective-Sergeant Chris Kirkpatrick – did some actual police work. When hundreds of other cops, who were there at the time and whom we pay to notice details like this, couldn't identify these guys. Please, Mike – tell us again how there's no Blue Wall.

They're gonna love Det.-Sgt. Kirkpatrick when he gets back to the office.

Well, I'm just bursting with confidence in the system now. I'm sure we'll see action on

• the cowardly sacks of shit who beat the crap out of Lacy MacAuley
• the scumbags who tore John Pruyn's prosthetic leg off
• the sadistic pigs who got their jollies kicking Sean Salvati around in the interrogation room and then parading him around naked, in front of a female cop

any day now!

Related posts:

• The door's this way, Chief Blair
• How's that "building relations" thing going, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy?
• Retiring senior Toronto cop calls #G20 reaction overblown
• @LacyMacAuley and my namesake: This is where we juxtapose, redux | #G20
• The Sean Salvati #G20 video: Abu Ghraib comes to Toronto
• The Blue Wall is a threat to public safety

The door's this way, Chief Blair

So it seems Bill Blair isn't getting with Team Ford's austerity program.

Instead of being a good boy and implementing the 10-per-cent reduction the mayor's team is demanding of city managers, he's looking for a budgetary increase. Not a lot, mind, but the surrounding drama, already at a slow boil, has been cranked up even farther, and now there's speculation that his job's on the line.

G20, police wilding, and the Dawgmeister's Nazi-vision post

So I finished watching the fifth estate documentary about the G20 (kindly posted by Dr. Dawg), and now that the initial rush of rage has subsided, let's talk Godwin for a minute.

More flying monkeys, Smithers!

Yeah, well.

Never thought I'd be linking to both the Stun and the Putz approvingly, but there it is.

What are we paying these people for?

Lest anyone suspect this corner of indulging in an unseemly end-zone dance at the apprehension of Toronto Police Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani, let me emphasize: this is barely the start.

Some real prizes we've got here

As Cliff over at Rusty Idols would say, credit where credit is due. The Star's Rosie DiManno's been on the G20's asshole cops like a mongoose on a snake.

The Blue BS machine

They're at it again this morning. A two-fer, in fact.

What's that, Chief Blair? A standing order?

Toronto's Police Liar-and-Sadistic-Pig-Enabler-in-Chief took time to talk to a reporter today.

Blair needs to go, but that's only the beginning

Yeah, well. What does it tell you when Rosie DiManno, of all people, is writing stuff like this?

Mr. Mukherjee, tear down this wall

Just finished listening to Matt Galloway throwing softballs to Alok Mukherjee on Metro Morning.

The Blue Wall is a threat to public safety

At some point, the whole discourse based on some spurious distinction between brutal sadistic bastards in police uniforms and the so-called "good" cops needs to be tossed out. I'd respectfully submit that we've passed that point.

Bill Blair is making Julian Fantino look good

Why, yes – as a matter of fact, that was a monkey flying out of my ass. What's your point?

This really doesn't have anything to do with Allen Funt, does it

Hi there. I'm cuddly and harmless.

Well, looky here. The cops want to keep the surveillance cameras they brought in for the G20. And the sound cannons.

Don Davies and Bill Blair spar over the G20

MP Dancin' Don Davies drops the gloves for a go with Billy the Bonecrusher at a public hearing about the G20 clusterfuck.

More on police brutality during the G20, and institutional response

Thoughtful piece in NOW magazine, and my initial response:

All good stuff, but ultimately the fight isn't with the Board, the chief, or any discrete police force, be it municipal, provincial or federal. What's at issue here is a dysfunctional organizational and occupational culture that isn't going to be fixed by any institutional response or individual inquiry or review.

Consider: what is it about policing that makes individual cops think it's OK to beat the shit out of peaceful citizens exercising their fundamental rights? Or abuse the power of preventive detention, knowing that whatever charges are filed will ultimately never stand up, but also knowing that there won't be any individual or organizational accountability for the abuses visited upon people? As bad as the police misbehaviour during the G20 was, these questions go far beyond that weekend.

Which is why any anticipation of a meaningful institutional response is, in my submission, ultimately misguided and futile. The Board isn't going to do anything that seriously ruffles police feathers. They all saw what happened to Alan Heisey. Moreover, the fog and confusion arising from questions of overlapping jurisdiction, and just how far the Board's mandate extends, and the continuing distraction arising from the debate over policy versus operational matters, pretty much guarantees that the Board won't be able to accomplish anything meaningful.

Deputants will have their say. Recommendations will be made. Fingers will be wagged and tuts will be tutted. But as long as cop culture itself persists as it is currently, well ... don't hold your breath.