Anonymous hands @cselley his ass | #Rehtaeh #RapeCulture

"How would you respond to columns like Chris Selley’s in the National Post that say your efforts are not needed?

Wow, you picked a real winner there. Well, no offense to Chris Selley or the National Post, but he seems to insinuate that if the police screw up and a few rapists get off the proper response is “tough shit,” move on to the next case. For that, I think he's a moron. Let's slow down for one second and assume that I did release the names of those rapists... what law am I breaking? I suppose they could sue me for slandering them. Of course, to do that they'd have to prove I was lying.This gets worse: he says we should ignore the photo being spread around the school because it probably happens all time. We can't expect the legal system to punish everyone that's passing around photos of women being raped, now can we? It's “fairly routine adolescent behaviour.” Chris Selley article epitomizes the rape culture. "

'via Blog this'

If there's a better rejoinder to all the handwringers and mansplainers and apologists who caution us against going vigilante and say we should just let the legal process and the justice system do their jobs, I haven't found it yet.

News flash, fuckheads: the justice system screwed the pooch on this. The legal process, the school system, and the police -- all the institutions we charge with keeping young women like Rehtaeh safe -- did sweet fuck-all to protect her.

And the fucking RCMP? Well, they're pretty good at tasering immigrants to death and then lying about it, sitting there with their thumbs up their asses while serial killers prey on women, and/or sexually assaulting their female colleagues and aboriginal prisoners. Serving and protecting young women? Not so shit-hot.

Related posts:

• If the Mounties, whose track record on gender issues is disgusting and grossly incompetent ...
• Tell us again how the police are our friends ...
• Robert Dziekanski, the RCMP, and an anniversary

DiManno: Why won’t Chief Bill Blair say sorry for police actions during G20? - thestar.com

Toronto News: DiManno: Why won’t Chief Bill Blair say sorry for police actions during G20? - thestar.com:

'via Blog this'

Simple, Rosie: Because he doesn't have the balls.

Julian Fantino.
Mark Fenton.
Tony Warr.
Jeff McGuire.
Marc Charlebois.
Todd Storey.
Luke Watson.
Michael Dicosola.
Babak Andalib-Goortani.
Glenn Weddell.
Kevin Antoine.
Michael Adams.
David Donaldson.
Geoffrey Fardell.
Oliver Simpson.
Roy Preston.
Rodney Pugh.
Gordon Trumbley.
Cecil Price.
Lawrence Rainey.
Bull Connor.

How about you guys?

Related posts:

• OIPRD says cops went apeshit during the #G20? No shit, Sherlock
• Lying cops, Mark Pugash, and the Star: Where we juxtapose, once again
• Retiring senior Toronto cop calls #G20 reaction overblown
• How to hold them accountable: let them embarrass themselves | #policeaccountability
• Care for a chaw, S-Supt. McGuire?
• Toronto Police: Unaccountable, uncaring, unbelievable

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

Lawrence Martin on Harper's proto-fascism | #cdnpoli

Under this PM, the state is everywhere - The Globe and Mail:

'via Blog this'

It doesn't make up for the fact that it still publishes Wente, but every now and then the Globe manages to do something worthwhile.

My only quibble with Martin, other than that he still hasn't appeared on the Tweeter, is that he doesn't quite go where he's obviously heading and use the F word. The propensity for control and domination is staring us right in the face.

Just take a look:

• Fetishizing the military
• A publicly funded propaganda machine, amplified by willingly braying transmitters at Stun Media
• Disdain for democratic accountability
• Obsessive message control
• Warrantless citizen surveillance
• Jails, jails and more jails
• Demonizing and smearing of opposition

Really, are these the hallmarks of a government that has its citizens' welfare at heart? Haven't we seen this movie before?

Related posts:

• The Sun's effect on our national conversation is obvious, but what about the Globe?
• Media culpa: George Monbiot’s unedited letter to the Globe and Mail
• Why not just have the Americans write our legislation for us? - Peace, order and good government, eh?
• The capacity for critical thought - how do we build it?
• "Find new ways to protect Parliament?" WTF?

#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.

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.

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

More allegations of police brutality at the G20: Gabriel Jacobs

More serving and protecting by the Toronto Police. (Yeah, right.)

Via CBC and the Star, news that Gabriel Jacobs is filing a human rights complaint over the way he was treated at the G20.

Put lying cops on the stand and make them do it for the record

Not that it should take the focus off Harper and McGuinty, who bear just as much culpability as municipal officials for the abuses that took place at last summer's G20, but Rosie DiManno's got an idea about the 11 cops who, incredibly, can't identify the asshole who broke Dorian Barton's arm.

Let's review: Dorian Barton wasn't protesting or demonstrating, not that there's anything wrong with that, but simply taking pictures in a designated protest zone (and there's plenty wrong with that, but we'll leave it alone for now). He was slammed, from behind, by a cop with a riot shield and a baton. Eleven other cops on duty with the SOB have told the SIU they can't identify him.

On CBC, a further demonstration of Toronto cops' contempt for us

On Metro Morning today, Matt Galloway talked to police union boss Mike McCormack about the nameless asshole who broke Dorian Barton's arm at the G20 last summer, and about the SIU's investigation coming to a dead end.

Anyone want to guess where Mike makes his stand?

Toronto Police: Unaccountable, uncaring, unbelievable

The Star doesn't always get it right, but this time it's taken a centring pass in the slot and buried it in the top corner.

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.

Accountability, Harper-style: Intimidation and mob rule

Anyone who's been talking about "scandal fatigue" just hasn't been paying attention.

At a campaign rally Saturday, Harper's minions whip a partisan crowd into a frenzy in order to drown out Terry Milewski's question.

Our new meme for the week: Harper's Gestapo

Ok, maybe it's hyperbole, but so what? These bastards play dirty. No point in playing nice with them. Time to kick 'em in the nads.

So tonight we have several accounts of hired muscle going through the audience at a Harper party rally in London, rounding up perceived Enemies of the State and tossing them out. Probably making lists of names and faces for later, too, when the time comes to assign said enemies for re-education.

Come on, now. Harper's no chicken

Stephen Harper is campaigning in a bubble.

He can't face audiences that haven't been pre-screened.

Elizabeth May, the 'consortium' and our democratic dysfunctions

  

Too many bytes, too much ink and attention devoted to the looming Iggy-Harpo smackdown. (Any time! Any place! Bring it on, mofo!) It may happen, it may not, and I'm still undecided about whether it's a good thing or not.

Lost in the drama, I think, is the discussion of how the door got slammed in Elizabeth May's face.

Elizabeth May excluded? What Coyne said

Seriously? What century is this? Can you say "arbitrary?"

Welcome to OB's inaugural edition of What Andrew Coyne said. Dude's been making good use of the Tweeter on this one.

What are we speaking of, when we speak of democratic infrastructure?

OK, so I was on the Tweeter today, and I was being a bit of a smart-ass (All together now: Really, OB? We're shocked. Shocked!) about the leaders of the three main parties.

Ignatieff's yawning silence on ethics and transparency

A big "hell, yeah" to Steve V over at Far and Wide.

The Harper Government^TM has, for as long as I can remember, been leading with its chin on the question of open government and accountability.

Ottawa cop charged with sexual assault in Stacy Bonds case

Well, well, well.

The Special Investigations Unit has charged Sgt. Steve Desjourdy with sexual assault in connection with an incident dating back to September 2008. Links from CBC, Globe, and CTV.

Today's shiny object: the word "barbaric"

Oh dear. Justin Trudeau seems to have made a boo-boo – er, gotten tangled up in the semantic weeds (Cue the Jesus Facepalm).

Watch as the Conservative Attack Parrots^TM crank up the squawking and the national conversation gets sidetracked into a giant foofaraw about honour killings.