Don't like carding? @TPSboard, @TorontoPolice, @TPAca team up for a giant F.U. | #TOpoli

Aw, come on, you old sourpuss! Can it really be that bad?

Well, maybe. He smiles nicely for the camera.

What's that? I'm being mean, you say? Unfair, even? Because you just know people so deeply invested in a toxic and dysfunctional status quo will happily hand the top job over to a guy who's going to fix it!

As some schmuck once argued:

... we're talking about an ingrained culture that's been setting in and putrefying for decades, if not centuries. Anyone perceived as an enemy ... gets targeted and slimed. And anyone who wants to function and rise within that culture has to buy into its intrinsic values, no matter how sociopathic or dysfunctional.

"Civilian oversight." Right. I'll just be over in the corner, throwing up.

Another #AssholeCop protected by the #BlueWall | #TOpoli @TorontoPolice @TPSDetBangild @DeputySloly

But hey, I could be wrong. Whaddaya say, @TorontoPolice Tweeter dudes? Yeah, Jeff Bangild and Tim Burrows and Tony Vella and Peter Sloly, I'm looking at you. Should be pretty easy to out this worthless piece of shit, no?

I mean, you don't want the whole force to be condemned over the actions of a few bad apples, do you?

After all, don't cops make a big deal of it when witnesses don't come forward?

And it's not as if this asshole's buddies would suddenly go deaf, dumb and blind or anything, is it?

Because God knows, if the rest of you just look the other way when scumbags like this do their thing, then how are you any better than they are? And you wouldn't want people getting the idea you just cover for the bullying pigs in your midst, or that your dysfunctional organizational culture enables this kind of crap or anything, would you?

Well, you do like to go on about how important it is for you to rebuild your relationship with the community and earn our trust. I'm sure you'll do the right thing. And monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Related posts:

• Tell us again how the police are our friends ...
• Two years later, no accountability for #policebrutality at the #G20
• Couple more guys who are a real credit to the badge | @TorontoPolice #G20
• Another opportunity for the healing power of public scorn | @TorontoPolice #G20
• The Blue Wall is a threat to public safety
• Police accountability in Toronto | #G20
• How's that "building relations" thing going, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy?

Lying cops, Mark Pugash, and the Star: Where we juxtapose, once again

Three links to start off with: one from the CBC and two from the Star. Excerpts follow.

New homicide chief on fighting 'code of silence'

Staff Insp. Greg McLane told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning that a lack of information can frustrate investigators, especially when it is known that witnesses were present when a crime took place.

Just like the witnesses who were there when Dorian Barton's arm was broken, or when Sean Salvati was beaten and then paraded around naked, or when Adam Nobody was beaten and kicked in the face. Have we mentioned that most of those witnesses were cops? And that it took the Star to out Glenn Weddell?

Sure. Private-sector involvement in police work. | #areyououtofyourfuckingminds

Via a helpful reader, one of the most disturbing things I've seen this week:

I don't know Joe Couto, and I'm sure he's a perfectly decent guy in real life, but this is on behalf of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

How many ways do you want this to be a bad idea? Policing priorities determined, not by public need or democratic process, but by shareholders' demands for profit? Policing decisions made in accordance with the desires of the folks holding the purse strings? Policing operations influenced by (horrors!) ... class biases?

If you filled a trial balloon with swamp gas instead of helium, this is what it would smell like.

Related posts:

• Police accountability in Toronto | #G20
• Fiscal demonization of @OccupyTO continues on CTV | #classwarfare
• SIU Concludes Reopened #G20 Nobody Investigation | #policebrutality
• The Sean Salvati #G20 video: Abu Ghraib comes to Toronto
• 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

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.

How's that "building relations" thing going, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy?

Just checking in.

Any progress identifying / charging these cocksu – er, perps?

No, eh? Oh, well. Pretty hard when witnesses don't come forward, isn't it.

How about:

• Arresting the two assholes who kicked Adam Nobody in the face after he was handcuffed?
• Charging the cowardly sacks of shit who beat the crap out of Lacy MacAuley?
• Or the scumbags who tore John Pruyn's prosthetic leg off?
• Or 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?

No? Well, do keep us posted. I'm sure you meant it when you said this:

Related posts:

• #G20 anniversary: Queen & Spadina, one year later
• @LacyMacAuley and my namesake: This is where we juxtapose, redux
• @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy: Is this your idea of building relations?
• I'm sorry, @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy - perhaps I'm being a little harsh
• @TorontoPolice Tweeter guy weighs in | #G20
• The Sean Salvati #G20 video: Abu Ghraib comes to Toronto

Retiring senior Toronto cop calls #G20 reaction overblown

Toronto News: Retiring deputy chief calls G20 reaction overblown - thestar.com

You know where I'm going with this, so I'll just let thwap and Lorne carry the ball on this one. They say it better than I can anyway.

Hey, Tony? Don't go away mad. Just go away.

Update:  Asshole.

Related posts:

• SIU Concludes Reopened #G20 Nobody Investigation | #policebrutality
• More allegations of police brutality at the G20: Gabriel Jacobs
• Put lying cops on the stand and make them do it for the record
• On CBC, a further demonstration of Toronto cops' contempt for us
• Toronto Police: Unaccountable, uncaring, unbelievable

Garrett Styles - The Blue PR machine spins up again | #policeculture

From teh Tumblr.

Lives on the line.

Sudden tragedy.

A sobering reminder.

Heroes in blue.

Gave his life in the performance of his duty.

Officers coming from all over to pay tribute to a fallen comrade.

It’s a mythology with a lot of miles on it. You can practically write this shit in your sleep.

Just one question: even if we allow for the sake of argument that this mindless fetishizing of men in uniform is a good thing, how come we don’t see this kind of blanket, wall-to-wall, 24/7 coverage whenever a Canadian soldier gets killed in Afghanistan?

Yeah, I know. I’m an insensitive bastard.

Related posts:

• Now watch as a couple of Star reporters get the evidence ...
• That whole 'deserve' thing
• Police chief furious at publication of dying cop's SOS call; wants apology - Winnipeg Free Press »

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.

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

@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.

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.

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.

Now that the tribal display is over ...

A few worthwhile links, thanks to Jymn and John Lorinc, among others.

Hey, RCMP? How's that kicky, tasery, shooty thing workin' out for ya?

Not much to add to this. Kelowna RCMP pull a guy over, order him out of his vehicle, he complies, and cop kicks him in the face for no apparent reason.