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.

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• Police chief furious at publication of dying cop's SOS call; wants apology - Winnipeg Free Press »

Evaluating Mammoliti, redux | #PrideTO #TOpoli

But let's at least give the guy a chance to speak for himself.

Yo, Georgie? You want to tell us what you think your video proves?

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On second thought, Rob, stay at the cottage | #PrideTO

The whole idea of Mammoliti at the Dyke March just seems ... wrong.

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.