Advice to Cops: Choose Your Victim Carefully

This is what it takes to get a conviction for a couple of cop-thugs.

But look at the sentence.

Two police officers were handed a virtual house arrest sentence for beating up a disability pensioner who disrespected them.

In January, Justice Elliott Allen found Const. Edward Ing and Const. John Cruz guilty of assault causing bodily harm in the April 2009 attack on disabled pensioner Richard Moore at his Cabbagetown rooming-house.

Ing and Cruz are allowed to leave their homes to work. In addition to the 12-month conditional sentence, the officers were banned from possessing weapons for 10 years. However, that ban is expected to be lifted Tuesday afternoon, when lawyers begin an appeal.

The appeal will likely be heard within the year.

In finding the officers guilty as charged, Allen rejected the officers’ account that they were trying to protect Moore from stepping into traffic.

Moore suffered fractured ribs, dislocated shoulder, a broken finger, a gash to his scalp and scratches to his stomach, hip and shoulder when he was pursued to the door of his Gerrard St. E. home and beaten by the officers.

The officers then arrested Moore for being drunk in public, a charge that was later tossed out after medical tests showed he had no alcohol in his system.

Dig this boohoohoo.

[Defense lawyer] Butt said the transfer from outside duties has cost the officers an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 yearly in overtime and paid duty work.

Reported in the Sun. Oh look.

Moore, who is on a disability pension and was former Toronto Sun printer and ironworker, has had Hepatitis C since 1995 when he underwent nose surgery at Scarborough General Hospital.

So. Cops gotta beat the living shit out of a disabled guy, lie about it, and it gets covered because the victim is a former employee of the rag in order for there to be any repercussions?

Do I have that right?

Another G20 Rally *sigh*

Feet on street time again.



In the comments here on the third SIU attempt to identify one of the G20 cop/thugs, Kev lets us know about the rally on Saturday.

A public inquiry into Toronto G20 and police accountability rally -- Saturday

The deets:
Toronto rally
Saturday May 28, 2011
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Yonge and Dundas Square
Facebook page

I'll be there.

Dear Toronto Police: We Are ^NOT Stupid

Shorter Rosie DiManno: Cops should STFU about members of certain communities failing to come forward, until some cop comes forward and IDs this one.

Rate a Cop

Another nifty use of the Intertoobz: Judge My Cop.

If you've had an experience with a cop -- good or bad -- this site wants to hear about it.

The website is the brainchild of 21-year-old Andre Borys, who was inspired to create the forum after his own encounter with Toronto police last summer. It was on one May evening that Mr. Borys was the designated driver for a group of friends out for a night on the town when police nabbed him for stopping in front of a pizza parlour in a no-parking zone.

“One officer looked at my licence, saw that I’m from Mississauga, and asked ‘What, they don’t have no-parking signs like this in Mississauga?’ ” recalled Mr. Borys, a fourth-year business student at McMaster University.

“I wanted to show him respect, so I didn’t respond with a smart-ass comment. Here I am being very respectful and he’s talking down to me.”

Mr. Borys doesn’t dispute the fact that he was breaking the law, nor that he deserved the $60 ticket, but says he felt making a complaint would have had no effect. So he started the website to allow people with similar experiences to air their grievances.

But it wasn’t until he saw the recent public outrage over alleged police brutality during the G20 summit making headlines this week that he decided to go live.

It went live very recently, so there aren't many comments there yet and they're all from Ontario.

So, what do the cops think? What did you expect? Waaaaaaah!

The Toronto Police Association says it is worried that a new website allowing the public to rant about their police encounters, publish names and badge numbers and rate officer behaviour, could incite “abuse” toward its members.

Well, when it come to 'abuse', the public has certainly been getting some lessons from the experts lately.

Paging Stacy Bonds. The Ottawa police haven't been mentioned yet.

Here's the site: Judge My Cop.

Torontonamo UPDATED

This afternoon, Toronto Police will release its G20 Ten Most Wanted List.

Gee. Wonder if it will include this famous yet anonymous guy in the expensive jacket.



In related news, there's another website devoted to collecting stories about the G20 police actions. This one has a great name: Torontonamo, a word we bloggers should help spread far and wide.

In more related news, the Facebook group is closing in on 54,000 members.

UPDATE: CBC story and from the comments, Mr. Looks-Like-A-Cop made the list.

Will cops be charged?

If an internal investigation is held as Toronto Police Chief Blair has stated, will the thugs and goons in police uniform found guilty of civil rights abuse be held accountable for their actions? Or will it be a witch hunt to provide Bully Billy Boy with the information he needs to retaliate against the cops who 'broke rank' by expressing compassion toward prisoners?

In accounts written by individuals who suffered the "abridgement" of their civil and human rights by riot cops, they mention those who were visibly disturbed by the unwarranted violent behaviour of their comrades in arms.

From here:

An older female guard with short dark hair and glasses is offering me a cup of watered down Tang and instructing my binds be cut. I’m given a second cup of juice and new, looser cuffs. They ask if I’m ok, I’m so confused about why I’m outside the cell and ask “What’s going on?” They ask if I’m alright, and I say “I guess so” then they open the cage and put me back. [...] “What happened?” I ask with a now splitting headache. “You passed out man!” they tell me. [...] My head kills, they ask for medical attention for me, I second the motion and we’re told “Not right now”. [...] The female officer who helped me aids in bringing some watery orange Tang to all the cells. We line up, quietly and broken, for our drink. I find out from Kate that this same female officer broke down and cried with the women at their cell. She was sobbing and apologizing, “This is wrong, you shouldn’t be here. This is all so wrong.”

And this:

Not all officers behaved like thugs. Taylor reports several broke down emotionally in the chaos. [...] The men sardined in Taylor’s cell got the attention of Toronto Special Police Constable White and asked him about the deplorable conditions. “I’m just a pea in a pod. I can’t help,” White said.

Chrystal Ocean at Challenging the Commonplace draws our attention to recent legal and court-directed settlements in support of demonstrators and by-standers illegally arrested by police in 2000 and 2004 in Washington D.C.

Welcome to Bill Blair and Stevie Harper's New©™ Canada.

"Spectacular claims have emerged ..."

And none more spectacular than the sob story Toronto Police Chief Bill 'Five Metres of BS' Blair gave Christie Blatchford in an Exclusive interview. The sound you hear as you read the piece is that of Blatchie's panties sliding to the floor.

In a MASSIVE attempt to cover his derrière, Blair agonizes over a now-emerging propaganda "revelation" that generic Blak Blok anarkists derailed the arrival of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan at the coroner's office.

The final chapter of the repatriation for Sergeant Jimmy MacNeil last Friday had to be cut short outside the coroner’s office in Toronto when Black Bloc anarchists tried to break through police lines to attack.

The revelation came during an hour-long interview Wednesday with Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, during which he also confessed he is worried about how the events of last weekend may have affected the “public trust” the force must have with its citizens.

At the time the cortège carrying Sgt. MacNeil’s body was arriving at the coroner’s office on Grosvenor Street, just two short blocks north of College Street, a group of about 30 demonstrators dressed in black moved out of a crowd of 2,000 who had massed in front of police headquarters on College.

“The Black Bloc was here and they charged up the thing [laneway], as a matter of fact the repatriation was kind of interrupted,” Chief Blair said. “My public order guys ran through the lines that we had to close off the alley that they were trying to get up [to Grosvenor] with.”

Further on in the Globe & Mail piece, 'I luvs me a MAN in uniform' Blatchford claims this "revelation" was only "mentioned" in the context of an answer about the "temporary regulation designating the area of the G20 Summit as a place where the Public Works Protection Act would apply".

What-evah, Christie. Perhaps you are dazzled by Chief Blair's charms, but those of us - who are not swooning to our knees in his presence - suspect his strategically timed interview with you is all part and parcel of a furious attempt of revisionism and retroactive justification.

Bonus: Go read Alison at Creekside - G20 : Cops avenge themselves on satirist

Toronto Sun Columnist Demands Inquiry

Like most people, I'm still processing the G20 mayhem, but I wanted to share this. Toronto Sun -- yes, Sun -- columnist Joe Warmington is demanding an independent inquiry. While he's defending ordinary cops and quotes unnamed police sources, he's got some interesting information and some damn good questions.

Read the whole thing. Here are a couple of tastes:

Who made the decision for police to stand down despite the fact the city was under attack?

And why?

Was it a police decision or political?

These should be the cornerstone questions of an external review surrounding the chaos of the G20.

While the ninjas were looting on Yonge Street, there was indecision, confusion, and finally a clear order not to engage them.

"It was awful," said an officer. "There were guys with equipment to do the job, all standing around looking at each other in disbelief ... The Montreal riot guys were livid ... They just wanted to get in there and do the job but were told they are too intimidating."

Warmington asks: 'who made that order?' Bloody good question, Joe. I'd like an answer to that too.

Of the brutal kettlin' in the rain at Queen and Spadina, there's this:

Toronto Police so far have offered no apologies for the bizare incident at Queen and Spadina, but my sources say that may be the easiest option for them.

"The chief is rattled because he knows that circus at Spadina and Queen was unlawful and it is going to come back to bite him in the ass," said one copper. "If one of us had detained people like that, we would be hammered with Police Act charges."

If it's deemed criminal, who investigates? The very people who ordered it?

Another bloody good question.

As I say, read the whole thing. Not just for the information, but for the bizarre sensation of agreeing with a Sun columnist.

Me and Connie Again, Demanding an Inquiry into Toronto G20

Remember about a month ago when I blogged about belonging to a very exclusive (for a minute) club -- just Connie Fournier and me?

I've just returned the favour. She's very big on freedom of expression, albeit from the waaaay rightwing end of the spectrum, so I sent her a message suggesting that if she found the events over the G20 protests in Toronto as appalling as any right-thinking ;) person would, she might consider joining the group, Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20.

She thanked me for the heads-up and said she would join.

But alas, it's not such an exclusive club this time. Membership just zoomed past 16,000 to nearly 16,500 from just over 11,000 this morning.

And there are some real movers and shakers in the group. Already a rally is planned for Canada Day.

Rally for a Public Inquiry Concerning the Actions at the G20

Date: Thursday, July 1, 2010
Time: 2:30pm - 11:30pm
Location: Queens Park (in front of the legislature)
Street: Queens Park Crescent
City/Town: Toronto, ON

Feet on the street time again.

TIME CHANGE: Rally begins at 5:30 p.m.

Agents Provocateurs, 3

Anybody got a photo of an undamaged 3-digit Toronto cop car?

Are they working some kinda insurance scam? Just askin'.

From here.

I am Spartacus!

I'm (somewhat) Italian. I'm of a certain age. Ergo, I wear black.

But wearing black is a provocative act in today's Toronto.

Via Stageleft, we learn that even the neo-cons get hassled when wearing black. (And they don't like it. Hee.)

So. I propose that tomorrow be Men and Women and Children in Black Day. Everybody wear black. Even if you're not in Toronto.

I am Blackacus!

Agents Provocateurs, 2

Via Fillibuster, we get a link to someone who knows from boots -- Terry Burrows -- who recaps the Montebello Boot Incident and proceeds to suggest similar hanky-panky was going on at the G20 'riots'.

Me, I don't know from boots, but having lived in Toronto my whole life, I've seen a few cop cars and the one that 'anarchist' is bouncing around on at Terry's place looked odd to me.



Toronto is divided into police divisions -- all two-digit numbers, the lowest number is 11, the highest is 55. Cop cars are numbered with four digits, the first two being the division, the second two, I assume, the number of that vehicle.

Note number on bouncy-car -- 766 -- which, by the way, is the car that got torched on Queen West and featured in all those rivetting photos and news clips.

As they say, it would be irresponsible not to speculate. Is this a real, regular, everyday type cop car? Or some kinda special cop car?

Agents Provocateurs

There are only two possible explanations for the shocking spectacle that Toronto witnessed yesterday: stunning incompetence -- braindead decisions from start to finish -- or despicable calculation -- meant to fail, punish Toronto, and justify the billion-dollar boondoggle that Steven Harper's ego demanded.

Look, even Peter Kuitenbrouwer writing in the Natty Po admits it:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has something to answer for tonight. It is hard for this writer to escape the feeling that this summit was designed with every possible star aligned for ugliness to occur. The summit is held on a summer weekend, after university and high school exams are over; all the students are out and free and have time on their hands. Summer weather is perfect for a march. The summit takes place in the heart of Toronto: everybody in Canada has a friend in Toronto where they can stay during a protest.

And can we not say that assembling the greatest number of police in one spot in the history of Canada, and spending more on fences and security than Canada has ever spent before, has a provocative effect?

The authorities were following the so-called Miami Model.

First, ramp up the information war. Label protesters anarchists and terrorists.

Next, intimidate everybody but especially known leaders of protest groups.

On the day, claim 'they' started it, even if agents provocateurs have to be used or irresistible targets -- like abandoned cop cars -- left lying about.

Then, the authorities pat themselves on the back for a job well done. (This bit isn't going so well, however.)

So, incompetence or calculation? Here is David Langille, who was sitting in Fran's at College and Yonge:

As an academic and an activist, I have participated in numerous demonstrations in Canada, the United States, Europe and South America, and I have never seen such a dereliction of duty.

Normally, there are buses full of riot police right in the downtown core, ready to move at a moment's notice.

The police knew that they should focus their energies on the Black Bloc, especially so late on Saturday afternoon.

But when the rioters came smashing their way up the main street of Toronto, the police disappeared for half an hour.

Here's another vote for incompetence:

Asked whether police were slow to respond to the violence, [Toronto Police Chief] Blair said a mob had emerged from the initially peaceful protest and broke into several groups of vandals.

"It did take us some time to move our resources," Blair said.

Blair later said police are reviewing their tactics, "what worked and what didn't work as well."

And now Judy Rebick weighs in:

But it is the police that let the handful of people using Black Bloc tactics run wild and then used the burning police cars and violent images as a media campaign to convince the people of Toronto that the cost and the excessive police presence was necessary. They knew what would happen and they knew how it would happen. It is the police that bear the responsibility for what happened last night. They were responsible for keeping the peace and they failed to do it.

Me, I blame Stephen Fucking Harper for dumping this insanity on us AND the cops for coming up with this Reichstag ploy to justify it -- agents provocateurs all.