A Public Inquiry into G-20 2010 Toronto Policing is Clearly Urgently Required

Groggo, true I only saw a small window of the events.  It was Saturday afternoon just when things started to turn violent.  What I saw was very heavy and organized police (and riot squad) presence.  I saw them practically "allow" a few scrawny masked Black Bloc elements to thrash Queen street.  They just stood there and acted as if this is nothing that concerns them.  They outnumbered the thugs by many folds.  I've never seen anything like this and I felt unsafe because if these masked thugs with sticks decided to attack us, it didn't look like the police was going do anything to stop them.  They had a free hand to damage whatever they wanted in full view of many dozens law enforcement officers.  This was a different Toronto from the one I've lived in for decades.  Our police have never behaved this way before. 

Here is a video of violence on Yonge st, in it a resident single handidly tries to make a citizen's arrest of a vandal while another is heard calling 911.  All the while hundreds of police officers were close by in side streets just standing there.

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/latest/the-mayhem/#clip318869

Bacchus wrote:

Miller said he didn't know about the new 'regulation'? Only the cops knew and not the mayor?

You bet. More than that, it is a war time law. It was originally passed in 1939 to protect police stations, court houses, etc ... (this is available from Real News interviewing a prominent Toronto lawyer), from possible foreign agents. But, the Liberal use of the law is to say it can be applied to any building, or buildings, and be applied against loyal citizens engageing in a lawful activity. The Liberals and the police have applied their interpretation as a provincial form of martial law. People regardless of their politics or take on the Black Bloc should be both angry and frightened by this expansion of authoritarian power to the province. Even if you agree McGuinty applied it as intended and lawfully, which I sincerely doubt is the case, what confidence would you have in another Mike Harris?

how about both in a win win scenario?

That being said, vandalism such as that carried out by Sea Shepherd is much more focused and legitimate, and still has my support because it is being employed to prevent violent/illegal activity.  To me that's an example of the tactic used in proper context.

Quote:

Statement on the vandalism in downtown Toronto by NDP Leader Jack Layton

Sun 27 Jun 2010

New Democrats tonight add their voices to all those calling for an end to the violence and vandalism taking place in downtown Toronto.

Peaceful and lawful protests are important in a democracy and help raise important issues. Torontonians have often marched and protested peacefully on these streets, with virtually no serious incidents.

It is appalling to see the violence and vandalism we witnessed today. There are thousands of people in downtown Toronto frightened tonight about what is unfolding on our streets. And this deplorable incident is also driving people away from our city and hurting so many local businesses.

Criminal activity like this must be condemned, it is simply unacceptable.

New Democrats hope that order can quickly be restored, so we can return to peaceful and respectful dialogue about the critical issues - such as poverty, aid funding and climate change -- that the G20 leaders must address.

So let me get this straight.   Our right to peacefully assemble is under direct assault by the Harper government and the RCMP.   A process we are paying for.  At the tune of a billion plus dollars.  To protect a pack of criminals who are waging war on the Earth's population.  The largest roundup in modern Canadian history has occurred, confining people to animal-like cages where they are harrassed and intimidated.   Defenseless people have been viciously assaulted by the hundreds if not thousands.  

And the NDP is whining about broken windows?    

I usually stay out of the NDP threads because I sympathsize with both sides.   But this is really the last straw.   If the NDP can't stand up for the basic right of Canadians to protest without fear of violent assault then I am done with the party.   At least until it finds new leadership.

Some stats that may explain police action of allowing few vandals to burn police cars and smash store windows:

1999 WTO Conference in Seattle:  40,000 demonstrators and 1,750 police officers.

2010 G20 Summit in Toronto:  10,000 demonstrators and 19,000 police officers.

Obviously the police needed to justify the staggering $1 billion overspend.

I heard first hand some of these horror stories - directly from the people who were released from the detention facility. One man was tazered (he had a heart condition), his face clearly showing bruises. Another man was beaten - he had a gauze covering an eye. I asked him what happened. The police had beaten him before taking him to the detention centre. He was black (I mention this because young black men appeared to be targeting disproportionately). A young girl was arrested for singing. The young man we drove home was simply taking pictures. Others came out who were beaten ( I have the pictures of their injuries).People were discussing the fact there were no charges brought forward. Some were begging to be charged so they could phone a lawyer. Others were left in horrible conditions, tied up so tightly their arms were scarred. This is Canada under Harper. He must be held accountable. The police who were involved need to lose their jobs.

I am appalled at the idiot citizens who sit there and scream about how the protesters deserved it (this is frighteningly common thing to hear) or scream about how great a job the police did. What do I possibly say back to that? I am so pissed off! Mayor Miller has greatly disapointed me.

I did hear from one of the people detained that there was already a lawyer involved with a class action law suit. I think our government and the police should be held accountable - but they won't be.

Groggo's post accurately documents Saturday's sequence of events .  I hope somebody ends up with a good documentary film out of all of this.

Daveshaver, there is a petition.. of sort.  You can email the mayor and ask him to care for his city more than he cares for his political career.  If he did he will call for an independent review of police action. First of police standing by indifferently drinking bottled water while the streets burn before their eyes. And second for police taking too aggressive an action against peaceful protesters the next day. Where was the action when it was needed, eh!

There are municipal elections later this year and if the mayor wants to continue to portray himself as a populist he must do the right thing. All we can do is ask   [email protected]

cruisin_turtle wrote:

Some stats that may explain police action of allowing few vandals to burn police cars and smash store windows:

1999 WTO Conference in Seattle:  40,000 demonstrators and 1,750 police officers.

2010 G20 Summit in Toronto:  10,000 demonstrators and 19,000 police officers.

Obviously the police needed to justify the staggering $1 billion overspend.

Do you have a link for those numbers? 19,000 cops?

Here's what I believe has happened, and it's been stated by others too; it was a one-two strategy on the part of the security apparatus to justify the massive spending on security. It was a politicial spectacle of grand proportions for Canada, all of it was goon theatre. One... leave some cars out, "protect the fence", and get some provocateurs to rile things, get the few flakes amongst the crowd going. Who cares if some shops get damaged, the psychological effect of the crime on business leads to an acceptence, long-term, of their (cops) legitimacy, it's a win for them. And Two, on Sunday, they get to have their fun, play with their toys, probably laughing about it amongst themselves. They were given carte blance, basically, by a timid McGuinty, they knew their 1 billion dollars was under scrutiny big-time,  they know "the Harper's" love the Law and Order stuff, and they realized if they could control the media message from/for the most uncritical era in mainstream journalism this country has probably ever seen, and they did that. And those in charge of the operations took full advantage. The protesters and everyone else basically got played huge. And I bet there are lot'sof  giggles and bum-slaps from all levels of enforcement still going on privately.

or I wildly speculate anyway. edited for grammar-bammer-slammer.

The empire strikes back!

Frustrated Mess wrote:

Another female journalist reports sexual threats and assualts by police including threats of "gang bangs".

Video: http://vimeo.com/12925239

If Chief fucknuts considers legitimate protesting as "facilitating criminals", then Blair is guilty of facilitation rape.

Blair doesn't just need to resign, he needs to go to prison for a very long time.

For anyone who was arrested and detained at the temporary detention centerL There will be a healing circle tomorrow at Christie Pits at 6.30. We will also be getting information about how legal proceeding will go forward. Class action is in the works. People from the CCLU were detained. SO were journalists. I am working on writing up my experience in there... if people are interested I can post it here.

Was it chief Blair who gave the order to arrest "everybody" who was in front of the film studio?  He probably didn't mean for his officers to take the order literally and arrest 400 people!

There is no future for a city that has someone with such poor judgement for a police chief.  Too bad because this used to be a great city.

I've made some detailed comments in these posts about what happened, just as a person who lives in TO.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/judes/2010/06/toronto-burning-or-it

Clearly, the police were ordered from their commanders, perhaps sitting in Barrie On, to leave Toronto core with no police. I saw the entire thing happen, as detailed here.

http://rabble.ca/news/2010/06/g20-police-let-rioters-run-amok-and-then-s...

The vandals started at Queen-Spadina, and ran unopposed, with the few police around just watching them, for miles, all along Queen, all along Yonge. According to the Star, that was for 2 hours, 3:30-5:30. The police did nothing.

There was not one cop on Yonge St before, during, or for hours after. I have detailed the facts in those other threads. Later I went from College to Front on Yonge, and did not see ONE single cop until Front. None.

The only police were guys in riot gear, usually marching around where no one was, except puzzled Yuppies looking at them. The police strategy to march Robocop lockstep at 2 miles an hour is probably the most ineffective tactic on planet earth, when there are no vandals or protestors within a mile. Even IF there was a vandal right there, Robocop can only move 2 miles an hour in a slow march. Then all Robocop can do is beat people with sticks. How can slow-motion Robocops even do anything? Answer: They can't, that is why those bb-vandals just ran in circles. A billion dollars buys you the most idiotic police "tactic" that a 14 year old kid could outwit? Are the police commanders that clueless?

So the riot-cop Robocop strategy, has to be the most idiotic strategy to cover a large downtown area. They can't move or do anything. Then they get into vans and race around, get out, suit up, and no one is there. Rinse and repeat. Seriously, its the most idiotic and useless "strategy". It has to have been a deliberate tactic to let the vandals run wild, either that or the police commanders have no idea of how to do their job. They are either totally incompetent, or they planned it to be just like it was.

As far as the burning car, they let it burn forever. I personally went up to a group of riot-police with their hats off, who were one small-block from the burning car. I walked up and said...uh...guys..there is a car burning there for about an hour...it might catch buildings on fire...where is the firetrucks? They just shrugged and said they knew about it.

The entire Queen St area could have been torched by some maniac, and they would apparently let Queen St burn down. So those police records, need to be checked. After the cops didn't care about the burning car, I phoned 911, and said...uh...there is a burning car in the middle of Queen that has been burning for about an hour? She said, oh yeah we know about that, very casual.

So the commander of the entire police system, ordered the police to NOT intervene, and ordered the fire dept to NOT put out the fire, obviously. I also asked the EMS paramedics who were parked in the middle of Queen...what's up with the fire dept? They laughed sarcastically, and said they must be having dinner. The paramedics were not scared of the public, they were there are saw it was just a few idiots acting out.

So yes, the police authorities should be taken to task for outrageous negligence. The Queen St merchants were  the victims of the police negligence, as if one insane person torched a building, the block could have gone up, and it appears the police would have forbid the firetrucks to put it out. That entire area of Queen West could have burnt to the ground.

As detailed in my other posts, either the police big-wigs wanted vandalism to happen due to no police in the area for hours (to amplify their budgets), and/or there was some idiot police commander on a computer in Barrie giving the worst police commands one could ever imagine. The riot police on coffee-break one street from the Eternal Burning Car, were ordered to NOT do anything, they were sitting there for a very long time.

But anyone with common sense would have seen the street was chaotic, but if a firetruck or water-cannon came in, people would move. It was basically like a bad-joke out there, it was not Detroit burning. But since the ORDERS were coming from somewhere else, they are responsible. Whoever ORDERED the police and firetrucks to stay away, is responsible for terrible negligence. If an explosion caught those old Queen St bldgs on fire, the street could have been burned down. Did that police commander want Queen St to burn down? The senior police commander who gave those orders for the fire-dept to stay away, should be charged with very serious negligence and dereliction of duty, and sent before a judge.  

After seeing almost everything that happened, its one of two conclusions. Either the police wanted to allow vandalism by having ZERO police for hours downtown, then later attacking people with full-force riot squads to spark little riots...or the commander was in Barrie giving orders from a computer screen, with no clue of what was going on in the local area.

Whoever sent those endless lines of Robocop riot police to Queens Park was almost a madman. They could have fought a war with those lines of riot-police. It was overkill by about 20x. As mentioned in my other post, on Monday June 28, there were more people in Queens Park today, and NOTHING happened, as people were not being attacked by lines of riot-cops. Whoever gave that order to assemble like WWIII at Queens Park should also be investigated. He ordered the riot-police to attack attack attack, and sent in the horses, shooting rubber bullets then denying it, etc. The police commander who ordered that attack is either completely incompetent, or wanted to spark more violence.

As I said in another post, they could have ended it, by just holding the line, and trying to communicate with the people there. Let the people cool down a bit. Put John Tesh music on the sound cannon, that would have cleared the park. But the police did the exact opposite. Their commander, some GI-Joe wannabe military general, wanted to attack the Zulus, with 5 lines of defense. It was one of the stupidest things I've seen in my life. What does it accomplish? It triggers the flight-fight response in the crowd, and when the police attack constantly for hours, they are whipping the crowd into a frenzy. They should be calming people down, as much as possible. But the police commander decided to attack and make people more upset, and then they just move to the next area, and start all over. It was beyond idiocy, it was more police incompetence, or the desire to create more problems, or maybe its just testosterone running amok in the police commanders veins?

Queens Park was supposed to be a "free speech zone", and many people there thought they were safe on the grass. The free speech zone was trampled by riot police and horse's hooves and rubber bullets.

Why didn't that incompetent police commander not try to calm things down, and hold the line? Who was he? Was he even there, or was he watching from a TV screen somewhere? Toronto is not Beruit. They could have calmed things down, and just been patient.

I actually had a moment to question a police commander at the police demo Monday night June 28, and his answers were not accurate to the facts, not even close. I asked him why there were no police on Yonge for so many hours, as the few dozens vandals ran around. He said all his officers were "deployed" and that is why Yonge St was left unprotected for hours. Can you believe that, when they had thousands and thousands of them, no where to be seen, behind some fence.

I asked him why it took so long. He said they could not get around. I told him I could walk anywhere in minutes. So that was a lie by the commander, it was easy to get around, there was no traffic, just empty streets.

He actually said I personally should have arrested the vandals, as a citizen. This is the attitude of a head of police security? That is his plan and attitude, let the citizens arrest vandals. He was quite contemptuous, welcome to reality. That is what your senior police commander thinks of the merchants on Yonge St, to defend their stores with baseball bats?

What a joke. They should have moved to contain any vandalism right away, not leave the city core. The only rational conclusion is that they police bosses decided to let the vandals trash downtown for 2 hours, to keep them away from their fence, and to justify their billions.

As N. Klein said tonight, they sent media releases out as the police car was burning, saying that justified their billions spent. The fact is they let it burn forever, so everyone could get a photo of it.

The police also attacked the crowds with full knowledge that the attacks would provoke the crowd further. Obviously, the police big-wigs wanted riots to justify all the billions, so they deliberately provoked the crowds, instead of containment and trying to calm things down.

http://rabble.ca/babble/activism/protest-police-state-tactics-toronto-to...

The chief is not telling the truth in the Globe article.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/news/police-chief-offers-no-apologies-for-g20-tactics/article1621788/

He says that there was no order to not go after the vandals? Semantics aside, that is not true. The few police around on Queen, were standing beside a building doing nothing. Obviously they were ORDERED not to do anything. They were ordered not to chase those vandals down, or at least not ordered to chase them. From 3:30 to 5:30 nothing happened

He says the Yonge window smashing is a new tactic? No it isn't. Its the identical tactic used years ago, during the 1992 Toronto Rodney King Riot, where some vandals also went all the way up Yonge and down Bay, and the police did nothing the entire time then either.

The police chief is saying some very strange things. His ideology must be tainting his viewpoints. But also, since he is in a bubble giving orders, he is not seeing the facts of reality on the ground. To him, everyone is a "criminal" it seems. Even those jerkoffs breaking windows are "criminals", but more accurately they should be called vandalizers. They didn't beat people up, they vandalized, which is illegal of course. Vandalism is a problem that police have to deal with all the time, its not the end of the world.

He also is seeing activists as criminals...that is clear. That is a disturbed belief system the police chief is displaying. Maybe since the police chief has a miltary mindset, he is incapable of understanding the mindset of social activists?

His using the word "anarchist" every 5 minutes is either media propaganda, or is some type of disturbed thinking pattern. Its very strange, perhaps the progessive mindset is as strange to him, as the miltary mindset is to someone who is progressive.

Perhaps because the police do have to deal with real criminals, like biker gangs and the rest, their mind becomes very black and white, and over-simplified. The reality is that the vandals could have been tackled and arrested by trained police officers, using the same methods they use down in the entertainment district.

The more one researches it, the more it starts to make sense. They chose to let the vandals run around, to draw them away from the fence. The city was the sacrificial lamb, and it also is great for police budgets to have some vandalism in the streets.

Bill Blair scared the shit out of this city, the dowtown office workers were terrified, and some stopped wearing suits as they were told by police the "anarchists" would target them. It was all fiction. They made it up.

Its social engineering using fear tactics.

observer521 wrote:

Also, of course the police are lying about giving warning before those Queen crowd arrests. But they feel justified in lying. The police never seemed to use any megaphones the entire weekend, ever. Must be so they couldn't get busted saying something wrong on video through the speaker.

Actually what the police would do was box people in, THEN give a warning to leave once there was no way out. THEN arrest everyone. Fuckers.

Sure, that is psychological warfare, to trap people and then tell them to leave. That kettling is used to hold people in place to exhaust them, to make them want to go home. They had no plans of arresting all those people, just to make an example out of them. Perhaps they wanted to test out their training on some live guinea pigs. After all, they must have practiced kettling eachother for WEEKS, and were just dying to try that one out in the field. That's gotta be the first kettling in Canadian history?

The police will now have training videos of kettling people in the rain in Toronto, which will probably be used in training videos for police world-wide. (this is how to really break 'em!). So those in the video should be pleased (not) to know they may be used to train other police in kettling.

They would also use a trick sometimes, of having one guy up at the front say something in a conversational voice,  so maybe one person hears him, and the other 999 don't hear anything. So technically, if a police officer under a mask says...leave or you are all dead meat...perhaps technically counts as a warning to the police chief?  Why didn't they ever use their million dollar loudspeaker to say anything?

Also, the attacks by police down by Commerce Court on Sat night, there was absolutely no warnings, no nothing. They just came in from the sides, like a Zombie army from the shadows. Just a stupid, pointless, ugly tactic, which just made people run in fear.

Also, at the bike protest, an actual police officer, who did NOT have riot gear from head-to-toe, did come out and talk with some people. Now its turns out that apparently one of the liasons was a police plant, from reports.

And they used a lie, to get the bikes to move back, to get riot-police in a wedge point. The police were right on the edge of attacking the bike protest... Some people were getting ready to flee, others would have been arrested. Then of course, that time, after appearing to give a warning, they then did the opposite as it was close to the 6:00 news and the live cameras were rolling. The riot-cops went inside Eastern Ave Gitmo, and they brought out the united nations of friendly looking police officers to smile for the camera. The 6' 8" white dudes with sticks got to have a coffee break during the live news feed.

Then guess what? As things calmed down, and some (not) dangerous criminals (college students, young women, teens) were released, and the bikes moved back, the police stood down, and NOTHING HAPPENED. People left of their own accord. Again, police know that attacking a crowd only makes the crowd want to resist more, so the orders to attack peaceful protestors time and time again from the police commanders had an ulterior motive, to create trouble.

The investigation must pinpoint the actual person who gave the ORDERS over the ear-pieces to do these outrageous, abusive, and counter-productive attacks on citizens. Not only were they abusive, there were absolutely stupid. I would bet $10 that some peabrain up in Barrie made some of those orders from watching a video screen.

The guy thought he was running the Iraq war from an aircraft carrier....Unit #6.. attack. Unit # 7 retreat. Unit # 8 arrest everyone...uh wait a sec...the live news is there? OK, don't arrest anyone, coffee-break, wait until dark.

The tactics were not only against civil rights, they were incredibly stupid.

observer521 wrote:

Interesting how the politicos are SILENT. They are terrified. Why? This will probably turn out to be the biggest violation of civil liberties in Canadian history.

It's the mirror image of the arsonists and vandals. In the face of a growing mass movement and brutal police repression, cowardice takes many varying forms.

Opposition grows to police repression in Toronto

News anchors covering Monday evening’s protest against police brutality have been shocked by the size of the spontaneous outpouring of opposition to the repressive measures unleashed against the citizenry. As the march proceeded from downtown police headquarters towards the site of Sunday night’s “human corral”, people heading home from work joined the procession. A cacophony of car horns, stuck in traffic, rhythmically beeped in time with chants of “No police state”! Thousands of riot and mounted police, aware of the symbolism of the march, moved to block the route towards the kettling site.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/poli-j29.shtml

observer521 wrote:

Interesting how the politicos are SILENT. They are terrified. Why? This will probably turn out to be the biggest violation of civil liberties in Canadian history.

They don't want to get Glen Clark'd.

Actually, one error in that. I was right at the front of that march at that time, and in fact the marchers themselves, in a fascinating sense of spontaneous-ish group wisdom, went east toward Yonge. The police did not block going west on Queen. The police had new orders to lay-off. Personally, I felt the sense that some police were hoping it went sour, as then they could say...SEE WE LAID-OFF AND THOSE ANIMALS WENT BERSERK.

http://rabble.ca/babble/activism/protest-police-state-tactics-toronto-to...

It could have gone up Yonge, but did not. And going into City Hall was fairly spontaneous, it weirdly snaked through the Jazz Fest booth, which was a few feet wide. The police were panicking, but the crowd was calm.

On the way back, personally I was concerned it would go down Queen, not because of trouble, but out of sympathy for those Queen businesses, they have had enough. Perhaps others felt the same, and the march turned north to Queens Park, which was the correct place to go. Dalton started it with their secret law, which may end their careers in disgrace.

Let me say this, at the front of that walk, no one was "really" running it. There were a few folks with the green tape, but they were feeling it out as it went, as was everyone else. It was an fascinating feeling, to watch a "crowd" with no leader actually make very wise calm decisions. Like a real democracy.

There was no planning, no police liasons, no nothing. Just people calmly walking and sending the police the message to not attack demonstrators. Personally, I have never seen a group of such diverse people, just feel things out like that. There were guys in business suits at the front, as well as the usual mix of everyone.

That march/walk was the real deal.

It was wise to walk down University, it was wise to zip into City Hall even though it was an absurd route to walk through the tiny Jazz Fest area, but somehow it worked out. And it was wise to end at Queens Park without any problems, and with minimum hassle for those in the area.

It may have traumatized the police bosses on the scene, to see a large group of citizens, with no "leader" and no plan, just take a stroll though their city. That was the same ground the day before was a war-zone, created by the police tactics. The next day, police got new orders to lay-back, and not even forms lines. I heard them getting orders to just observe, and NOT form lines, etc.

I think it freaked some of the police out, as everything they had been told in their (bad) training was proven false. By not showing force, everyone stays calm. There is a profound lesson in that, and what was fascinating is there were no "famous" faces leading the march, just a bunch of people who give a shit about what was happening in their home.

Durrutix wrote:

Opposition grows to police repression in Toronto

News anchors covering Monday evening’s protest against police brutality have been shocked by the size of the spontaneous outpouring of opposition to the repressive measures unleashed against the citizenry. As the march proceeded from downtown police headquarters towards the site of Sunday night’s “human corral”, people heading home from work joined the procession. A cacophony of car horns, stuck in traffic, rhythmically beeped in time with chants of “No police state”! Thousands of riot and mounted police, aware of the symbolism of the march, moved to block the route towards the kettling site.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/poli-j29.shtml

The Toronto Police Service has announced it will review its practices during the G20 summit following a barrage of complaints that its members responded too aggressively to protests over the weekend.

The service's Summit Management After Action Review Team (SMAART) will "provide an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in the G20 plans, and their execution, to provide a model for improved best practices in future operations," police said in a release.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/06/29/g20-police-review548.html#ixzz0sFysaiOD

cruisin_turtle wrote:

Why did the police let the masked thugs in black trash our streets and not arrest THEM.

Because the police, like the masked thugs in black, are [b]not on our side[/b].

The police [b]love[/b] the video footage of the vandalism. We [b]hate[/b] it.