Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair just doesn't get it. Perhaps Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty get it, but they either don't care or would rather it just go away.
But what's even more concerning is that it's clear police officers -- not just in Toronto, but everywhere in Canada -- don't get it either: how the transgressions, abuses, thuggery directed at peaceful demonstrators and innocent bystanders alike at the G20 Summit a year ago and their ridiculously misplaced code of silence to protect each other from prosecution has impacted the public's perception of them.
I'm not sure the public will ever again support police in this country the way they did prior to and immediately after the summit.
An Angus Reid public opinion poll commissioned by a Toronto newspaper a couple of weeks ago found that immediately after the summit, 73% of Torontonians supported police actions on the last day of the gathering of world leaders. That's likely because of the media reports and citizen videos of the senseless vandalism and violence by the so-called Black Bloc that went unchallenged by police the day before.
Then the details of what happened on the Sunday started to emerge -- news about the beatings, humiliations, rights violations including the arbitrary arrests and jailing of hundreds of peaceful protesters, herded into a confined area and held there without food, water, access to a phone, lawyer or even a charge.
A followup poll released two weeks ago shows that support for Toronto Police actions had plummeted to 41% after a series of new photo and video releases and more stories from the victims over the last year.
But I don't think that drop in support was in reaction to the abuses by police in the moment. I think the public's support of police plummeted because of what happened after the summit, when defiant officers did everything they could to protect their brothers and sisters in blue, refusing to identify the officers accused of abuses whose faces were clearly visible in video and camera images, at least twice frustrating investigators from the province's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.
It was the fact that so many officers removed their name tags prior to their actions, a good indication of premeditation and intention of abusing protesters. Was it retribution for the violence and destruction by the Black Bloc the day before that made police appear impotent?
The first question you have to ask is: What emboldened these officers to act the way they did? Where did they get that inner confidence to treat the public in such a shameful manner? If it wasn't ordered from the top, perhaps even the politicians, then we have an even bigger problem with police than I now suspect.
What's the difference between the police actions on the last day of the G20 and the actions of police across the Middle East during protests for democracy over the last six months?
A body count.
After the G20, that's all that appears to separate us from people in Syria, Yemen, China and other countries where protests for democracy are usually met by paramilitary police batons and guns. Is it any wonder police in Canada have a tough time recruiting minorities?
Police not only broke bones, bloodied faces and bruised flesh, they also trampled our rights.
Blair's response to the concerns has been lame at best.
"Of course, we're there to protect peoples' rights to demonstrate lawfully and peacefully, but when there is a significant threat to public safety and a breach of the peace, we've got to take the steps necessary to protect the innocent people of this city and to protect property," he told The Globe and Mail. "Dispersing the large crowd can be a very effective tactic in limiting the risk that those who engage in Black Bloc tactics would pose to the rest of the city." Blair went on to comment on the recent riot in Vancouver after the Stanley Cup final: "I know that they're going to be criticized if they allow that destruction to happen and they're going to be criticized with equal vigour if they go in and stop it."
That's just not true.
Canadians expect police to uphold the law, win the fight and make the arrest. It's not their job to bully and abuse peaceful protesters and make the largest mass arrest in the history of our country.
A public inquiry is the only way public confidence in our police will ever be restored.
Source: www.lfpress.com
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