If we are completely honest, many of us will admit to a deeply ambivalent relationship with the police. On the one had we look to them for protection against the less ordered elements of society, but on the other hand, in the deeeper recesses of our psyche, we also fear
Continue readingTag: police abuse of authority
Politics and its Discontents: Wouldn’t A Taser Have Been More Appropriate?
I have often thought that had the video evidence not been so strong and graphic in the shooting of Sammy Yatim, the ‘official’ police story would have been that the disturbed 18-year-old had lunged at officers and thus had to be killed. What the video apparently showed, however, was what
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sammy Yatim’s Accused Killer Back On The Job
While the presumption of innocence is fundamental to our justice system, common sense and public sensibilities are always unspoken elements of the equation. This is clearly seen, for example, in jury selection, a good part of which is designed to ferret out and exclude from participation those with prejudgments that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Toronto Police Are At It Again
This is what happens when you have a ‘blue wall’ culture, facilitated by a police chief who often seems more politician than top cop. Sure, it is unfair and inaccurate to portray all police as abusers of their authority, but when it happens again and again, with little consequence, people
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Police Secrecy In Hamilton, Ontario
Outside of a handful of traffic tickets, I have had almost no direct contact with police in my lifetime. Yet, in my darker moments, I have always suspected that it would be fairly easy to run afoul of them, be it through an angry word or gesture that could, with
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Indictment Of Police Leadership
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I am a regular critic of the police. While recognizing the at-times difficult job they have and the very real potential of becoming jaded because of the criminal element with which they must deal, I have never had any sympathy, understanding or
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chief Bill Blair And Secrecy
Presiding as he does over a very troubled organization, it is perhaps not surprising that Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair prefers a cloak of secrecy to cover how he manages his force. But it is difficult to see whose interests, other than those of the good chief, are served by
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Virtues Of Restraint
I suspect if teachers were to be completely completely honest, almost all would admit that at some point in their careers they felt like lashing out, either verbally or physically, at a student or two. That was certainly my experience a few times during my 30 years in the classroom,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Do Police Have The ‘Right Stuff’?
Given the killing of people like Sammy Yatim and Steve Mesic and the taser takedown of Iole Pasquale, it would seem a legitimate question to ask, as Star readers offer their views: SIU ruling on Tasered senior yet another shock, Oct. 11 Maybe Toronto Police Service just needs to hire
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Police Surveillance
For those interested in the best way of ensuring police behave themselves, the following is a timely reminder of what our rights are when filming them: For more information, check out Canadian Privacy Law Blog. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: To Protect And Serve
The police protect and serve – they really do. It’s just that we aren’t the ones receiving those services: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Can You Say?
Today has been a blogging day where I seem to be writing little of my own thoughts but mainly linking to other sites. And I can’t think of a single thing to add to this travesty of police work: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Power Of Pictures
‘Nuff said. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Your Morning Jolt
Most people get their morning jolt from their breakfast cup(s) of coffee. As I wrote earlier this week, an 80-year-old woman, now identified as Iole Pasquale and suffering from dementia, got her jolts at 3:30 a.m. from two police taserings while walking along a road in Mississauga with a bread
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: So Many Stories, So Little Time
Most days that I post a blog entry, I choose my topic based on my reaction to news stories. Today, two disparate pieces seem particularly noteworthy, one that confirms what all but the profoundly naive know about government, the other about yet again another police incident that, thanks to the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Constable Stefanie Trudeau
Given Sammy Yatim’s tragic execution by police for swearing at them and holding a penknife, and the shooting in the back of the unarmed Steve Mesic in Hamilton, I suppose the ‘mouthy’ young man depicted in the following video was ‘lucky’ to be merely pepper-sprayed for his ‘impertinence.’ Nonetheless, the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Police Power
While the title of this post may seem a bit of a tautology, since the power of police on the streets is obvious, there are other arenas where they wield their influence in ways that may not be consistent with an open and democratic society. For example, police are known
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Police Are Such Sensitive Souls
Andre Marin, Ontario’s Ombudsman, found this out after announcing he was planning to investigate the province’s direction to police on de-escalating conflict situations in light of the police killing of Sammy Yatim. According to a report in The National Post, a Durham police detective, Dennis Scott, opened a Twitter account
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: From The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave
Somehow I don’t think our ‘friends’ to the south have anything to teach us about civil society and democratic rights, although I can’t help but think that much of this footage would gladden the dark chambers of the Harperite heart: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Sammy Yatim: A Guest Commentary
I received the following as a response to one of my blog posts on Sammy Yatim, the young man gunned down a week ago by the Toronto Police. Anon’s comments and insights are more powerful than anything I could have written: Sammy…I’ve wanted die…Only I was to scared to do
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