Looking at the sidebar that lists the tags on my blog posts, I see I have written well over 100 entries on the police, most of them dealing with their abuse of authority; some of those abuses include the murder of unarmed or barely armed people, others…
Continue readingTag: SIU
Politics and its Discontents: Saying Goodbye To Alex For Up To One Year
.Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was a teacher for so many years; maybe it is because I have been a parent for even longer. But the fact is, I cannot get the killing of Alex Wettlaufer out of my mind. Unfortunately, however, although …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Holding Police to Account
Late last month I wrote a piece for The Paper News examining the nearly impenetrable ‘blue wall’ that is an ever-present barrier to justice and accountability whenever the police abuse their authority, violate the public’s rights, or otherwise brutalize them. One of the cases I wrote about was the disabling
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Police Torturers And Their Enablers
It is heartening to know that the Hamilton police are discharging their duties responsibly, as attested to by a video that went viral this week. However, to believe that all is well in policeland would be but a comforting illusion. Yesterday, Kev reported on the ‘excesses’ of some Toronto police
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: I Guess This Is What Resisting Police Looks Like
No doubt, the SIU would have given this one another pass had it happened in Canada. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: For Those Who Don’t Know Their Place
What do you do when citizens believe that democratic rights should be more than an illusion? Call in the authorities to remind them of their true place in the foodchain. On a related topic, The Star’s Rosie DiManno has an excoriating assessment of yet another free pass given by the
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: 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: Sammy Yatim: A Petition From Change.Org
A petition has been established at Change.org. seeking justice for Sammy Yatim. At last count it was closing in on 27,000 signatures. Here is how it reads: In the early hours of Saturday, July 27, 2013, Sammy Yatim was shot dead by a Toronto Police officer as the 18-year old
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: SIU Versus Toronto Police: An Update
As noted the other day, there has been an ongoing jurisdictional battle in the case of alleged police brutality victim Tyrone Phillips. The complaint, filed by Phillips to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, could not be investigated by the SIU because Toronto Police, citing provincial regulations, refused
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Toronto Police: Again and Again and Again ….
Albert Einstein famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that standard, perhaps both the Toronto Police force and I are insane; I seem to periodically write essentially the same blog post about their misbehaviour, and they seem to keep practising
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Kind of Power Abuse
Although the political abuse of power is endemic in this country, especially at the federal level, it is sadly not the only one in which innocent people are victimized. While I have frequently written on police misuse of power, the instances of that abuse, and the difficulty in bringing the
Continue readingWhen Cops Kill
Chris Gardian, beaten by Toronto Police Jan. 27th 2011, died Feb 2, 2011. We learned today that the SIU has cleared Toronto cops in the death of “Gentle Giant” Charles McGillivary last August. The victim was minding his own business out on a stroll with his mother in their neighborhood
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: VIDEO: Police in London, Ont., use Taser on 17-year-old boy
Watch this video and decide if the tasering was warranted:Undoubtedly, the SIU will find nothing wrong here.Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Once More, The SIU Cannot Fulfill Its Mandate
In what I can only construe as inept or complicit leadership at the top, the Toronto Police Service, thanks to massive obstructionism amongst the rank and file, has once again thwarted the SIU in fulfilling its mandate to properly and effectively inves…
Continue reading@thekeenanwire and the police / government / society we deserve
Over at The Grid, Edward Keenan’s got a thoughtful and compelling piece about the police assault on Dorian Barton at last summer’s G20, and the shameful saga surrounding the SIU’s on-again, off-again attempts to investigate.
We all know how that song …
Continue readingOn CBC, a further demonstration of Toronto cops’ contempt for us
On Metro Morning today, Matt Galloway talked to police union boss Mike McCormack about the nameless asshole who broke Dorian Barton’s arm at the G20 last summer, and about the SIU’s investigation coming to a dead end.
Anyone want to guess where Mike m…
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