I have avoided writing on incidents of police brutality and racism for some time now, not because they are on the decline (check out some of their recent antics, and you will find that, for example, Toronto and area abounds with them) but, quite frankly, because I find it so
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Politics and its Discontents: Another Perspective: A Guest Post By Pamela MacNeil
I received two very thoughtful reactions to my post the other day on the decision of the Gay Pride organizers to accede to the demand by Black Lives Matter to exclude the Toronto Police from future participation in the festivities. It is not a decision I agree with, as I
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Black Lives Matter, But Bullying Is Still Bullying
Just back last evening from our Cuban sojourn, it will take a little while to get my blogging and political legs back up to speed, given that I was peacefully unconnected for a week. However, an item in today’s paper caught my attention that I feel moved to comment on.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: I’m Just A Poor Boy, Nobody Loves Me
That famous line from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody might have been the inspiration, and is certainly the subtext, for James Forcillo and his lawyer’s pleas that poor baby James be allowed to serve whatever sentence is passed down to the killer of Sammy Ya…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not An Obsession
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 readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Shameful Exploitation
At the risk of overgeneralizing, it is easy to see why a reactionary institution like the police live in a Manichean, bifurcated world, where the law of the jungle demands, “You are either for us, or you are against us.” Even though such a world view d…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Policing: A Contrast In Methodologies
We’ve all seen the videos depicting the murder of Sammy Yatim at the hands of Toronto police officer James Forcillio. Although Forcillo has been held to partial account for his foul deed, most realize, I think, that things didn’t have to end the tragic…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Are The Toronto Police Re-Victimizing The Family Of Alex Wettlaufer?
I cannot imagine the ongoing pain that the family of Alex Wettlaufer is experiencing. Less than a month ago, 21-year-old Alex was killed by police under suspicious and troubling circumstances, details of which will be withheld from the public for up to…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Remembering Sammy Yatim
To listen to James Forcillo, the Toronto police officer who shot Sammy Yatim eight times as the knife-wielding teen stood inside an empty streetcar, he had no choice but to kill him:”If I had done nothing, he would have stabbed me,” Const. James Forcil…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Fear And Loathing
I remember very vividly when I was a young fellow how much the police seemed to be a part of the community. When I was in high school, I had a weekend job in a restaurant that often saw me walking home about 2 a.m., and more times than not I would see …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Star Readers Respond To Toronto Police Thuggery
Whether justice will ever be achieved in the terrible death of Rodrigo Gonsalez or the vicious beating of Santokh Bola remains an open question. However, given some compelling video evidence, there seems little doubt in the minds of Toronto Star reader…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: UPDATE: A Police Or An Occupation Force?
Last night, the CBC reported on the case of Rodrigo Gonzalez, the subject of yesterday’s post and the latest to die at the hands of Toronto Police. while the report perhaps sheds no further light on what occurred, it at least graphically brings to the …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Police Or An Occupation Force?
While I realize there is an element of hyperbole in the title of this post, I cannot help but think that for many vulnerable people, the Toronto Police might be viewed more as oppressors rather than as protectors. Yesterday I posted about the beating a…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: “There’s always a context in which these things take place.”
So says Toronto police spokesman and perennial apologist Mark Pugash about the beating administered by the police to Santokh Bola, a victim of what the authorities admit was a ‘mistaken arrest.’ Sure looks to me like just another case of police brutality, something the Toronto constabulary is becoming notorious for:
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: 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: 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: The Long Road To Justice
Although long, the road to criminal justice for Adam Nobody has finally ended; the police officer who viciously assaulted him during the infamous Toronto 2010 G20 weekend, Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani, was found guilty of using excessive force. Of the myriad who violated the rights of over 1100 people that weekend,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Problem With The Police Starts At The Top
Leadership is a word that evokes many associations; strength, vision, determination and resolve are a few of the positive ones. Selfishness, careerism, expediency and cowardice are but a few of many negative associations. In my own working life, I had perhaps three administrators I looked up to, the ones who
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