Opening comments: More at the end.
A very good editorial that covers much of the the Toronto police are known for;
- a pre-emptive strike or "sweep" against maybe Troy protesters.
- "unprovoked" attacks on taxpayers, who were sleeping!
- outrageous claims, by Toronto police, "punched Sgt. Mark Randle's fist with his eye"
- officers destroying evidence of their assault.
- acting in support of a political party, their good friends the Torys' and against Ontarians Democratic rights. To do so, the riot squad went a long way out of their way to do it, "assigned to crowd-control duties ... on the other side of town. "
- many believe that the members of the riot squad to be indulging in "payback" for Queen's Park June 15, event and "which they mistakenly assumed was still being led by their June 15 opponents, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty."
What the Hell, Toronto police are all but unaccountable. Why should they care who's head they bust or why. If it feels good do it - any animal will tell you that. Maybe the Toronto police think the duties of the "riot squad" are to riot.
If there is a hero in this story, it would be Elan Ohayon, who spent 20 days in the Don Jail "because he had refused to sign a bail condition that would have prevented him from resuming his sleep-over protests in Allan Gardens, and it took three weeks of waiting in prison before the condition could be successfully challenged at a bail review." He is a HERO for standing up to the system that was trying to force him to willing accept unreasonable limits to his Democratic rights.
We should all be proud to have Canadians such as he.
Back up to;
eye - Nov.16, 2000 - EDITORIAL - there was a picture but was not found.
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_11.16.00/news/editorial.html
The real threat to public safety
Police around the world have a standard explanation for violence at protests -- the friendly Mr. Rogers-type officers were pushed beyond the limits of human endurance by violent provocateurs intent on anarchy.
Apparently, there are only so many "Hey hey, ho ho's" trained officers can take before snapping, charging into fleeing crowds and wailing away with nightsticks, cattle prods, pepper spray, tear gas, plexi shields, stun grenades or whatever else is handy that won't look as bad as a Kent State rifle attack when it's replayed on the evening news.
Generally, the press accepts this riot-police-as-victims scenario. But what happens when a riot squad is sent out to contain a large demonstration that turns out not to exist? Do the police -- unprovoked for once -- actually reveal themselves as kindly, good-natured Gandhi types? Well, no. At least, that seems to be the lesson to be learned from the strange case of Elan Ohayon.
Ohayon, a 32-year-old U of T graduate student and anti-homelessness protester, was released from custody Nov. 10 after spending 20 days in the Don Jail. He was there because he had refused to sign a bail condition that would have prevented him from resuming his sleep-over protests in Allan Gardens, and it took three weeks of waiting in prison before the condition could be successfully challenged at a bail review.
Ohayon had been charged with assaulting a member of Toronto's riot squad -- known as the Public Safety Unit (PSU) -- in Allan Gardens on Oct. 21, the weekend of the Tory convention. The arresting officers' notes suggested that Ohayon had punched Sgt. Mark Randle's fist with his eye. The poor sergeant suffered a cut hand, while the dangerous Ohayon received a shiner.
Ohayon's version of events was slightly different. According to affidavits sworn out by him and fellow anti-homelessness protester Oriel Varga, Ohayon was sleeping in the park as part of a legal protest when he was awoken and assaulted by members of the riot squad. Ohayon and Varga also swore that the officers destroyed his video camera and the film in her still camera in an apparent attempt to erase any record of the assault.
But the truly strange aspect of the case lies in the explanations given by Randle and fellow PSU member PC Crooker in their notes as to why they were in Allan Gardens in the first place. The PSU had been assigned to crowd-control duties outside the Metro Convention Centre, on the other side of town. According to their notes, the riot squad went to Allan Gardens to "sweep" the park, which was regarded as a "poss[ible] demo staging area" for the protests outside the "Tory Convension" [sic].
Apart from the dubious constitutionality of launching a pre-emptive strike against protesters before they can even assemble -- a practice that Ohayon's lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, plans to challenge under the Charter at the same time he lays assault charges against the arresting officers -- the fact remains that the park was never considered a staging ground for anti-convention protests by the demonstration's organizers.
That has led many to suspect that the members of the PSU -- which was involved in the June 15 riots at Queen's Park -- were using the Tory convention as an excuse to visit a little payback on the tiny Allan Gardens sleep-over protest, which they mistakenly assumed was still being led by their June 15 opponents, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
Whatever the actual motivations behind the "sweep" of the park, though, one thing is clear: it doesn't take an angry mob hurling bricks to provoke some of Toronto's riot squad members into violence. If Ohayon is telling the truth, they don't need any provocation at all.
[COMMENTS BY DON B. - ]