2012-05-17

G20 policing: the major incidents

Some officers directly disobeyed orders and let some out of the kettle.

“He’s maniacal, this MICC, he’s maniacal,” the report quoted one audio recording of an officer on the ground.

At 9:30 p.m., Blair walked into the command centre and ordered all those caught up in the kettle to be released. At that point, said the report, more than 300 had been arrested or detained at the intersection.

“It was unreasonable and unnecessary to have continued over a four-hour period to arrest people one by one during a severe rainstorm,” the report concluded.

Voice: For Sherry Good, kettled for four hours and now the face of a $45 million class-action lawsuit, the report is “a step along the way for people like me and the thousand other people detained, to see that somebody’s been listening to what we’ve been saying all along.”

More:The full report

QUEEN’S PARK

When: June 26. 4:45 p.m.

What happened: For two and a half hours black-clad vandals had been wreaking havoc on the downtown core, setting police cars on fire and smashing store windows. Protesters from a main march began returning to Queen’s Park, the designated “free speech zone.” A group of protesters were seen changing out of their black clothing and blending into the larger crowd.

What the report found: That police couldn’t keep up with the protesters running through the streets because their riot gear weighed about 100 pounds.

Vans and buses moving officers faced gridlock and their civilian drivers weren’t allowed to drive through red lights. Officers from outside police forces had trouble finding their way around, with one consulting a map from a subway box.

Later in the afternoon, police public order units and bicycle and mobile officers were ordered to arrest rioters at Queen’s Park coming from the Yonge St., where much of the smashing took place. There was a “rising level of frustration” among officers on the ground and those in command, according to the report. At around 5 p.m., Police Chief Bill Blair called a meeting and questioned why he couldn’t see police on Yonge St.

Mark Fenton, night shift incident commander at the Major Incident Command Centre (MICC), told the OIPRD that during the meeting he posed the question, referring to the “terrorists” attacking police property: “Why are we not arresting these people?”

According to Fenton, Blair responded: “That is a very good question, Mark.”

Fenton said Deputy Police Chief Tony Warr told him to, “Take back the streets.”

“I understood this to mean that he wanted me to make the streets of Toronto safe again,” Fenton told the OIPRD in an interview. Fenton told staff there would be steps taken to restore order and that this might include mass arrests. Public order units were ordered to sweep north from University Ave. and College St. The officers shouted at protesters to move or be arrested, and “some officers fired rubber bullets, followed by muzzle blasts of tear gas,” said the report.

A long-range acoustic device (LRAD) was used to tell protesters that “reasonable grounds to arrest exist,” and that they should leave the area. But no exit route was provided, and many people at Queen’s Park didn’t hear the warning, the report found. Even if they did hear it, the report added, police moved immediately on the crowd, giving no time to comply with the order. Yelling “Move” was not a clear direction, said the report.

“It is fair to say that the level of force used in controlling the crowds and marking arrests at Queen’s Park was higher than anything the general public had witnessed before in Toronto. In some cases the use of force was excessive,” the report concluded.

Voices: “For those of us who were there and who will never forget that day, it’s validation, if we felt like we needed it . . . We have a report that just says exactly what we experienced. I think having it on record is really important.”

More: Chief Blair reacts to scathing police watchdog report on G20 police conduct

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THE ESPLANADE

When: Saturday, June 26. 10:30 p.m.

What happened: Some 250 to 300 demonstrators were arrested outside Novotel hotel, where they had stopped to show support for a group of striking workers. As they sat in the street, chanting “peaceful protest, peaceful protest,” a police line began to advance, boxing them in. Mass arrests followed.

What the report found: That there are reasonable grounds to believe the arrests were unlawful, detention arbitrary and Charter rights were violated. Also that “excessive force was used.” More than 260 people were arrested, though the report said the exact number is difficult to determine because of the “unreliability” of arrest records. Mark Fenton, night shift incident commander at the Major Incident Command Centre, said he did not disperse the crowd because they were in a “riot situation” and he had to break with normal police procedure and “go outside the box.” In an interview with the OIPRD, Police Chief Bill Blair said he was not aware of the Novotel incident until after it occurred.

Voice: Tommy Taylor, 31, was kettled at the Esplanade and detained for 24 hours. He wasn’t a protester, but was pulled off the sidewalk with his wife. “I really liked a lot of the language in the report. There’s a lot of vindication in there . . . Now I’d like to see justice. I feel like I’ve sort of been left floating. Two years in, I have very little faith.”

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UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

When: Sunday, June 27. 9 a.m.

What happened: The University of Toronto’s Graduate Students Union was one of several places hosting out-of-town protesters. As they slept in the gymnasium Sunday morning, police entered and arrested them all on “unlawful assembly” charges stemming from a gathering the previous day.

What the report found: The arrests were unlawful. The police did not have grounds to believe every person in the room at the time had committed an offence and no steps were taken to determine if any of the arrestees had been involved in illegal activities. A commander with the public order unit acknowledged to the OIPRD that he did not know whether every person in the room had been involved in the “unlawful assembly” that he alleged had taken place the previous day, but said he intended to arrest everyone and then release those who police determined were not involved. That didn’t happen. All occupants were taken to the Eastern Ave. jail and detained.

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STOP AND SEARCH

When: Friday, June 25, to Sunday, June 27

What happened: Police arbitrarily stopped and searched people with increasing frequency in downtown Toronto over the weekend. On Sunday morning, officers were ordered to search anyone carrying a backpack or wearing a gas mask, bandana or balaclava. Some people were arrested. Confiscated items included swim goggles, bandanas and a nail gun.

What the report found: Many police officers believed they had “sweeping police powers” to stop and search people who looked “suspicious,” but they didn’t. Officers ignored basic Charter rights and overstepped their authority by stopping and searching people without any reasonable grounds in law. Wearing a backpack or a bandana shouldn’t have raised suspicion, especially considering that media reports advised people to carry these items with them to protests. “Police could have used much more discretion in this regard.” Either police didn’t understand the laws surrounding stop and search, or they chose to disregard them.

Voice: Nick Wright was stopped, searched and arrested for wearing a “disguise” on his bicycle on Bloor St. W. near Avenue Rd. on Sunday, June 27. He was simply wearing a neck scarf and filed a complaint. The OIPRD investigator did an excellent job, he said, “however, my impression through this complaint is that they’re also very conservative in their approach and, in some instances, perhaps overly conservative in only making statements that can be backed up 100 per cent.”

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THE DETENTION CENTRE

When: Saturday, June 26, to Sunday, June 27

What happened: Nearly 900 people were contained at the Prisoner Processing Centre in Toronto’s east end during G20 weekend. In the aftermath of the summit, many accounts emerged about inhumane conditions in the makeshift jail in an unused film studio on Eastern Ave. — including overcrowding, open toilets, routine strip searches and limited access to food, water or legal counsel.

What the report found: Procedural training was “minimal to non-existent” for regular staff and senior officers, which left them unable to deal with the sudden influx of prisoners Saturday night. “The gaps in the overall plan are obvious, and they were brought forward to senior management in advance of the G20 weekend,” the report stated. There was no policy or procedure for prisoners to speak with a lawyer or have access to a telephone. And there was no process in place for release. Arrest cards were frequently not filled out by arresting officers, causing serious problems in processing prisoners when they arrived, as well as in investigating the reasons for their arrest and detention.

Voice: Swathi Sekhar was arrested and held in the detention centre for 22 hours. “I personally also went through the OIPRD police complaints process, and for me it was kind of farcical . . . I received a response to my complaint and it was just basically that it was my word against the cops.”

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/torontog20summit/article/1179629--g20-policing-the-major-incidents?bn=1