Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Ass on the Way Out

So, Tony Warr is retiring. I'd never heard of him before today. He's Toronto's Deputy Police Chief. Given the fact that he's retiring, it doesn't seem likely that I'll ever hear about him again. Which will be a good thing:

The public and media overreacted to events during the G20 summit, and police should hold their heads high, says a man directly involved in planning the police response to last summer’s tumult in downtown Toronto.

“The whole service is being condemned for the actions of maybe a few,” retiring Deputy Chief Tony Warr, 63, told the Star in one of the most outspoken defences of Toronto police actions from a commanding officer.

Warr said the priority was to protect world leaders and the stakes were high because of possible terrorist threats.

That interview is choc-a-block with absurd statements like that!

“There was a lot of good work done,” Warr said. “Inside the wall, it was like nothing happened,” he said. “That was what the government wanted, and that is what the government asked us to do and we did it.”

Yes. And, obviously, you have to charge families with police horses at Queen's Park and rip the prosthetic leg off of a man in Allen Gardens and make him hop, in order to protect some politicians behind a security fence inside the Convention Centre, right?

Warr, who retires at the end of this month after 45 years in policing, admitted police made mistakes and will learn lessons. However, he said there “seems to be a campaign by the media to keep this alive.”

Well, you know, the wholesale shredding of civil rights in Canada's largest city is kinda an important thing. Given where you work though, I guess it's not surprising that you can't process that.

Warr said he doesn’t want to second-guess officers for rounding up 1,100 people in the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history. ... “The officers (in Toronto) felt they had grounds to do it, and they did it,” Warr said brusquely.

I really get a kick out of thugs who talk that way. Imagine if Warr found himself with a house destroyed by a malicious electrician, or a loved one killed by an incompetent surgeon, or a life ruined by a vindictive politician, and the authorities simply said that what was done, is done and there were probably good reasons for it, so STFU.

In fact, Warr's whole "defence" is long on brazen defiance and short on actual explanations (aside from self-evidently idiotic things such as the brutality at Queen's Park and Queen and Spadina was necessary to protect people a dozen blocks away.

Warr also made no apologies for the horrid conditions at the temporary detention centre on Eastern Ave., which was criticized for being overcrowded and having limited toilet facilities.

“People complained about the conditions there, but what did they expect when they get arrested? They’re not going to be taken to the Hilton. Jail is not a nice place,” the outgoing deputy said.

Moron. There are rules and regulations governing how you treat people when you deprive them of their freedom. And, furthermore, most of those people didn't even EXPECT to get arrested, what with their just being bystanders, tourists, or people on their way to work. It was the moronic arresting of over one-thousand people (in the faint hope that some of them were Black Bloc) that produced the over-crowding. It was a police screw-up from start to finish, and someone should be held accountable.

There's that word again: "Accountable." It's funny isn't it? That the people who bray the loudest about accountability have the greatest problem adhering to that principle themselves?

Warr allowed that the rioting, which included looting and the burning of four police cars, was bad “but not that bad.” He added that nobody died and nobody was seriously injured.

“I’ve seen worse reactions to a hockey game in Montreal (in April 2008). St. Catherine Street was destroyed. There were 16 police cars burned that night.”

So, why go ape-shit and arrest one-thousand people then? Moron. (BTW: Canadian Civil Liberties Association lawyer Natalie Des Rosiers asked pretty much the same thing in the article.)

“Some of the media reaction was just disgusting,” Warr argued, saying that live TV reporters on the scene were speculating that police cars were purposely abandoned to they could be burned. “Why would we do that? A $60,000 a car that we have to pay for?”

Oh, I don't know. One-billion dollars of tax dollars was sloshing around with very little accountability. I'm sure it all came out in the wash.

Warr said he prefers to talk about the officers who do the right thing.

“This is not a good time for the Toronto police,” he said. “They go home and think they’ve done a good job and they read the papers and all they see is criticism,” Warr said.

Whining. I was going to type something, but I think I'll just call it typical bully-boy whining and leave it at that.