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Toronto Police Service Reformation

It's not all bad though. I am very pleased to see the bicycle unit frequently roll through Cabbagetown through all weathers and seasons, plus the horse mounted unit in the summer months. Some of my family work in TDSB schools, and the community liaison officers work very well with both high school and elementary schools. Overall I'm very much an optimist, and thus want to build upon the good and reduce the bad in the TPS.
 
riffraff said:
That's just it - immediately reminded me of the Yatim case. Cops show up, make no attempt to determine what's going on before blasting him,
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Different details though. The courts say Yatim was justifiably shot down, but that the subsequent shots were unnecessary and therefore criminal.

A big issue I see is that we've released mentally ill people onto the streets, but the police aren't trained to deal with them. Not long before I came to Canada in the 1970s, insane people were forcibly institutionalised, not by the police, but by mental health workers who traveled the streets with padded trucks and straightjackets. Now the horror of Bedlam type incarceration has been replaced by unsupervised or unassisted Darwin-like freedom, the TPS is tasked with dealing with the result. I imagine many in the TPS wonder why it's up to them to deal with mentally ill folks run amok.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Different details though. The courts say Yatim was justifiably shot down, but that the subsequent shots were unnecessary and therefore criminal.

A big issue I see is that we've released mentally ill people onto the streets, but the police aren't trained to deal with them. Not long before I came to Canada in the 1970s, insane people were forcibly institutionalised, not by the police, but by mental health workers who traveled the streets with padded trucks and straightjackets.
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The Iacobucchi report dealt with the fallout from the Yatim shooting, TPS has claimed to have implemented "most" of the recommendations. The jury in the Forcillo case was presented with a new prosecution strategy, and like many juries it opted for a ""lesser" conviction probably to reach a consensus. A hung jury mistrial would have been the worst possible result. As McCormack railed it was the videos that "biased" the jury pool, and convicted a cop.

Just as a note, in the US recorders of bystander videos documenting police abuses are usually harassed by the cops and often charged with obstruct police and have to come up with heavy bail levies in order to avoid incarceration pre-trial.

As for hordes of mentally ill people roving the streets, that was an awful reality when patients were released from the "asylums" onto the streets because more appropriate facilities had been promised but only provided more recently. Andrew Loku lived in one of those "appropriate" facilities, was apparently well liked by the other residents, had rebuilt his life and maintained contact with his family abroad, and from what's been reported, he never even threatened anyone.

Lots of details are different but the similarities are striking = the actions of the police.

As for suspension with pay, that's not an abuse of the system, sadly its the way the system is designed to work. I wonder how long Brauti can stretch it out with appeals for Forcillo, and I wonder if there's any possibility of perjury charges for the other cops who gave evidence.
 
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riffraff said:
had rebuilt his life and maintained contact with his family abroad, and from what's been reported, he never even threatened anyone.
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Come on, let's be a honest here. He wasn't carrying that hammer for DIY repair, but to threaten and intimidate his neighbour(s) who in his mind were annoying him.

I'm not surprised that the actions of the police when faced with edge/blunt weapon armed mentally ill people are consistent. If you don't drop the weapon when ordered to do so, you're going to get shot or at least tazed if that's an immediate option.

For example, we have three mentally ill folks here with edged weapons that all for shot. No surprise, as the training says this is to occur http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2...eded_police_chief_tells_shooting_inquest.html
 
why is tazing not the first option though. Why are they not being trained taze first? Tazing after the person is shot seems the complete opposite idea of the weapon to begin with.
 
sixrings said:
why is tazing not the first option though. Why are they not being trained taze first?
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Because most frontline TPS officers do not have Tazers, but they all have Glocks. And besides, if someone is coming at you with a knife, you need to match deadly force with deadly force. Such as with Sylvia Klibingaitis chasing the police with a knife, you don't want the officer here going for his Taser by default.


However, in Yatim and almost all other mentally ill instances I've read off, de-esclation and tazering would seem the best method. Not that tasers don't kill, as Robert Dziekański's family knows.
 
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tiffer24 said:
A spike in the city murder rate and now this... life is good for the police union boss.

betsy powellVerified account‏@powellbetsy
"We see this is a great opportunity to get rid of this distraction," McCormack says of Sloly's decision to leave the TPS after 27 years.
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That distraction must be the bad apple they often refer to. Funny how it's easier to retire inconveniences than officers found guilty of broad breaches of the law.

AoD
 
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Videodrome said:
McCormack is a bully and loser who supports carding.
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Was he not charged with something years ago? He is the son of a former police of chief is he not? (if its the same McCormack that is). And then he gets elected union boss. Must be representative of those he represents.
 
Yes, and charges were dismissed (2004). Son of former Chief William McCormack. Has a brother, William Jr., charged with drug offences in 2009 but charges were dismissed as well.
 
Mayor Tory's comments:

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