statism watch

March 2013
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police

Police in a state with a working justice system are by rights considered paragons, sworn to uphold just law and protect the rights of citizens. Under authoritarian regimes, they become thuggish enforcers and assassins. Canada now lies on a transition point between these opposite poles, and it would appear we’re headed in the wrong direction – as new prisons are built, as TASERs are increasingly deployed to front-line officers that have not proven themselves above torture, as old couples are beaten at the border for asking questions. While undoubtedly most interactions with Canadians are within the desired frame, while most officers are courteous and professional, there is a shift in weapons and tactics that is being simultaneously undertaken in Canada, The UK, The US, and elsewhere.

Smoking Guns — Suggested Reading

The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain

Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands

Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation

Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises

Safety report author Falconer on armed police in schools: “Facile”

RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day

Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion

Archive (Most recent headlines first)

2010

Civilian body, SIU to probe G20 role of police | G20 police ripped off amputee’s prosthetic limb, told him to walk before dragging him off | Release G20 ‘political prisoners’: rights groups | Canada Day: 2,000 protest G20 summit arrests | Civil liberties association to sue police on behalf of G20 arrestees | Police accused of displaying fake G20 weapons | Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Collingwood man dies after being tasered by police in group home | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Toronto no longer feels like home | Police stop car containing ‘weapons’ near G20 summit | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Police TASER Grandmother in Bed | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | Peel cop guilty in fake cocaine case | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Soldiers and secret police: Some in Huntsville ‘getting nervous’ over G8 | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Real IRA plot accused entrapped by MI5 rules judge | Special prosecutor named as inquiry blasts ’shameful’ Dziekanski Tasering | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Air India report: American-style security czar needed to end agency turf wars | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | New RCMP watchdog on a short leash: critics | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | New RCMP watchdog to have more tools to check complaints about force | RCMP to get new oversight agency | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | The drug sting that stung a cop | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | World Cup: Street kids rounded up and run out of town | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | RCMP launches investigation into five officers after in-custody death | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Toronto family blames police for son’s death, demands probe | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Halifax G8 protester charged with assault | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Black Montreal teacher alleges police abuse | Former Toronto drug squad officers must face trial after all, top court rules | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Nine charged after marijuana compassion club raided | Taser use by Montreal police focus of hearings | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Interpol heads to World Cup in record numbers | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | Victoria police investigate their own in assault posted on YouTube | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Ontario stun gun review complete: report | Montreal police accused of protest sabotage | 100 arrested at anti police brutality march in Montreal | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK’s anti-racism activists | Tories revive random roadside breath test | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | Croissant causes downtown St. Petersburg terror evacuation | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | UK: Former Met police detective facing jail over cocaine smuggling plot | Feared police crackdown absent during Games | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | RCMP needs broader overhaul, more cameras, Senate group says | UK photographer films his own ‘anti-terror’ arrest | The truth about the Mossad | N.Y.C.’s former top cop sentenced for felonies | RCMP to test Taser cameras | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest — without airspace clearance | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | RCMP complaints to get ‘independent’ probes | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Ont. top cop pushed for charges against protester | Let the Olympic surveillance begin | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Police beat 18-year-old violinist over phantom Mountain Dew bottle | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case | New RCMP watchdog is toothless | ‘Toronto 18ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â² accused involved in bomb plot through RCMP agent, defence says | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones |UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Vancouver police apologize after wrong man beaten by plainclothes officers | FBI ‘fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records’ | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | Walkom: Mole crucial to terror trial | RCMP hasn’t closed book on missing potential explosive as Olympics loom | RCMP ends search — and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | No need for OPP head to take leave whilst being investigated for criminal charges: McGuinty | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | Wiebo Ludwig arrested ‘to protect public’: RCMP goes fishing in pipeline bombing case | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit