G20 aftermath: it’s rough being a cop in Toronto this summer
We’ve spent a bunch of time and pixels blogging about how the city has recovered (or not) from the G20—and no, Vancouver, they’re not the same thing—but perhaps we’ve missed something in all the soul-searching and finger-pointing: it’s been a lousy time to be a cop in Toronto.
“It’s become embarrassing to say you’re a Toronto cop,” said one of several officers who recently spoke to the Toronto Sun on condition of anonymity.
He said it has become a daily concern and many cops are many are fed up with being “the whipping boys” for decisions they had no hand in making.
“Cops are leaving Toronto in droves,” he said, explaining many have either transferred to other forces, are in the process of doing so, or are getting out of policing.
He and others said a lot of strides had been made in improving community relations in recent years and their efforts were destroyed in one weekend.
We don’t doubt that it’s been a rough time for the police—between public suspicion of the force and the recurring spectre of officers being charged by the SIU, not to mention the regular work of doing a job that’s so stressful that we have to pay them handsomely to do it, we don’t need to be convinced that 2011 has been a bad year so far. Of course, if the police would like the city to take their side, maybe taking their stories public in some kind of inquiry is what’s called for, not just talking anonymously to friendly reporters. Or they could go with the blue wall status quo, but that doesn’t seem to be working for anyone right now.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/rough-being-a-cop/&title=G20 aftermath: it’s rough being a cop in Toronto this summer&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cops-on-bikes-624x413.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_74985" align="aligncenter" width="656" caption="(Image: csztova from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)"][/caption]
We’ve spent a bunch of time and pixels blogging about how the city has recovered (or not) from the G20—and no, Vancouver, they’re not the same thing—but perhaps we’ve missed something in all the soul-searching and finger-pointing: it’s been a lousy time to be a cop in Toronto.
According to the Toronto Sun:
“It’s become embarrassing to say you’re a Toronto cop,” said one of several officers who recently spoke to the Toronto Sun on condition of anonymity.
He said it has become a daily concern and many cops are many are fed up with being “the whipping boys” for decisions they had no hand in making.
“Cops are leaving Toronto in droves,” he said, explaining many have either transferred to other forces, are in the process of doing so, or are getting out of policing.
He and others said a lot of strides had been made in improving community relations in recent years and their efforts were destroyed in one weekend.
We don’t doubt that it’s been a rough time for the police—between public suspicion of the force and the recurring spectre of officers being charged by the SIU, not to mention the regular work of doing a job that’s so stressful that we have to pay them handsomely to do it, we don’t need to be convinced that 2011 has been a bad year so far. Of course, if the police would like the city to take their side, maybe taking their stories public in some kind of inquiry is what’s called for, not just talking anonymously to friendly reporters. Or they could go with the blue wall status quo, but that doesn’t seem to be working for anyone right now.
• Toronto cops G20 ‘whipping boys’ [Toronto Sun]){kind=link}
Toronto police earned their wrath from the public. The cops talk as if they weren’t part of the brutal apparatus that terrorized ordinary residents and legitimate protesters alike on that fateful weekend. If anyone was to blame for their collective actions, and for Chief Blair’s obstructive response afterwards, it is they. I actually had faith that the police would handle the matters much better from what I observed in the Tamil protests. But the G20 made me see the cops as swine.
Translation… “we were just following orders”