Cop gets charged with second beat down

[Paul F]

http://www.thestar.com/news/torontog20summit/article/932020--police-officer-charged-with-second-assault-at-g20?bn=1

Not only should this douche be fired but charged and jailed for a nice long time.

Tboy do we agree?

 

[VICKI C]

You know I'm about as pro police as it gets so I'll have to wait and read the facts before I pass judgment.

 

[Bad Example]

I'm usually pro police too but this officer I believe slipped through the cracks. The photo really paints him with a very ugly brush.

 

[1234]

Pictures don't always tell the story Donald.

 

[sofeinurbizness]

I have to say wait for the facts to come out before you get out the lynching rope.

 

[Paradise Regained]

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mike_strobel/2011/02/05/17168691.html

On the right is the image most of you have of last summer’s G20 summit downtown: A cop whacks a woman who looks like your granola-fed cousin Miriam. The photo on the left shows a cop risking his neck to rescue an elderly man from the raging floodwaters of Black Creek in June 2008.
Different summers. Different circumstances.

Same cop.

So now tell me what you think of police officers — and this one in particular. Nothing is ever black and white, pardon the cliche, even in photography. Unless you are dead or a glue-sniffing anarchist, you know Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani, 30, is charged with assaulting protester Adam Nobody and a woman during the G20 schmozzle. A court will decide who did what. But that photo and a web-full of others have not exactly helped folks feel warm and fuzzy about the fuzz.

Something shifted on the weekend of the G20. Only a cop groupie would call it a shining moment for the Toronto Police Service. I have a soft spot for coppers, but they blundered. They should have clobbered those black-clad anarchists and left the peaceful protesters alone. They — and I mean the brass — got it ass backwards. The result? Aside from a few bumps, bruises and trampled rights?
An uneasy feeling between a big city and its boys in blue.

We’re like a long-married couple trying to patch things up after a bout of infidelity. It ain’t easy. Cellphones and YouTube spy on anyone in uniform, just ask the TTC. And the Internet is a vessel for vitriol. Hence this up-and-down ride with our cops. There have been minor bumps — we winced about the cop who threatened to Taser two prisoners in the testicles. But mostly it was the G20.
And then the tragedy of Sgt. Ryan Russell, killed by a stolen snowplow.

If you could read his widow’s letter of thanks and tribute in Saturday’s Sun without a tear, then you are stronger than me. Cynics, including me, wondered if the pomp and ceremony that followed Sgt. Russell’s death was an over-the-top bid by the brass to erase the images of G20.
But it wasn’t. No one forced the citizenry of Toronto to line the streets in sorrow or flood the Internet with condolences. It was a natural rebalancing, the kind any relationship goes through. Balance.

Which brings us back to these photos. On June 23, 2008, Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani, of 31 Division, was the first officer into sprawling Downsview Dells park near Sheppard Ave. and Jane St. after a big thunderstorm. He helped a couple out of a car swamped by Black Creek, which had spilled its banks. Then he parked his cruiser on high ground and joined Sun photographer Dave Thomas in his big 4X4. They drove deeper into the park, until they heard cries in Italian coming from inside a public washroom.

“The water was deep,” remembers Thomas, “but, worse, it was moving really fast.” Andalib-Goortani waded in, using Thomas’ camera mono-pod for balance. He hoisted the Italian man on his shoulder, but the current caught them and they fell. The cop splashed about until he’d regained his hold and carried the guy to safety. “I was impressed,” says Thomas, who is not easily impressed.

“He was risking his life. That water was freezing and the current was racing back toward Black Creek. If they’d gone in the creek, they’d have drowned. ”Thomas took down the cop’s name, but had long forgotten it by the G20. My colleague, “Eagle-eye” Irene, made the connection while searching our archives. “The images are very stark in contrast, that’s for sure,” says Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association. “They’re the yin and the yang.

“They show you can’t judge by one picture. Everything is grey in life. “On one hand, we go out and save people and put our lives on the line (and) other times we’re arresting people in physically dynamic situations. “It’s hard to understand from one picture the entirety of what happened.”
And public perception? “I think, in Toronto, the public has a good understanding of the job we do. They realize we’re not perfect. There are times when criticism is due, and we’ll take it.

“All we ask for is due process. ”That will deal with Const. Andalib-Goortani, one way or t’other.
Back in 2008, nobody got the name of the man rescued from the flood. If you recognize him, let me know. I’d like to ask him what he thinks of cops.

 

[Foxy]

Not sure what to think now.

 

[Janelle]

I have to agree based on the other pic he seems to be a good guy who more than likely lost his cool during the G20 and wasn't thinking straight. Everyone makes mistakes especially if they are having a bad day or who knows what happened to him from other protesters. When I posted the thread I called for his firing but maybe I over reacted and I am big enough to admit it.

 

[quakiss]

Did he lose his cool or was he provoked?

Maybe he was punched, kicked,spit on or had something thrown on him.

Now I'm just speculating here but like I said before it's best to wait and hear all of the facts before condemnation.

One thing we do know is that he is capable of extreme bravery in the line of duty and that alone tells me that he deserves the right of due process and for people to keep an open mind and not prejudge him.

 

[AchatCialis]

Or maybe he was an unsophisticated cop who believed a little too much in "cop-think" - i.e. that there are the "good people" who deserved his help. The old folks, simple folks and kids who always smiled at him and made him feel good when he helped them.

And the bad folks. The "bad citizens" who didn't respect the flag and law and order and who called him a pig. And that the "bad folks" deserved to get a bashing over.

You can train them and send them to seminars, but some cops still can't see past the stereotypes. The black and white view of the world that makes them great officers in some circumstances make them assholes and bullies in others.

 

[sortma5ivci]

What I hate about photos and "gotcha" videos is that they never tell the whole story.
Its part of the reason why I personally try to avoid coming to firm conclusions until I have heard the whole story.