Wednesday 30 June 2010

G20 Toronto - "a clear order from the command centre saying 'Do not engage'

We know now that the vandalism on Sat. June 26th in downtown Toronto could have easily been stopped.
We also know now that the police were ordered to let it happen.
... As downtown Toronto witnessed burning police cars and a small group of thugs on a rampage, a police source tells me the only thing that stopped the officers from doing that was an order telling them not to. They tell me they could have rounded up all, or most of them, in no time.

I have had several frontline police officers tell me they were told not to get involved. But even before that decision was made, says one insider, there was mass confusion and indecision.

"The orders went from engage to, no, don't engage to engage to, no, don't engage,' " said an officer. "It was an absolute shambles. Everyone was talking over each other on the radio. Nobody seemed to know what to do. It was just a mess."

The officer said that eventually there was "a clear order from the command centre saying 'Do not engage' "
...
So who made that order?

Was it Chief Bill Blair? Mayor David Miller? Prime Minister Stephen Harper? Somebody else?

The inevitable inquiry, separate from the announced internal police review, will have to address this and a whole lot of other things. For example, why were a record 1,000 arrests made a day after the actual incident where very few arrests were made during it?...


More news, videos, first-hand evidence on this issue at these two posts:

June 27 - G20 Protest in Toronto - Police stood by and did nothing while damage was being done

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