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Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

How Many Cops Does It Take to Write a Jaywalking Ticket?

Typically, one – but during the G20, with heightened security turning Toronto into “Torontonomo Bay”, it takes ten.

We were sitting on the patio at The Rhino (Queen Street West, west of Dufferin) when a guy started calling out to the patio-dwellers, announcing that 4 cops were writing him a jaywalking ticket:

01 g20 cops

One of his friends was wearing an Anti-Flag t-shirt, another wore a t-shirt with the words “Action Now” and another was wearing an anarchist-themed T-shirt. They looked like the protester type, which probably drew the cops’ attention.

He committed Big Mistake Number One: he got a call-and-response going with the bar patrons on the patio: “What do we say to the cops?” “FUCK YOU!

02 g20 cops

At this point, the cops started getting on their cellphones and called for backup (a particularly interesting thing to see, having just come from a conference on the iPhone):

03 g20 cops

The backup came remarkably quickly. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before 6 more bicycle cops arrived to form a phalanx around the jaywalker and his cohort.

04 g20 cops

Take a close look at the panniers on the back of the cops’ bikes: those are riot helmets. These guys are ready for some serious G20 hellzapoppin’ action. So this is what a billion dollars’ worth of security investment buys you:

05 g20 cops

In the end, the cops showed great restraint, considering the circumstances and the high emotions, letting our young anarchist friend off with a ticket.

You’ll probably see a lot more photos of this incident. A number of people and passers-by, upon seeing the commotion, whipped out cellphones and cameras and shot still photos and video.

Welcome to Torontonomo Bay!

24 replies on “How Many Cops Does It Take to Write a Jaywalking Ticket?”

The businesses on queen street west should complain about this, who wants to go downtown if all you are going to get from it is jaywalking tickets? The crosswalks are slow and far between, not to mention that cars are allowed to do left turns and U-turns but for some reason those of us blessed with legs get ticketed for using them.

P.S. Did all of the police bikes have bells, that’s an $80 fine?

Why is it considered ‘great restraint’ to let a jaywalker off with a ticket for jaywalking?

@Colin- that’s because the UK populace surrendered its civil liberties a long time ago. We’re not quite such an intrusive police state here yet, though really, the only thing separating us from fascism is the willingness to spend $1billion a month on security forces.

Bottom line, any police force which can’t stand the light of public scrutiny is not a police force, it’s an occupying power.

is that syed hussan from the toronto community mobilization network? pretty sure i saw him do an interview in that shirt today. cheers to him!

Didn’t his mother teach him to look both ways to check for police hoards before jaywalking across the street? For shame!

I showed up right at the tail end of this.

— There were more than 10 police officers on bikes, there were quite a few more just a little bit on the west side of these pictures. I didn’t count, but I would say there were at least 15 officers. I didn’t notice any police cruisers, just bike cops.

— I think that the cops showed restraint in not arresting the man in question for attempting to incite a riot, as he was shouting to the crowd as detailed above.

— A previous incident last week shows how a jaywalking ticket can quickly get out of hand: http://gawker.com/5564653/cop-punches-17+year+old-girl-in-head-at-jaywalking-stop

— When the cops left the scene, many people who were sitting at the patio started applauding (presumably because the cops left, not because they supported the cops).

Overall, it was an interesting scenario – a possible preview into what we can expect this weekend.

I believe that the Toronto Police will do what they can to protect the rights of everyone, both protesters and average citizens. It’s unfortunate that often time protesters can resort to violence as a way of demonstrating their points. When that happens, the police should be involved to protect the interests of the non-protesters.

@Kevin
I wouldn’t say that the “populace surrendered its civil liberties”.
They were taken without consent and the laws which took them have been fought against then and now. Example: the near-total defeat of the ID-cards scheme.

What do we say to the cops?
“I’m a hipster schmuck that still thinks the Rhino is cool!”

This is really pathetic.

I’m finding many of these cops are inciting more unrest than preventing it. Yesterday I was nearly run over by a vanful of cops – they were honking their horn all the way down young street, and nearly ran myself and a few other pedestrians over while turning right. They seemingly had no patience or understanding of pedestrians whatsoever. They continued there joyous journey along King Street honking at pedestrians loading onto a streetcar.

These imported cops need to understand they are here to protect us and our city – our way of life. It is not there job to turn our city into a police state, and crack down on the simplest of quasi crimes.

Per Andrew’s comment, that is Hussan from the TCMN, and it’s no surprise that would be his response, given that police have taken to overzealous pre-protest arrests of key organizers in the past (see Jaggi Singh’s arrest in Quebec City in 2001).

Why did he starty yelling he was getting a ticket for jaywalking? Was him mommy nearby?

Rules are rules, Marxists, anarchists need to held accountable if they break the law!

He can fight the ticket in the court or pay the fine.

One of these things is not like the other
One of these things just isn’t the same
So let’s find this thing and take it out and burn it
Because it’s a threat to our way of life
(lights up virtual copy of Blogging Tories)

My God… it’s police officers like this that constantly give police officers a bad name.

This is another of those stories that it’s not fun to hear while people are rightfully upset about the $1 billion price tag for this kind of “security.” The security may be necessary. But schools of officers on bicycles giving out jaywalking tickets? You have GOT to to kidding me…

First of, the story told by our little friend here is WRONG! I am one of the FOUR people that got a ticket, Hussan was not one of the others.

Second, the PIGS openly admitted that the only reason they went out of their pathetic little way to give us the tickets was because we don’t let them on our property. Doesn’t that sound fascist.

Third, we crossed the street because the four original pigs were HARRASSING!!!! a single activist, so typically, like the brother and sisterhood that Anarchists, Marxists and etc seem to have unlike you GREEDY capitalists we went to make sure that everything was OK and that they didn’t drag him off in an unmarked van. Which not so shokingly sounds a little like Nazi Germany’s GESTAPO!

The reason why Hussan was yelling out to the bar was to raise awarness to the situation. If the person who wrote this article was actually LISTENING, he would have known at least a few of these facts.

I am glad the people clapped, at least it shows that some people like to think with their brains and not with their wallets.

FUCK THE G8 AND G20!!!!

Oh and I forgot to mention that the pigs were on their cellphones so that they could call in and see if we have any outstanding warrants.

Mitch: I was LISTENING, but over the DIN of the PATIO and the GENERAL HUBBUB of your SITUATION, it was quite easy to get the DETAILS wrong (okay, gratuitous capitalization ends NOW).

But seriously: although I’m a capitalist, I’m on your side and believe that the cops were in the wrong, which is why I posted this article in the first place: to bear witness to what happened. This blog gets 5,000 pageviews a day, so the exposure should get your story out.

Welcome to my comments section!

Now you know why what happened over the weekend happened.

The sense of entitlement by the highest-paid police force in the world. If Harper really is such an evil genius that he can control the union that insisted Toronto needed this type of policing, why doesn’t this guy have a majority in Parliament? Anyone who can control the Toronto cops can control the rest of the country.

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