It's in the Sun but ....

[Little Stinker]

.....definitely worth acknowledgment in this Forum for the Toronto Police and all other Departments of Toronto that were involved. They are the best!!

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From the Toronto Sun
24th October, 2011
by: Joe Warmington.

TORONTO - Toronto Police tried like hell to not arrest anybody.

The only people who had it happen to them, wanted it and held out for it.

In the end, it was just 11 — and all were released.

Meanwhile, what a performance by Toronto’s finest. With the dismantling of Occupy Toronto in St. James Park what we witnessed Wednesday was policing perfection.

Skilled, patient, calm, disciplined and smart.

Nothing short of brilliant!

No pepper spray, no strip searches, no rights violated, no detentions, no treacherous restraining, no hidden name tags, no excessive force, no unnecessary escalation.

And no trips to the hospital.

That, folks, is how they do that!

They used their humour, their brains, their talent and their experience. They turned blind a eye, ignored abusive protesters and showed tremendous restraint and discretion.

They used reasoning and were reasonable. They worked with people in the movement who were willing to help solve issues and used communication and being part of the community to avoid potential catastrophe and injury through misadventure.

There were hundreds of times where they would have had every right to lose their collective or individual cool.

They never did,

On the contrary, they gained a lot of respect from the public and protesters alike. There were in control and never lost control.

“They were outstanding,” said Occupy protester Ian Smart. “We must acknowledge it because we would certainly point it out if they had not been.”

There are too many coppers to name but here are some of the senior officers who put on a public order disbursement clinic Wednesday: Staff-Sgt. Rob Knapper, Sgt. Michael Paul Facoetti, Insp. Gary Meissner, Staff-Insp. Neil Corrigan, Insp. Joanna Beaven-Desjardins and Staff-Insp. Bill Neadle.

Take a bow.

Chief Bill Blair must be proud because it was some performance by all of them and the men and women they lead.

Stunning.

In fact there will be police services around the world, and, of course, in other Occupy protest cities, studying how this was done.

This pat on the back also includes many of the Occupy Toronto leadership including Brandon, Trey and Sarah.

And let’s not forget the City of Toronto sanitation and parks people. They had a big job to do, under difficult circumstances, and they came through huge. By sundown, they had managed to clean everything out of the park. It was no easy task.

Make no mistake, this operation had all the potential to go horribly wrong. All the elements were there for disaster. It was cold, it was wet, it was slippery, it was muddy, there was a raging campfire lit, there were mental health and drug addiction issues, there were raw emotions and outside agitators hoping for a disastrous end that could be broadcast around the world.

Toronto Police had other ideas of how an Occupy movement should be handled and displayed just that Wednesday.

True there may not be a highlight reel from this event. But there will be no call for inquiries, no second guessing and no criticism either.

[grenadier]

Looks like they learned a lesson from the G20 which was a disaster.
They let things run wild the first day, and overreacted on day 2.
Well done this time.