Toronto Broad

Patio Chairs

// July 21st, 2007 // No Comments » // Neighbourhoods

Water is not an issue on a rainy day down in Dundas Square. While the rest of the city has been waiting for rain, we manage to keep the water running all the time, rain or shine in downtown Toronto.

Abuse of Power by Bicycle Cop in Toronto

// July 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // Events

I’m downtown for four days on a course from work. The course is great and I’m having a great time and taking my little camera with me every day to roam the streets at lunch time and get any shots of Toronto.

However, today while I was out at lunch, eating my sandwich and looking for things I wanted to take pictures of, I had a little run in with the police.

I saw this really skinny guy sitting on Yonge Street close to the Hard Rock Cafe and decided to take his picture. He was there drawing caricatures and a bicycle police woman was talking to him. I assume she was telling him to move along since the guy was getting up, but I didn’t overhear their conversation.

So I took a picture of the guy and walked away. The bicycle cop yelled out “AY, are you seriously taking a picture?”. I ignored her. She yells out again, “AY! Come here!” and I turn around and walk back. She yells at me, “Are you seriously taking a picture!” to which I respond, “no I’m pretend taking a picture”… stupid question.

She asked my name, and I closed my camera and walked away. At that she yelled at me, “You’re some fucking piece of work”.

I wandered down the street, eating the other half of my sandwich and taking some more pictures in downtown Toronto. All of a sudden a bike drove up off the street and stopped right in front of me. Guess what? It was the same bicycle cop stopped in front of me saying that, “You’re crazy”, “are you crazy?” I presume she had then finished doing whatever she was doing with the skinny guy and decided to come after me.

I tried to walk around the bicycle but she just kept moving the bike to prevent me from getting around it. And each time she moved the bike she managed to hit my camera with her handlebars. I told her to “stop knocking the camera” and I grabbed the handlebars of her bike to prevent it.

She said, “that was pretty rude wasn’t it, to walk away from a police officer? Then she asked two people behind me, while she was telling them that I’m crazy. I looked behind me and now there were two more male police officers joining us. They were asking what the problem was.

She asked “isn’t it rude to be taking a picture of this homeless guy?” I said, “there’s no law against me taking pictures”. She asked my name and I told her it was “none of her business what my name is”.

She went on about the ‘rudeness’ and the other cop started talking about how rude it is to take a picture of the homeless guy. I said I had no idea whether he was homeless or not homesless, he was a guy on the street drawing caricatures and there was nothing illegal about me taking his picture. It was agreed by the police that it wasn’t ‘against the law’ for me to take pictures but it was ‘very rude’. I guess these cops were the courtesy monitors for the city.

The female cop asked where I was from and I said, “Toronto”. She said, “you’re from Toronto and you’ve never seen a homeless guy before?” I said “I’ve seen lots of them”.

The black cop then asked me, “Why are you so hostile?” to which I responded, “I’m not hostile, I’m walking down the street, eating my lunch and taking pictures, it’s what I do. I don’t know whether the guy is homeless or not, he’s sitting on the street drawing caricatures, but it doesn’t matter anyway, it’s not illegal for me to take pictures”. I said, pointing at the female cop, “she’s the one who’s hostile, screaming, ‘AY’ and barking at me and then telling me ‘I’m a fucking piece of work’ because I took a picture.

The female and the black cop asked me if I was a journalist, to which I said, “no, but I will be writing about this on my website”. The male asked me what my website was and I just ignored the question because I wasn’t about to tell them.

The female then asked me where I work and I said, “Markham”. She said, “what are you doing downtown? It’s pretty strange to be coming all the way downtown for lunch isn’t it?” I said, “no, it’s not”. She demanded, “where do you work?”, and I said “it’s none of your business where I work. I’m on a course downtown and I’m walking around taking pictures on my lunch, it’s what I do and there’s nothing illegal about it”.

Again I got to hear about how rude it was for me to take pictures of a 75-pound homeless guy. She then asked me how I’d like it if I was 75 pounds and someone was taking my picture, but then she said, “oh, well I guess you don’t have to worry about that”, I assume trying to insult me or imply that I was fat and that I would never be 75 pounds.

I don’t remember how it ended except that I started to walk the other way back up the street towards my course since they had wasted so much of my time, and the female cop says, “weren’t you walking that way, aren’t you going the wrong way?” to which I said, “well, now I’m walking this way”. And I walked back up towards where my course was being held without offering her my itinerary for the day.

I tried to get a picture of her but the two male cops kept standing in the way… covering her and at the same time with their backs to me so that I couldn’t get a picture. However, she (and they) are easily recognizable to me.

I wanted to say to her that, “it’s no wonder you’re not married” (I’m assuming she’s not, or if she is, I doubt it will be for long) just because I wanted to insult her too after she’d insulted me and with an attitude like hers, I don’t imagine anyone could stand being around her for long.

But, in conclusion, it seems that this is what our tax dollars are paying for… abuse by power-tripping 20-something female bicycling cops. Cops who call in two back-up male cops because they were probably abusing their power (with the homeless guy) and thought that you’d gotten a picture of it.

Really, is that what this was all about? The bicyclist was afraid that I’d caught her on film doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing? I assume she was doing something wrong since she was doing something wrong to me – why else would they be concerned that I might be a journalist? Are my tax dollars paying for someone to insult me? To harass me because I’m taking pictures? I guess there are no criminals to be caught.

And how do cops like this remain on the force? They get two back-up cops to come to their aid and they try to persuade them that ‘this person is crazy’. However, I wasn’t doing anything crazy, illegal or suspect, and I wasn’t even hostile to anyone while all this was going on.

I was just a 50-year-old woman walking down the street, eating her sandwich and taking pictures of things in Toronto. And this was an example of Toronto’s finest. Be scared. Be very, very scared, just like everyone to whom I’ve already told this story.

LG

// July 17th, 2007 // No Comments » // Neighbourhoods

I’m on a four-day course this week downtown, so naturally I’m going to take pictures of anything and everything around me.