Things keep getting better for Toronto police—now they’ve lost Rosie DiManno

Things keep getting better for Toronto police—now they’ve lost Rosie DiManno

(Image: Karon Liu)

When he issued an apology last Friday, Bill Blair probably hoped that he’d put the matter of “Adam Nobody vs. Many Police Batons” to rest. It seems to have not happened that way. Instead of closing their re-opened investigation, the province’s SIU is putting out new calls for witnesses seen in the most famous video of Nobody’s arrest. Apparently, the SIU is going to give Nobody’s case a closer second look. (Our wish, granted!) Even more interestingly, the Toronto Star’s Rosie DiManno has now run not one but two columns about how little she trusts Blair anymore.

On Sunday, DiManno made the excellent point that Blair and his officers, having embraced a code of silence, can hardly lecture the victims of gun crime about the same. Blair hasn’t exactly showed up in a Stop Snitchin t-shirt, but still. Today, DiManno got the chance to bring new evidence to the pages (and more usefully, Web site) of the Star:

The Toronto Star has come into possession of a new piece of videotape shot by a bystander that afternoon. It is 12 minutes and 20 seconds long—23 seconds of which capture a vicious cop pile-on, officers pounding on Nobody, a stage designer who changed his name two years ago from Adam Trombetta for the pun value.

This sequence is far more definitive and revealing of what happened in that incident than the disputed—by Blair, anyway—YouTube video scrutinized earlier by the Special Investigations Unit. The independent agency last week concluded it was unable to identify the officers involved and could therefore not lay charges.

The video can be seen here, and shows officers getting their shots in on Nobody while he’s apparently restrained and on the ground. Not only does it provide some extra details that weren’t available in the first video, but there’s also at least one good view of a police officer’s face, leading DiManno to rhetorically ask Blair, “what do you intend to do about it now, sir?”

It’s a bit early in the day yet, but maybe Blair could use a stiff drink and some meditation on how, exactly, he seems to have lost DiManno, a columnist who hasn’t always shown the same critical eye toward law enforcement.

A second look at G20 police assault [Toronto Star]
DiManno: G20 Youtube video a sorry affair indeed [Toronto Star]
SIU seeking more footage of G20 police beating [National Post]