Police Kettling puts protesters lives at risk – is false imprisonment

The cop who said no to ‘kettling’
23 May, 2012 – Toronto – thestar.com

Amid the deluge of stories over the past two years recounting G20 police abuses, the efforts of good officers — those who kept a moral compass firmly pointed under trying circumstances — have largely gone unheralded.

The OIPRD has identified at least one: Staff Sgt. Bradley Thompson of the Ontario Provincial Police.

The 26-year veteran said he was led to believe there would be no kettling at the G20.

But when Thompson — a unit commander during the summit — and his 40-officer team were called to Spadina Ave. and Queen St. W. that notorious Sunday in June 2010, they found hundreds of people boxed inside police lines.

In a witness statement he gave to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), Thompson said that as the rain poured down, he observed people of all states of dress who were pale and shaking, appearing “sad” and “dumfounded.”

An OIPRD investigative report into the kettling incident paraphrases Thompson as saying the people inside “couldn’t believe that the police could be so ‘inhumane’ to hold them in the intersection and not allow them to use a washroom or get shelter or a coat.”

Thompson soon saw people he said were in “bad shape” — among them, two shivering 12-year-old girls. He decided it wasn’t healthy for the girls to stay there, and opted to release them “quietly.”

The report, along with others released by the police complaint’s watchdog last week, offers, for the first time, on-the-ground accounts from frontline officers. The arm’s-length agency, unlike others probing the G20, has the power to compel officers to speak.

Because there are ongoing hearings under the Police Services Act, OPP spokeswoman Cathy Bell said Tuesday that Thompson was not able to comment. …more