Toronto Police Babak Andalib-Goortani charged G20 assault UPDATE

by dandmb50 | December 22, 2010 at 04:36 pm

638 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

UPDATE - February 3/2011
Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani has been charged a second time for an alleged assault on a citizen from the G20 summit in June 2010. The full story can be read HERE in the Globe and Mail. This is the account of blogger Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy for Torontoist when she filed here complaint with the authorities, at the time she did not know who the officer was that injured her.

Toronto - December 22/2010 - The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of Ontario just laid charges against Babak Andalib-Goortani (of 31 division traffic detail) a Toronto Police Service (TPS) officer for assault with a weapon on Adam Nobody at the G20 summit in Toronto in June 2010.

His actions were captured on a YouTube video during the summit and just recently released to the Toronto Star (Canada's largest newspaper) and it clearly showed his face but his nametag (badge) had been removed so it was difficult to identify him. He along with other officers are alleged to have beaten Mr. Nobody for no apparent reason and alleged that he had a weapon and was later denounced by Police Chief Bill Blair. In a recently released statement from the SIU they said, "There are reasonable grounds to believe that an officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the arrest of Adam Nobody on June 26th," said SIU director Ian Scott. Chief Blair had also claimed when the video was released that his "forensic people had checked it and found it to be doctored, and was significantly tampered with and fabricated." which he later retracted and gave a full apology to Mr. Nobody. Mr Nobody alleges the officers attacked and beat him and broke his nose and cheekbone and then plain clothes officers took him behind a police van outside the scope of public cameras and beat him again, but no accounts of this beating have been confirmed. Officer Andalib-Goortani was also not wearing his nametag during the alleged assault nor was he wearing it when a Global TV crew from Toronto approached him during the events near the 15 foot security fence downtown. Global-Toronto has a video of an interview he had with the reporter and cameraman with gas masks and was told "they are not allowed" and yet the police had them hanging from the sides of their uniforms. The reporters only had them because their employers provided them and they were confiscating masks from protesters and media. It's not clear why the police were allowed to have them and not citizens.

It was not the protesters who were setting off tear gas, it was clearly the police who shot tear gas near the temporary Detention Centre, dubbed "Torontonomo Bay" by the protesters where over 1000 people were held and then released without charges. Less than 100 people are still facing any charges. The investigation by the SIU was considered over, a few weeks ago but was reopened once the video surfaced and now they say the same thing, in regard to whether the Adam Nobody case is closed. SIU spokesman Frank Phillips said, "at this point, yes. But this time is the same as the last time. If we get new material evidence then the investigation could be reopened." It appears that this whole G20 investigation is far from over and it is unknown whether Andalib-Goortani will turn states witness and identify the other officers responsible for this terrible act. He will attend court on the charges on Jan 24/2011 at College Park courts in Toronto.

UPDATE - December 23/2010 - Isn't it strange that the TPS has several officers asking for input from the public to send in photos and videos of any alleged assaults from the protesters, and yet when they have been looking through these videos and pictures the police never identified the police assaulting the citizens?
Well in fairness, another citizen group did the same thing and their purpose was to identify police officers they felt were abusing the public. They have pics on their site of officers, like the "crazy lady" who has yet to be identified and you can still go there and help find these bad cops who overstepped their authority.

Comments are closed here but you can still make any comments on my main website CLICK HERE to leave a comment, and what you think.

It can be found HERE ... http://G20justice.com
It's the G20 "most wanted cop list of those assaulting the citizens, why did the police not identify their own? One other quick note, as I was looking through my old pictures after the nametag issue surfaced, I noticed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had their ID numbers in large print on the front of their helmets, no Velcro strips that could be taken off at will? Huh ...

If the comments section here is closed, you can always comment on my Opera BLOG by CLICKING HERE and making your comment on any story.

Daniel .. Toronto, CANADA

My take on everything