Thursday, July 01, 2010

G20 : Cops avenge themselves on satirist

British filmmaker/satirist Charlie Veitch is here informed by police he is being arrested under the now thoroughly discredited "Public Works Protection Act" for failing to produce ID while being near a public work :



On Tuesday Police Chief Blair admitted that police didn't have any authority under that act to arrest someone for not showing identification within five metres of the fence, but meanwhile Veitch spends 40 horrible hours in the G20 pens specially constructed to detain dangerous comedians and other freedom loving people like himself for exactly that.

Veitch then releases to Youtube a conversation he filmed with a very literal-minded Paragon Security guy explaining why he can't produce ID back on June 24th :

Charlie: "We're from British Military Intelligence, I'm here with the metropolitan police...so it's all fully authorized at the highest levels...cause you know sometimes, have you heard what an Agent Provocateur is....

Security: "I have no ideas."

Charlie: "What it is, sometimes when there are big demonstrations - I can tell you this because you're security - they use fake protesters to cause trouble, and we're here to be those fake protesters. So it's fully authorized."

Security: "OK, I understand that, do you have a certification?"

Charlie: "No, we're not press, 'cause we're undercover, and if we carried ID around, we might get searched by protesters."
Two days ago Veitch is arrested again just as he is about to board a flight home to UK.
Toronto Police Service News Release :

On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, police arrested a man for impersonating a peace officer.
It is alleged that:
− on Thursday, June 24, 2010, the accused was filming the G20 Summit security fence area at Front Street/York Street,
− he was approached by a security officer and was requested to provide ID,
− he indicated that he was not carrying identification because he was working undercover as a peace officer,
− later a warrant was issued for his arrest by officers from the Toronto Police Service,
− the accused was about to board a plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport when he was arrested by officers from Peel Regional Police.

Charlie Veitch, 29, of England, has been charged with:

1) Impersonate a Peace Officer

We are treating this very very seriously," a Toronto police spokesninny told CTV repeatedly in an apparent effort to be taken seriously and win a role in Veitch's next satire.

Un-fucking-believable. They made up the second charge to cover their asses over wrongly arresting him the first time. If this is an example of the level of revenge intelligence gathering by the Toronto police, why not just let mall cops do it?

Down at the mall in the above vid, Charlie delivers some of his trademark advice to shoppers via a bullhorn : "You are not unique and beautiful snowflakes," he says. "Shop faster."
.
h/t Back of the Book
.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LAPD ordered to pay $1.7 million to reporters beaten at rally

By Daniel Tencer
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 -- 6:36 pm
Stumble This!

70
Share

27
diggs
digg


Three Los Angeles-area reporters who said they were physically assaulted by LAPD officers at a 2007 rally have won their day in court.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury has awarded one of the journalists, Fox camerawoman Patricia Ballaz, $1.7 million for lost earnings and medical expenses. Another reporter, NPR journalist Patricia Nazario, won $39,000 for medical and other expenses. The jury deadlocked on the award for a third reporter, Fox reporter Christina Gonzalez.

During court testimony, Ballaz testified that police "threw [Gonzalez] around like a rag doll" as they pushed through a crowd of reporters and protesters during an immigration rally near L.A.'s MacArthur Park on May 1, 2007.

The city of Los Angeles has already settled a lawsuit on behalf of some 300 protesters who said they were mistreated by police during the protest, paying out some $13 million to the plaintiffs, reports NPR. Additionally, the city has paid a total of $450,000 to five other reporters caught up in the melee that day.

The LA Times notes that the LAPD "apologized and instituted sweeping changes in its crowd control policies" as a result of the incident.

Story continues below...


Lawyers for the city and the LAPD argued that the reporters' rights had not been infringed upon, because they ignored seven warnings to get out of the path of an advancing group of police officers, reports NPR.

But police expert Lou Reiter told the court that the LAPD's charge through a group of reporters that day "was no legitimate use of force." The jury ended up voting nine to three in the plaintiff's favor.

"There was a war against media that day," lawyer Browne Greene, representing the reporters, told jurors.

"This was a police riot, and we've got to condemn that [sort of] thing," he told reporters Friday after the verdict. "Not in this society."

In her testimony, Ballaz described the scene at the rally that day as having turned into a "war zone."

But as reporters moved closer to the police, they saw people screaming and running in the other direction. Ballaz said she then saw a policeman hitting another news reporter. "He was just an average man doing nothing," Ballaz said. "I had no idea why this was happening. It was like a war zone."
She testified that after the beating she took from the LAPD, she had to have multiple surgeries on her hand, elbow and ankle and may still need more surgeries. Greene showed pictures of Ballaz's hands and elbows that were taken after the surgery. The pictures showed distinct stitch marks on her hand and her arms.

Blog Archive