The further persecution of Gary McCullough

By the time G20 arrestee Gary McCullough has his next court date in December, he will have spent six months locked up without bail for no other reason than the police and courts are unable to admit they should never have arrested him in the first place.

Picked up in a pre-G20 police sweep back in June, police admitted within hours of his media sensationalized 'terrorist' arrest that he had nothing to do with G20 but the illegal search and seizure of his vehicle turned up a crossbow, albeit properly secured in a carrying case, so he was charged with "possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose".
Toronto police Const. Hugh Smith :

"It's lawful to have them in your possession … but with close proximity to the summit, we are going to relate it, you know, to the G20 and the safety. So there was more than enough to arrest."

Exactly what "dangerous purpose" do they expect to prove here?
He has threatened no one.
He owns a crossbow because he hates guns and carries it for protection from bears on his rural property.
He was in Toronto to get his car window fixed.
He had all his remaining possessions loaded into his car because someone burnt his rural house down and he is currently rebuilding it.

At his court appearance today, the judge proclaimed the schizophrenic McCullough unfit to stand trial following his months in solitary confinement for his own protection after he was beaten up by other prisoners. The judge has ordered a third psychiatric assessment and remanded him to a psychiatric hospital.

Is this for his own good? No it isn't. At his bail hearing in August, Justice of the Peace Paul Kowarsky displayed an extraordinary lack of understanding of rural life :

"I see no sense that he had to bring all the items for the sole purpose of being in Toronto and running an errand." In denying bail, the justice added: "The inference is he carried all these items for a purpose dangerous to the public."

I fail to see how yet another psychiatric assessment of McCullough will get the just ice system off the hook for persecuting an innocent man for six months.
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Free Gary McCullough, the first G20 arrest

Remember that guy who was busted at G20 in June for having all his worldly possessions strapped to the roof of his car? Not even a protester, he was in Toronto to get a car window fixed. Two months later CBC reports he is still in freaking jail!

The original G&M booga booga headline : "Police arrest man with arsenal of weapons near G20 zone", with a police officer at the scene calling it "pretty scary stuff", was already downgraded to "nothing to do with G20" by police a few hours later.

But by then they had already freaked about his possessions - tools, an axe, a baseball bat, a sledgehammer, a chainsaw, a crossbow, water and gas cans, a laptop, - and a scruffy white little dog called Marley.
As McCullough sat in handcuffs at the side of the road, Greg Weston of the Toronto Sun wrote:

"He had tears in his eyes, and looked clearly distraught. There was no hint of anger or aggression."My dog," he said plaintively to no one in particular. "Please someone do something with my dog."

So then we heard he is a hermit living on his secluded rural property and his mental health issues precluded his answering the police questions to their satisfaction :

"He wasn't forthcoming initially with his information" and exhibited "some disorientation," Toronto police Const. Hugh Smith said at the time. "It's lawful to have them in your possession … but with close proximity to the summit, we are going to relate it, you know, to the G20 and the safety. So there was more than enough to arrest."

Right. And then later the police made a mockery of their "G20 weapons seizure" display by including his crossbow, along with some fantasy medieval chainmail.

So why is McCullough still in jail?
At his bail hearing, Justice of the Peace Paul Kowarsky stated :

"If the conditions of his health, which apparently lie at the root of his criminal behaviour and the allegations before the court, are not addressed, then the danger to the community of his presence in the community while on bail is great.

I see no sense that he had to bring all the items for the sole purpose of being in Toronto and running an errand." In denying bail, the justice added: "The inference is he carried all these items for a purpose dangerous to the public."

And then he remanded him till Oct 6th.
Jesus fucking christ. I guess that judge has never lived outside of a city. I remember my rural neighbours and I noting that McCullough's stuff was pretty much the identical list of stuff we carry around in our vehicles, minus the crossbow, which at any rate the police said McCullough had secured properly.

Meanwhile we learn today McCulloch has been beaten up in jail, with several broken ribs, and his health is deteriorating.
Under today's CBC article, this comment :

"I know Gary as I was his caregiver at one time . He is quite harmless, but since he suffers from schizophrenia and shall we say is a might eccentric, his actions and possession of some off beat items could be easily misinterpreted by uneducated and paranoid police officers as being " dangerous" . His being held in custody is simply put disgusting and disrespectful. He is a victim of of the g20 police state mentality ( which was more psychotic than he) and should be released before he is hurt."

As Skdadl said, quoting someone at Rabble, this is the criminalization of mental illness in a creeping police state - first by police abetted by the media, then by Justice Kowarsky. By the time McCullough's trial date comes up and despite the fact he has committed no crime, he will have spent three and a half months in prison over an illegal police search and seizure.
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