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@OrangeHats@kolektiva.social · 2 weeks ago

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We sprinkle caveats throughout our Know Your Rights workshops and generally close them workshops with the warning: You may have rights but the police have privilege.

That is, simply having rights IN NO WAY stops police from VIOLATING them. In the end, your rights are for the courts.

Yesterday (Thursday, February 12, 2026), The Crown's Office chose to withdraw ALL charges from our Legal Observer who was arrested at a protest at Toronto Metropolitan University September 24th, 2025, rather than have the bodycam footage entered into the record.

Those charges were ridiculous and a very clear example of strategic incapacitation: Targeted arrest, overcharging, zero chance of it holding up in court — but that wasn't the point of those charges.

The point is to inconvenience people, and to scare people away from protest if they don't understand the process.

#PoliceDontKeepUsSafe

4 media

Zero for Two
Crown withdraws charges against second Legal Observer — Zero for Two Crown withdraws charges against second Legal Observer

In 2025, TPS arrested two Legal Observers
ESCALATING TACTICS
Police apparently intensified their efforts to crush movements, particularly Palestinian solidarity, by expanding the list of targets for spurious arrests to include Legal Observers. — In 2025, TPS arrested two Legal Observers ESCALATING TACTICS Police apparently intensified their efforts to crush movements, particularly Palestinian solidarity, by expanding the list of targets for spurious arrests to include Legal Observers.

Strategic incapacitation is a protest policing
model that utilizes preemptive surveillance,
intelligence gathering, and spatial constraints to control and disrupt social movements before they fully materialize.

Failing that, it uses selective preemptive arrests, the use of less-lethal weapons, and control over information and media access to prevent demonstrations from growing, disrupting, or achieving their political goals. — Strategic incapacitation is a protest policing model that utilizes preemptive surveillance, intelligence gathering, and spatial constraints to control and disrupt social movements before they fully materialize. Failing that, it uses selective preemptive arrests, the use of less-lethal weapons, and control over information and media access to prevent demonstrations from growing, disrupting, or achieving their political goals.

THE ARRESTS

September 24, 2025
at a protest at Toronto
Metropolitan University, a legal observer was arrested for requesting an officer's identification, as required under the Code of Conduct for Police Officers and charged with obstructing a peace officer and criminal harassment (a charge that usually arises in cases of stalking and gender-based violence).

TWO WEEKS LATER
On October 8, a second legal observer was violently thrown to the ground and punched by officers for attempting to obtain an arrestee's name for legal support, then charged with obstruction
All charges from that day — including those against the eight others arrested at that event — AND the charges against the first LO have been withdrawn. — THE ARRESTS September 24, 2025 at a protest at Toronto Metropolitan University, a legal observer was arrested for requesting an officer's identification, as required under the Code of Conduct for Police Officers and charged with obstructing a peace officer and criminal harassment (a charge that usually arises in cases of stalking and gender-based violence). TWO WEEKS LATER On October 8, a second legal observer was violently thrown to the ground and punched by officers for attempting to obtain an arrestee's name for legal support, then charged with obstruction All charges from that day — including those against the eight others arrested at that event — AND the charges against the first LO have been withdrawn.

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