the mysterious officer mike.

apparently a police officer called the john oakley show on AM640 and talked candidly about the G20, saying that "99% of the public were fine and 99% of the officers were fine...but there was absolutely a culture that was tainted."

the officer, who called himself "Mike", went on to describe that culture as stemming from a "shut you mouth, don't say anything to the media and this is going to go away and it will be business as usual" message from cops and superiors alike.

he said there is "no question there was an amped up testosterone culture that i saw only in my days of college football" that they were "sent out to the streets cranked up... on the street level, and on the buses, before we were deployed there was a real, sort of, sports culture." surprisingly mike mentions chief blair, saying that that culture "testosterone" was there whether or not "the chief wants to admit that."

we all know what a sports culture looks like and we all know what it looks like when athletes are getting pumped up before the game. we also all knew it was happening at the G20 but since there is no public inquiry we won't ever hear police officers testifying about it.

talking about the covering up of badge numbers, mike says that "when you cover up your badge number it shows premeditation and it shows culpability...you knew you were doing something wrong and didn’t want to be identified.”

he says normal procedure "went out the window" and that police officers "were not functioning within the rules." he also laments not reporting the officers he saw breaking the law, stating:

“I don’t sleep well at night because I have to go into Regent Park and I have to look people in the eye after gang shootings. I have to tell them they should be ashamed of themselves for not speaking up to help their community and when I go home at night I have to look in the mirror and I have to have the same discussion with myself and I can’t give the same answer any more.”

if this guy is a real police officer(and there's no reason to suspect that he isn't, i think) then it's pretty amazing. i think that what will be really interesting is to hear from police officers eventually about what happened at the G20-- did it change how they think of themselves? what they think of policing? of their superiors?? how the G20 affected the police officers who were involved might be something the public never hears about without a public inquiry.

more officer mikes!!