Needless to say
Posted on June 6th, 2026 – Comments Off on Needless to sayMay was a busy month. Let’s just have a stiff drink or two and leave it at that, okay?
June is presenting its own unique set of challenges but thankfully it’s also presenting some low-hanging fruit:
In case you can’t or don’t want to watch the video, it can be summarized thusly: a cyclist is recording their trip along a waterfront biking trail when they spot a group of cops tackling another cyclist, ostensibly for running through a stop sign, and seemingly trying to escape the orders of the same officers; basically a traffic stop that ended in an aggressive takedown. At one point up to three cops are piled on top of the guy, apparently in order to restrain him.
Understandably, this has generated some online debate about excessive force but since we can’t see what happened prior to the tackle we should probably wait a bit longer to get the full story. Maybe the guy had a gun? Maybe he just stole some old lady’s purse? It’s not as if I’m a fan of state coersion but at this point I don’t have enough information to pass judgement.
It’s worth noting that the video is not actually taken on “Lakeshore”, it’s a little farther south along Queens Quay at Little Norway Crescent. Were the person recording the video to pedal their conveyance a few seconds longer they would quickly reach Bathurst Street and the southern edge of 545 Lake Shore Boulevard West, a Homes First project that straddles both streets, and an interesting juxtaposition to the events in the video.
Although 545 Lake Shore is billed as a homeless shelter, in reality it’s more of an open-use drug site and repository of often shady, sometimes nefarious characters. Of course there are some genuinely down-and-out folks there but between the ubiquitous meth-heads, leaners, and those who supply them, the truly needy are far outnumbered by those who need not be there.
Right across the street is the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre which houses various preschool programs and a JK-to-grade-8 public school.
Given this context, does the recorded incident simply represent a determined decision to enforce the law or is it something along the lines of performative theater, perhaps in advance of certain events? Hard to say.
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