Police commander in the spotlight over how he dealt with G20 protestors

The highest ranking Toronto police officer accused of misconduct at the G20 summit was in the spotlight Wednesday, speaking at his disciplinary hearing about his handling protestors four years ago.

“He is extremely relieved to have this day come because as you know the G20 was in June 2010 and it’s taken four and a half years to get to this point,” said Supt. David (Mark) Fenton’s lawyer Peter Brauti.

Fenton was the incident commander responsible for ordering two mass “kettling” arrests on June 26-27 2010. He faces a total of five charges of unlawful arrest and discreditable conduct stemming from those two incidents.

Fenton told the hearing he received intelligence prior to the summit about an anarchist group who wanted to kill police officers. His defence also said it was difficult for police to separate violent protesters from civilians.

Much of the hearing at Toronto police headquarters on Wednesday was spent discussing the tactics of the Black Bloc.

There was video evidence though that showed not only those dressed in black assaulting officers and lighting cruisers on fire. There was also what appears to be the unassuming bystanders who blend into the crowd and then later becomes violent.

“Shockingly we now start to see regular citizens people with no criminal records starting to engage in the violence and starting to become more and more involved and end up getting immersed in a mob mentality,” Brauti said.

As a result mass arrests were made including the now infamous kettling incident at Queen and Spadina in downtown where hundreds of innocent bystanders were arrested.

“I was trying everything and conducting myself not to be perceived as Black Bloc but I was arrested and held for four -five hours in the rain,” said complainant Shervin Akhavi.

Another complainant Lucius Dechausay said, “We were held. We were told that everyone there was under arrest without discretion.”

Fenton has pleaded not guilty to the five charges. The question now is whether front-line officers were instructed to detain everyone in the kettling incidents or use their discretion.

His lawyer outlined how protests escalated in violence and grew in size to crowds of more than 10,000 all under Fenton’s watch.

“There was mass amounts of damage. We see police cars being lit on fire, stores being smashed, police officers being attacked. That’s what Supt. Fenton inherited when he took his post as the incident commander on that particular day,” Brauti said.

If Fenton is found guilty he could be reprimanded, suspended or even fired by Toronto police. The disciplinary hearing is not expected to wrap up until after the new year.