The public and media overreacted to events during the G20 summit, and police should hold their heads high, says a man directly involved in planning the police response to last summer’s tumult in downtown Toronto.

“The whole service is being condemned for the actions of maybe a few,” retiring Deputy Chief Tony Warr, 63, told the Star in one of the most outspoken defences of Toronto police actions from a commanding officer.

Warr said the priority was to protect world leaders and the stakes were high because of possible terrorist threats.

“There was a lot of good work done,” Warr said. “Inside the wall, it was like nothing happened,” he said. “That was what the government wanted, and that is what the government asked us to do and we did it.”

Warr said the majority of police acted responsibly, given the dynamic conditions of the protests.

“I defy anybody to have an event like that in their city and not have that kind of problem. Ours was a pretty minor one compared to what’s gone on in other cities.”

He said Toronto had never seen rioting like that before, “so there was this over-reaction by everybody. And it’s frustrating to see that.”

Warr, who retires at the end of this month after 45 years in policing, admitted police made mistakes and will learn lessons. However, he said there “seems to be a campaign by the media to keep this alive.”

The Special Investigations Unit, the provincial police watchdog agency, had closed case after case, finding no wrongdoing by police, until the Star reported information — particularly citizen-made video — that led to charges laid against two officers.

Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani faces two counts of assault with a weapon in alleged incidents of assault on Adam Nobody and Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy. Const. Glenn Weddell is charged with causing bodily harm in the violent arrest of Dorian Barton.

Warr said he doesn’t want to second-guess officers for rounding up 1,100 people in the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history. Only 317 of those people were charged, and a year later, only 24 have been convicted.

And he didn’t want to be drawn into a debate about why police in London, England, have arrested about the same numbers, though there has been far more violence, looting and mayhem there.

“The officers (in Toronto) felt they had grounds to do it, and they did it,” Warr said brusquely.

Judge Melvyn Green offered a different interpretation this week. In delivering a not-guilty verdict in one of the G20 cases Thursday, he found that “adrenalized” police officers were the actual aggressors at a peaceful political rally at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. that led to scores of arrests.

Green found that the only organized or collective physical aggression that evening “was perpetrated by police each time they advanced on demonstrators.”

An Angus Reid poll commissioned by the Star showed a year later that most Torontonians now believe police actions during the G20 summit were unjustified.

Warr also made no apologies for the horrid conditions at the temporary detention centre on Eastern Ave., which was criticized for being overcrowded and having limited toilet facilities.

“People complained about the conditions there, but what did they expect when they get arrested? They’re not going to be taken to the Hilton. Jail is not a nice place,” the outgoing deputy said.

Warr allowed that the rioting, which included looting and the burning of four police cars, was bad “but not that bad.” He added that nobody died and nobody was seriously injured.

“I’ve seen worse reactions to a hockey game in Montreal (in April 2008). St. Catherine Street was destroyed. There were 16 police cars burned that night.”

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In Toronto, four police cars were set ablaze on June 26 and two people were convicted of arson.

“Some of the media reaction was just disgusting,” Warr argued, saying that live TV reporters on the scene were speculating that police cars were purposely abandoned to they could be burned. “Why would we do that? A $60,000 a car that we have to pay for?”

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said calling the G20 event and police response an overreaction is nonsense.

“If you don’t think it was a big deal, why arrest so many people?” argued lawyer Nathalie Des Rosiers.

She said criticism of police would not have been so loud and prolonged “if accountability had been forthcoming quickly and they had admitted their mistakes earlier.”

“It took six months of hard work by the Toronto Star to get the identity of the police officer who had assaulted Adam Nobody. If we had known the day after, we would not be pursuing that case,” Des Rosiers said.

In a review, Police Chief Bill Blair has admitted police were overwhelmed and underprepared and had been too confrontational with law-abiding protesters. The report did not directly address the widespread arrests without charges.

Warr said he prefers to talk about the officers who do the right thing.

“This is not a good time for the Toronto police,” he said. “They go home and think they’ve done a good job and they read the papers and all they see is criticism,” Warr said.

He is asking for a wait-and-see attitude.

“Let’s see what the inquiries come up with before we condemn police,” he said, before pausing and adding: “Maybe we need to be condemned.”

Related story: Deputy chief retiring after 45 years with few regrets