Here’s what we are asked to believe in the case of Dorian Barton, the 29-year-old man who was badly beaten by police 11 months ago at the corner of College St. and University Ave. during the G20 protests.

We are asked to believe that the Special Investigations Unit, the provincial outfit charged with keeping police forces in line, did all it could to identify the officer or officers who knocked Barton to the ground and beat him with batons, breaking his right arm.

More to the point, we are asked to believe that none of the other officers present at the time could name the man pictured here — the “subject” police officer wanted for questioning in the Barton case. A bland statement issued by the SIU this week states that “photographs were shown to 11 witness officers in an attempt to identify any officers involved in striking Mr. Barton. While a number of officers in the vicinity were identified, none of the witness officers could identify the perpetrator or perpetrators of the strikes against Mr. Barton.”

So, case closed. SIU Director Ian Scott says he is “not in a position to form reasonable grounds” that an identifiable officer used excessive force against Barton, who was, by the way, just a curious bystander in the G20 fracas.

This is, not to put too fine a point on it, ridiculous. It beggars belief that no officer could identify the man in the photo. It’s a fairly clear picture of his face and even shows a blurry image of his badge number. What is almost certainly true is that none of the 11 “witness officers” would put a name to the picture. None would speak up and give information that might put a fellow officer in jeopardy.

Besides the obvious, what’s wrong here?

Once again, a police force is openly flouting the authority of the organization charged with overseeing it. As documented at length by the Star in February, police forces across Ontario are thumbing their noses at the SIU, refusing to cooperate or even respond to the agency.

In this case, 11 Toronto police officers told SIU investigators they had no idea who the helmeted, uniformed man in blue in the photograph could be. This is, in the most literal sense of the word, incredible.

If the Toronto Police Service had any desire to find out what happened in this case, Chief Bill Blair could call the officers involved into his office and simply ask them what happened. If that’s too difficult, the force could compare the photo of the “subject officer” to its own photos of staff members — and figure out his identity itself.

The silence surrounding this case makes a mockery of the appeals for information that police routinely issue to the public. Police regularly send out photos of suspects and ask civilians for help identifying them. They call on the public’s sense of civic responsibility and simple justice, and ask them to do the right thing. In the Barton case, police are showing they believe that basic expectation of citizenship does not apply to them.

Given the rules it must work under, it may be no surprise that the SIU gave up in frustration and closed its investigation. That doesn’t let Toronto police off the hook. It’s up to the chief — or at least one courageous officer — to step up and answer the question: Who is the man in the photo?

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