What Happened to Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani?

That question is one I feel compelled to ask because something seems to have changed in Constable Andalib-Goortani, and not for the better.

It’s been reported in the Toronto Sun that in June 2008 this man put his own life at considerable risk in order to save someone he didn’t even know.

The Toronto Sun article says:

On June 23, 2008, Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani, of 31 Division, was the first officer into sprawling Downsview Dells park near Sheppard Ave. and Jane St. after a big thunderstorm.

He helped a couple out of a car swamped by Black Creek, which had spilled its banks. Then he parked his cruiser on high ground and joined Sun photographer Dave Thomas in his big 4X4. They drove deeper into the park, until they heard cries in Italian coming from inside a public washroom.

“The water was deep,” remembers Thomas, “but, worse, it was moving really fast.”

Andalib-Goortani waded in, using Thomas’ camera mono-pod for balance.

He hoisted the Italian man on his shoulder, but the current caught them and they fell.

The cop splashed about until he’d regained his hold and carried the guy to safety.

“He was risking his life. That water was freezing and the current was racing back toward Black Creek. If they’d gone in the creek, they’d have drowned.”

That was Constable Andalib-Goortani in 2008.  A hero.  A man willing to put his own life on the line to save another human being.

Just like any good cop would, and should.  That is, after all, the job they signed up for.

Then, just two short years later, that same man is happily beating on innocent civilians whose only “crime” was to attend a protest rally.

What changed?

Clearly something did, and in a very big way.  Because a man doesn’t go from life-saver to brutal thug without something happening to him.

In a single day he was caught at least twice on film violently abusing protesters at the G20 summit.

Will we ever find out what happened that caused, by all accounts, a good cop willing to put his own life at risk, into a violent thug who is willing to take his baton and beat people with it, just for kicks?

Probably not.

He has now been charged for two cases of assault.  But who knows how many others he assaulted that weren’t caught on film?  How many other cases have been swept under the rug by the Toronto Police Service?

We’ll likely never know the answer to that either.

But the more disturbing question is this:

Of the 6 cops caught on video beating on Adam Nobody, why is there only one cop, Constable Andalib-Goortani, standing trial?

He must feel pretty great right about now, having been utterly abandoned by his so-called “Brothers In Blue.”

It’s a national shame that the Toronto Police Service acted the way they did during the G-20.

It’s a national disgrace that a single cop is being hung out to dry for the sins of so many.