There's a new Bubbles in town

Just call him Officah Bubbles, dahling, everybody does.

During the G20 this year--an event held in Toronto whether Canadians/Torontonians wanted to pay for it or not--a youtube video went viral showing a cop Talkin' Tuff to a woman who was blowing bubbles at a female cop. While I think blowing bubbles at cops is obnoxious, the male cop wasn't within Bubble Range, and the female cop in question hadn't asked the woman to stop. In the video you later see the woman being arrested, though this wasn't for blowing bubbles--it was because she has medical equipment in her backpack, and a lawyer's address on her arm.

The cop in the video became known as Officer Bubbles, which at the time I thought was a fitting enough punishment for what many of us perceived to be his Mildly Obnoxious High Handed Manner. And that was it. I probably thumbed-up someone else's comment, never looked at the video again, never gave it another thought.

I guess some people later made cartoons lampooning Officer Bubbles. And then, as usual, people added some comments to those videos. But really the whole thing was over for most of us, oui?

Until this week when Bubbles decided his feelings were so hurt he had to sue the cartoon makers and many of the people who commented on the cartoon. Because, you know, heaven forbid the behavior of Toronto's cops, paid for by Toronto tax payers, should come under public scrutiny. And heaven forbid people call him Mean Names in a forum that he really doesn't ever have to look at.

There were apparently death threats made against him and his family. Alright then, go after those people--I agree that's inappropriate. But going after people for calling you names? ...Really? ...I mean, really? And in the process, you've drawn Canadian attention (and some international) back to the original story, and now your Officer Bubbles Persona is more widely known than ever.

One of the Accused has come out publicly with his identity. Here's what he posted in reply to one of the offending cartoons: “officer bubbles probably looks at himself in the mirror a lot.”

As Count Floyd would say: Scaaary stuff.


The Toronto police acted incomprehensibly during the G20, ignoring the smasher-window-people, and instead moving in, with overwhelming force...

against people who were peacefully meandering along in minimal protest, along with a ton of people who were out walking the dog / coming out of a restaurant etc. -- and then detaining them for 2 hours in the pouring rain -- and then making some of them wait in paddy wagons for hours, where apparently if you needed to pee you had to piss your pants there in the truck -- and then removing many of them to giant facilities overnight, where they slowwwwly processed them and let most go. The mayor didn't see anything wrong with what happened: "the Mayor said you can’t second guess police decisions “made in the heat of the moment because they are aware of all of the information that exists at that moment in time.” " (In other words, we can't question the police?)


Many people, myself included, were pissed about all this, and Officer Bubbles became one of the symbols of Everything Wrong With the G20. Live with it, Officer Bubbles. Rise above. "It's big of me too. It's big of all of us. Let's be big for a change!" [Groucho Marx]

While I'm in for protecting minors from being ridiculed on the internet, is this going to lead to a whole new slew of people cracking down on internet comments, treating them with the same gravitas as press articles? Someone like Kanye West could go to town over all the douchebag epithets thrown his way.