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It’s time for Toronto cops to stand down, from police chief Myron Demkiw, to Jon Reid and the police union, the Toronto Police Association (TPA), the cops need to back off and stop meddling in city politics — and now, the courts.

From bullying efforts, even threats, to get their increased funding in the most recent city budget — while almost all other departments were slashed — to play-by-play negative commentary on how Mayor Olivia Chow is doing her job – very well actually — and, most recently, outrageous court house comments by the police chief, the police union and others on the force challenging the justice in Umar Zameer’s recent not guilty verdict. They all continue to beat on Zameer like some unfortunate they’ve pulled over for a 3 am traffic stop on an unlit street with body cams turned off when they should be asking for forgiveness.

A horrible tragedy occurred when Const. Jeffrey Northrup was accidentally killed in a City Hall parking garage and another tragedy began when Zameer was beaten, arrested and jailed, he and his family demonized and victimized — as they continue to be — by a police department that should use these tragedies as a learning moment rather than closing ranks as always and looking for people, ideally of colour, to scapegoat.

The police chief, the TPA, former chief James Ramer, ex-mayor John Tory, currently-at-large Premier Doug Ford and Brampton cheerleading fan Mayor Patrick Brown should be begging Zameer and his family for forgiveness, writing a cheque to his legal fund and certainly not offering mumbled, begrudging pseudo-apologies — or worse, silence.

The situation was tragically bungled so badly that the judge apologized for the charges being laid and the Ontario Provincial Police is investigating because it appears police officers may have colluded to align their stories at the expense of the defendant, a charge routinely aimed at police when citizens are seeking justice against the cops. This is a time for cops to be hanging their heads and committing to new approaches, not defaulting to violent, gang-like behaviours. Maybe if the police hadn’t behaved like “badass cops” in a police show when confronting Zameer, his pregnant wife and their toddler in car in a darkly lit parking garage, results might have been less tragic.

The Chief’s rush to promise a meaningless “internal” review after being assailed for his intemperate remarks is of no value, history has shown the cops can’t police the cops. We need a review that includes members of the community being badly policed.

The Northrup and Zameer families should never have gone through this nightmare, and no other family should ever have to. The only way that might be achieved is if the police force engages in self-reflection with the assistance of outside input rather than defaulting to thuggery.

It’s telling that when the cops’ budget grab was challenged recently, they were threatening to unleash some kind of lawless The Purge-like city unless they got a massive budget increase. It’s as if Black Lives Matter didn’t happen and there wasn’t a recent worldwide call for new ideas in policing. They didn’t once suggest any kind of new spending, any creative approaches that might yield better results than the current status quo where people of colour and those with mental health issues are at heightened risk from the police that are supposed to protect them and women remain eternally frustrated seeking justice from police for crimes against them.

They should concentrate on trying to be good cops carrying out the wishes of the people they serve — and stop meddling in the politics or legal system of this city.

The Toronto police have long liked playing that they were some kind of paramilitary force, one Chief even liked it so much he wore medals he hadn’t earned. But they seem to forget that if they want to play army, the generals keep their mouths shut and so do the soldiers, they serve the government, and they serve the people, just like cops are supposed to. “To Serve and Protect”, remember? Doesn’t say anything about mouthing off whenever things don’t go the force’s way.

Frankly, we don’t want to hear from the police unless it’s in the context of some soul-searching and looking for new approaches. Otherwise, back to work.