A rather brilliant lawyer who specializes in defending cops put it thusly:

"One day it could be Megan Fox. The next day it's G20.''

He was referring to the stuff that bored police officers watch on their computer screens whilst on the job.

Which is how it came to pass that Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani was charged by the Special Investigations Unit on Tuesday with assault with a weapon, for his alleged overzealous takedown of G20 protester Adam Nobody last June 26.

Andalib-Goortani is a traffic cop out of 31 Division.

As it happens, according to sources, a front desk officer at that station was looking at video footage of police clashes with demonstrators from that awful weekend in Toronto.

It's unclear if this was the footage shot by videographer John Bridge and posted on YouTube, which was first made public by the SIU about a month ago, or if it was a second corroborating piece of footage obtained by the Star and publicized a week later. But this event occurred within the past fortnight.

"Hey, take a look at this,'' the officer said to his sergeant, who was then passing by, turning the monitor so the latter could take a better gander.

"Oh, that's Babak,'' the sergeant noted of the face on the screen.