G20 Aftermath
In addition to criminal trials for those who rampaged downtown city streets, the aftermath of the G20 conference in Toronto will unfortunately be months of recriminations and lawsuits as the non-criminal protesters and the police argue about how much enforcement was too much.
‘They Came to Attack Our City’: Blair
In an attempt to bolster support, Toronto Police displayed a range of weapons – from a machete and arrows to gas masks and cans of spray paint – that officers seized from G20 summit protesters…
…The display did not include flammable items, such as Molotov cocktails, several of which were seized by officers during the weekend.
The items, which were laid out on several tables in the lobby of Toronto Police headquarters, include gas masks, cans of spray paint, a replica gun, crowbars, saws, pocket knives, a staple gun, a drill, a baseball bat, a slingshot, chains, bear spray, dog repellent, handcuffs and bows and arrows. Some of the arrows had their pointy ends covered with fabric, which officers said were designed to be dipped in a flammable liquid and lit ablaze. Globe and Mail, June 29, 2010
There were three groups of people on the streets this weekend:
- thousands of people exercising their right of free speech and hoping the powerful leaders and international media would notice.
- thousands of lookie-loos, with cell phones raised, to photograph broken windows and police cars on fire and capture a youtube moment
- hundreds of so-called anarchists who descended from every direction to wreck havoc on the city.
The police knew ahead of time that the technique of the anarchists was to use the marching protesters as camouflage, darting in and out of the crowd, changing clothes as they marched. Perhaps the problem was that the majority of people in the crowds really didn’t know this ahead of time.
Perhaps it is time to bring back the ‘sit-in’.
p.s. re The G20 Conference and the Lunar Eclipse (below): there was also a record-setting deluge!
comments
Leave a Reply