There’s been a lot of crying about “thugs and anarchists” in Toronto. I live about 4 blocks from where some of the vandalism occurred, though I wasn’t there at the time.
As best I can tell, what happened is that for about an hour, the Black Bloc protesters clearly and visibly prepared for action, with both the police and other, non-violent protesters able to see they were doing so. The number of Black Bloc vandals seems to have been between 50 to 100, certainly not more than 200. (The police had 20,000 men.)
The police actually withdrew, leaving behind police cars for the Black Block to torch. Which they then did. The Black Bloc then proceeded up Yonge street (the main north/south street in downtown Toronto), vandalizing as they went, and eventually many headed over to Queen’s Park, the Provincial capital. Two hours after the first violence, the police finally take action, ensuring that there are plenty of videos of police cars burning and vandalism that would not have occurred if they had taken action earlier.
According to the police, rather than confront a maximum of 200 protesters, they withdrew behind the barrier around the G20 meetings and let them vandalize downtown Toronto for 2 hours.
At the end of the day the people who matter never even saw any protests and the 1 billion dollar police presence and suspension of civil liberties was “justified” by vandalism and burning police cars.
Simply put, the police decided that they couldn’t spare say 2,000 out of their 20,000 men to stop 200 vandals. This was a deliberate decision to allow downtown to be vandalized.
I leave it as an exercise for readers to decide if this was a matter of incompetence, or if it was a deliberate strategy. And if it was deliberate strategy, just what they were trying to accomplish with their strategy.
Of course, along the way Canadian Civil Liberties observers were arrested as well, and protesters were not allowed to see lawyers.
I am ashamed to be Canadian today, and I am ashamed of my governments, at all levels.
(A video of a clearly peaceful protest nonetheless attacked, after the jump)
Peaceful G20 protest at Queen & Spadina from Meghann Millard on Vimeo.
Tom Hickey
Essentially the same thing happened at the various DC anti-war demonstrations in the ’70’s at which I was present. The “crazies” were always there looking for a fight with the”pigs.” but they were in a vast minority, maybe a few hundred in a crowd of hundreds of thousands. But the police took advantage of the opportunity to violate civil liberties and suppress peaceful dissent. And, of course, the media pained the picture that the demonstrators were unruly, when overwhelmingly they were not.
Seems like the same m. o. is still in place.
Formerly T-Bear
These “law enforcement officers” conducted themselves in a manner that assured burning vehicles, acrid black smoke, vandalized public amenities, broken crystal shop windows was captured, on camera, for all to see. This alone becomes justification for their existence, their presence, their subsequent assault upon the civil peace otherwise prevailing.
This is what the world saw in Denver, in Twin Cities, Seattle, etc., etc., anyplace the abridgment and abrogation of civil rights is occurring. This you report is the modus operandi of authoritarian law enforcement. It is a sad day that this has happened in peaceful Canada; another day of infamy on the calendars of the civil world. This is one less avenue open in the exchange necessary in the dynamic to reach political compromise.
JustPlainDave
Easy to say, hard to do. Ever seen what happens when the coppers try to cut the hard core out of the crowd they’re using for cover? Messy.
Letting these assholes be assholes in front of a global audience is the preferable alternative. ‘course that pre-supposes that those analyzing the scene get that entities other than states have agendas and interests and hold them up to the same scrutiny…
anderson
It would not surprise me in the least to learn that the so-called vandals were false flag cops. And this would not surprise me, because Canadian cops (specifically Quebec Provincial Police) have been caught doing this not so long before, or rather, they were caught attempting to do something like this before.
Indeed, these were only the cops that the protesters had discovered. No one knew, and the cops certainly did not admit, just how many cops might have been so anarchically armed and costumed.
False flag cops have been a feature of political landscapes for decades. And they are there for a number of reasons, long and short term: to delegitimize protests generally, i.e. always make them look violent, and to delegitimize the particular protest and, more importantly, to provide the pretext to start the crackdown and arrests.
Ian Welsh
As I understand it they moved out from the cover of non-violent protesters for quite a substantial period of time.
I suspect that the businesses vandalized do not think that letting them run amok for two hours was the preferred solution. Nor was then cracking down on clearly non-violent protesters who had no black block amongst them at all.
JustPlainDave
We have a different understanding then. I debriefed with a number of friends and professional acquaintances who were there and they were unanimous on their accounts of how these guys operated. They had well thought out and executed TTPs – they suited up and changed into “colours” while in the crowd (with an organized outer screen providing cover for them), pulled their action while surrounded by other demo attendees (pretty commonly being accompanied by organized teams to watch their back and actively attempting to prevent other attendees from getting video/stills of the operators that would result in viable ids) and changed back into civvies either in the crowd while screened or after exfil from the demo.
DymaxionWorldJohn
While I generally assume some kind of questionable police activity in these things, I should say that a) I work downtown and was working Saturday when it was going down, b) everything I heard from both on-site security and passersby conforms more with JustPlainDave’s description than with a straight “cops let this shit go down” account. Also worth noting is that the BBers fled to Queen’s Park, where they were given more cover as they changed.
This is of course not conclusive, just throwing in my $0.02.
The lack of a police presence is certainly questionable, but there’s a dissonance between “the police were nowhere on Saturday, look what happened” and “OMG the fascists locked up peaceful protesters on Sunday!”
Bernard
yes the police/powers that be have learned how to use the protests to their own use. it is the obvious way it works, since this happens at all the protests. there never is a “peaceful” protest anymore. after reading about how the police insured themselves at the Republican convention in Minneapolis last time, i saw how well it worked.
this way there is no “counter” to the powers that be. violence seems to be the modus operandi of the police nowadays. so much for the police protecting the “little people.” the police are part and parcel of the banksters nowadays.
Badtux
There is some speculation that the “Black Bloc” is actually paid professional agitators under the control of police agencies in order to discredit protest against the New World Corporate Order. You will note that none of the “Black Bloc” appear to have been arrested. Hmmm…..
– Badtux the “Is it paranoia if it’s true?” Penguin
Albatross
The problem of the cozy relationship between cops, agents provocateur, and the media is one that the Left needs to figure out how to address, because the Right has this little theatre down to a routine art. At every major Right-wing event, such as RNC conventions and G# meetings, the process is the same: peaceful Left-wing protests are ignored while the media and the police conspire to ensure good media coverage of “Left-wing violence.” Evidence linking the most violent agitators to government agencies is ignored by the media.
The media is happy because it gets dramatic footage. The Right and the Police are happy because the Left is slandered and libeled by propaganda.
Honestly I think we almost need to dare to NOT HAVE ANY PROTESTS AT ALL at one of these events, just as an experiment. Have a “flash-anti-mob” where everybody who shows up goes home at the same time, leaving only the fake protesters. Inasmuch as the Left is never fairly covered anyway, what could the experiment hurt?
Ian Welsh
There is? As best I can tell it’s a fact they did nothing for 2 hours. The Toronto Star has that in their timeline. And it’s a fact that they locked up peaceful protesters on Sunday. (It’s also a fact that they were searching bags on Sunday, since the area was made a “limited civil rights” zone. (I saw them checking and dodged the check by using alleyways, since I know the area.))
I don’t know what you heard, so I can’t comment, and I wasn’t in the area Saturday (4 blocks from College Park, which did get hit, but I wasn’t there at the time though I was there a few hours before the vandalism). I probably should have grabbed a camera and got off my butt, given it was going down in my own city. Except that, ironically, while it’s fairly easy for me to get journalist credentials in the US, I don’t have those contacts in Canada. And I prefer to have press creds when covering such things, for obvious reasons.
Kim Kaufman
I urge everyone to go to http://www.democracynow.org and listen to Amy’s interview with Naomi Klein about this. Or you can read it there. Along the same lines, more details.
Sarah D
Watching from Vancouver, even the most unquestioning people I know were saying why did the police leave their cars in plain view and access – both in terms of “vandals” and photo ops.
Interestingly, the riot cops tried to make their presence known here, during a small demonstration on the Drive. Of course, on the Drive there was just Moms and babies, activists and street people so no riot. Darn, they had to put their swat team toys back and go home.
What I don’t understand is that there is lots of activist intelligence identifying the use of agents provocateurs in G20 and other related demonstrations (including Montebello) to what I saw here in Vancouver during the Olympic with the so-called Black Bloc Brats. I’ve read about the Miami Model and of course, government and police followed the model with expert finesse. Why can’t we as activists (and I have to admit I’m a pretty lazy activist, but I try to lend a hand and support when I can), why can’t we preempt their game plan?
Yes, flash mobs (as someone has said)? or all virtual protest? hack facebook and send messages to every user? I don’t know, but as always the right is winning the propaganda war.
Doug H
I’m liberal and law abiding and the naivete shown here is astonishing. If I were an Honest Joe Cop, what would I do to ensure no-one got hurt at a protest?
1. Pull back when people look angry. Let the fanatics burn a few cop cars. The most important thing is injury and loss of life.
2. Send a few cops in to do what all ‘the angry people’ feel like doing i.e. burn/trash a few cop cars. Nothing better to make sure it’s being done in a nice, controlled way. Cynical, yes, manipulative, maybe, world takeover, no.
3. Allow private property to be smashed up (I guarentee these weren’t cops). Arrive on Monday and give them a check. What would the civil liberties violations look like if every piece of private property had to be protected to the full extent of the law?
4. Not tell everyone what you were doing, because it might not work next time.
I’m not a troll and I’m not a cop. Consider the possibility that The Man is acting in good faith for the minimization of injury and death. Communication is less than optimal, I’ll grant, but despite their intentions, secrecy is a hard habit for The Man to break.
Doug H
Addendum: the lack of court and police preparedness to deal with the sad but inevitable glut of arrests of otherwise law-abiding but empassioned and incidentally illegal innocents is not acceptable. It should take shorter to get out of jail than it does to get a checkup at the walkin clinic. Seriously. That would be seriously first-world.
Joe
To me the reasons the police wanted the propaganda is to justify the exorbitant costs of policing. Many people like myself are choked over the cost, and the police are trying to justify the overtime bonanza over the weekend. So create a fuss and whip up all the seniors and we should be thankful the finest from across Canada went to Toronto to stop these godless punks from damaging stuff.
Doug H – the police I know are more interested in busting heads than preventing anything. Too bad we can’t send these meatheads to Iraq for a couple of weekends so they can duke it out with armed and organized people.
Now if only to get the G20 to learn how to use Skype…
JLB
So if the police had charged in and arrested all the Black Bloc folks would your post be about how the police attacked them?
Seriously, in what manner could the police have acted to make you and your followeres happy?
I got out
I see that Harper’s plan to further “americanize” Canada is working well. Time after time I’ve seen him take pages out of the Republican handbook and use them in Canada.
How to de-legitimize a protest? Add in some agent-provocateurs (probably police) to create chaos that the police can then rescue the city from.
When Harper came into office, his policy direction moved Canada further away from the aspects that made it distinctively different from the US, than any other PM I can think of (even Mulrooney!). This was when I decided to give up on Canada. If I wanted to live in the US, I would have, so I no longer felt like living in “America Junior”.
I still vote through the embassy in the country I’m now in, and I keep hoping that the majority of Canadians will wake up and take action to remove “the man who broke Canada”.
Celsius 233
I’m so sad to see Canada following the U.S. down the road to fascism. Peaceful protesting will no longer work. That day is long past and the future is dark and unknown.
I think it’s time to turn ones back on the new world order and live a real life away from the din.
Celsius 233
I got out…
I still vote through the embassy in the country I’m now in, and I keep hoping that the majority of Canadians will wake up and take action to remove “the man who broke Canada”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I did too; 8 years ago. Your hope for your country is futile, as is my hope for mine. There is no going back.
Ian Welsh
Weird, I had some comments in the spam queue which were good valid comments, except the URL’s for the commenters led to Viagra sites and whatnot. Folks, you got deleted because of the links, not the content of your comments.
CF Oxtrot
I like how the bulk of the comments here are defending the police.
Such good Germans.