Toronto was crazy today.
DOR
Two Ron Toe 9,899 Posts
I'm pretty shocked,
I love this city, but today was a hot mess. Sad to see some protest with legitimate issues getting jacked today by some thugs.
That said, I saw some shit by the cops which was downright despicable.
Beating down little old ladies. Trampling women with horses charging.
Took a lot of pics, but here is a video of rubber bullets and tear gas shot my way. This was pretty tame compared to a lot of other craziness that went down.
I love this city, but today was a hot mess. Sad to see some protest with legitimate issues getting jacked today by some thugs.
That said, I saw some shit by the cops which was downright despicable.
Beating down little old ladies. Trampling women with horses charging.
Took a lot of pics, but here is a video of rubber bullets and tear gas shot my way. This was pretty tame compared to a lot of other craziness that went down.
Getting shot at with rubber bullets & tear gas during the G20 in Toronto. from bwilliamp on Vimeo.
Comments
fuckin tryhard 'anarchists' ruining protests, of course noone is surprised to hear the reports that some of the ringleaders are actually working for the man, plants whose mission is to discredit the real protests and draw the attemntion away from the real issues.
the G20 is a joke, a bunch of wankers sitting around a table talking about new ways they will make us pay for their fuckups.
Throwing a shopping cart through a McDonalds window will show them.
lets change the world by kicking a cop cars window in.
dont care.
this. plenty of CIA and FBI up in there.
I'm almost positive that it's a rhetorical question, but you can find the answer here: http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/careers/salaryandbenefits.php
Is that their actual stated objective? I know that there's been infiltration of these groups by various law enforcement agencies for a long, long time, but are the infiltrators the actual "ringleaders" of the violence? I don't profess to being an expert, but I was always under the impression that the infiltration of said groups is generally so that they can monitor potentially violent people to make it easier to defuse them when stuff like this does occur.
It just seems a little conspiratorially-minded to think that there's that much concern about peaceful protesters that law enforcement agencies would devote resources to actively discrediting them.
I'm curious....is the "Family Health Plan" that they get different/separate from the National Health Care program??
It sounds from the title that the police plan includes the whole family.
My workplace plan pays for 80% of any prescription drugs. Edit - and I have to pay a little more if I want to add a family member. Same if I want to add them on to my dental or eyecare plans.
Depending on what kind of plan (and occupation) it is, some workplaces include massages.
I agree that it seems a little paranoid, but I can attest from experience that police infiltration of virtually any political organization other than Young Democrats/Young Republicans goes waaaay beyond what anyone would reasonably expect, or what any cop should reasonably be doing with his/her time. Particularly in towns with large universities, and particularly when said towns are rather miniscule apart from the student population, cops get involved in almost every half-assed "anarchist meeting" at the coffee shop; I've been told, though I haven't got any proof of this assertion, that attendance at such meetings is a way to gain departmental brownie points for people still in school who eventually plan to join the PD, and I've certainly been at some allegedly political functions shut down for "noise" or "disturbing the peace" that could hardly have been heard by someone standing at the front door, much less by neighbors or a homeowners' association.
Where is the mayor???
what is going down there right now? are things ramping up?
We've been abandoned.
I am not trying to be melodramatic, but the cops have their orders and they are running the show.
Yeah, can we get some SS embeddededness? Sounds like shit's getting heavier than I'd have anticipated.
I was down there earlier.
Basically there was a completely peaceful walk going on down Queen Street. Once they got to Spadina the cops were there to stop them from going south or west. So people just stopped right there. A good portion of the people were just there to watch. We were trying to go west to eat on Queen and we took a back alley to get through. So after the cops started surround everyone to a point where they totally had everyone boxed in.They have been holding people there in the rain for the last 3-4 hours in the rain not letting anyone go. Didn't matter why you were there.
Wait for the Canadian anthem to finish.
The cops have been detaining people for 24 hours without the chance to have a conversation with a lawyer - a lot of them have been held outside in the rain. It's amoral, unethical and the cops will have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow.
This is all Stephen Harper's fault! As if this wasn't totally predictable. Why hold these meetings in a metropolis with 3 million people? To put "Toronto on the map"? Is that necessary? I can't wait for that guy to get tossed out of office.
It has happened before. http://www.thestar.com/news/article/248608
Cops plant provocateurs in peaceful demonstration to provoke a reaction, and in turn use it as a reason to administer more force.
I kinda wanna slap this guy in the face. But I'm sure he's right that they are cops.
Anyhow - if anyone in the area is interested, there is a gathering with speakers in front of HQ to protest the behaviour of the police.
___________________________________________________
http://rabble.ca/babble/activism/protest-police-state-tactics-toronto-tonight-mon-june-28
EMERGENCY RALLY: PROTEST POLICE ABUSE OF POWER
DATE: Monday, June 28th
TIME: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
PLACE: Toronto Police Headquarters, 40 College Street
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=122237507819100&ref=mf
Protest police abuse of power and show your solidarity with those who have been arrested. Be there to defend our rights to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom to dissent!
Speakers:
Naomi Klein
Ben Powless
David McNally
Abeer Majeed
Testimonies from people who've been brutalized by police
Over the past two days, police have rounded and arrested up hundreds of people. They have been denied access to lawyers, telephones, food and water, and held in deplorable conditions in makeshift steel cages. Many have been beaten in the streets and in their homes; shot at with rubber bullets and tear gas; some have been sent to hospital with severe injuries. Hundreds are still in custody as of Sunday night.
We need to get our people out. We need to take our city back from the armed fortress that it has been turned into.
I think what is on people's minds is, not if they are infiltrating... But are they responsible for starting violence?
Like the video's in Quebec. A peaceful protest which cops are found to be a part of the crowd is not the a major deal. The fact that he's holding a rock is a very irresponsible action. And this action should be banned in Canada.
Also not unheard of in other arenas - also should not be allowed.
I don't know, I just don't find it that unbelievable...