Here are the punks in question:
THE BLACK BLOCK:
These are the guys who they told us would come: The hardcore professional protesters bent on violence and anarchy. Of course, they really aren't protesters. What they were protesting god only knows. Clearly they are just a bunch of over educated, underemployed, living on their student loan spoiled brats with a bad case of boredom and a sense of entitlement.
These people, and it seemed a fairly small group, are punks not only for the fact they are into violence and anarchy for the sake of violence and anarchy but as violent anarchists go ... they suck! Oh sure, they trashed a couple of cop cars, set them on fire, and they threw billiard balls through bank windows .. this is shocking by the standards of my lovely staid Toronto but really, look at the rest of the world and all the protests that happen on a weekly basis. These guys are rank amateurs. Makes me think they are homegrown rather than the rumoured imports. They just come across as third rate
THE TORONTO POLICE DEPT:
Yup, these guys had punkish behaviour too. OK so we spend a billion dollars on security. We knew this kind of thing was going to happen. There were thousands of cops out in the street, from regular uniforms to riot squads, to undercover cops. All of them were there Saturday when the violence went down. It was not a surprise. The black block came downtown with a larger protest group, then did their presto chango to their superbady guy black pants and bandannas then announced where they were going and what they were going to do.
On the live TV feed you could see that there were cops there when windows were being busted and when the cop cars were set on fire.
By all accounts, the entire black block was comprised of about 70 individuals and it didn't look like that there were that many of them working together at any one time. And to repeat, there were thousands of cops down there. Yet all these cops did was stand and watch. Sure, the official version was that they were "containing" the situation. Yet they were not. The hooligans were able to move and strike at will. One of the cop cars was allowed to burn for more than an hour before the cops even let the fire dept in and the black block was long gone by then.
What's up with that? The cops say they did not want to inspire even more violence. Yet I clearly saw scenes where less than five people were actively observed by dozens of cops in the middle of committing crimes of property damage. In the Entertainment District on a Saturday night, if three drunken dudes toss a beer can they are jumped by half a dozen cops ...
But here is where the real punkish attitude comes in. The next day. Today. Today the cops made hundreds of arrests around town. Early this morning they raided the U of T campus and arrested 70 people. Today, at the detention centre, during a peaceful protest, dozens of people were bum rushed by heavily armed cops and carried away.
Some of these were clear cases of people who were barely protesting, they were down at the centre, milling about, questioning the goings on. For that they were jumped by multiple cops and hauled off to the detention centre. Anywhere today where a group gathered, no matter what they were doing, people were being shot with gas and in some cases bum rushed. Several members of the media were treated thusly.
It seems to me that a lot of people were being targeted and I just don't mean members of the Black Block. I mean legitimate activists were being raided and hauled off to the detention centre .. yesterday criminals ran at will in the street. Today, those who dissent the government has their rights trampled.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the biggest punk of all. He's a punk for:
That's being a punk. Yeh, we looked really bad yesterday, so today we are going to prove how macho we are by jumping on whomever we can. Really, this seems like it was done out of spite. By the police. Nice work guys.
PRIME MINISTER HARPER & THE LEADERS:
Holding an event that endangered my city without a clear individual mandate to do so
Spending more on hosting this event than what he's pledged to en better the lives of women all over the world
Hiding safely behind his fence and his armoured cars and his military helicopters while businesses are damaged and cops are put into the line of fire
Granting police and security forces "special powers" that seemingly enabled them to target legitimate social activists (like during the U of T raid) as well as the hooligans .. and where do these powers end and when? He isn't saying. Can we remember the FLQ crises? Yes we can
So in conclusion: The G20 summit. Businesses suffered for about a week before from having no customers, some businesses and institutions had to shut down. Property damage. Real injuries to people. Something on the order of 500 people arrested in two days and god knows where that data is being stored and for what ....
Let's call the whole fucking thing a punk
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