G-20 Summit in Toronto

[yyzer]

Careful there. Those kinds of words might be taken the wrong way.

adma is right though - these aren't 'anarchists' - they're just a bunch of punks.....and like others have said, this is my city, and if you want to trash it, then f**k you....I hope they get what they deserve...a copper's nightstick across the back of the head....

 

[Torontovibe]

A lot of you guys have really bad information and you tend to overreact. I was at the protest march, mainly to film it and just for the experience. The anarchists or "Black Bloc" was just a small group of young kids. They all wore black and had their faces covered during the protest. They didn't cause much trouble during the march, except blocking people from filming them. I guess it wasn't until later, that they went on a rampage.
As for the damage on Yonge Street, not every second window was damaged. It was mainly the larger corporations like Nike, McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks and places like that. A few smaller businesses were damaged, like a jewelry shop but for the most part, it was large franchises.

People on the street were kind of in shock but at the same time, people seemed to be excited by all the action. Cameras were everywhere, with people posing beside smashed windows. lol Nobody seemed scared or in a panic, in fact it seemed to me that people were enjoying it. Yonge Street was full of people, gawking and filming everything. Hell, it's the most action we've seen in Toronto in a long time. It reminded me of Nuit Blanch, with something to catch your attention everywhere.

Is this the worst thing that has ever happened in Toronto? OK, a few cop cars got trashed and lots of windows of some very wealthy corporations got broken. Is Toronto's reputation forever ruined? Hardly! Every G8/G20 meeting seems the have similar results. The world will forget about this quite quickly and 100.000 people will have pictures of themselves in front of smashed windows covered with shit, to remember this crazy day. Nobody was killed, Trump Tower wasn't burned down and no dignitary had to witness it with their own eyes (god forbid) so putting this in perspective, we got off pretty easy. As for the police, well, they will all get a big, fat pay check paid by us, so they will all go home happy. Hey Chicken littles, the sky isn't falling and Toronto is The Centre Of The Universe for a few days. We will survive!

 

[egotrippin]

Well, like i said, I dind't have a chance to go out there untill about 8pm. I went down on university over to king, and then back up through UofT. By 10 pm the streets were literally empty, so indeed, I may have missed out on most of the commotion. I did notice few d***bags teasing and taunting the cops, but this still does not excuse the lack of professionalism exhibited by the cops. I mean, what was the point of their macho-man chants and shield banging. This is the G20 event, not some frat boy superbowl celebration.

By then the bulk of them had headed down to Front St., and eventually over to the Novotel. Considering the stress of dealing with this situation, I'd say the police acted accordingly. Besides, I was out for most of the day and witnessed very little unproffesionalism; banging the shields is a common tactic used when dispersing crowds. It's disorienting, and at first I even thought they'd started firing the plastic bullets.

For the record, I wasn't protesting. I've lumped them all into one big idiot camp, even the peaceful ones. They should do something productive, it's all a bunch of hippy nonsense.

Which buildings were spray painted or have been heavily vandalized?

Pretty much any building along Yonge, Queen, and Bay with any affiliation to a bank or corporate chain has had its windows smashed. There's some sloppy tagging on quite a few too, including the Bank of Nova Scotia Building at King and Bay. That was also one of the sites of the burning cop cars.

 

[nfitz]

part of me was excited when i turned on the news tonight though, seeing all the bedlam

omfg!

 

[nfitz]

A lot of you guys have really bad information and you tend to overreact. I was at the protest march, mainly to film it and just for the experience. The anarchists or "Black Bloc" was just a small group of young kids. They all wore black and had their faces covered during the parade. They didn't cause much trouble during the parade, except blocking people from filming them. I guess it wasn't until later, that they went on a rampage.
As for the damage on Yonge Street, not every second window was damaged. It was mainly the larger cororations like Nike, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks and places like that. A few smaller businesses were damaged, like a jewlery shop but for the most part, it was large franchises. People on the street were kind of in shock but at the same time, people seemed to be excited by all the action. Cameras were everywhere, with people posing beside smashed windows. lol Nobody seemed scared or in a panic, in fact it seemed to me that people were enjoying it. Yonge Street was full of people, gawking and filming everything. Hell, it's the most action we've seen in Toronto in a long time. It reminded me of Nuit Blanch, with something to catch your attention everywhere.
Is this the worst thing that has ever happened in Toronto? OK, a few cop cars got trashed and lots of windows of some very wealthy corporations got broken. Is Toronto's reputation forever ruined? Hardly! Every G8/G20 meeting seems the have similar results. The world will forget about this quite quickly and 100.000 people willhave pictures to remember this day. Nobody was killed, Trump Tower wasn't burned down and no dignitary had to witness it with their own eyes (god forbid) so putting this in perspective, we got off pretty easy. As for the police, well, they will all get a big, fat pay check paid by us, so they will all go home happy. Hey Chicken littles, they sky isn't falling

People who make pro-violence comments like this disgust me.

 

[egotrippin]

Well I spoke too soon. Something's going on at the end of my street, but it's blocked by squad cars and they motioned to not come any closer. It's so narrow I can't quite see what's happening. It's a dead end too, and I really want to get some food.

 

[Torontovibe]

People who make pro-violence comments like this disgust me.

Was I advocating violence? What did I say that was pro violence? Um, I'm actually anti-violence. I was happy nobody got seriously hurt or killed. (including the police) I'd rather see windows get broken than people. Is there something wrong with me not getting worked up by broken windows? Am I glad windows got broken? NO! I just think that when you put it all into perspective, it's not so terrible. The government or insurance companies will pay for all the damage. Our beloved Yonge Street will go back to its scruffy, normal self, very soon.

 

[insertrealname]

Not a typical Saturday afternoon stroll...

After all the rain today, I was needing to get outside and walk, so at 3pm I went on foot to Queen/Yonge, reaching it at 4pm, and then walked south to Adelaide, west partway to Bay, and then back-tracked through the parkette just north of Adelaide back onto Yonge, and then up toBloor/Yonge to take the Bloor subway & 72 bus back home.

While I walked down towards Adelaide at the start, the Black Bloc--who I didn't recognize as such right away, because they seemed to be holding some kind flags with Chairman Mao on them, so I misidentified them as idiotic old-school Maoists, something I thought was entirely extinct in Western protest groups--were marching up Yonge, preceded by one very agitated Toronto policeman shouting "They've got weapons, they are violent, get out of their way!!!". Given that these Black Bloc people were actually rather subdued in their general comportment at that point (I had no idea at that point that they had just trashed the area around Spadina) and did not seem to be threatening any of the other few gawkers that were tagging along with them, I just went on my quiet way, keeping an eagle eye on what was going around me.

I was able to go as far as Bay/Adelaide, but backtracked between blocks as I have already described when a line of riot police tried to form a line blocking a return on Adelaide. I was uncertain if the Toronto police would use "kettleing" tactics of cordoning people into groups in order to detain them--I didn't want to get caught up in that!

What I find hard to understand in police tactics was the failure to completely surround ("kettle") the so-called anarchists while they were still south of Queen/Yonge, i.e. during their northbound progress on Yonge between Adelaide and Queen, or on the east-bound segment on Adelaide between Bay and Yonge. These violent people (roughly max. 200 strong, maybe less, all in black and bearing terribly old-hat Maoist slogans) were marching in a relatively compact group, about 50 metres long, separated by about 100 metres from the vocal but entirely non-violent "Our Streets" demonstrators that had followed them in breaking out of the Queen St march route apparently followed by the main march that afternoon.

There was *no* lack of police attired in anti-riot equipment on that segment of Yonge, and more seemed in reserve on side streets. They spent their energies in denying the "Our Streets" crowd south-bound access to Yonge and further east-bound progress on Adelaide: the protesters showed little sign of wanting to continue in that direction, and not much interest in going north either. After about a half hour of observing the stand-off at Yonge/Adelaide, the police in side streets further north, suddenly, in a roughly ten minute period, entirely abandoned lining up to deny people access to east-bound streets. I left northward and was astonished, once past Queen, to find that the pseudo-maoists had managed to shatter windows of such symbolic "globalisation monsters" as Starbucks, Foot-Locker, Money Mart and Tim Hortons. Wow, talk about their depth of political analytical skills and tactics, eh?!? (Although the act of destroying Tim Hortons property will probably guarantee the Conservatives a majority of seats in the 905 in the next election...)

My impression was that north of Queen/Yonge, where the smashing on Yonge St. began, there were too many observers/passersby for the police to intervene in forceful anti-riot formations, it should and could have been done before that point.

All in all, I'm really perplexed by my very brief partial view of the riot control tactics of the police, especially since the only violent demonstraters were the easily distinguished Black Bloc. Do any of you have some ideas what the police were trying to do? I hate to entertain such tin-foil-hat explanations as property destruction had to occur for public opinion purposes, because the powers-that-be want to polarize public opinion to place any peaceful dissent as being in the same class as the rioters, something that peaceful marches cannot do.

Anyway, that was the extent of my Saturday constitutional stroll around the eastern parts of Toronto's downtown, I can't say anything about matters west of Bay St.

 

[DTGeek]

The government or insurance companies will pay for all the damage. Our beloved Yonge Street will go back to its scruffy, normal self, very soon.

You do realize that the fact the GOVERNMENT and INSURANCE companies will be paying means that the brunt of the cost of this vandalism will be paid for by average, hard working Ontarians, right? That these idiots are doing more damage to the pocketbooks of struggling families than they are to corporate profits?

Will they also pay for the millions in lost business because of lock downs etc.? Yours is exactly the attitude those spoiled brat thugs undoubtedly have - they've probably never cared about being destructive and wasteful because mommy and daddy are around to take care of everything. And FYI, nobody being hurt or killed does not make these actions non-violent in the least, so yes, your comments were pro-violence and disgusting. But take heart, you didn't advocate killing anybody, so your comments could have been worse.

 

[khris]

After all the rain today, I was needing to get outside and walk, so at 3pm I went on foot to Queen/Yonge, reaching it at 4pm, and then walked south to Adelaide, west partway to Bay, and then back-tracked through the parkette just north of Adelaide back onto Yonge, and then up toBloor/Yonge to take the Bloor subway & 72 bus back home.

While I walked down towards Adelaide at the start, the Black Bloc--who I didn't recognize as such right away, because they seemed to be holding some kind flags with Chairman Mao on them, so I misidentified them as idiotic old-school Maoists, something I thought was entirely extinct in Western protest groups--were marching up Yonge, preceded by one very agitated Toronto policeman shouting "They've got weapons, they are violent, get out of their way!!!". Given that these Black Bloc people were actually rather subdued in their general comportment at that point (I had no idea at that point that they had just trashed the area around Spadina) and did not seem to be threatening any of the other few gawkers that were tagging along with them, I just went on my quiet way, keeping an eagle eye on what was going around me.

Those people you mention were not the Black Bloc. They didn't have flags.

 

[Torontovibe]

My trek up Yonge Street, probably an hour after the Black Bloc got through trashing it.[video=youtube;oQ0UaAOpq9w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ0UaAOpq9w[/video]

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

My trek up Yonge Street, probably an hour after the Black Bloc got through trashing it.

Re: Your Tim Hortons comment in your video, take a look on Sunday to what's left of the one at College & Yonge.

I'm really shocked at the casual and cavalier attitude that I've been seeing both on the street (I walked down to Gerrard & Yonge tonight) and on the news (CTV, CityTV, CBC) by the gawkers who are laughing at the damage, rushing to be photographed in front of burnt out police cars & broken windows like they are tourist attractions of some sort and the loser scragglers taunting and teasing the police. I'm just stunned.

Where was any part of this billion dollar operation when havoc was being reined upon in the financial district, Queen West and Yonge Street? We need a full public inquiry into this entire matter from how this bill got passed to search people without cause or warrants to the disaster that we witnessed today. Shameful.

 

[madmolecule]

Hopefully the vandals will be apprehended and punished. There are probably a lot of photos or videos of them (e.g. here, and on the Toronto Star website), so maybe someone will recognize them. These websites also describe their tactic of changing into "civilian" clothes afterward, often shielded from view by a group of "civilian"-looking accomplices surrounding them. Their m.o. appears to be to get as much media exposure as possible - e.g., by wearing the distinctive costume, doing the damage during daylight hours, in crowded places, in "high-profile" areas. In many of the photos, they are surrounded by people taking photos of them. On occasion, they appear to threaten journalists taking photos, or destroy media equipment, but this is probably in the service of getting more attention.

I think that the majority of the posters here, the nonviolent protesters and citizens of Toronto deplore this violence to our city. The "black bloc" had a very obvious and distinctive appearance, and if the public had been made aware of this threat beforehand (assuming that the government was aware of it, which should have been the case since this group has shown up at other summits), maybe people could have kept more of an eye out for them, rather than relying on the police, to prevent this from happening.

These vandals had a well-planned operation, and at least some of them were familiar enough with the city to know the "high-profile" areas and plan a tactical route. In my opinion, for most of these individuals, this would not be the only time ever that they did something like this, so they probably were involved in other acts of vandalism or violence at high-profile events or protests.

But again, I question the point of having this summit in the middle of a city anyway.

 

[casaguy]

Round them up and throw them in the meat grinder... they have nothing helpful to offer this world.

I'm with you, Redroom. These ignorant bottom feeders must have nothing else to offer the world so why not bust up some shit to get attention -- but while being cowards and covering up their white-priviledged identities.

I still can't get over how police allowed these pathetic people to bust up Yonge Street (including every Mom 'n' Pop store). How the hell could police have been "caught by surprise"? It's not like the protesters suddenly decided to smash their way up Roncesvalles.

And I also can't believe how almost every single "legitimate protester" laughed, egged them on and did nothing to stop it. There is a stunning amount of video tape to back that claim up.

And for what?

I just saw a report on CTV where their reporter Austin Delaney and his camera man caught some of the black clad punks trying to change their clothes to blend in with the crowd. They tried to threaten him but he wasnt backing down at all. Time for some vigilante justice! or atleast video evidence!

Here are some of the criminal low-lifes. Get their faces out there. Send these to everyone!

^The face of a true loser.

^ Caught on video - G20 Toronto Vandals / Criminals black clad bottom-feeders captured changing their clothes - Photo evidence

 

[buildup]

No amount of policing can prevent a few windows from being broken for heaven's sake. We need some perspective here.