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G-20 Summit in Toronto

Peepers said:
The only press release on the Police site regarding G20 arrests concerns the British prank filmmaker who was charged with "impersonating a police officer" for jokingly telling a security guard that he was an undercover cop acting as an agent provocateur.

Over a 1000 arrests and the ONLY announcement of formal charges from the cops is some prankster who is guilty of having a poor sense of humour?
Click to expand...

Aww yeah, nothing like cops getting rough and cocky with people who won't do anything, but they're nowhere to be seen when the real a-holes are out in full force! :rolleyes:

Maybe this kind of crap worked when there was no digital media, but their game is up this time. The whole world saw them do jack on Saturday but have a completely unreasonable reaction to protesters on Sunday.

I think they're dumber than they think they are, but clearly they were smart enough to sacrifice their crummy Crown Victoria cruisers because they know with the excessive amount of money they got for their piss-poor performance, they can now get some of those fancy new Charger cruisers.

I don't support the thugs or the rabble rousers but I strongly support those who wanted to protest to voice their displeasure with the G-20 and its agenda.
 
Peepers said:
EXACTLY!

If he is still on the loose there is just no reasonable explanation why the cops would not release his picture to the media. I don't care how hot a trail they are on they would not want to risk him escaping the city or country.

If he has already been arrested I am also certain that the police would have announced this with great fanfare and released his picture along with an appeal to the public that if anyone witnessed him commit other crimes that they come forward. This has not happened!

The only press release on the Police site regarding G20 arrests concerns the British prank filmmaker who was charged with "impersonating a police officer" for jokingly telling a security guard that he was an undercover cop acting as an agent provocateur.

Over a 1000 arrests and the ONLY announcement of formal charges from the cops is some prankster who is guilty of having a poor sense of humour?
Click to expand...

As this article says, the "Toronto Community Mobilization Network estimate between 30 and 100 people remain in jail"

Just because someone hasn't been paraded for the cameras, doesn't mean they aren't in custody. There hasn't been any action of the sort yet. In the next few weeks as they go through video I would suspect they will lay many charges on each person - they don't want to only charge someone with one crime, they want to get every single action they did. I wouldn't be surprised for when it happens that people get 10 plus charges.

It takes work to put together an evidentary chain, to be able to definitively say: block bloc protestor x is this person who committed y crimes while wearing a mask / disguise. Hold your horses - these are professional officers and crown prosecutors, not a kangaroo / show trial court.
 
RedRoom Studios - that video is hysterical. I won't be able to watch Fox News in the same way again.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
I can buy a similar Arc'teryx jacket...QUOTE]

No question that is a nice jacket. Its like something my late Mother cross-country skied in.

This discussion would settle down nicely if we could all meet up and simply say "ok, wanna bet?" Its a useful way to terminate bickering (marital or otherwise). Because, while it sounds childish, asking people to put their money where their mouth is on a specific point immediately reveals whether someone has conviction.

For example, I agree its possible the protestor is a police plant because crazier things have happened. Maybe he was an undercover cop of low intelligence who got caught up etc. But I am willing to bet he was not. Given the profile this guy has gotten I think its nearly certain we are going to find out soon.

Of course, what then happens is losers immediately move off and pick up another view. But they are $100 poorer, and the challenge can be repeated. This can be very annoying.

I am not being frivilous , its also a good way to test one's own convictions. So, where would you put your money? I invite everyone who has taken a stance on this particular protestor to place a bet with themselves. Loser pay to charity.
Click to expand...
 
It's hard to look at the G20 Riot and call it a riot.

Thousands of people in the Los Angeles area rioted over the six days following the Rodney King verdict. Widespread looting, assault, arson and murder occurred, and property damages topped roughly US$1 billion. In all, 53 people died during the riots and thousands more were injured.

Now that's a riot.
 
It's interesting that in Toronto most seem to condemn those who were vandalizing and looting, and protests here have been about the overreactions of the police, and frequent lies of the police chief.

In Montreal however, they seem to be protesting about Toronto police arresting Quebeckers, and violating their right to destroy property:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...demn+police+actions+during/3226184/story.html

I guess even if the protesters did beat journalists, and arrest TTC employees, they did one thing right!
 
A very interesting article from Joe Warmington in the Toronto Sun:

http://www.torontosun.com/news/colu...ts/joe_warmington/2010/06/30/pf-14564416.html

Warmington has many close contacts INSIDE the Police force and they CONFIRMED to him that on Saturday when the vandals were on their rampage officers received "a clear order from the command centre saying 'Do not engage'



It seems to me that within the Police force such a grave order could only come from one person - BILL BLAIR! Who gave Blair this order?

The public must demand answers and the persons responsible for giving this order to stand down not only fired but criminally charged with dereliction of duty.

We were actually very lucky last weekend. Things could have been much worse. Imagine if rioters had set stores on fire? Entire city blocks could have been burnt to the ground. Many lives could have been lost.
 
Probably felt that if it was just window breaking (which it was) that getting into running street battles might inflame and spread the violence out. It was still pretty tame stuff, and the strategy proved out.
 
It seems more and more that the goal of the police was to curb democracy: to beat up protesters and journalists.

That's why the police let the Black Bloc do whatever they want and seemingly disappeared for the only time during the event. It gave them excuse to go on rampage upon people who exercising the democratic rights. Even the weapons they displayed afterwards was designed to make protesters look bad as they showed off weapons that had nothing to do with the protest.

It seems to me that the whole focus of the police all along was not to control the violent protesters, but to control the peaceful protesters and to control the media. That's why all of the people arrested or beaten by police are all peaceful protesters or media and not a single formal charge has been laid.
 
G8 AND G20 SUMMITS
Canadians Want Federal Government to Pick Up the Tab for G20 Disruption

Respondents across the country—and in the City of Toronto—feel disgusted and ashamed after last weekend’s demonstrations.
[TORONTO – Jul. 1, 2010] –

Canadians and Torontonians think the federal government should be responsible for compensating the businesses that were negatively affected during the G20 summit in the country's largest city, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

The online survey of representative samples of 1,003 Canadian adults and 503 adult residents of the City of Toronto finds that people hold negative views on the demonstrations that took place last weekend as the gathering of world leaders took place.

Summit and Protests
Three-in-ten Canadians (31%) and almost half of Torontonians (46%) say they followed the final communiqués from participating nations "very closely" or "moderately closely." A majority of respondents across the country (53%) and four-in-five who reside in the G20 host city (86%) paid the same level of attention to the demonstrations.

Respondents were asked about their feelings about the demonstrations that took place in Toronto during the G20 summit. Two-thirds of Canadians (69%) are disgusted, 59 per cent are ashamed, 57 per cent are angry, and 54 per cent are sad. In Toronto, the proportion of respondents who reported negative feelings was higher (Disgust 81%, Anger 74%, Sadness 65%, Shame 61%).

KEY FINDINGS

80% of Canadians and 90% of Torontonians want the federal government to compensate businesses that suffered damages or had to close during the G20 summit

66% of Canadians and 73% of Torontonians believe the reaction of the police in Toronto to the demonstrations was justified
Full topline results are at the end of this release.

From June 28 to June 29, 2010, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 1,003 randomly selected Canadian adults and 503 City of Toronto adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1% for the Canadian sample, and 4.4 per cent for the Toronto sample, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult populations of Canada and the City of Toronto. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.


Police Reaction and Compensation

When asked about the reaction of the police in Toronto to the demonstrations, two-thirds of Canadians (66%) and three-in-four Torontonians (73%) believe it was justified. In addition, 57 per cent of respondents across the country think it was a mistake to hold the G20 summit in Toronto—a view shared by 73 per cent of Toronto residents.

Toronto Mayor David Miller has said he will be asking the federal government to compensate businesses that suffered damages or had to close during the G20 summit in Toronto. An overwhelming proportion of Canadians (80%) and Torontonians (90%) agree with this course of action.
 
Black Bloc refers to a strategy, not a group. There is no Black Bloc, only people who use the Black Bloc strategy.
 
Message to S. Harper: Before it is Canada's turn to host this again, could we please get a suitable location, well away from a large urban area? Given that "Black Bloc" or other similar idiots will certainly show up, we really can't have these gatherings any more in Toronto or any other major cities. Any "visibility" for Toronto in the world media just isn't worth it.

Someone on a phone-in show suggested using the air base at Trenton. Foreign leaders could fly in and virtually pull right up to the door of a conference facility. The area can be easily secured. It would cost some money to build a suitable facility, but it's a one-time expense and would surely be offset by much lower security costs.
 
Or, I suggest again, why didn't we just offer to expand facilities in Huntsville? That way, it's not a one time event, as it'd expand the capacity of the biggest centre in cottage country, which is an investment that probably could actually recoup it's costs in real dollars. Why did nobody put this up as a suggestion?

EDIT: Better message to S. Harper: just resign already!
 
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