If you’re wondering why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto, this video exemplifies our reasons…
124 Replies to “A Difference in Values”
“Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.”
Is that the cry of the WooHoo?
Those look like the street car tracks that run down the middle of Queen or Dundas St. west of Spadina .
If that’s so – There is nowhere to pull over for the police.
Last summer the tracks were torn up, new concrete slabs were poured and new tracks were laid.
One lane only for car traffic with barricades on the sidewalk.
The freaks are standing on the slabs – there is literally nowhere to pull over to park.
Those are 14 division Toronto cops.
The batshit craziest section of Toronto.
We’re talking Entertainment district, Kensington Market, China Town, and Parkdale.
Are you kidding me!!?
Those cops are too tired to even think of rolling up and hassling some smelly hippies, for yuks.
Those cops have heard and seen it all.
Those screaming musician morons pass as respectable freaks compared to the absolutely filthy street people that wash car windows, fight, smash-and-grab and do meth all day, on almost every major intersection in 14 division.
Fourteen division must have had a million calls to send a car.
That was horrible music, to boot , I’m sure if the hippies would have just unplugged nobody would have cared.
Downtown Toronto is a right off electorially for any conservative.
I don’t know how many of the posters on this site have ever claimed to be libertarians – I’m certainly not one – but for all those who would extol the virtues of “libertarianism – the notion that the law should stay out of our lives as much as possible”, have you ever considered that maybe you only want the law when you wish to silence others?
If you honestly wanted the law to stay out of your lives, you’d see just how quickly those of us who work and pay taxes (ever notice how few conservative marches there are?) would take ONE day off to round you up and put you in work camps somewhere north of the 60th parallel.
If you’re wondering why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto, this video exemplifies our reasons…
It’s been a very long week and I’m a bit sleep deprived after working 40 hours in three days so I can earn enough to keep those transfer payments coming to provinces that, once they get some oil wealth, turn into miniature Saudis and tell the rest of us to go hump ourselves. So, being tired, I’m not getting it.
Kate, how does this exemplify your reasons? Is it that the punks were out on the street, in the under-construction right-of-way for a streetcar line? Or is it that the cops cleared them off?
Not sure what about this captures the essence of the western hate-on that seems to be, ever increasingly, directed not towards corrupt and self-serving eastern politicians, but to everyday common-or-garden Canadians.
“As to why they did not move along when politely asked to by police shows their….”
Narcissm, sense of entitlement, childishness, ‘specialness’, sociopathology ….
That guy being carted away sure looked like Warren Kinsella…
“Let the man [being arrested] take his dog!”
You mean Kate wouldn’t have sympathy for that? Just kidding.
Otherwise, I can confirm that – yup – that’s my Toronto, and more so every year.
If a street isn’t being closed for another festival of dubious cultural value and quality, it’s being taken over by pampered, pseudo-anarchist protesters or unwashed, pierced, tattooed, dredlocked skeevs who think the world is their Woodstock.
“As the hipster ‘tards pointed out to the cops, they weren’t the ones blocking traffic. So what exactly was the reason for stopping the performance?”
A fair question, maybe it was the disturbance on a public roadway in front of what are clearly homes. Maybe you’d like to have 20 people hold an impromptu concert in front of your house – when your street is already under construction – with amps.
It’s so hard to keep massaging your outrage, isn’t it, hate and anger junkies?
Someone posts a lame-o video of the cops cracking down on street musicians and you guys are all salivating watching it, waiting for the clubs to start cracking those hippies’ heads.
Those hippies so free, playing music in the middle of the day while I have to work at my crappy job (you say) – Please, please, Mr. Policeman they must be destroyed! They’re having fun and they’re individuals and they think for themselves! They must be destroyed! They HAVE to be!
Most libertarians are a joke – lefties who don’t want to pay tax and righties who want to smoke pot. Any ethical conservative of liberal should be concerned about government overreach, but that doesn’t make you a libertarian.
No problem with this yahoo being apprehended. If I lived on that street, I’d be calling the police to ask to be delivered from the crap music and the entitled human riff-raff clogging up my view and my psychological space.
Anarchy is not acceptable just because “in your opinion” these guys weren’t “doing any harm in the middle of the day.” I don’t care what time of day it is: Just because the TTC is fixing their tracks doesn’t give any group, I repeat ANY GROUP, the right to take over the space for their own purposes, especially when they’re contributing to noise pollution.
I live in Toronto. I’m fed up with the uncivil behaviour I encounter every day, on every street, in what used to be Toronto the Good. Every day I see the kind of juvenile–no, infantile–behaviour these “musicians” exhibited (you’re a musician because you THINK/SAY you’re a musician?? Well, think again, bozos.).
I’m glad the police were called and responded and only wish there were more police to nip this kind of street theatre without a permit in the bud. The police were polite, they were within their rights to ask these guys to close down, and things got ugly only when the smelly groupies started to razz the police. Too bad. So Sad: Daddy gets hauled into the police cruiser.
Maybe he and all the smelly hippies will think twice the next time before they think they can do what they want, when they want, free of any consequences. The rest of us have to obey the law.
Why do they think they don’t have to?
Utter tripe, rpall.
Go back to your playpen.
Actually, the entertainment district and most of Chinatown is in 55 Division. http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/d52/neighbourhoods.php
I’d say South Parkdale and Bloor/Lansdowne are 14 Division’s hot policing areas.
Sorry, 52 Division.
Not sure I would hold this against Torontonians.
Making an arse of themselves on the street would slow down traffic due to idiot rubber neckers.
The bald guy called the police down on himself by acting the fool. Alls they had to do was move along, politely requested by people with guns.
Looked like they may have been trying to film a music video.
It looks like a residential neighborhood. Who is providing the power for their equipment? Did someone call the police because of the noise? I can’t make out a lot that is being said on this thing, so I don’t fully understand it. Lot’s of missing facts, but I don’t think it is just open season to perform music, amplified, on a residential street.
To those defending the mob:
The young mother on the second floor, one house down, puts her new baby down for a much needed nap,
the elderly couple across the street are resting in their recliners,
the college student across the way, sits down at the kitchen table to cram for a professional faculty entrance exam,
and then,
the mob of loud, narcissists who feel that their oh so precious talents go horribly unrecognized (when the element of choice at listening to them is involved), start blaring away in the street, demanding all around to enter their fantasy of musical grandeur.
No doubt one of the above peaceful residents called in to stop the “forced listening”,
and the narcissists cry of oppression akin to the Tiannamen Square massacre.
Typical.
That’s just a few blocks down from my workplace, on Bathurst St. where they’re replacing the streetcar tracks. Good thing the punks did this on a Sunday — any other day and the construction crews would’ve paved right over them.
“Shame on you”? Whaddaya gonna do about it, punks? I noticed that none of the drivers seemed too upset about the holdup — they’re probably enjoying watching the Midnight Oil wanna-be get nicked.
But I don’t see anything particularly Toronto-ish about this. Like others have said, every semi-large city has neighborhoods over-run by drunk, selfish yahoos with an infantile sense of entitlement. Thanks to the universality of generous welfare and bad schools, it’s now a bedrock part of our shared Canadian culture. Alas.
Torontonians are like other people, only more so 😉
I just wished that the OPP would arrest the indian blockaders as quickly as they arrested these white guys.
The Kings Of Rock look like they’re standing on the most recently poured concrete slab, it’s still covered with plastic.
Toronto is an absolute shit hole full of queers, socialists and misfits
me thinks the Greek should git outa moma’s basement once in a while, I’v seen as bad and worst in Singcouver, Halifax, Winterpig, and that great FN reserve, down town edmunton
From today’s newspaper in another city:
“Winnipeg: peaceful but messy. Such is the picture of this city that emerges from a federal government report released Tuesday, measuring public concern over incivility in major Canadian cities.
About one in five Winnipeggers reported problems with noisy neighbours, drug users and people who were drunk, rowdy or simply hanging around, said the report, based on data collected by the 2004 General Social Survey, an annual study that monitors trends in Canadian society.
For the report, Statistics Canada used data from 11,000 people aged 15 and over to measure incivility in the country’s 12 largest Census Metropolitan Areas.
Nineteen per cent of Winnipeg respondents listed concerns with social incivility — problems related to public behaviour.
That put the city just below the national average of 21 per cent and well behind cities such as Vancouver, where 26 per cent of respondents reported concerns, and Montreal, where 24 per cent of respondents gave public behaviour a thumbs-down.” http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/story/4199496p-4791144c.html
The incivil are everywhere; Toronto has no monopoly on them. Although I have to admit, the bunch in this video seemed to be worse than the usual incivil vermin.
Earth calling Ontario.
Can’t wait till Suzuki calls for an airstrike from Cold Lake on pregnant wives in Saskatoon.
West out now. It’s the nature of things. My only concern is building a new National War Memorial in Edmonton.
Y’all don’t come back now, ya hear?
You want to judge the entire area by that incident…fine….how many people ended up participating by honking horns….one….and he stopped really quickly.
two of torontos finest are able to quell an unruly crowd quickly and without major incident…I would say that means a pretty docile population…..more docile than the last riots I saw in vancouver.
I think you were reaching on this one.
I dont know what Toronto police policy is regarding blocking traffic but that seemed like an abuse of their power to do it.
On the other hand, yah get the hippy band off the street, just dont block the whole friggin street when the hippy musicians where not bothering traffic.
I don’t ever recall that “concerts” on construction sites are “not doing anything to anybody”. It’s an active site. Obviously, the new “pour” hasn’t been done and just where is their electricity coming from? I hope not from a semi-buried cable source.
Stupid arrest? Probably. Stupid “street” musicians? Probably.
Besides, never, ever trust a guy with a bass clarinet8{D). (which I never, ever played…much.)
“…No doubt one of the above peaceful residents called in to stop the “forced listening”.
I’m glad that you know that, Biff, although you don’t explain how. As I said in an earlier post, the policeman never said anything about a complaint, and the video looks like it was taken at mid-day. At least three times, he said that the hippies were obstructing traffic, when they clearly weren’t
My “guess” is that the “performers” were in their own neighbourhood and were opportunistically taking advantage of the availability of that nice slab of new concrete, to kick up a little. Why would they drag their gear around from some other neighbourhood and, as someone else has pointed out, where would they get power if they didn’t have access to an outlet.
So, the police don’t like folks like that any more than we do but, they’re sworn to “serve and protect” not “hassle and intimidate”.
Some of the hateful prose posted above is spooky stuff to a law and order guy like me. In rougher times and places, yours are the sort of attitudes that would have bred lynch mobs. Damned good thing that the most vociferous are sitting at your computers and not driving around TO with Glocks on your hips.
Perhaps they were singing in support of Baby-Face Khadr?
Historically, and today in many rural areas, there is little conflict between personal liberty on one hand, and “peace, order, and good government” on the other, because people have some concept of civility. In nearly every city, where such civility is required to enable us to live together in such close proximity, it appears to be disappearing rapidly.
The growing incivility arises seems to me to be associated with the narcissism that put one’s stereo speakers in the window to entertain the neighbours who don’t want to hear your music, or equips one’s car with a sound system that cannot help but share your revolting sounds with those stuck in traffic with you, or that finds its self-expression in graffiti on our public (and more and more often on our private) property.
Yes, the police do have better things to do, but in places like Caledonia they aren’t allowed to do them, and, in this case, they may well have prevented serious disorder arising from frustrated residents doing serious damage to the musicians and their equipment.
“…why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto…”
Hah, that is as close to political correctness as I’ve heard from a host here. It’s a bonafide Canadian tradition from coast to coast to really hate Toronto.It’s the one thing still holding this country together.
I would like to make another more serious point I believe has been ignored.
Alcohol.
And as far as drugs go, this is a f*cking nasty one.
Talk to any street cop in any city in North America and they’ll probably tell you that alcohol related incidents make up the majority of their calls.
The more I ponder it, I can only reflect that this particular dangerous drug is given a free pass because so many enjoy it.
That or declaring something legal suddenly makes it moral too.Nonetheless, this probably would have been avoided if he was not swelled up with drunken ‘bravado’.(Of course I’m trusting the officer’s assertions)
Anyways, I was also struck by the politeness and professionalism the cops showed the twit but it was astonishing that they ended up being the ones causing a disturbance.To completely block traffic, including city buses, on a non-emergency call was simply ignorant and arrogant.
Oh, and to the whiney woman in the crowd, yes, he WAS resisting arrest.
I love how everyone is basing their argument on the assumption that somebody must have complained.
Great way to make an argument: base it on non-existent evidence. Then use the double-negative fallacy to ridicule anyone who might try to counter this assumption for which there is absolutely no evidence.
Try making arguments based upon what is actually seen and heard in the video, not your preconceptions.
This is hardly SDA material.
Disturbing the Peace happens all the time, all across the country. Using a routine call like this to claim hatred against a region is idiotic (that is leveled right at you, Greek).
If anything, it makes me like Toronto even more. Obviously some people were making a lot of noise. They were drinking. People living there must have called it in. The cops show up, ask them to turn it off. They appear to be intoxicated. One of them tries to get people in their cars to honk their horns in protest, and runs away from the police. He refuses to comply with their orders. They arrest him. Textbook case.
But I still don’t see what the f*ck this has to do with anything important.
Maybe Kate should screen your posts Greek.
The post at the Live Leak site, presumably by the guy who shot the video, reads:
“July 13, 2008 – While construction is being carried out on a street, these street performers decide to set up and perform for the waiting motorists. Police received a complaint and arrived to shut the performance down.”
Thankfully the idiot vote is split between the NDP and the Greens.
From Toronto the Good to Toronto the Weird in one generation. What scarier is that both the cops and the acid-dippers probably vote Liberal.
OMMAG wrote at July 16, 2008 8:42 PM:
“I’m going out on a limb here and guessing….. that was Lack Layton’s riding …. Right?”
Wasn’t that Jack with his new-vacation-haircut being hauled away?
Posted by: OMMAG at July 16, 2008 8:42 PM
How incredibly ironic that these yuppie punks have ZERO respect for the police and yet they and their ilk are the same ones in full support of Khadr.
Wither Canada.
I’d bet $1 that if the police weren’t there, the (um) participants would have been busking those captive commuters (and berating those who did not contribute). Good on the two officers for their Canadian response. The idiot earned his arrest.
My wtf moment is when I noticed the band member with the bass clarinet.
Shame,shame, sounds like the Sask. legislature from a few years back. Mr. Romanow comes to mind.
TO THE TORONTO CITY POLICE: What you do is get that dick brain in your cruiser, and when the car is away from the crowds, you drive down an alley. A: Give him three good shots of your Tazer in the ribs. B: Slam his guitar fingers in the door of the cruiser twice. C: A swift knee in the nuts might help. D: After he’s out, drop him off at Greyhound depot, and ship him to Calgary. We’ll take care of the rest.
“… don’t care much for Toronto”
Hey, I resemble that remark!
And Brad, don’t forget my niece, her husband and daughter.
What a bunch of turds show up when Toronto is mentioned.
Wow, that was interesting…
Let me respond to some specfic charges first… This is hardly SDA material…Maybe Kate should screen your posts Greek.
Ninety comments to the post so far say different. me thinks the Greek should git outa moma’s basement once in a while,
Spent a night in every one of our provinces. A lot of people can’t say that… So I have been out of momma’s basement on occasion.
For the obtuse, the point of the post was that not everyone from Toronto act like this person in the video, but it is a stereotype that has been perpetuated out in the West. Would this not be similar to Garth Turner’s (and other Liberals for that matter) characterization of Albertans as rednecks?
The point is Toronto is seen by many in the West as Liberal/NDP socialists with contempt for the law, especially when they are breaking it. Once they get arrested they cry like Khadr asking for his mom. This video reinforced a stereotype that many in Toronto have added to.
It’s the only way I can explain why Liberals and the NDP consistently represent that city. There has to be more of these idiots out there than this one guy.
Toronto flat out stinks.
All you have to do is walk around for a few minutes to realise it.
Apparently the majority of it’s citizens are morons also…they keep on electing fools like Miller to run the joint
In Edmonton all they would need is a park permit & they could play in any civic park. Its that simple. This was done with provocation in mind, probably thinking they are U2 in NY or LA. Makes a good story for there buds.
“If you’re wondering why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto, this video exemplifies our reasons…”
Well, no, I never wonder about expressions of such rank insecurity and lack of self-confidence.
They are, after all, more than anything else, what define us as Canadians.
Almost makes me wish for the reincarnation of the west’s last contribution to the development of Canadian society: eugenicist Tommy Douglas.
Don
Toronto
“It’s so hard to keep massaging your outrage, isn’t it, hate and anger junkies?”
Rpall, you’re obviously mistaking bemusement and contempt for hate and anger.
Real conservatives don’t hate or get angry – we simply delight in demolishing specious argument.
While I’m the first to jump on any reasonable anti-TO bandwagon, I can plausibly see this very scene unfolding in my own backyard (Metro Vancouver) on any day of the week.
While I’m the first to jump on any reasonable anti-TO bandwagon, I can plausibly see this very scene unfolding in my own backyard (Metro Vancouver) on any day of the week.
And seriously, what the hell are the police doing blocking the only lane of traffic to deal with the yahoos in what is obviously a non-traffic constructions zone? Seems like there was an abundance of stupidity in this entire ‘kerfuffle’.
That street was commercial/residential. I do shift work and if those assholes had been playing with an amplified bass in front of my house while I was trying to sleep, somebody would have a clarinet shoved into a personal area.
And for anyone out there who thinks the cops should play nice, the only thing that keeps them from getting their asses kicked on a daily basis is their authority. Let the public see them backing down just once and some cop is going to the ER or the morgue.
You say, “He was an easy catch. Far harder to actually go after all the tens of thousands of criminals committing property crimes”
I say, “Guiliani. Broken Windows Theory.”
“Well, I’m all broken up about that man’s rights.”
Is that the cry of the WooHoo?
Those look like the street car tracks that run down the middle of Queen or Dundas St. west of Spadina .
If that’s so – There is nowhere to pull over for the police.
Last summer the tracks were torn up, new concrete slabs were poured and new tracks were laid.
One lane only for car traffic with barricades on the sidewalk.
The freaks are standing on the slabs – there is literally nowhere to pull over to park.
Those are 14 division Toronto cops.
The batshit craziest section of Toronto.
We’re talking Entertainment district, Kensington Market, China Town, and Parkdale.
Are you kidding me!!?
Those cops are too tired to even think of rolling up and hassling some smelly hippies, for yuks.
Those cops have heard and seen it all.
Those screaming musician morons pass as respectable freaks compared to the absolutely filthy street people that wash car windows, fight, smash-and-grab and do meth all day, on almost every major intersection in 14 division.
Fourteen division must have had a million calls to send a car.
That was horrible music, to boot , I’m sure if the hippies would have just unplugged nobody would have cared.
Downtown Toronto is a right off electorially for any conservative.
I don’t know how many of the posters on this site have ever claimed to be libertarians – I’m certainly not one – but for all those who would extol the virtues of “libertarianism – the notion that the law should stay out of our lives as much as possible”, have you ever considered that maybe you only want the law when you wish to silence others?
If you honestly wanted the law to stay out of your lives, you’d see just how quickly those of us who work and pay taxes (ever notice how few conservative marches there are?) would take ONE day off to round you up and put you in work camps somewhere north of the 60th parallel.
If you’re wondering why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto, this video exemplifies our reasons…
It’s been a very long week and I’m a bit sleep deprived after working 40 hours in three days so I can earn enough to keep those transfer payments coming to provinces that, once they get some oil wealth, turn into miniature Saudis and tell the rest of us to go hump ourselves. So, being tired, I’m not getting it.
Kate, how does this exemplify your reasons? Is it that the punks were out on the street, in the under-construction right-of-way for a streetcar line? Or is it that the cops cleared them off?
Not sure what about this captures the essence of the western hate-on that seems to be, ever increasingly, directed not towards corrupt and self-serving eastern politicians, but to everyday common-or-garden Canadians.
“As to why they did not move along when politely asked to by police shows their….”
Narcissm, sense of entitlement, childishness, ‘specialness’, sociopathology ….
That guy being carted away sure looked like Warren Kinsella…
“Let the man [being arrested] take his dog!”
You mean Kate wouldn’t have sympathy for that? Just kidding.
Otherwise, I can confirm that – yup – that’s my Toronto, and more so every year.
If a street isn’t being closed for another festival of dubious cultural value and quality, it’s being taken over by pampered, pseudo-anarchist protesters or unwashed, pierced, tattooed, dredlocked skeevs who think the world is their Woodstock.
“As the hipster ‘tards pointed out to the cops, they weren’t the ones blocking traffic. So what exactly was the reason for stopping the performance?”
A fair question, maybe it was the disturbance on a public roadway in front of what are clearly homes. Maybe you’d like to have 20 people hold an impromptu concert in front of your house – when your street is already under construction – with amps.
It’s so hard to keep massaging your outrage, isn’t it, hate and anger junkies?
Someone posts a lame-o video of the cops cracking down on street musicians and you guys are all salivating watching it, waiting for the clubs to start cracking those hippies’ heads.
Those hippies so free, playing music in the middle of the day while I have to work at my crappy job (you say) – Please, please, Mr. Policeman they must be destroyed! They’re having fun and they’re individuals and they think for themselves! They must be destroyed! They HAVE to be!
Most libertarians are a joke – lefties who don’t want to pay tax and righties who want to smoke pot. Any ethical conservative of liberal should be concerned about government overreach, but that doesn’t make you a libertarian.
No problem with this yahoo being apprehended. If I lived on that street, I’d be calling the police to ask to be delivered from the crap music and the entitled human riff-raff clogging up my view and my psychological space.
Anarchy is not acceptable just because “in your opinion” these guys weren’t “doing any harm in the middle of the day.” I don’t care what time of day it is: Just because the TTC is fixing their tracks doesn’t give any group, I repeat ANY GROUP, the right to take over the space for their own purposes, especially when they’re contributing to noise pollution.
I live in Toronto. I’m fed up with the uncivil behaviour I encounter every day, on every street, in what used to be Toronto the Good. Every day I see the kind of juvenile–no, infantile–behaviour these “musicians” exhibited (you’re a musician because you THINK/SAY you’re a musician?? Well, think again, bozos.).
I’m glad the police were called and responded and only wish there were more police to nip this kind of street theatre without a permit in the bud. The police were polite, they were within their rights to ask these guys to close down, and things got ugly only when the smelly groupies started to razz the police. Too bad. So Sad: Daddy gets hauled into the police cruiser.
Maybe he and all the smelly hippies will think twice the next time before they think they can do what they want, when they want, free of any consequences. The rest of us have to obey the law.
Why do they think they don’t have to?
Utter tripe, rpall.
Go back to your playpen.
Actually, the entertainment district and most of Chinatown is in 55 Division.
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/d52/neighbourhoods.php
I’d say South Parkdale and Bloor/Lansdowne are 14 Division’s hot policing areas.
Sorry, 52 Division.
Not sure I would hold this against Torontonians.
Making an arse of themselves on the street would slow down traffic due to idiot rubber neckers.
The bald guy called the police down on himself by acting the fool. Alls they had to do was move along, politely requested by people with guns.
Looked like they may have been trying to film a music video.
It looks like a residential neighborhood. Who is providing the power for their equipment? Did someone call the police because of the noise? I can’t make out a lot that is being said on this thing, so I don’t fully understand it. Lot’s of missing facts, but I don’t think it is just open season to perform music, amplified, on a residential street.
To those defending the mob:
The young mother on the second floor, one house down, puts her new baby down for a much needed nap,
the elderly couple across the street are resting in their recliners,
the college student across the way, sits down at the kitchen table to cram for a professional faculty entrance exam,
and then,
the mob of loud, narcissists who feel that their oh so precious talents go horribly unrecognized (when the element of choice at listening to them is involved), start blaring away in the street, demanding all around to enter their fantasy of musical grandeur.
No doubt one of the above peaceful residents called in to stop the “forced listening”,
and the narcissists cry of oppression akin to the Tiannamen Square massacre.
Typical.
That’s just a few blocks down from my workplace, on Bathurst St. where they’re replacing the streetcar tracks. Good thing the punks did this on a Sunday — any other day and the construction crews would’ve paved right over them.
“Shame on you”? Whaddaya gonna do about it, punks? I noticed that none of the drivers seemed too upset about the holdup — they’re probably enjoying watching the Midnight Oil wanna-be get nicked.
But I don’t see anything particularly Toronto-ish about this. Like others have said, every semi-large city has neighborhoods over-run by drunk, selfish yahoos with an infantile sense of entitlement. Thanks to the universality of generous welfare and bad schools, it’s now a bedrock part of our shared Canadian culture. Alas.
Torontonians are like other people, only more so 😉
I just wished that the OPP would arrest the indian blockaders as quickly as they arrested these white guys.
The Kings Of Rock look like they’re standing on the most recently poured concrete slab, it’s still covered with plastic.
Toronto is an absolute shit hole full of queers, socialists and misfits
me thinks the Greek should git outa moma’s basement once in a while, I’v seen as bad and worst in Singcouver, Halifax, Winterpig, and that great FN reserve, down town edmunton
From today’s newspaper in another city:
“Winnipeg: peaceful but messy. Such is the picture of this city that emerges from a federal government report released Tuesday, measuring public concern over incivility in major Canadian cities.
About one in five Winnipeggers reported problems with noisy neighbours, drug users and people who were drunk, rowdy or simply hanging around, said the report, based on data collected by the 2004 General Social Survey, an annual study that monitors trends in Canadian society.
For the report, Statistics Canada used data from 11,000 people aged 15 and over to measure incivility in the country’s 12 largest Census Metropolitan Areas.
Nineteen per cent of Winnipeg respondents listed concerns with social incivility — problems related to public behaviour.
That put the city just below the national average of 21 per cent and well behind cities such as Vancouver, where 26 per cent of respondents reported concerns, and Montreal, where 24 per cent of respondents gave public behaviour a thumbs-down.”
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/story/4199496p-4791144c.html
The incivil are everywhere; Toronto has no monopoly on them. Although I have to admit, the bunch in this video seemed to be worse than the usual incivil vermin.
Earth calling Ontario.
Can’t wait till Suzuki calls for an airstrike from Cold Lake on pregnant wives in Saskatoon.
West out now. It’s the nature of things. My only concern is building a new National War Memorial in Edmonton.
Y’all don’t come back now, ya hear?
You want to judge the entire area by that incident…fine….how many people ended up participating by honking horns….one….and he stopped really quickly.
two of torontos finest are able to quell an unruly crowd quickly and without major incident…I would say that means a pretty docile population…..more docile than the last riots I saw in vancouver.
I think you were reaching on this one.
I dont know what Toronto police policy is regarding blocking traffic but that seemed like an abuse of their power to do it.
On the other hand, yah get the hippy band off the street, just dont block the whole friggin street when the hippy musicians where not bothering traffic.
I don’t ever recall that “concerts” on construction sites are “not doing anything to anybody”. It’s an active site. Obviously, the new “pour” hasn’t been done and just where is their electricity coming from? I hope not from a semi-buried cable source.
Stupid arrest? Probably. Stupid “street” musicians? Probably.
Besides, never, ever trust a guy with a bass clarinet8{D). (which I never, ever played…much.)
“…No doubt one of the above peaceful residents called in to stop the “forced listening”.
I’m glad that you know that, Biff, although you don’t explain how. As I said in an earlier post, the policeman never said anything about a complaint, and the video looks like it was taken at mid-day. At least three times, he said that the hippies were obstructing traffic, when they clearly weren’t
My “guess” is that the “performers” were in their own neighbourhood and were opportunistically taking advantage of the availability of that nice slab of new concrete, to kick up a little. Why would they drag their gear around from some other neighbourhood and, as someone else has pointed out, where would they get power if they didn’t have access to an outlet.
So, the police don’t like folks like that any more than we do but, they’re sworn to “serve and protect” not “hassle and intimidate”.
Some of the hateful prose posted above is spooky stuff to a law and order guy like me. In rougher times and places, yours are the sort of attitudes that would have bred lynch mobs. Damned good thing that the most vociferous are sitting at your computers and not driving around TO with Glocks on your hips.
Perhaps they were singing in support of Baby-Face Khadr?
Historically, and today in many rural areas, there is little conflict between personal liberty on one hand, and “peace, order, and good government” on the other, because people have some concept of civility. In nearly every city, where such civility is required to enable us to live together in such close proximity, it appears to be disappearing rapidly.
The growing incivility arises seems to me to be associated with the narcissism that put one’s stereo speakers in the window to entertain the neighbours who don’t want to hear your music, or equips one’s car with a sound system that cannot help but share your revolting sounds with those stuck in traffic with you, or that finds its self-expression in graffiti on our public (and more and more often on our private) property.
Yes, the police do have better things to do, but in places like Caledonia they aren’t allowed to do them, and, in this case, they may well have prevented serious disorder arising from frustrated residents doing serious damage to the musicians and their equipment.
“…why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto…”
Hah, that is as close to political correctness as I’ve heard from a host here. It’s a bonafide Canadian tradition from coast to coast to really hate Toronto.It’s the one thing still holding this country together.
I would like to make another more serious point I believe has been ignored.
Alcohol.
And as far as drugs go, this is a f*cking nasty one.
Talk to any street cop in any city in North America and they’ll probably tell you that alcohol related incidents make up the majority of their calls.
The more I ponder it, I can only reflect that this particular dangerous drug is given a free pass because so many enjoy it.
That or declaring something legal suddenly makes it moral too.Nonetheless, this probably would have been avoided if he was not swelled up with drunken ‘bravado’.(Of course I’m trusting the officer’s assertions)
Anyways, I was also struck by the politeness and professionalism the cops showed the twit but it was astonishing that they ended up being the ones causing a disturbance.To completely block traffic, including city buses, on a non-emergency call was simply ignorant and arrogant.
Oh, and to the whiney woman in the crowd, yes, he WAS resisting arrest.
I love how everyone is basing their argument on the assumption that somebody must have complained.
Great way to make an argument: base it on non-existent evidence. Then use the double-negative fallacy to ridicule anyone who might try to counter this assumption for which there is absolutely no evidence.
Try making arguments based upon what is actually seen and heard in the video, not your preconceptions.
This is hardly SDA material.
Disturbing the Peace happens all the time, all across the country. Using a routine call like this to claim hatred against a region is idiotic (that is leveled right at you, Greek).
If anything, it makes me like Toronto even more. Obviously some people were making a lot of noise. They were drinking. People living there must have called it in. The cops show up, ask them to turn it off. They appear to be intoxicated. One of them tries to get people in their cars to honk their horns in protest, and runs away from the police. He refuses to comply with their orders. They arrest him. Textbook case.
But I still don’t see what the f*ck this has to do with anything important.
Maybe Kate should screen your posts Greek.
The post at the Live Leak site, presumably by the guy who shot the video, reads:
“July 13, 2008 – While construction is being carried out on a street, these street performers decide to set up and perform for the waiting motorists. Police received a complaint and arrived to shut the performance down.”
Thankfully the idiot vote is split between the NDP and the Greens.
From Toronto the Good to Toronto the Weird in one generation. What scarier is that both the cops and the acid-dippers probably vote Liberal.
OMMAG wrote at July 16, 2008 8:42 PM:
“I’m going out on a limb here and guessing….. that was Lack Layton’s riding …. Right?”
Wasn’t that Jack with his new-vacation-haircut being hauled away?
Posted by: OMMAG at July 16, 2008 8:42 PM
How incredibly ironic that these yuppie punks have ZERO respect for the police and yet they and their ilk are the same ones in full support of Khadr.
Wither Canada.
I’d bet $1 that if the police weren’t there, the (um) participants would have been busking those captive commuters (and berating those who did not contribute). Good on the two officers for their Canadian response. The idiot earned his arrest.
My wtf moment is when I noticed the band member with the bass clarinet.
Shame,shame, sounds like the Sask. legislature from a few years back. Mr. Romanow comes to mind.
TO THE TORONTO CITY POLICE: What you do is get that dick brain in your cruiser, and when the car is away from the crowds, you drive down an alley. A: Give him three good shots of your Tazer in the ribs. B: Slam his guitar fingers in the door of the cruiser twice. C: A swift knee in the nuts might help. D: After he’s out, drop him off at Greyhound depot, and ship him to Calgary. We’ll take care of the rest.
“… don’t care much for Toronto”
Hey, I resemble that remark!
And Brad, don’t forget my niece, her husband and daughter.
What a bunch of turds show up when Toronto is mentioned.
Wow, that was interesting…
Let me respond to some specfic charges first…
This is hardly SDA material…Maybe Kate should screen your posts Greek.
Ninety comments to the post so far say different.
me thinks the Greek should git outa moma’s basement once in a while,
Spent a night in every one of our provinces. A lot of people can’t say that… So I have been out of momma’s basement on occasion.
For the obtuse, the point of the post was that not everyone from Toronto act like this person in the video, but it is a stereotype that has been perpetuated out in the West. Would this not be similar to Garth Turner’s (and other Liberals for that matter) characterization of Albertans as rednecks?
The point is Toronto is seen by many in the West as Liberal/NDP socialists with contempt for the law, especially when they are breaking it. Once they get arrested they cry like Khadr asking for his mom. This video reinforced a stereotype that many in Toronto have added to.
It’s the only way I can explain why Liberals and the NDP consistently represent that city. There has to be more of these idiots out there than this one guy.
Toronto flat out stinks.
All you have to do is walk around for a few minutes to realise it.
Apparently the majority of it’s citizens are morons also…they keep on electing fools like Miller to run the joint
In Edmonton all they would need is a park permit & they could play in any civic park. Its that simple. This was done with provocation in mind, probably thinking they are U2 in NY or LA. Makes a good story for there buds.
“If you’re wondering why many from the West don’t care much for Toronto, this video exemplifies our reasons…”
Well, no, I never wonder about expressions of such rank insecurity and lack of self-confidence.
They are, after all, more than anything else, what define us as Canadians.
Almost makes me wish for the reincarnation of the west’s last contribution to the development of Canadian society: eugenicist Tommy Douglas.
Don
Toronto
“It’s so hard to keep massaging your outrage, isn’t it, hate and anger junkies?”
Rpall, you’re obviously mistaking bemusement and contempt for hate and anger.
Real conservatives don’t hate or get angry – we simply delight in demolishing specious argument.
While I’m the first to jump on any reasonable anti-TO bandwagon, I can plausibly see this very scene unfolding in my own backyard (Metro Vancouver) on any day of the week.
While I’m the first to jump on any reasonable anti-TO bandwagon, I can plausibly see this very scene unfolding in my own backyard (Metro Vancouver) on any day of the week.
And seriously, what the hell are the police doing blocking the only lane of traffic to deal with the yahoos in what is obviously a non-traffic constructions zone? Seems like there was an abundance of stupidity in this entire ‘kerfuffle’.
That street was commercial/residential. I do shift work and if those assholes had been playing with an amplified bass in front of my house while I was trying to sleep, somebody would have a clarinet shoved into a personal area.
And for anyone out there who thinks the cops should play nice, the only thing that keeps them from getting their asses kicked on a daily basis is their authority. Let the public see them backing down just once and some cop is going to the ER or the morgue.
You say, “He was an easy catch. Far harder to actually go after all the tens of thousands of criminals committing property crimes”
I say, “Guiliani. Broken Windows Theory.”