Any city that stands aside to photograph itself burning – deserves to.
Related: Police accused of inaction in face of criminal acts;
Police maintained tight lines around the summit site, but largely did not intervene as marchers destroyed property.
Citizens of Caledonia, ON – “Faster, please”.
“Hundreds of spectators snapping photos are part of the problem.”
Yeah, okay, I agree with that. But that’s a different point.
As far as standing up to protesters go, I remember once being, as far as I could tell, the only pro-Iraq war protester heckling thousands of anti-Iraq war protesters.
It could have gotten dicey as I was pretty aggressive, but, in fact, they weren’t violent (just stupid).
So I was fortunate. These protesters, however, ARE violent, and I certainly wouldn’t fault someone for not wanting to personally intervene, while the police stand and do nothing.
WTF? CTV Producer hand cuffed, taken away by
cops!!
“CTV Producer hand cuffed, taken away by
cops!!”
Weird.
They probably asked the police why they weren’t making any arrests.
/sarc
All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing…..flourish, flourish, flourish.
Ahh, wonderful liberal Toronto. This is the society that has been built. More rights for violent hateful thugs than for peaceful citizens or private property.
Sgt. Tim Burrows
Toronto Police (interviewed by Peter Mansbridge on CBC)
Paraphrasing: There is a another group of protestors trying to “quell and mute” the voice of the protestors.
Paraphrasing: They are trying to “drown out” the other protestors.
Um. No! They are attempting to magnify and amplify the underlying message.
‘
If the Toronto police hadn’t yet moved against the protesters despite their organizational advantages, weapons, shields, radios, etc., it is batshit crazy for you to expect bystanders to do more than take photos.”
BUT WAIT! Aren’t they “vastly outnumbered” by the legitimate protesters? If the first guy breaking a window had been beaten by the crowd, what are the chances of a second happening?
But peaceful protest was never the objective, was it?
I think the Toronto police are doing a great job; they are not ‘unionistes’ nor are they protecting ‘the wrong people’.
The police are restrained; another police force would have used tear gas and violent force already – which would just enrage the braindead criminals who are pretending to protest – and turn the non-violent mass into a violent mob.
This will make you feel a little better.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/86512/toronto_pd_stand_off/
Guess you missed it ET. they did use tear gas today. abandoned their expensive cop cars to the tender mercies of the cops.
I EXPECT my cops to shoot jerks! What am I paying them for? Donut eating?
This will be how Canada will be remembered for a good long time.
Thanks again Toronto!
Well, no, Kate, exactly.
The majority of the protesters who aren’t being violent are supporting the violent ones by giving them vocal support and adding to their numbers.
But, regardless, it is the nature of aggression and the resulting fear itself, quite apart from the merit of other side in this, that most people will be too afraid to intervene if you have violence taking place in front of you. And since most of the people in the area actually support the violent ones, this makes just jumping in to break things up yourself, with the police meanwhile doing jack shit, a poor plan.
*other side = either side
Just saw someone walking in a crowd waving a Palestinian flag.
I lot of people at the protests are using their cellphones. Wouldn’t it have been a good idea to shut down cellphone towers in the downtown area? Security would have their own comms not dependent on the cell towers.
Christoph
“And since most of the people in the area actually support the violent ones, this makes just jumping in to break things up yourself, with the police meanwhile doing jack shit, a poor plan.”
So true.
I watched twice as a private citizen grabbed a balaclava clad thug in the act of vandalism. The police were just metres away and forced him to let the thug go. The guy threw up his hands in disgust and walked away. The thug ran off.
That’s about what I expected, ironyabounds.
I guess I just don’t feel like sitting here many kilometres away listening to batb or someone else anonymous criticize the bystanders for being cowardly (when you’ve shown at least a couple definitely were not).
It is the police and their political masters who are cowardly.
But seriously — does the mayor have the authority to just tell the police to ignore the law? Can’t a brave police chief say, “Sir, it is my duty to enforce the law and protect this city,” and do so?
kathy – it was not mass tear gas; check the reports.
I don’t expect the police to shoot into a mass of protesters, which is made up of genuine naive jerks, onlookers and, hidden among them, the real thugs. How could the police tell the difference and be sure that their shots hit the ‘correct’ person?
It’s remarkable how young the crowds are; it’s all university-college students and leftists, out for a good time. Nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with any protest issue. Just smashing things, hurling things at police – Saturday Night’s Fun Fest.
BUT WAIT! Aren’t they “vastly outnumbered” by the legitimate protesters? If the first guy breaking a window had been beaten by the crowd, what are the chances of a second happening?
But peaceful protest was never the objective, was it?
Posted by: Kate at June 26, 2010 8:42 PM
—————————
If you look at this CTV video at the 0:40 mark, a guy does try to make a citizen’s arrest, but the vastly peaceful majority jump in and free the perp.
“I don’t expect the police to shoot into a mass of protesters, which is made up of genuine naive jerks, onlookers and, hidden among them, the real thugs. How could the police tell the difference and be sure that their shots hit the ‘correct’ person?”
I really don’t see that as the police’s problem. If you are cavorting with people committing criminal acts, and giving them moral support by egging them on and adding to their mass, their numbers … then you put yourself in jeopardy.
If my friends are going to rob a liquor store and I don’t have the guts and/or will to do it … but I’m hanging with them and shouting at the cops who come to stop them … well you know what?
Bad things can happen.
Tough.
For God’s sake, the police don’t have to fire into the crowd; just go in and arrest anyone committing an act of vandalism. Maybe club ’em a bit, or use those tasers we keep hearing about. The “peaceful majority” will disperse, this isn’t the Storming of the Bastille; if they don’t disperse they’re not peaceful, so tase them too.
Anyway, I hope the cops are this “restrained” the next time I set fire to one of their cars.
If, as Canadians, we actually had some property rights, in this country maybe those sworn to PROTECT AND SERVE wouldn’t be standing the line and doing little to stop the destruction of private property.
As I posted on Fox about this. Thank you Toronto and Ontario for the last 30 plus years of giving us Liberals to run..ruin our lives with your politically correct and all the rest of the lefty garbage.
Looks damn good on you taking the medicine you created. sheesh
“Canada is a free speech zone. But there are limits to free speech,” [Police Chief Blair] warned.
Uh, Mr. Blair, burning police cars isn’t speech at all. Neither is smashing windows. That’s true even if the people doing it claim that they’re doing it as a protest. Mention of free speech is completely out of order here.
Put David Miller and these cretins in a locked cage and leave them there for a week-end. After all, they enjoy infringing on the rights of others.
Actually, at this point, machine-gunning into the crowd of retards would be social Darwinism in action: wipe out the a$$wipes before they have a chance to raise a new generation of leftards whose sole purpose in life is idling on the dime of the hard-working…. Phew – now that I got that out of my system…….
There are some very real advantages to Toronto going up in flames under the protesting a$$wipes – it might wake up enough of the low-IQ NDP and Libtard voters (are there any other kind?) into voting Conservative – nothing like the breakdown of law & order to make people realize civilization is a few milimeters of veneer on a barbaric subsurface. Thanks to the leftards torching Toronto, that ugly subsurface is clearly exposed.
Leftism is truly a mental illness, akin to sociopathy
Guys, the ones burning the place down are the ones who voted for Dave Miller.
Ain’t no Nazi racist/bogot/queer hatin’ conservatives out there today breaking stuff. We’re all home drinking beer with our feet up.
Actually, I’m watching cartoons on DVD. I hope they burn the whole godd@mn town to the ground.
Hey Chief Blair, no guff. Welcome to my world!
Once again, still no reports of Tea Partiers involved. Weird huh??
WEll et it wouldn’t be “mass tear gas” because there is no such animal in a Western urban/residential situation unless the cops somehow go insane. People live on Queen West.
And you’re surprised they are so young? All through history, it is young people riot, not old folks. Duh. Do you even know what you are talking about??
I’m of the Can’t they All Lose? Camp. Cops, “anarchists” and the G20 leaders.
PS it is supposedly illegal for known/declared anarchists to cross the US Canadian border (under the old Smith Act I think — anybody?)
But of course, they prob came up from the US anyhow, but I get hassled every time I go to america.
Ok that was a little harsh. They can burn down the parts where friends of mine don’t live.
Hey Toronto, ya got yer very own Caledonia now. How you like them apples, eh? Wait ’till they burn a couple bridges or something, you’re going to love that.
As an aside friends, do you know why the Mohawk Dumb@ss Society is able to take over construction sites, block the 403 in Ancaster (yes they did, last weekend), burn down the Sterling St. bridge and all that?
wait for IT…
Its because the OPP protects them. If not for the OPP, there wouldn’t be any of this crap. The Mohawk Vandalism Society would get the sh1t stomped out of them at every outing. As would these MORONS breaking windows in Toronto.
Your government doesn’t just allow these things to happen, they MAKE them happen. Liberals are the ones actively protecting the people wrecking the place, vote accordingly.
yes, kathy, it may surprise you but I know what I’m talking about – with regard to mobs, riots, ‘group-think’ and so on.
And yes, that’s why the police can’t readily use ‘blanket tear gas’ because these criminal acts are taking place in residential areas.
My point about the young people in the mob is that the majority of them cannot have the knowledge and experience to have any valid opinion about the world or events. Sure they have opinions but they aren’t valid. Therefore, what we are seeing is that the people ‘protesting’ have no intellectual legitimacy. Therefore again, they are there only for the sheer adrenalin fun of it.
I don’t see how we can ‘do away’ with leaders of the world; i.e., you statement that ‘can’t they all lose’. The fact is, our world is made up of nations, and people always, hopefully, have governments. These govts have leaders and they ought to get face to face together. So?
Someone suggested that they should all meet in some faroff place, ie, Nunavut. Heh. No hotels for the hundreds and hundreds of backup staff. Furthermore, I object to a situation where we people admit that leaders of world govts can’t meet because local citizens will riot. There’s something perverted about that.
phantom – yes, I’d agree; the ones burning the place down are part of the Miller following.
christoph and others – no, the police can’t shoot into a crowd of protesters; the MSM would go hysterical, the HRCs would have a field day and the stand-by legal aides would jump on it (put on standby to help those arrested..by the Canadian Civil Liberties gang).. an so on. I will say, that even on MSM – the public is getting fed up and want hard force used against the thugs.
Bring Chretien back for a little encore protest choke hold. Chretien was an utter tool, but at least he will always have that.
Of course the govt. should pay. Yeah, sucker taxpayers, it’s always you to foot the bill. Millions to pay for police “protection”, millions to pay for damages to properties unprotected by police protection, millions more to pay welfare payments to finance thugs to damage other people’s properties unprotected by police protection on a work day…
I look at the bright side of all this riotous nonsense.
With all the THOUSANDS of cops downtown I haven’t looked at my speedometer once today,if you know what I mean.
You know, if Ford is smart he’ll do a strong law-and-order mayoral campaign. With these images fresh in their minds, the Torontonians that voted for Miller might just rethink voting in another leftist tool like Smitherman.
Oh, what am I saying? This is TORONTO. The tool will win, of course.
Hey everyone, not sure if you realize that the police, for sure the RCMP, are sworn to do the bidding of the Crown. They are not there for the people or the businesses or the bankers. They are there to protect the politicians, the representatives of Queen Elizabeth II. That is their primary purpose.
The crimes against property are non-starters for them. Protect the Prime Minister, the visiting Heads of State, and each other. The rest is but cannon fodder.
We watch them and are disgusted, but we, for the most part, do not understand their objectives and responsibilities.
They are now reacting to the goons, they are arresting and locking away those who are a threat to the safety of the officers. They know insurance companies are on the hook for damage, so long as you have the right coverage.
The security forces know that their bread gets buttered by tax dollars paid to the crown. They don’t really care about a burned out shop, store or police car. All replaceable.
For the protesters to get through the police barricades and encroach on the dignitaries, that would bring about the heavy-handed tactics which most of feel these protesters deserve. For the most part, a good spanking over somebodies knee would quiet them down in a New York minute.
Kring @ 11:34 PM, LOL!! I too think that was the best thing he ever did.
I’m beginning to see now what this is all about. This is part of Harper’s hidden agenda. Make them riot in the streets of Toronto so more people will vote Conservative. Brilliant strategy, no? I’ll bet half of that crowd are Conservative Party plants. Yes, it’s all a masterful scheme.
I found the inner conflict in today’s G&M hilarious. One article screaming against the presence of the fence, and the reliance on the municipal buildings protection bylaw and all of the actions taken to prevent the violence. Another article screaming against the lack of action taken to prevent the Air India terrorist act. The moral relativism of the lefties is utterly amazing.
ET “the majority of them cannot have the knowledge and experience to have any valid opinion about the world or events. Sure they have opinions but they aren’t valid. Therefore, what we are seeing is that the people ‘protesting’ have no intellectual legitimacy. Therefore again, they are there only for the sheer adrenalin fun of it.”
It must be so many years since you were young that you don’t recall that the young years are when you hold the opinions most dearly. They are ill formed, based upon no understanding of the real world, fully emotional and mostly irrational – and utterly heartfelt. It is very possible that the bulk of the young protesters fit into this category.
But the black bloc – they are there because they are part of a subculture that does property damage, civil disobedience and violence just for the sheer rush of it. Theirs is a culture that begs to be modified.
If only the neo-cons would have spent a little more on security,none of this would have happened.
Omar on ctv,is saying that they wear black to promote solidarity(Polish unionity maybe,very subtle),and to make it harder to identify them(no shit sherlock).
Water cannons,sound cannons,or rubber bullets weren’t used,why?The cannons are mobile machinery that can rapidly be deployed.Used to enforce the Police lines as the protesters splintered off. Property damage should be paid for by the protesters who were caught causing damage. Maybe they’ll give up the “actual”master minds behind the violence?
“The protestors all died”
– Russian security forces
It will go down in history: The Battle of Toronto, fought between the anarchists and the cheese eating surrender monkeys.
Anarchists; 1 CESM: 0
It’s already started – the comments in the MSM about ‘police brutality’. That’s why the police have shown restraint; to counter those immediate claims. You see, any leftist who is arrested for his ‘freedom-to-do-whatever’ considers this act an affront on his ‘freedom-to-do-whatever’ and thus, an act of ‘police brutality’.
The police here in Toronto have done a magnificent job and are to be commended for their restraint and professionalism.
As for the suggestions to hold the event in some isolated island – by all means. And where would you house the thousands, and I mean thousands, of staff? Toronto may whine about ‘lost business’ in the downtown area but ALL hotels are booked solid, and oh, they’ve all raised their hotel fees to enjoy this required booking of their rooms.
Where would you get the food, the technical equipment from and so on? These events have to be held in large cities.
As for the blame being put on Torontonians, and the smug suggestion that such violence wouldn’t happen elsewhere – heh. Wherever the left exists, it will happen. Oh – and busloads came in from that socialist regime: Quebec. Yes, that’s right. They riot in Quebec – in Montreal – on holidays (Jean Baptiste Day is a favourite time)..and various other times..including hockey games.
rroe – you’ve missed my point. I said that these young people held opinions. But these opinions have no validity, i.e., no relation with truth, with reality, with the real world. The fact that they are fervently held – so?
The black bloc is not a group but a tactic where thugs hide in the midst of the naive protesters.
Even the MSM has reported that most of the protesters, when asked what they were protesting, haven’t a clue. There are SOME ‘legitimate’ protests and by legitimate I mean only that they are articulated…but even those, are vague and amorphous. I like the one about poverty and welfare; the protest asks for More Money for Welfare. Now, that’s something to protest against; it shows a..hmmm..breadth and depth of knowledge and focus. Ah well.
“Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!”
Toronto is NOT exempt from the responsibility of hosting world events.
You want to be a world class city, you have to earn it.
“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”
Thomas Jefferson
What about the rights of the leaders of the G20 to be free to do their jobs?
Just because a majority of rabble want to press up against the minority of people who hold positions of power, doesn’t mean they should have that right. And as we know, some people would use lax security to effect a violent attack on world leaders just to further their cause. Anarchy is mob rule.
Anarchy is a tool for communists to bring the heavy hand of the state down for propaganda purposes.
“See, the cops are EVIL” “See, the world leaders HATE you” “Look, our rights are being trampled”
useful idiots.
G20 protesters are probably the most useful of all useful idiots…This is all an act that is part of the Narrative of “Injustice”…Aping for the camera keeps the armchair activists happy and thinking the fight is still alive…Meanwhile, the fight against Capitalism (greatest poverty fighter ever) is actually happening at the G8/G20…The protesters know they are effecting mass false consciousness, they just don’t care…The Frankfurt School would be proud….
=========
I had a dream last night… A terribly beautiful dream…
When the G20 come to Toronto, there will be protesters… I can still see them seething now…
I dreamed Toronto’s beleaguered citizens rose up to counter the Cpmmunist/Islamist/AGWist/Anarchist/Tamilist cabal… Like a great tidal wave of sternness that crushes a child’s resolve…
As for the rest, well let’s just say it wasn’t so beautiful as it was terrible… for the cabal…
After that, the G20 got the picture… The center of the universe had woken up… Thus setting the stage for the Toronto Council Elections… CLEAN SWEEP!!!.. All the incumbent rot destroyed….
Then I woke up and wept….
================================
I wrote this when the G20 was announced for Toronto… So far I’m correct.
JJM
[….”Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!”…]
The RIOT ACT
It now is:
“THIS IS AN ILLEGAL ASSEMBLY! YOU ARE TO DISPERSE!”
After that is announced the police can open fire with real bullets.
BTW for those fools who think that property damage is a never-ya-mind……read your insurance car or house…..
Standard exclusion clause—-“War or RIOT”
This comes before the usual “Act of God” cop-out.
Word is that police were seizing “incendary devices” (molotov cocktails) from assembled fools prior to the follies.
That suggestion of a water-cannon loaded with liquid pig poo…..certainly has merit.
The folks from Ipperwah and Caladonia are intimately familiar with the police acting as obsevers in body armor as thugs burn and pillage at will.
The new trend in police ideology is vicitm or victimizer status is unimportant, keeping the peace involves letting the predator feed on his victim because stopping it would just create more violence – and we don’t want that do we!
So I am confused. Do I now have the right to throw rocks at picket lines? I usually do not support their cause and they inconvenience my travels as much as police lines do. I mean if it is ok to rock police rocking unions should be the same no?
With all the cameras from protesters in the vicinity of vandalism, why the lack of you tube videos of thugs in action, including removing their anonymity gear after the fact? Juxtapose that with the number of videos of police apprehending criminals on you tube and MSM.
cryptic cynic – heh, that’s because the agenda of these criminal ‘protesters’ is not about any legitimate social or political issue. It’s about a few days of ‘fun-destruction’.
They get quite angry when they are prevented from this ‘fun-destruction’. So, they are now complaining about ‘police brutality’; about how they are ‘held without charge’ in the holding centre for those arrested; that they can’t get through to their lawyer (and the Left has arranged for a lot of free lawyers for this gang).
Now, today, they are planning a protest march. Is it about any social or political issue? Nope. Of course not; they have none. It’s yet another fun-destruction march…to the ‘prison’ where those arrested are being held. The FACT that these people were engaged in criminal riots is irrelevant to these mindless idiots.
The FACT that these people have nothing, not a single word, to say about any political or social issue, is irrelevant. It’s all about ‘the police state’ and ‘evil Harper’ and how their ‘charter rights’ have been violated. What charter rights were violated? None. I’d bet that the majority of those claiming this have no idea what’s in that charter. Others are claiming ‘constitutional violation’. Nope; sorry – nothing in the constitution about ‘right to destroy property’.
Incredible.