Thread for pics & video of the G20 riots in Toronto

[Jaboney]

Trolling, start to finish.

I note you didn't address any of my serious points, and avoided in particular the fact that I identified you as having consistently misrepresented the situation.

'Forgive him, he knows not...'

Btw, more on the stupidity of provoking a stampede. Bad things happen when people panic.

[k.k.]

Because they want the Black Bloc to come in and smash things. That way the media will report on the carefully managed violence, and the actual protests themselves will be invisible.

j.scholl already has a thread, you can join it.

Well put.

[Jaboney]

Right then, remember that terrible, terrible riot by mindless thugs during the G20?

No, no, not the one with the riot-tourists/ wannabe bomb-throwing anarchists, which the police passively watched.
The one the next day, featuring such luminaries as Officer Bubbles...

...and a number of beatings by police, which ought to result in charges.

Well, here's no surprise:

Premier Dalton McGuinty admits his government “moved too quickly” and “failed to communicate” a secret regulatory change that police used to arrest people at the June G20 summit in Toronto.

In his first public comments since Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin tabled a 125-page report denouncing “the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history,” McGuinty was relatively contrite.

(Historically inaccurate, of course. Never hear of the Winnipeg General Strike? Still, a telling remark.)

Relatively contrite. That's nice. And passing the buck so smoothly.

But McGuinty rejected Marin’s assertion that what his government did behind closed doors on June 2 was “illegal” and “likely unconstitutional.”

“We acted with good intentions,” he said, blaming “the mix-up” over the 1939 Public Works Protection Act for the government’s actions.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair had asked the Liberals to grant his officers additional authority and the government ceded to his wishes with little thought, according to Marin’s report.

McGuinty noted his government has already appointed former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry to review the World War II-era law.

The premier said the Act would not be revamped or scrapped until after McMurtry reports back next spring.

“The very premise of our regulation, the law itself, is likely not in keeping with the balance that we would want to strike at the beginning of the 21st century when it comes to public safety and ... freedom of expression,” McGuinty said.

The Ombudsman's report Caught in the Act is available.
Ditto the Canadian Civil Liberties Association's report.

[Jaboney]

More for giggles.

The RCMP reluctantly participated in kettling protesters at the G20 riots in Toronto in 2010, under orders from the local police, even though the controversial crowd-control technique is not part of the Mounties’ playbook, according to a new report by the RCMP civilian watchdog.

RCMP officers on site at the 2010 summit of world leaders questioned the order to corral an entire crowd of protesters, but relented because they were officially operating under the command of the Toronto Police Service at that event site.
[...]
Throughout the G8 and G20 summits in Muskoka and Toronto respectively, the Mounties arrested only seven protesters, two of whom were later identified as undercover Toronto police officers.

Then there's this gem:

Mr. McPhail said that if the RCMP decides to abandon one of its policies – such as allowing peaceful protesters the ability to walk away – it should do so in a formal agreement with the police force commanding the operation.

I think that decision ought to go a lot further up the chain of command.

[GuyInTaiwan]

What is "kettling"? Does it have anything to do with "teabagging"?

[Jaboney]

Police violated civil rights, detained people illegally, and used excessive force during the G20 summit two years ago, a new report concludes.

The report by Ontario’s independent police watchdog also blasts the temporary detention centre that Toronto police set up for its poor planning, design and operation that saw people detained illegally.
[...]
“Some police officers ignored basic rights citizens have under the Charter and overstepped their authority when they stopped and searched people arbitrarily and without legal justification,” the report states.
[...]
“It is fair to say the level of force used in controlling the crowds and making arrests at Queen’s Park was higher than anything the general public had witnessed before in Toronto.”

It also concludes mass arrests outside a downtown hotel were “unlawful,” and a dawn raid and arrest of people at a university residence was done without the required warrants.

The office, under director Gerry McNeilly, slams police for “kettling” scores of people — many passersby — at a downtown intersection for several hours in a severe thunderstorm, calling it “unreasonable, unnecessary and unlawful.”

Even officers in place thought the situation untenable, with one describing the incident commander as “maniacal,” the report says.

Report's been two years in the making. Chance of redress? Of doing better the next time?

[fred smith]

Oh the amusement of listening to the hyperventilating about the precious souls/soles who lost their rights in Canada during protest tourism season. Meanwhile in Syria, Iran, and throughout most of Africa... real violence and torture and loss of rights is occuring but God forbid that any precious earnest like-minded lemmings should have their feelings hurt or even worse be inconvenienced for taking part in a protest (besides aren't the arrests exactly the kind of passport stamp that they need to engage in bragging rights to earn them street cred with their peers?), the like of which, has not gone so smoothly in the past. So, we berate our police officers for doing too little too late in Seattle and other cities while berating them for being too proactive in Toronto... ah... what omnipotent, omniscient, omnicapable people we have who miraculously know how much force is needed and when. My vote goes to the poor police who have to struggle to adapt to each and every situation while reining in the punks and handing ice water and a cool towel to the others who have "struggled" lest they be viewed as the Iron Boot of Fascism Unleashed.