It echoes of the Olympics and everyone knows how I feel about the Olympics because of my brother and other friends competing. It's supposed to be amateur athletes coming to the world stage to compete and then there's all these protests against the corporate sponsorships who do it not for the athletes but for their own sponsorship wants (though I do want to believe that the bigwigs do care a bit about that). But I digress...
It reminded me of the Olympics because everyone believed that big things were going to go down here in Vancouver 2010. Chris Shaw and his friends were followed for the months, if not years leading up to it and Nothing really major happened and I still wonder why not.
I mean, yeah, sure, they had protests out here and it was kind of tense for a bit but nowhere near what happened in Toronto. Here, when I was walking over to the hotel to meet Mom, I walked right into a standoff between cops and protesters. The protesters were pretty tame, not a Black Bloc in sight. Just a bunch of people and bongos and demands to not hold the games on Aboriginal lands.
Yes, there were the three types of cops - bike cops, city cops, and riot cops.
Yes, you could feel the electricity in the air - police caressing billy clubs with white knuckled fingers and waiting for a protester to start something so they could just get it over with. I watched people yell in the face of the cops, saw the anger and the frustration on both sides and all I could think of was, There’s gotta be a better way.
It's a chicken and egg theory. Spending 1.2 B on security in Toronto seemed to do nothing but fuel the fire and push protesters to the point where all that manpower would eventually be used. But, they're also trying to preemptively deal with protesters by having the manpower there just in case. How do you come to terms with that?
On one side, there's the hooliganism of protesters you know are going to be there because the Black Bloc have been waiting for a reason to run around in bandanas, break windows, throw Molotov Cocktails and generally just say, "Fuck you" to The Man. They don't even stay true to their so-called "cause" by waiting around for the credit because they're too busy stripping off anything telltale and disappearing into the group of peaceful protestors, thus forces cops to treat them all the same.
And yeah, maybe they already are treating them as such but I want to give them the benefit of the doubt...
The shittiest thing about the Bloc destroying property is that it isn't hurting the corporations, like they think it is. It's going to be the federal government that pays for it:
"[Mayor] Miller said the city will as the federal government to compensate businesses that suffered damages or had to close in addition to employees who lost wages because of the summit. 'It's only fair and reasonable," he said." - Globe and Mail (click to read the article)
Are you kidding me?
Where do the feds get the money? Taxes. Your taxes. My taxes. So, all those people bitching about their taxes paying for the police brutality are, surprise, also going to be picking up the cheque for wannabe bandits to bust up the city. Yeah, good job, Bloc. Thanks for that.
On the other hand, are the peaceful protesters. The ones that are marching and not carrying Molotov cocktails. The ones that want to make a difference and want to show their support but aren't quite willing to destroy property to do it. They're trying to get their message across but it won't work because by having the Bloc in their midst, it's already a losing battle:
"Whatever the exotic, anarchist political posturings of the violent protestors, it doesn't advance the cause of the poor to throw a Molotov cocktail into the open windows of an empty police cruiser. No unemployed person is going to find a job because some enraged grad-student socialist charged a line of riot police shouting expletive. If anything, these anti-social acts turn the public off." - National Post Op-Ed (click to read the article)
I'm not saying that they should out the Bloc but it's unfortunate that their message is lost because they're being overshadowed by the ugly violence that's happening on both sides.
The police are there to help. Yes, they went overboard, yes they got gung-ho, but are we really surprised? Really? I'm not condoning it, I'm just saying it's not surprising. I don't know what can be done about that but it makes me glad I'm not Mayor or Chief of Police of Toronto.
Largest Mass Arrests in Canadian history:
4. Quebec Summit of the Americas: 463 arrested
3. 1970 October Crisis: 465 arrested
2. 1993 Clayoquot Sound Logging Blockades: 856 arrested
1. Toronto G20: roughly 900 arrested
Ouch.
At the end of the day, honestly, who in the actual G8 or G20 meetings really cares about the little protesters running around down on the ground? What is it really going to do?
I just imagine some French dude (they really do have the best accents to be snooty with [and this is not a 'we hate France, honest]) looking down, "Oh look at zee leetle Canadians. Zeh look like little antz. Isn't it tres adorable. Zeh have little bottles zat zeh have set on fire. Oh look and zee fat cops run with zer leetle batons."
C'mon guys. Isn't there a better way? But I guess that's the thing. People are people are people and they're always going to have differing opinions and therefore take different action. There will always be the Bloc, there will always be people trying to do it peacefully, and there will always be the police to beat people down, regardless of method of protest.
Somebody's gotta build a better mousetrap. Because the one we're using obviously isn't working for anyone...
Oh, and for some amazing shots of awful events G20-style, click HERE.
That's tough. Good writing though Kersh. It sums it up pretty well. People like you are helping people like me understand that there IS a place for peaceful protests and they aren't all just attention grabbing anarchists.
ReplyDeleteIt's always bothered me that some people will show up at a protest just to be able to get angry and break stuff without really caring about what the issues are. That said, it's only recently that I've come to realize what a peaceful protest can do, but sadly, many people are kept from voicing their opinions for fear of being put in the same group as people like the Bloc.
Anyway, well said, and those pics are pretty funny in a Rick Mercer-esque kind of way.
Cheers,
Cote
i have a really hard time getting actually, honest-to-goodness angry with the Black Bloc. obviously their tactics are only actually damaging the protester's actual cause, and logically i know that what their doing is useless and stupid. that said, i am just as angry and frustrated as them at the state of our society, and the thought of molotov's and barricades and and the black flag has a distinctly romantic ring to it for me. a large part of me is jealous of them...things would be so much easier if i could just done a ski mask and pick up a baseball bat. there's so much about the G20, and the Bilderberg group, and Pax Americana that pisses me off. we all think we've got a voice, that we're in control of the direction of at least our communities if not our country, and it's all a lie. Chapters is one of the largest private contributors to the Israeli military machine, nothing will happen to BP or the oil industry because Haliburton and their ilk have too much political sway. Harper pleads for austerity measures to stave off inflation that world bankers created out of whole cloth in the first place.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaLmmE2hVI4