There is a huge difference between a planned organized parade with scheduled and expected road closures, versus a large group of unorganized people blocking traffic and yelling at motorists. I would assume that large crowds (protesting or otherwise) blocking and yelling at motorists who are essentially trapped on spadina could easily escalate into something more sinister very quickly.
Police in full damage control mode, they know they screwed up.
- Thread starter johnny
- Start date
I agree.
The front line police, they did a very good job. They were well trained and disciplined, and acted with restraint for the most part.
It is the police high command and politicians who are the incompetent bozos.
The front line police. They were just following orders.
We will not hear any police explanation for their actions Saturday or Sunday, simply because all explanations will sound completely stupid, even to those who blindly support the police, ie right wingers types.
In the past, if someone, lets say, black, or Irish, or whatever, commits a crime like purse snatching, the police will go out and arrest 10 Irishmen.
That's what the police did Saturday and Sunday. There is no other reasonable explanation. Damn the Charter of Rights, just a damn piece of paper.
From what I gather from following the news, and actually going by myself to the sites where arrests were made, this is what I believed happened.
There was a rally at Queen's Park. A portion of that crowd, headed south to the Security Zone. They were intercepted by riot police. There was some violence, and vandalism, all captured by the media. The Black Block at work. Windows were brokens on Bay & Queen, Yonge & College, Queen & Peter. Abaondoned police cars were burned at Bay St, and Queen St.
On Saturday, I believe there were two sites of mass arrests. One was Queen's Park after 9:00 PM, and at Queen & Beverley (where Asian Nicole works), again it seem to me the mass arrests happened at night.
So just ask yourself, if the vandalism happened during the day, they why are they arresting people at night? Do you think the Black Block would return to Queen's Park to get arrested a few hours later? No, they be long gone.
There is an expression. The facts on the ground. The people who got arrested at Queen's Park, what did they exactly do? Overturn a park bench? They were peaceful protesters. There was nothing going on. But because vandals smashed windows on Bay Street, someone in the police department was going to get a pound of flesh from some hippie somewhere, Like at Queens Parks, yes, still some hippies there, call out the riot squad in full gear. And they cleared the square. And that really stinks.
The crowd at Queen & Beverley Saturday night, my impression was that more than half were just curious on lookers. People walking there to see what the fuss was about, people walking away already seen what the fuss was about. Cameras everywhere taking pictures. I left after 15 minutes after taking my pictures. Some guy was kind enough to tell me the police had notified the crowd that they will advance. I found that surprising because, if they advance on a crowd that size, there would be chaos. And the crowd was not exactly acting up. But I left anyways as it started to rain, and I got my pictures, and I'm sure those who did not leave got arrested later that night.
The Toronto Police were not concerned about the Charter of Rights, only with crowd control. And their method of crowd control was to wait until it thinned out then arrest who is left. Like, what's the point?
And what happened on Sunday night was simply bizarre. In the rain, late evening, police surrounded and were arresting people en mass at Queen and Spadina. They for no reason given, the last 100 people or so in the crowd, were let go, just like that. Those folks who were processed 15 minutes earlier, well they're shit out of luck as they now go through the court system.
Chief Wiggam. He runs the Toronto pol-lace.
I glanced at the Toronto Sun at the checkout line last night. There are rumours surfacing from police officers that the pols and Brass lost their nerve on the weekend. The Sun reports that the front-line cops received inconsistent and confusing messages all through Saturday as to whether they should confront the black bloc or hold off. Eventually, they were ordered to hold off and remain passive while the Black Bloc wrecked the city - much to the cops' collective frustration.
Although this was NOT part of the news story, I suspect the 900 arrests and mass crowd detention on Sunday evening were again the products of ditsy and incompetent instructions from the pols and brass and that these latter were now over-reacting to the events of Saturday and the perceived police inability to control the situation.
Inquiries have been ordered into the police handling of the weekend's events and I believe that much more information will come to light in the next few weeks.
Bear in mind, guys, that these leaks are coming through the Sun (traditionally the police constable's best media buddy and prime "leaky faucet") and not via NOW magazine or the Star.
Although this was NOT part of the news story, I suspect the 900 arrests and mass crowd detention on Sunday evening were again the products of ditsy and incompetent instructions from the pols and brass and that these latter were now over-reacting to the events of Saturday and the perceived police inability to control the situation.
Inquiries have been ordered into the police handling of the weekend's events and I believe that much more information will come to light in the next few weeks.
Bear in mind, guys, that these leaks are coming through the Sun (traditionally the police constable's best media buddy and prime "leaky faucet") and not via NOW magazine or the Star.
