G20 "Protests"?

What the hell was that?
A bunch of Canadians pretending to protest during a RIOT, crying foul for being manhandled?
What the hell is wrong with these people who think that they have a right to protest DURING A RIOT?

The moment the police see a riot, they drop the veil of security and they start hammering down. Read the CRIMINAL CODE. You don't have a right to protest safely DURING A RIOT!

So, for all you Canadians who want to talk the talk...Do it every day or don't do it at all. Posturing is bullshit and crying foul for being abused by police DURING A RIOT is idiotic. The moment it becomes a riot, the gloves are off. You either go in firing or go home.

The police were funneling protesters through streets to divide the larger groups up, who didn't at all seem aware of the strategy. They arrested a large number at the beginning of the rioting in an attempt to crush the morale of the protesters (and it worked).

I see these protest groups, completely disorganized just in it to stir up shit and I wonder what the hell they hope to accomplish. I blame these anarchist groups for destroying the potential for any effective protest taking root.

Way to waste time and my tax dollars.
Asshats.

Originally Posted by Demojen

What the hell was that?
A bunch of Canadians pretending to protest during a RIOT, crying foul for being manhandled?
What the hell is wrong with these people who think that they have a right to protest DURING A RIOT?

The moment the police see a riot, they drop the veil of security and they start hammering down. Read the CRIMINAL CODE. You don't have a right to protest safely DURING A RIOT!

I think you have it backwards, the protest was before the riot. The black bloc anarchist's hijacked what was a peaceful protest of approximately 25k people.

Originally Posted by Demojen

The police were funneling protesters through streets to divide the larger groups up, who didn't at all seem aware of the strategy. They arrested a large number at the beginning of the rioting in an attempt to crush the morale of the protesters (and it worked).

Are you sure? There weren't very many arrests in the first day compared to the second. After the first day there was less than one hundred, after the second day there were 300+. All of this was after the damage was already done. If they crushed the morale of the rioters, it was too late because queen street was already destroyed.

Originally Posted by Demojen

I see these protest groups, completely disorganized just in it to stir up shit and I wonder what the hell they hope to accomplish. I blame these anarchist groups for destroying the potential for any effective protest taking root.

Way to waste time and my tax dollars.
Asshats.

I'm confused, previous to this paragraph were you talking about the rioters using black bloc tactics? Or all protesters in general? I agree with you though, the breed of rioters we saw in TO using black bloc tactics were disorganized and only in it to stir shit up. Generally black bloc tactics involve only going after the mainstream institutions and large corporations, however these animals destroyed everything including small shop store fronts. They are morons that haven't learned that violence doesn't solve anything and the only thing they accomplished was turning the majority of a country against them.

In addition, to be clear, a lot of the protesters had a legitimate message. For instance, there were groups protesting the governments lack of action on climate change and abortion rights. And to their credit, ever since the dawn of Stephan Harper unveiling that abortion rights would not be on the table at G8/G20, a lot of people have been protesting to try and put it on the table.

End the black block strategy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5G7aCgXtWg

I think you have it backwards, the protest was before the riot.

They were still protesting after the riots broke out.

If they crushed the morale of the rioters, it was too late because queen street was already destroyed.

They weren't trying to crush the morale of rioters. They were setting up to kill the protests entirely.

The police during the G20 were absolutely moronic. Who ever was in charge of strategic planning was incompetent, or, it was intentional as the video suggests. I was watching the CTV coverage while it was happening and they had a security analyst commentating and even he said he couldn't understand why the police let them protest for so long. So yea, perhaps the police were the black bloc protesters.

I also think there were a lot of innocent protesters following the mayhem because they simply were curious and didn't know what was going on. Most of them have never experienced what happened at the G20, so many were naive.

Protests in general are starting to heat up a lot. On Canada day, I saw protesters coming out of the woodwork. They're looking more and more angry. I can't seem to blame them.

Political access in this country is nonexistent. Equal opportunity is getting thinner and thinner. Local culture is dying. The government is locking itself up tighter and tighter. Government policy is opposing public opinion polls. The government is proroguing. Severe problems like climate change and climbing poverty rates are not being addressed. Even municipal issues like climbing public transit/parking rates are getting no attention.

People are getting really pissed off.

You can blame it on dumb protesters, but I don't think that it would stop with better security. The black block was organized because people were pissed off and want to show it.

The problem is that peaceful protests don't work. The main reason for a protest is to freeze the natural order until something gets dealt with. By sitting in a circle and singing kum-bah-yah, they're getting nothing accomplished.

I agree that violence is not the way to go, but with such a lack of empowerment of average citizens, there's really no release.

The problem is that peaceful protests don't work.

Could you back that up with data to show peaceful protests don't work?

Saying a peaceful protest doesn't work is like saying a sign doesn't work and that's complete bollocks.

They exist to expose an issue to the public, garner more support from the public and put pressure on government to effect change during negotiations and they do every one of these things perfectly. They don't exist to halt "the natural order".

I know a person who goes to these g20 meetings in the US to protest. Apparently, while some anarchists destroyed everything(from breaking windows and street lights to ransacking cars), the police decided to hold the peaceful protest at gunpoint.

Whisper: but yea, we don't live in a low level police state(sarcasm)

Just my thoughts and comments.