G20?

[nibbler]

intense video Kev...

Here's an excellent read about tactics employed by the police leading up to and including the summit:

Porter: When police stick to phony script

By Catherine Porter columnist for The Star

Published On Sat Jun 26 2010

They call it the Miami Model.

But it could be called the Genoa model, the Pittsburgh model and, after this weekend, the Toronto model.

It refers to police tactics used in Miami seven years ago, during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, and, more importantly, the protests erupting on the streets outside.

Manny Diaz, Miami’s then-mayor, called the police methods exemplary — a model to be followed by homeland security when confronting protesters.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International called it a model of police brutality and intimidation.

Protesters were beaten with tear gas, sticks, rubber bullets . . . You can watch police stun cowering protesters with Tasers on YouTube. Last year, the city agreed it had trampled citizens’ right to free speech by forcing marchers back from planned protests and settled out of court with Amnesty International.

What is the Miami Model?

I called Naomi Archer to find out. She is an indigenous rights worker from North Carolina who happened to be giving a lecture on the Miami Model yesterday at the U.S. Social Forum — the G20 for community activists.

Archer, who was in Miami as a liaison between protesters and police, has a 40-box checklist to identify the Model. Here are the main themes.

• Information warfare. This starts weeks before the event. Protesters are criminalized and dehumanized, and described as dangerous “anarchists†and “terrorists†the city needs to defend against.

“Often, a faux cache is found,†says Archer. “They are usually ordinary objects, like bike inner tubes, camping equipment, but the police make them out to look threatening. It lays the groundwork for police to be violent and it means there’s a reduced accountability of law enforcement.â€

• Intimidation. Police start random searches of perceived protesters before any large rallies. They are asked where they are staying, why they are walking around. Police raid organizer’s homes or meeting places, “usually just before the summit, so there’s maximum chaos organizers have to deal with,†says Archer.

“All this is meant to dissuade participants. The best way to make sure you don’t have a critical mass of people taking over the streets like in Seattle is to reduce the numbers at the outset.â€

This is usually made possible by last-minute city regulations, curtailing the right to protest. In Miami, the city commission passed a temporary ordinance forbidding groups of more than seven to congregate for more than 30 minutes without a permit.

• “They threw rocks.†That’s the line police use after tear-gassing or beating protesters most times, Archer says. Urine and human feces are variations on the theme. But it’s always the protesters who triggered the violence. A popular police tactic is called “kettling.†Officers on bike or horses herd protesters into an enclosed space, so they can’t leave without trying to break through the police line. Take the bait; you provoke a beating or arrest. And of course, there are the famous agent provocateurs, outted publicly two years ago in Montebello. Police officers dressed up like militant protesters to protect the peaceful crowd, they say; Archer says it’s to instigate trouble.

In Montebello, one of the three cops dressed in black was holding a rock.

“It’s the same lies every single protest,†she says. “It’s justification by law enforcement for their violent actions. This is a propaganda war.â€

• Job well done. At the end, regardless of the bodies clogging the temporary holding cells and hospitals, the police always congratulate themselves. And by the time the cases go to court, the story is long forgotten and the circus has moved to a new unsuspecting town.

More than 270 people were arrested in Miami during the summit seven years ago . How many were convicted, in the end? I called the American Civil Liberties Union to find out.

“None,†said lawyer Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, who was the president of the Miami chapter back then.

So far in Toronto, the police show has unrolled according to script; we’ve seen the propaganda, the cache, the intimidation, the secretive new regulations, the scary military arsenal. . . .

Next up, rocks. Will we all believe that one too?

Catherine Porter usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cporter@thestar.ca

link to source

[phishtaper]

went in for the herbie hancock show last night. got down to queen stret at spadina aorund 8pm, just in time to see another car go up in flames. then wandered along queen to city hall and saw all the smashed windows.

was very sureal and very disappointing.

there is no justification for what some people did last night.

[nibbler]

Check out Steve Paikin's Twitter feed He is on the streets and tweeting regularly.

"so the police just started arresting people. i stress, this was a peaceful, middle class, diverse crowd. no anarchists"

"...just wanted to remind the authorities that the freedom to speak and assemble shouldn't disappear because world leaders come to town."

"and shame on those that ordered peaceful protesters attacked and arrested. that is not consistent with democracy in toronto, G20 or no G20"

[SaggyBalls]

Though his show often moves slowly and I often find it less interesting than bible documentaries, every time I listen to what he's putting forward I'm always glad to force myself to sit through it.

Thanks for the link, nibbler.

[Kanada Kev]

Porter: When police stick to phony script

Exactly! THanks for posting. For anyone who has followed past protests at these events you could see it all unfold just as expected pretty much.

As soon as I had heard that UofT was kicking out students from specific residences I told my wife that they'd raid them at some point (this is what went down in Italy a number of years ago). Will any of those people be going to court on their charges? Unlikely.

Not to excuse anyone who has caused any damage, but the general population has fallen right into the line that the authorities wanted. It truly is a battle that is carefully planned and orchestrated and just goes to show how they can now use this as a way to remind us how they can take over whenever they choose.

Fuckwad Harper is now talking ... will they 'allow' anyone to ask him questions about the worthiness of spending this money and disrupting Toronto for all this time?

[SaggyBalls]

$1.2B is the same cost as the admin. salaries and expenditures of the UN for a year.

How come there were no police anywhere during the vandalism last night?

Where were the cops that left their cars to be lit on fire?

Insurance pays for what exactly?

[Kanada Kev]

Gov't won't be handing out cash to those store owners. I'm sure their insurance will claim that they hadn't paid for the "Anarchist Protesters Premium" and will shaft them.

Harper hands our economy over to the "Global Economy"? wtf?

Absolutely NOTHING that they talked about will have any sort of checks/measures to ensure they do anything at all. COMPLETELY VOLUNTARY for all countries who signed!!

So, $1billion spent, damages done, Toronto and many other business and people directly disrupted by this shit and there's NO ACCOUNTABILITY for these nations to do anything?

What a complete waste.

Pat yourselves on the backs leaders ... you done did it again

Edited June 28, 2010 by Guest

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

The only power we ever get is once every few (arbitrarily chosen, despite the promises) years to put a little "x" on a slip of paper. My hope is that Harper finally crossed a line with a lot of his base this time around, but I haven't talked with enough conservative in-laws yet to get much of a sense of things .

But yeah, awfully shitty that there is no coverage for people's whose property was ruined in TO. That's what a $billion gets you under this government.

[nibbler]

How come there were no police anywhere during the vandalism last night?

Where were the cops that left their cars to be lit on fire?

Obviously they were in phone booths busy changing their costumes.

[nibbler]

The only power we ever get is once every few (arbitrarily chosen, despite the promises) years to put a little "x" on a slip of paper. My hope is that Harper finally crossed a line with a lot of his base this time around, but I haven't talked with enough conservative in-laws yet to get much of a sense of things

Which is why you'll want to show said inlaws videos like this one \/ \/ which may help counter the Main Stream Media propaganda they are being led around by...

[nibbler]

Crowd of peaceful protesters and hippies sing O Canada in front of Steve's Music on Queen Street West, while dozens of police stand at perfect attention. Then as soon as the song ends... well.. its less than a minute long-> just watch the video.

[Kanada Kev]

Some more ... plain clothes

[SaggyBalls]

2mL46t8H4oU

[Kanada Kev]

Another angle (POV) of the peaceful protesters singing our NATIONAL ANTHEM:

Hearing the praise the cops are giving themselves via the media today is sickening.

Edited June 28, 2010 by Guest

[can-o-phish]

Well, so many questions after this weekend's bumblefuk G20...

Why did they hold this in downtown Toronto on such short notice? Usually there is planning of 1 to 2 years...but for Toronto it was six months...

Why wasn't this held in a location that would have lessened or removed the threat of violent protesting?

By setting up fences in the downtown core and hiring hundreds of extra law enforcement personal, essentially a war-zone was created...and low and behold things went wrong, drastically wrong...

Was it worth the 1 & 1/2 days of lunches, dinners and a meeting???

Let's wait until the estimated cost of this clusterfuk weekend and see...

[ollie]

One explanation I've heard for holding the event in Toronto is that the number of delegates from all the countries totaled something like 15,000 people. This was from Evan Solomon reporting on CBC.

[Kanada Kev]

They could have had it in Alberta ... don't they need some cash??

But nooooooooooo ... Harper wanted to "give it" to Toronto where he doesn't care for votes anyway.

It's all a big game and the ones that suffer the most are all the local businesses in the core of Toronto. Was this supposed to encourage tourism?? Fuck that, this is SARS 2010 for this city

[Kanada Kev]

Some great shots/articles at the G&M site:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/g20-related-detentions-biggest-mass-arrests-in-canadian-history/article1621198/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/toronto/security-or-liberty-toronto-comes-to-grips-with-a-historic-crackdown/article1621020/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/interactive/g20-protests/article1620462/

Edited June 28, 2010 by Guest

[phishtaper]

it is unfortunate that these sorts of images will be the ones most distributed and most remembered. no doubt the police made some strategic mistakes in dealing with the situation and they will need to answer for their actions. but their many successes and peaceful diffusions over the weekend will not garner this sort of attention. it's just not that exciting seeing people walking away from a tense crowd.

[SaggyBalls]

things didn't go really bad. They could have.

I think that, though the 'police state' situation did occur, it could have been far worse.

I'm still appalled at the media's lopsided representation of the demonstrations and protest force.

[nibbler]

it is unfortunate that these sorts of images will be the ones most distributed and most remembered. no doubt the police made some strategic mistakes in dealing with the situation and they will need to answer for their actions. but their many successes and peaceful diffusions over the weekend will not garner this sort of attention. it's just not that exciting seeing people walking away from a tense crowd.

Its unfortunate that the estimated 25,000 - 40,000 peaceful protesters efforts' went largely unnoticed by the Main Stream Media.

Its also unfortunate that most of the world who followed this story via the Main Stream Media over the weekend have now cemented hours of footage of a police car burning in their psyche, even though the images are taken way out of context and lacking all sense of the timeline in which the actions and reactions took place.

Its unfortunate the O Canada sing-in and the subsequent police rush did not get played over and over on TV instead. I don't have a TV, but I'm guessing that shot didn't make the hourly updates.

Notice the lack of smashed windows and burning police cars in the O Canada shot... Is it possible that through omission the MSM conspired to make it seem like the police were NOT deliberately provoking violent confrontation all weekend? Dare I ask: Is there anyone in this forum dumb enough to suggest that the singing of O Canada is justification enough for the police to violently rush the singing protesters?

Its unfortunate that we are conditioned to believe these lies to the extent that many are defending the police brutality of the weekend, while very few are questioning WHY the police abandoned squad cars thus allowing agent provocateurs the opportunity to destroy the cars, and why unless they were agent provocateurs the police stood by watching instead of arresting them? if you dare to actually think about it, how long until you conclude that deliberately abandoning the cars was a part of the well planned police script?

Above all, its unfortunate that we seem hard wired to be drawn to the violence on both sides of the line, instead of repulsed by it.

Behind the tear-gas smokescreen and MSM coverage of burning police cars; behind the 19,000 heavily armoured cops brandishing chemical weapons; behind the three layers of ten foot tall fence, a small number of people plan state sponsored and sanctioned violence, the bankrupting of economies, the destruction of the environment, the continuing impoverishment of billions, and the deaths of enormous numbers of people in coming years. Saying its unfortunate just doesn't cover the bill.

[Kanada Kev]

There are still packs of wild cops roaming around down here. Most are smiling, and hanging out drinking Starbucks and having smoke-breaks ...

Gotta love it when they don't need search warrants to bust into your house this past weekend too. I hope these people change their minds and take this further than the simple "complaints dept":

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/829462--terrifying-police-raid-wakens-couple-at-4-a-m?bn=1

[phishtaper]

i sense you have read an awful lot more into my post than intended, nibbler.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Gotta love it when they don't need search warrants to bust into your house this past weekend too.

Holy crap - what a nightmare. They say they won't sue, but I don't know what kind of response they'll ever get if they don't.

When's the next election again? It's frightening how latent this kind of stuff is, and all it needs is some sense of complicity from the higher-ups to let it go south like this. People like Milgram and Zimbardo just go on making more and more sense. People really will do horrific stuff if you set the table in just the right (or wrong) way.

[SaggyBalls]

People really will do horrific stuff if you set the table in just the right (or wrong) way.

But just because somebody set the table with pickle forks and grapefruit spoons that doesn't mean that people should start stabbing, sawing, and scooping.