Finally, a G20 Aftermath

After everything is said and done, I have only the following words to describe it: play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

And now, MTV is making heroes of these idiots. People bitching that they were marked as 'medics' and got arrested. Really? So, which organization were you with, Anarchists United Against Everything? Maybe EcoTerrorists Against Human Existence? Everyone on the show is either a scapegoat or professional protester. Hell, I have no problem with peaceful protesters. I have problems with people who support the violent ones.

People are complaining that they got arrested for 'nothing'. Really? Why were you at a riot?

One person actually said that staying home and having no one show up, or having a lot less lookey-lous, would prove that the massive police protest would be pointless. It's true. And then she got booed offstage, because people seem to thin that standing around waving signs that say 'shame' or yelling at police is a better way to get their message across.

Before I repost some of my forum spiels, I'm going to give people a piece of wage advice: If you don't want an ass kicking and an arrest on your jacket, DON'T GO TO A RIOT. Don't go to a G-series summit or any other places where there is a reasonable expectation of a riot. Don't go where people are being arrested with cars full of Molotov cocktails.

And here we go:

"It started out that the majority of police on the protests were actually 52, 31, Halton and Durham cops. For those outside the area, Halton and Durham are smaller suburbs of Toronto, 31 Division is the Finch Corridor, and 52 is Metro Toronto. It's pretty rare to hear anything besides the usual 'all cops are pigs and need to die' shit that you hear at most protests about them. They were the bike cops you saw early on, guiding the peaceful protesters along and stuff.

However, there were a number of rather hardline shops in town as well. Montreal PD, Surete de Quebec, Peel Region and the Mounties have a well-deserved reputation for getting rough when people don't listen. The SQ in particular has a bad habit of asking only once before they drop the hammer. They ask you disperse, and you don't, they won't ask again. And they're the ones who came out at Queen's Park and down Bloor.

I'm some limited way, I feel bad for the legitimate, peaceful protesters. I know that the majority of them didn't cause trouble. Onlookers and opportunists mixed into legitimate and peaceful gatherings soured a lot of them. A lot of people got upset when people got arrested for not obeying the police, and that soured more crowds, too.

You know there's going to be riot cops, riot cavalry, plainclothes, etc. When the police tell you to move, Goddamn well move!. Straight up, argue the legality of your protest in court. If you try to argue it to a nice cop, you're going to get arrested. If you argue with an SQ cop, you're going to be savagely beaten, then arrested. Once the Riot Act is on the table, GTFO. Hell, any sane person would book it in the opposite direction once you even sighted riot cavalry."

I'm not impressed with the media for portraying the professional protesters as heroes and great philanthropists, instead of zealots who use the media and the law to push their personal crusades. There's a civilian inquiry being pushed... but are they going to be told about proper riot tactics? People are complaining that the police didn't act fast enough, but then again, if they did swoop down and quash the window-smashers, it would have incited people with accusations of 'police brutality'.

Christ, they stocked the audience with more of those hyper-activist people who hate reason. Watching this is just getting me riled up.

Deschain