What message does it send, when a concealed man, carrying a rock moves directly toward the police line? Is there any other way to interpret that action, other than a deliberate provocation? Can some apologist even attempt to argue that the rock and the movements were merely a tactic to "fit in"(good luck with that crap)? It really is BEYOND THE PALE that our security forces saw fit to try and incite people. Supposedly there to "keep the peace", it turns out the police are at the heart of any potential problems.
This is a massive story, which might have tenticles that may never see the light of day. Was this an attempt to discredit valid political expression, with the distraction of violence? Earlier, I wrote a post expressing my frustration with certain "hooligans" sidetracking honest protest, with their excessive tactics detracting from the message. After watching the video of this incident, one can't help but wonder if this type of tactic is standard practice during demonstrations? Watching Larry, Curly and Mo, it all seemed very amateurish, but I doubt the orders and intentions weren't well thought out.
This is a disgraceful, simply despicable event, that challenges the basis of our freedoms. Disagreement is a sacred tenet, to try and discredit in such a shameful way is a scandal, by any definition. Let's hope the opposition and media don't allow this story to fizzle out, not for political gain, but so we can find out how warped things have become in Canada, wherein the RCMP think tank concludes its just fine to create violence, endanger people and effectively usurp honest expression.
9 comments:
And your proof is?
Some union leader says so!
Nevermind the RCMP and Quebec police forces deny the story.
Everybody knows that evil Stephen Harper was behind it all!
Have you seen the video?? The shoes, the denial non-denial from the RCMP. COME ON, open your partisan eyes for a second. The cops arrested four people, all accounted for by the Council of Canadians. What happened to these three? Why no information? COME ON.
Steve V:
It is that rock in the hand and the lack of any concern from the cops about it that I think is the most damning part of the video. The idea that cops protecting heads of government and State would allow any protestor within that close a proximity with a potentially lethal weapon (which a rock is) without immediately responding is absurd, yet the response is only after the three creep into police lines well after the cops had to have seen the rock in the hand. It is also the rock that makes this look like an attempt at provocation by undercover cops instead of simply monitoring the protestors (an excuse I have seen tossed out a lot today) which would have been entirely different. This looks really bad, and the fact that the CPC Trolletariat online is desperately focusing on the boots to the exclusion of all else (despite the boots being a secondary piece of evidence, the behaviour of the men and cops being far more damning) only increases the suspicion that this was an undercover police operation intended to start trouble, whether to simply be able to use their weapons or at the political direction of someone gods only know.
This is something which should appall all Canadians whatever their political ideology, for if it can happen at one protest it can happen at any, and I wonder how comfortable these same apologists would feel if it were say an anti-abortion or anti-SSM protest that got undercover cops trying to provoke violence at. Somehow I doubt they would be as blasé about it as we are seeing now, but that would be because then it was one of their cherished causes/beliefs being so treated instead of those they politically object to. Which shows these voices are more concerned with their partisanship than with more fundamental principles of democracy, the right to assemble and peacefully protest the actions of our government.
You know my concerns on hyperpartisanship for this nation and my intense distrust of the Harper CPC approach to politics as well as the clear emulation of the worst GOP tactics by Harper and his coterie and alas far too many bamboozled Canadian Cons who are so angry/hateful towards the Libs that they don't see the threat within their own ranks because they are too focused on upsetting Libs and/or taking pleasure that Libs are so disturbed by Harper. It is easy to state what you are against, it is less so to state what you are for, especially in the modern NA conservative.
While we're on the road to becoming more of a surveilled and policed state the only thing that matters is that Stephen Harper remains lily white.
So any and all intrusions and violations will be defended against criticism on the grounds that those criticisms might stick to Steve.
Sad really that democratic norms and traditions have come to mean so little in this partisan age.
I love this vague quote:
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Luc Bessette said the Mounties do "not use tactics that would encourage confrontation or incite violence."
Translation:
"We're not saying they weren't cops, but the rock was just a prop"
Bessette said the RCMP cannot discuss details of security measures for major events such as the summit because "to do so could jeopardize the integrity of our operations for future events."
Translation:
"for security reasons we can't confirm what everybody knows"
Hardly the type of denial one would expect if there was no involvement. It's actually a shame that parliament isn't sitting.
Parliament is an irrelevance to Harper if not an outright annoyance.
If every member who was not a Con stood and demanded answers he and his puppet cabinet would simply write it off as partisan quibbling.
That's if they didn't simply walk out of the House.
The shit we may be in here is neither shallow nor benign.
If, I say again *if*, this proves to have been an action by the QPP, OPP, Ottawa-Gatineau Police, RCMP, CSIS, DND or Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid, agents of the US government, then we will be in a crisis the likes of which this poor, benighted client state hasn't seen in a long time.
OK these guys WERE/ARE cops first of all, 100% guarenteed. Riot police do not dance ballet with black bloc protestors carrying weapons when they arrest them, which is what happened here. Also balck bloc protesters would argue with the Union leader about their right to protest as they see fit, not remain silent. The fact that they stood there with rocks in their hands silent, while the bloc accused them of being cops and a union leader was yelling at them also guarentees they are cops.
Now cops at protest undercover, nothing new. Were they there to incite??? That's the real question.
I'll go out on a limb her and say Maybe/Maybe not. Why maybe not. Well as we know these guys are having trouble convincing anyone they are black bloc. They don't look like black bloc, they don't act like black bloc, they don't dress like back bloc, they don't talk like black bloc.
So how do you try to infiltrate the black bloc if you are ordered to by your superiors and you are well like a duck out of water and kind of dumb. "I know, we'll carry rocks and we'll stand up to organizers, then they'll believe us."
I think these are some dumb ass cops. I am not convinced they were going to incite violence and I've been at a lot of protests. There are so many other ways for the police and RCMP to incite violence, and its been done so many times and its so unnecessary to do so from the crowd. Its just too easy for the riot squad or police to incite from their side of the line and they still blame protestors.
Anyways that's m,y take on the situation.
while I love not being watched all the time, with all the sick and twisted things people do these days maybe we do need to be watched a whole lot more then we are...
The police admit lying to Canadians.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/23/police-montebello.html
They really were police posing as armed activists.
How embarrassing.
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