Demand for G-20 public enquiry, Part 3

I just read an interesting story from one of the people arrested for peacefully protesting. This is police state tactics nothing less. In the very near future I fear we will see a misguided youth shot dead in the streets.  Any inquiry needs to look at the international events that have given rise to this obsession with security.  In Vancouver in 1997 the APEC summit was protested peacefully. However people were arrested for merely standing on the the sidewalks with signs saying Free Speech.  There were also the more radical activists who insisted on not just standing on the sidewalks but trying to sit in the street to stop the dictators from parading though the streets of our democracy. Those "illegal" protesters were pepper sprayed and beaten with batons.  I was not in Quebec City but at every turn the security people have been given a free hand to turn our cities into totalitarian states when leaders from other countries come here.  I want to know why that is.

In contrast the rally that Libby was ambushed at did not involve any world leaders and marched through the streets of Vancouver with an escort of a few dozen cops mostly on bikes and primarily doing traffic control at intersections as the march progressed throughout the downtown.  What is it about having foreign leaders in Canada that makes our government go to measures that are never necessary for any other march.  For every escalation of fences and barbed wire there is a equal and opposite escalation of violent tactics raging against the police state.  The rest of the time we all protest and march and windows get broken more often after sporting events than at rallies.  Someone should be held accountable for the security strategy because it seems to provoke the violence by its in your face fascism.

http://lacymacauley.wordpress.com/category/g8g20/

Catchfire wrote:

You have a fairly narrow view of how the left characterizes the police. Here's a hint: most don't consider them allies, and many don't feel they are essential to civic infrastructure at all. They view them as stewards of state power, not of its citizens. And before you marginalize those views as "anarchists" or whatever, they are held by a large array of viewpoints across leftist thinking. "Straight faces" notwithstanding.

And to be frank, I am getting quite creeped out by your repeated attempts to smear my views of violence as a protest tactic. I've been quite clear on how I view the subject, through PM correspondence with you and through my posts over years and years on babble. Yet you continue to suggest that I have some sort of tacit support for what happened this weekend in Toronto, and likewise insinuating that I support the RBC bombing. I can't believe that a postdoc has such poor reading skills, so I can only assume you are doing it deliberately. It's the same tactic you take in your repeated harassment of statica on her blog, and it's disgraceful. You are welcome to your views, as sheltered and as myopic as they may be, naturally, but when you begin to engage in wormy smears of my beliefs and character, it's unacceptable. Stick to the issues and leave the psychoanalysis at the door.

May I humbly suggest that.... er.... you are attempting to insult me?  Of course, this doesn't bother me in the slightest... but I must say - perhaps it's because I haven't been babbling as long as some of you, but Catchfire, your views on violent tactics/tacit or explicit support for them, etc. are in fact, not clear to me.  That's why I asked - and that's why I asked Krystalline, as well.  You both seem to be taking those inquiries quite personally, and are quickly dismissing the inquiries - Krystalline accused me of insinuating she supported the RBC firebombing, something I never even hinted at.... likewise with you - this is an unwarranted suspicion... What I'm interested in is engaging in dialogue around violent tactics, and with respect to this thread, issues to do with attitudes and police related to violent tactics and spectacles... because it's obvious from my contributions on babble that I think these tactics are not helping 'us' (left, green, indigenous) activists at all, where nonviolent tactics and their assistance in building mass movements will... And in a simple sense, smashing, hitting, throwing stuff, pushing someone (including a police line), destroying, etc. are all violent tactics..

Please don't take things personally.... I'm interested in probing these issues because I think they're critically important...

best,

-A

p.s. roger that on the not-as-many-hyperlinks - and I'll avoid links, rather perhaps refer in writing to, my blog...(where relevant/appropriate).  I don't think you answered all my questions there, this is ok with me...  

You're right Adharden we rely on the police everyday for their protective services and generally they have been doing a good job in Toronto.  That is true for everyday with the exception if last weekend when the police deliberately did not protect our streets.  That's why there is a serious need for a public inquiry to find truth of what transpired last weekend.

I think everyone here - despite what their fundamental attitudes toward police might be (hopefully respect, as I've argued) - would want to support the CCLA's push for a public inquiry - here's one of the most recent links:

http://ccla.org/2010/06/30/sign-the-cclas-petition-for-action-on-the-g20/

And a related Toronto Star article:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/830747

I just hope that an inquiry would have broad enough powers so as to summon Harper and Co. to testify as to their orders.... to the Integrated Security Unit, etc.  

My facebook has been squeezing those lemons pretty hard, along with pinning the HST on both Harper and McGuinty. I had to laugh as one of my conservative friends comes barreling in leveling the tax tax tax accusation at the NDP so I linked a few articles on the devine gov introduction of the HST the romanow repeal of it and the subsequent reintroduction being"considered" in sask. Also thge fact the oil industry recieves 1.4 billion in subsidies yet is going to get a tax cut with record profits again , but we have to lose our programs.

Here is her reply

Yep never bothered to come back to debate.. I love debating her because she has no answers except one. Its just NDP propaganda, so this time I sent her links from the Van Sun and the National Post...I think she got tired of trying to ignore my G summit links this week. She believs the only use of tax dollars is for military and policing. Yet she and her child are at school while not working(her husband works in detroit) But I never call her out on basically(because she cant escape the HST or property tax and or licencse) being a freeloader on the canadian tax system she hates so much.