The G20 Spot.
Courtesy of Mr. McGuinty.
Unfortunately it doesn't equate with pleasure (even though I did fancy a ciggy for the first time in years, after the fact) - the spot in question arouses disgust, disappointment, a bit of fear for the future, but mainly anger.
It's interesting to me that a few months down the road, a number of very conservative individuals I spoke with when the news was first breaking, expressed initial discontent with the protesters, and are now questioning the police action and the premise of "THE FENCE".
What gives with this change of heart?
There hasn't been overkill in the media. There has been a number of tidbits in the news relating to regular individuals having their rights trampled for NOTHING!
Well as normal, I have to ask...are we being set up? If suggestive ideas are being fed to the masses - enough to sway rather conservative individuals, it makes me wonder if there is actually a ground swell of sensibility emerging OR, is there some sort of media pied piper instilling ideas. If so, by whom and to what end?
Possibly enough people had time to digest the concept that there is a large "people control" machine. "Wot? Here in Canada, you say? Pity!" "We have always taken our right of free speech and the concept we live in a "democracy" for granted. But is it true any longer?" "Arrests are no longer based on crimes, but seem subjective to the individual cop's (lack) of discretion"
This is what I am hearing.
Perhaps when the protesters singing Oh Canada, who were charged by the riot squad in full gear, went viral, many individuals have had time to rethink the situation.
G20 police shot rubber bullets, woman says
And then of course there is Bubbles the Cop...if this doesn't fully explain the current status of "to serve and protect", nothing does.
"You touch me with that bubble you're going into custody,"
In a viral Internet video ...
"
Toronto's 'Officer Bubbles' gains web notoriety
Can you imagine the ramifications if this cop had shown up to tell me about the Christian cutting the grass next door, a few weeks back? I suspect there would be no blog entry this evening...or for many to come.
Did anyone smell rubber burning at McGuinty's session?
Cabinet rushed secret G20 change, documents show
"A controversial G20 policing measure rubber-stamped by Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet was one of at least 116 orders-in-council signed in a flurry of end-of-session moves last month, the Star has learned.
A more typical cabinet meeting would have 30 to 40 orders-in-council on the agenda, and sometimes as few as 20. Perhaps the most notorious item of business was cabinet's designation of areas within the G20 security zone around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre as a "public work" under the 1939 Public Works Protection Act.
Ministers made the temporary change at the request of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who sought clarification for officers if they had to stop anyone inside the restricted area where world leaders were meeting June 26-27. The Star first revealed the unusual modification on June 25, three days before it was to have been officially revoked and eight days before it was published in the Ontario Gazette.
In the wake of that story, there was an erroneous impression that police had been given the power to arrest people who refused to provide identification or submit to a search within five metres of the zone's outer perimeter. But Blair, McGuinty and Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci, who defended the "extraordinary" powers throughout the G20, did not set the record straight until two days after the summit had ended."
If they can confuse the facts and drag it on long enough those dumb tax payers will forget about it. They will all need resuscitating after they get their new hydro bills and insurance premiums and adjustments to the HST take effect. It's called being punch drunk! And broke and worried about money. What a clever distraction for every day use!
But we can count on ethics to save the day! Oh....darn.
Dueling G20 probes may hinder each other
What frightens me most about the cops stepping beyond their realm of authority and interpreting the law on an individual basis to suit their own egos, (thank you very much Officer Bubbles) is that we may soon be subjected to militant mind washing, which has already been attempted in the UK.
ASA Adjudication on The Association of Chief Police Officers
http://asa.org.uk/Complaints-and-ASA-action/Adjudications/2010/8/The-Association-of-Chief-Police-Officers/TF_ADJ_48887.aspx
Lonely? Pay in cash? Keep your curtains drawn? You could be a terrorist
But they have EXAGGERATED before in an ad...(then this did occur across the pond, so what are the chances of being misled so blatantly out here in the colonies? Ha!)
Advertising watchdog bans 'misleading' police ad
"A Home Office campaign stating that police can now be expected to spend 80% of their time on the beat has been banned by the advertising watchdog. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the advert did not make clear time spent "on the beat" included duties other than foot patrols.
It said that as well as having a misleading definition of "on the beat", the advert failed to make it clear which officers it referred to. The pledge does not apply to all 140,000 police officers in England and Wales, only to 13,500 neighbourhood constables and 16,000 community support officers in neighbourhood policing teams. "
The following article by Denis Ranacourt is a must read and extremely insightful analysis of the G20.
"Police violence at G20-Toronto, like the economic violence engineered by G20 itself, are windows into Canada’s loss of sovereignty as it continues to integrate the US military economy and military culture at breakneck speed. Loss of economic and security sovereignty and the associated planned plundering (so-called austerity) must be attended by loss of democracy and civil rights."
G20-Toronto and lost sovereignty
This article in the Star today, caught my eye.
Anatomy of the G20: the story from both sides of the fence
Supposedly written from both sides of the fence (no pun subtly intended) it does touch on the malaise many innocent bystanders and peaceful protesters were caught up in that fateful weekend. Interestingly enough, there are also some insights into the police psyche surrounding their intentions during the G20.
Social justice activist Anna Willats, head marshal of the parade, led a circle of protesters in a pep talk. “This is a peaceful march,” she said. “This is one we want to take to the end.”
The route would be subject to ongoing negotiations with police. The 31-year-old activist said she and another police liaison arrived at the park around 2 p.m. and immediately sought out an officer in charge. She was eventually pointed toward a couple of staff sergeants, including 55 Division’s Grant Burningham and Shaun Narine, an experienced crowd control officer who had helped manage last summer’s Tamil protest on the Gardiner Expressway.
By about 4 p.m., more than 1,000 people marched west on Carlton St., with police on bicycles. As the mass forged westward, Withers spotted Burningham in the crowd and ran up to him. Could the march continue west of Yonge St.? Yes, he replied.
But soon after, the staff sergeant became visibly agitated. The protest was moving too fast. “Slow, slow!” he shouted at two police vans leading the march. “Crawl, crawl. Use your vans as a natural barricade to slow them down.”
Burningham spoke brusquely into his cellphone and could be heard saying: “It’s posturing at this point. Until they break off, we’re not going to deploy anything.”
It's that last sentence that gets me. They were expecting a group to splinter and cause mayhem so they could deploy. hmmmmmmm.
Me thinks the persons contributing this article have a weenie case of G20 spot, but are keeping it clean for their corporate masters. It peeps out on occasion and has all the comfort of a heel blister in a pair of new shoes. Poor girls.
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