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June 27, 2010

Summit Update: Locusts

By Michael Shaw

<p>Gerry Broome/AP</p> <script type="text/javascript">AKPC_IDS += "14921,";</script>

Gerry Broome/AP

As far as G-8/G-20 summits go, I wouldn’t want to be Canada.

You know you’re not going to keep thousands of angry citizens and anarchists off the streets, so you can take for granted they’re going to show up in the news either facing off with, or even being manhandled by the robocops.

So okay. But what you can’t afford to see — especially if you’ve poured almost a billion (yes, billion) dollars into security — is an image like the one above (which is circulating widely) in which demonstrators not only show the ability to torch your security vehicles but seem to be dropping out of the sky like locusts.

(Of course, the fact they seem to have no problem putting a “shattering” hurt — 1, 2, 3 — on the downtown retail establishment isn’t making the Toronto paramilitary look any smarter or tougher either.)

(caption: Protestors surround a burning police car during demonstrations in Toronto, Saturday, June 26, 2010, as the G20 Summit gets underway.)

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  • Glenn May

    I’d like to see a close-up of the people in the background. There seem to be a ring of media photogs surrounding the one guy on the cop car. Philosophically I’m with the protesters. But is this just another case where active protest serves solely to help the media craft images that are frightening the masses of the middle? Protests seem to have become puppet shows. The powers-that-be seem only too happy when one “splinter group” peels off from the main body of the protest and breaks a few windows.

  • Reverend Money

    This is what Americans should be doing in the streets. But we are a spineless lot and we’ll never challenge our oppressors-the corporations that own “our” politicians and control “our” government. America’s best days are behind us. We are an empire in decline. We are a nation of hypocritical torturers.

    • http://www.agrippinaminor.com/wp/ Wayne Dickson

      [Believe me, Reverend, lots of Americans are in Toronto doing precisely this.]

      I’m bothered that we see the pictures but rarely hear who’s protesting what. Michael refers to “angry citizens” and “anarchists.” Citizens from where? (Answer: all over the world.) What are they angry about? What do they want changed?

      Anarchists by definition are persons who want to destroy every form of order and government, so their purpose is implicit in what they call themselves. Still, as David Rovics notes in song and word, there are anarchists and then there are anarchists. I always compare them to the “People’s Front of Judaea,” “Judean People’s Front,” etc. in Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

  • Chris S

    “Anarchists by definition are persons who want to destroy every form of order…”

    That’s hardly a fact. Even google can help you out with a better definition.

    As for what they’re angry about and what they want changed? Great questions. Of course, the fact that MSM isn’t interested in answering them doesn’t mean there aren’t very good and coherent responses to such queries.

    • http://scienceandreason.blogspot.com cgd

      MSM isn’t interested in answering them

      Oh hell, the MSM isn’t even interested in asking the necessary questions. That’s the main problem with it, after all.

      The question here: Exactly why are people so angry about G20 meetings?

      It’s certainly too bad that people have to go to such lengths to provoke photojournalists to give them any attention.

      And yet, even so, I’ve seen very little coverage of the protests – let alone any that asks the question why – and I follow a lot of news sources.

      The people who want these questions considered are understandably upset and frustrated that they need to go to such lengths – and even so, to such little effect.

      Reminds me a lot of the Vietnam era. Evidently what’s needed is another Kent State and some self-immolations….

  • http://pushingfiftygently.blogspot.com Jaliya

    This, as far as I know, is a first for my hometown of Toronto. I’m appalled … but not surprised. I share the frustration and dismay of people who protest at these “G” gatherings … Seems that the most important issue for the powers that be is to continue to shore up the banks and other huge corporations that appear to be doing everything in their power to ruin life for ordinary people … and ruin the life-support systems of the planet. Torching police cars and smashing store windows does nothing but create more ruination. These “summits” don’t seem to produce anything meaningful … and ordinary people have to foot the bill eventually.

  • Drink Your Eggs

    It is so often believed that the protestors are the righteous and that those being protested are the less than holy supressors. Let it be known that I am in NO WAY condoning the actions of many politicians and those that keep them in power, but also let it be known that I do not condone the violent/destructive actions of protestors such as this one exhibited in the photo.

    Firstly, many of these “protestors” may claim they are demonstrating against the powers “they” claim to be against, but tell me who exactly are these protestors and what is the agenda of each of them? Are you going to say that each protestor is acting to benefit me as well as them? Can you explain to me in what way the violence/destruction of public securities vehicles, utilities, services and occassionally its employees helps to stop the powers that be from treating me unfairly? Maybe you can put into context how destroying private storefronts and other businesses makes for a better living situation for me, my family and the families like my own. Does the burning of vehicles, buildings and debris provide positive environmental effects as opposed to the negative effects caused by others such as coal burning and oil spills?

    Violent and destructive outbursts, when your life is not immediately in jeopardy, often leads to the justifaction and implimentation of larger security forces, laws restricting individual freedoms, and often the raising of taxes to recoop the loss of revenue caused by such events. That isn’t even mentioning the unnecessary injuries that often occur as a result of protestor action but also the potential for loss of life…

    If you really want change, you start at home… Then, you hit them where it really hurts, in the wallet… Of course, you can always find more people with “integrity” and get them involved on the inside of politics, but the challenge their is finding people with “real” integrity… The differences of private opinion often vary from those of public, and therefore the odds of finding someone who represents the policies everyone can live with is very unlikely.

    But, hey… it’s not like what I’m saying is going to stop a bunch teens and twenty somethings from destroying things just because they can (and no, I don’t believe it’s only teens and twenty somethings being destructive)… I’m simply trying to get people to understand, you’re not always protesting for the reasons you say you are and maybe you need to be honest about it and admit to screwing those that are in the same boat as you everytime you smash a window or burn car.

  • Chris S

    “…tell me who exactly are these protestors and what is the agenda of each of them?”

    Can’t possibly tell you each & every protestor is, what their agendas are, which are agent provocateurs, etc. Here’s a great report from someone living in Toronto on their experience:

    “…Toronto, June 26, Saturday: We’ve done family protests in Washington and London, amongst other places, and even mingled with some serious ruckus in Buenos Aires. Never have we experienced anything as terrible as in Toronto today, Saturday, a mile from the G20 perimeter walls. The Canadians—if these police/soldiers are even Canadian—are far and away the most vicious of any military we’ve ever experienced….”

    http://counterpunch.com/thomson06282010.html

    As for the value of forcing the state to flex it’s muscle and show its true colors, as well as making it expensive to have these summits that leave out untold numbers of voices, I think there’s something to be said for a diversity of tactics.
    Without parallel more violent movements, MLK and Gandhi might not have looked so attractive to those in power.

  • strangefriend

    On Daily Kos, someone made the comment that the burning police car/bashed in store windows have justified the $1 billion spent by the Canadian gov’t on security theater. At BoingBoing, there is a video of the cops charging a line of protesters just after they finish singing “O Canada.” There is also a video from the 2008 summit in Montreal were the police spokesman admits there were agents disguised as ‘anarchists’ in the crowd, carrying rocks for throwing.

  • http://reciprocity-failure.blogspot.com Stan B.

    Very interesting inside info on the burning car, the police, and then some…
    http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/28/naomi_klein_the_real_crime_scene

  • http://wisewebwoman.blogspot.com Wisewebwoman

    Well, it’s a classic case of “staging” perhaps, to intimidate the peaceful protestors, inflame the passive TV watchers, and add an element of drama and justification to the billion dollars spent.
    I wrote about it here:

    http://wisewebwoman.blogspot.com/2010/06/by-their-boots-ye-shall-know-them.html

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