By Frank Moher
While mainstream news coverage of the G20 was dominated on Saturday by footage of burning police cars and vandals smashing windows, video of police misbehaviour, breaches of law, and plain old abuse emerged overnight on the internet. I’ve gathered some of it below.
For a more complete picture of the G20 than you’re liable to get from your TV, I recommend the Toronto Media Co-op and the G20 Alt Media Centre, including the latter’s live video feed on UStream. Also streaming live coverage on Saturday was Alternative View Network. Hopefully, it’ll be up and running again today.
On the other hand, you could just settle back and enjoy the NatPost’s Jonathan Kay “On the extraordinary professionalism of Toronto’s G20 police force”. “Doesn’t it tell us something,” he writes, “that, for all the images of violence displayed on TV screens over the last half day, not a single person seems to have suffered any sort of serious injury? On the left-wing web site rabble.ca, the only photo of an injured protestor the editors could find (as of 2:30am Sunday morning) shows someone lifting a band-aid to reveal a mildly scraped thigh.”
Hmm. Kay might want to check the rabble website again, for its story of The Guardian journalist Jesse Rosenfeld, who was beaten by one of Toronto’s extraordinarily professional police officers, then arrested. Or does getting punched in the stomach and elbowed in the back not count as an injury?
Related: G20: Were the burning police cars bait cars?
Police block march at University and Elm (clowns sent in)
Illegal search at Queen’s Park
Police spokesman questioned re arbitrary searches
Police shut down free speech zone
Toronto Police Attack Peaceful Protesters and Journalists at G20 Protests from brandon jourdan on Vimeo.
Another random snatch and grab
Police surrounded by angry protestors after arrest of deaf man
Getting shot at with rubber bullets & tear gas during the G20 in Toronto. from bwilliamp on Vimeo.
Police force way into pack of journalists
Police trap protestors attempting to leave from outside detention centre
Added Sunday night: Compilation of videos of police violence (from Toronto Media Co-op).
The psychological and social impact of these two days of G20 cannot be underestimated. Where there previously existed a trust of those in authority for the purpose of protecting us, there is now distrust. Where there was suspicion of those assigned to protect us, there is now hatred. The chasm has been widened and I, with many others, will never trust our Peace Officers or Government again. We have witnessed in our fellow Canadians – Police Officers, how they turned, without provocation on many counts to viciously attack our rights, but more importantly, more painfully, attack our dignity and our solidarity as fellow Canadians. We have learned this weekend that the true tie that binds in our world today is the dollar, without which, you just do not count.
Contrary to what I was taught as a child, the police are not your friends. They are agents of the state, and increasingly the government exists not serve citizens but corporations. For peaceful protest to be effective, government must be committed to serving the people. In that case, through peaceful protest, citizens send a message to government with reasonable hope that it will be heard and influence policy. But when governments set aside ‘free speech zones’ away from where citizens can be heard, they are very clearly saying ‘we don’t give a damn what you think’. These days the only value in peaceful protest is to provide police with an opportunity to demonstrate who it is they really serve.
As for violent protest, it is easy for one’s thought to turn in that direction in frustration when it is clear that those who govern do so without regard for the governed, and without their consent (last federal election Canadians voted left, but got a right wing government). There is a great line in the movie V for Vendetta : “People should not fear their government. The government should fear its people.”
Authority doesn’t nod patronizingly at violent protesters, but rather does its best to discredit them by labelling them thugs and malcontents whose only objective is violence. The Toronto police chief did that in a speech Saturday night, though in his next breath implied they have political motives in trying to draw forces away from defending the fence. Hey, he doesn’t have to be consistent, because we’ll buy anything bad he says about the ‘anarchists’ who spoil the nice peaceful protest. Those bad apples, darn them, spoil sports, trouble makers, ruining our highly ineffective peaceful protest.
I used to feel that way about them as well. It’s uncomfortable not being so sure anymore. I find it easier to condemn the police for their excesses. Perhaps that’s because I know they’re not on our side, whereas those protesters employing black bloc tactics are, whether or not we approve. Ideally, citizens of a democracy should never have to be reduced to that level to send a message.