Toronto is burning! Or is it?

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why are people so appalled by what happened.? there is terrible violence happening everyday all over the world.
these youth had sticks and stones and bricks and could have been taken down by the police.easily.
a car burning is nothing compared to mangled bodies in actual accidents or someone squashed on the pavement from a careless driver.
I have been on peace marches since the 60s.
I was at Clayoquot during the mass arrests. The police were friendly and there was mutual respect.They also protected us from young red necks up to no good who tried to invade our camp.
During all our peace marches and Earth Walks over the years the police were our escorts, protectors and keepers of the peace.
They did not dress in riot gear with masks and shields.
They didnot line the streets and corral us in.
They were nonviolent when they arrested us at the logging blockades.
Toronto ,this past weekend was an ugly display of power .
The state and the powers that be turned the police into public enemies.
They had one job to do and that was to monitor the Black bloc which was a known threat to a peaceful demonstration.
They failed.
They didn't do their job. And it was their job, not that of the public or the organizers of the rally.
The police have had a decade to study up on the bloc. They group together and are easily recognizable.They break out and throw bricks, stones, knock over mail boxes, or news boxes.
They do not carry guns or knives.There weapons are often what they find along the way.On the street.
Whoever was in charge of tactics for the police should be fired.

...and saw police casually walking away from their cars when they could've easily driven them away. Of course idiots using Black Bloc tactics are ultimately responsible , but if bait cars were left behind (for whatever reason--to distract the vandals, to justify an eventual crackdown or to justify a massive budget), Chief Blair needs to explain it. A number of us documenting the march were questioning why it was allowed to go on and on when it was clear that the black bloc vandals had taken over. At Bay street, we could see a line of riot police simply dissipate as we approached the intersection. Then for about an hour, Yonge street was left to the vandals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5G7aCgXtWg

If we want to preserve the right of peaceful protest without fear of police brutality, then we must take the responsibility that goes with it. Black Bloc tactics are well-known, and like creators of action movies, each event requires an escalation of sensationalism to capture and hold public interest. Every organizer of a peaceful march on Saturday had the responsibility to understand these tactics, to educate their members, so that they didn't become unwitting accomplices.

Many protesters never saw the violence, but many did. My question to you is this. When you saw a balaclava or bandana-clad crowd, did you follow them, photograph them, feel secretly exhilarated ("can't WAIT to tweet THIS!!!!") or did you disengage, stop chanting, sit down and refuse to let them blend in to your peaceful march?

It is easy to blame the police for over-reacting (and they did), it is far more uncomfortable to examine the role that we each played individually in police officers getting to such a heightened state of fear - and make no mistake, they were scared witless - that they resorted to over-the-top preemptive and retributive attacks.

The police allowed the cars to be torched and the windows to be broken, presumably because they were instructed to do so. It seems most likely that the so-called black bloc were hired by the state to cause mayhem, so that more draconian measures can be taken in future.

The police follow orders. They arbitrarily detained 200 people who were walking at Spadina and Queen street and arbitrarily released them after five hours. Their explanation does not make any sense. It seems that the police state wanted to intimidate people, terrorizing them, so that they would realize that they have no right to freedom of peaceful speech and assembly. CP 24 reporting of this event was clear on Sunday night. The Star barely mentioned this disturbing incident this morning.

A young woman was interviewed about being held in the detention centre for 33 hrs. in a cage. She was forced to use toilet facilities under the watch of male police. She was demeaned, given little food and the female detainees were referred to as --rats.

The Bilderberg regime trillionnaires are working on wiping out the middle class. That includes millionnaires --they are only middle class. If the Bilderbergs should succeed, we would become human livestock. We would enjoy all the human rights which livestock enjoy.

Nicolas Sarcozy commented that no important decisions were made at the G20. He said that the leaders needed to chat, just as you chat with your family and friends. (We the middle class can pick up the tab.)

With apologies to Noam, I think this is what we have in Canada.
Manufactured dissent is Canada's most vibrant growing industry and the resulting spinoff industries of police, security and prisons. In the states its the War industry in Canada its the Civil-unrest industry.

Your article is ridiculous and I'm glad the news stations don't portray anything like this.

If you were a police officer facing a large crowd, would you run in to arrest a small group (the black bloc), not knowing how many of the others are a part of this group or support them? Would you send in fire services to put out a very localized and not-spreading fire before you knew if they'd be safe? No. You'd clear out all the black bloc, arrest them, and when the area is clear of violent protesters, THEN you'd move in to put out fires etc.

You expect that police officers will put their own lives and those of hundreds of peaceful protesters at risk by running in to grab a few adults having temper tantrums. Think about this: Would you much rather have the cost of a few broken windows and cars or would you much rather have a large number of injured civilians and officers?

I don't know about you, but I'd much rather lose material possessions than human life. Give a kid a toy (or a police car) and they'll entertain themselves with that instead of bugging other people to give them entertainment (or something else to destroy).

Although this article departs from mainstream media coverage in showing how police used smashed windows and cop cars set on fire as political tools, it falls right back into line with the attempt to sort out the peaceful (good) protestors from the violent (bad) black bloc. It would be great to see someone take the time to sort out what we understand as 'violence' when we look at protests. Most of the time, violence is thought to be something overt and physical, like cops beating protestors and the black bloc destroying private property. What's completely missed (and made to seem normal/natural) are more subtle forms of violence:
- the violence that it takes to establish (and continually re-establish) the police as the only legitimate users of physical violence in Canada
- the violence that it takes to make a distinction between 'peaceful' and 'violent' protestors, and to legitimize domination of anyone who doesn't follow the rules of violence

The most insidious forms of violence are the least overt. These are the forms of violence in our minds--so close to us that they appear to be 'common sense'--and we reproduce them over and over again with simplistic, uncritical diatribes about "the right to lawfully protest". Lawful protest is an archaic practice, dating back over 200 years, that keeps everything in place: make some signs, chant some slogans, and then pat ourselves on the back for being so peaceful and civilized.

I am so weary of the endless stream of self-righteous, self-serving, embarrassingly cliche "anti-establishment" drivel that we've been subjected to over the last couple of days. The truth is, these people are anti-cop to begin with - probably because they have never outgrown an adolescent resentment of authority.The 20 year old morons who burnt cars and smashed windows are only an extreme extension of the same mentality. This is why so many of them are so willing to twist logic to the point of it being unrecognizable in order to lay the blame for the mayhem on the police rather than on the perpetrators. They make it their business to sanctimoniously decry the flaws in those they oppose - yet, apparently being devoid of self-reflection or self-critique, they never investigate how their own biases, predispositions and prejudices shape their perspectives and interpretations of events. They simply assume - "if I think it - it's right!"

I was at King and Bay as those police cars burned in the street - and it wasn't a group of cheerful flower-children preaching peace and love that those individual police officers were facing.....it was an ugly, aggressive mob - taunting them and shouting "FUCK THE POLICE! FUCK THE POLICE!" And within clear sight of the smashed windows and with black smoke billowing between the office towers of their own city, they chanted "SHAME! SHAME!" But of course, their judgement was not levelled at the cowards in masks who fled the scene after causing the damage - but at the police officers who were charged with restoring order.

Trust me, these were not impressive people with deeply held convictions or a strong moral or ethical compass. These were the kind of people, mostly in their 20's, who enjoy spouting hackneyed slogans and mistake it for insight; who get intoxicated with the sense of their own self-importance; and who relish the sense of power that arises as part of a mob mentality.

And remember - those individual officers faced a couple hundred unruly and aggressive people who were flaunting their antipathy for the police and who's actions were totally unpredictable. By contrast, the only reason the demonstrators were comfortable being so brazen was because they were confident in their knowledge that those officers
were compelled to exercise restraint. Some police state.

You are correct. It's is the responsibility of the police to keep the peace, which I personally witnessed them doing with unbelievable restraint. RESTRAINT. What about the common citizen's responsibility to uphold the social contract? To put blame on the police is to make the argument of a child.

Personally, I'd be curious to know about the following, among so many other facts that would need to be more clearly presented:

1>
What extenuating police circumstances would allow 2 (two!) single/unsupported police cruisers to be left parked askew, empty, and unattended right in the middle of two different open roads where 'hooligans were allegedy present. Streets that are already crawling with onduty and undercover security forces who are ready and waiting to respond to any obvious issues that might present themselves....and surely not require to attention of one/two more uniformed officer in order to resolve/control them.

2>
Also what circumstances would be required for said cars to not only be subsequently smashed open, and methodically looted but also eliciting such an incredibly slow response time from the surrounding forces that the cars could not only also be spray painted with complete slogans, but also lit afire...all directly under the noses of the largest police presence ever assembled on those same roads.

3>
Curiously even with fully manned fire stations merely seconds away at 33 Claremont and 260 Adelaide Street West, and no other fires or rescue emergencies reported anywhere in the area at the time, these POLICE cars were allowed to burn for so long that even the national media was commenting on the surprising amount of time that it took for fire crews to finally respond.

If you're intent on denying the possibility that Security Forces need to justify their presence, then so be it. But try to keep the following firmly in mind when forming your rationale:

All of this transpired DIRECTLY under the noses of both roving undercover, and massed riot equipped officers...Not one of whom it appears was capable of calling for backup, and/or operating an extinguisher, and/or placing an immediate call for FireFighters...Much less actually feeling confident enough in their training, abilities, tools/weapons, and body-armoured massed support to at least approach if not apprehend the culprits while they were still in the process of starting to vandalize the cruisers, as it would seem by the results.

When even the MOR Mainstream Media is commenting on questionable circumstances, then you know something just isn't adding up anymore...

I find it really amusing how you have spun the actions of the protesters/arsonists/vandals to deflect any blame from those that actually caused the violence on to the police force. Blaming them for leaving their cars, blaming them for not arresting those involved immediately. With your ability to spin things, it sounds like you could enjoy a nice long career in politics...

Further you claim that the police "knew what would happen and they knew how it would happen. It is the police that bear the responsibility for what happened last night." And how do you suggest they stop this? By arresting certain people before-hand? Before the vandalism and violence started? By sending a mass of officers into the crowd to pull out people who they "feel" would turn things violent? Ya, right. Because then it would be a completely different story. This would instead be an article on how you can't believe people were arrested without having done anything.

I wrote up an analysis of police tactics in London last year when their tactics at the G20 demonstration turned bad for them. They basically, at least it appeared to me, went out of their way to cause a riot and acted as if one had happened, even though it didn't. You can read it here: http://donnachadelong.info/2009/04/21/did-the-cops-try-to-cause-a-riot-a...

Great article by Judy Rebick. However, I have to take issue with her comment, "It is the police that bear the responsibility for what happened last night." Just like in Vancouver during the Olympics the police allowed the Black Bloc to do their thing and let those actions speak for themselves. Did the rest of the peaceful protesters listen? Absolutely not.

The Black Bloc bears responsibility for what happened. And I don't feel any Canadian, police officer or not, should be asked to put their life on the line to prevent property damage. If they're breaking things and not people, let them have their tantrum out in the open where our press and society can see them for what they are: vandals and thugs. Then arrest them, try them, and let them pay for their actions.

As Sheri Birch said, above: "Ive seen little or no film footage on TV of the hours and hours of peaceful protests." There was definately a failure of the media to document and report on the real issues. But to statement: "It is the police that bear the responsibility for what happened last night," is simply wrong, in my opinion.

WE hire the police! Yes: We, The People! We, The People elected Stephen Harper, et al. One in fifty of us (We, The Peoples) complain occasionally on our facebook pages, or over the phone, or over coffee with friends, about the big bad Corporation and the Evil Government ... but We, The People put them where they are and keep them in business.

Those relatively few of us who vote do, anyway! And the rest, perhaps except for those who are legitimalety unable to vote, deserve whatever they get. We, The People buy the junk from Walmart and Starbucks. This IS democracy! Sadly, the vast majority of people are asleep, so the world chosen by We, The People is not as efficient and just and friendly and creative and some of us think it might be.

I get so annoyed--angered, really--by the finger pointing and blame game. This article says: "A new generation of young people who are becoming activists believing they live in a democratic society and are shocked by the degree of police violence arrayed to stop them. Where was the "police violence?" There was a police presence (and one that was incredibly disturbing, to say the least!) ... but the violence, and responsibility, ought to be placed squarely on the shoulders of those barbaric few who threw stones and bricks and used boots and hammers to wreak havoc on others. And, we need the inefficient Police Systems and Justice Systems to hold them accountable.

The heroes of this story, in my opinion, are actually those peaceful protestors, thinking and acting and assertivng themselves in a productive way. Bravo! There were thousands of people in Toronto making very real and very valid points. We should hope our media puts them front and centre in the days to come.

As for the police ... they are simply hired to do what We, The People ask them to do. They keep us cozy and warm in our ticky-tacky bungalows and little apartments and suites and trailers, so we can play with the toys and cuddle in our blankets and type on our computers, all bought from The Corporation. Sad, but true, me thinks.

I was there too. And that is exactly how it went down. Thank you for this.

I was right there at queen west and saw the same thing.

In a crowd of people fewer than an ordinary day on queen street the cars sat abandoned for over an hour BEFORE they were lit on fire.

The scene was so safe a 12 year old boy stood atop one cop car (which i have a picture of). There was nothing a single police officer couldn't have prevented.

These cars were intentionally abandoned and it shows that the police were more interested in creating an image of violence in the streets than in protecting the public.

"It is the police that bear the responsibility for what happened last night."

That's ridiculously dishonest. The people that DID those things are responsible for the things they did.

I agree that the police failed to do their job, however.

It would be lazy and foolish to assume one's opponent (Harper) is an idiot. The black block may or may not be plants but they are predictable, therefore to control the message of a protest we need to start thinking about counter block tactics. It sounds like there were probably less than a hundred of them there must be a way to stop this from happening.

thank you. perfect, I've been trying to sputter this all day.

I was right there at queen west and saw the same thing.

In a crowd of people fewer than an ordinary day on queen street the cars sat abandoned for over an hour BEFORE they were lit on fire.

The scene was so safe a 12 year old boy stood atop one cop car (which i have a picture of). There was nothing a single police officer couldn't have prevented.

These cars were intentionally abandoned and it shows that the police were more interested in creating an image of violence in the streets than in protecting the public.

Judy, thank you so much for your interview on CP24 this afternoon. You spoke for many of us and I'm glad we had a voice on television today. Many of my activist friends felt that the important questions weren't being addressed by the media and you gave to to them, straight up.

I've seen plenty of photos and video of women in black smashing windows as well. It was not just men. Being an idiot doesn't require a dick.

The police probably did nothing, as they had hundreds of phone cameras, handicams etc. pointed at them. I'm sure if they had extinguished the car, they would have been berated for impinging on some low-life's right to burn things.

All those are critical of the police, make sure that the next time you are robbed, harassed or assaulted, that you just deal with it yourself....I'm sure you can do a much better job.

Brilliant? This is perhaps the worse researched and uneducated slant on this I have read yet!

Are you an epert in police crowd control tactics? What knowledge or training do you think you have to intelligently comment on this situation? Oh, you have been to other protests have you? Good for you. You clearly do not have any understanding of fire department procedures.

They didn't call the fire department, because the policy for emergency services is that fire and EMS do not respond until police secure the scene. Doing so otherwise could result in dead or injured responders, complicating the situation.

Furthermore, a burning vehicle with no exposures does not present a significant threat to life provided people are kept away from specific hazards such as vehicle struts and safety systems.

Simply, the benefits of throwing a half million dollar fire truck with 4 firefighters into the middle of an escalating police emergency simply does not outweigh the risks of a burning police car.

An extinguisher will not extinguish a fully involved car, and to have a cop without appropriate PPE close enough to use it is extremely unsafe. Have you ever even used a fire extinguisher on something bigger than a garbage can? Honestly!

Common sense, and examination of past events, clearly shows that deploying crowd management units to relatively minor acts of vandalism such as breaking windows escalates the situation due to fear (as opposed to anger - you should do a little research about the psychology of crowds). They were probably "picking their noses" because doing otherwise could spark riot, which is a little worse than a broken window.

The police did not let it get out of control. A single officer is a deterent, and is not capable of managing crowd control. Hense the crowd management unit. Crowd management and other specialty teams, such as ETF, are small and designed for localized operations. They are transported to the scene.

It is more than reasonable to sacrifice a police car for ones own safety. When a crowd has reached the point of torching cars, it is too late for one officer to have an impact, a larger force is required.

Police did not cause this. Thugs who came to the city with the intention of violence did. They hide in the crowds and create havoc when the opportunity arose. They are criminals. Their actions can then lead into a crowd mentality. The peaceful protestors are the fuel - they are unhappy and they are doing something about it - albeit legal. When these thugs create a spark by lighting a car on fire or smashing windows, it can draw in frustrated demonstrators who were previously peaceful.

The individual police are simply there as a deterent to keep peaceful demonstrations from becoming violent. If they do become violent, there is little to nothing these deterent forces can do. That is why we have crowd management units. They are then brought in. There are only so many of these units, as they are very labour and equipment intensive (not to even mention the logistics).

The police did an excellent job considering there were people there intending to cause problems. If we want our police to control these more effectively, we have to give them the tools to do so, and not leave them handcuffed, so to speak.

My hats off to the police. They did an outstanding job at the risk of their own life.

P.S. Here is a little information for those who don't know better and accuse people of doing nothing to justify the cost. The front line personnel do not care about budgets, politics and justification. They care about going home to their familiy. They don't want violence, because it means they might not make it home. That means preventing this at all costs, and settling it down as fast as possible.

Everyone who went there, peaceful or not, contributed to the atmosphere, and thus, intentionally or not, contributed to what happened yesterday. If you look for trouble, you will find trouble. If you go somewhere you know there will be trouble and find it, you have noone to blame but yourself. Everyone there CHOSE to be there, EXCEPT the responders. They are the ONLY ones there I have ANY respect for.

But you carry on your blog, I'm sure it is very educated and well researched... Cough, cough (sorry, I'm allergic to HS).

The whole situation is misinterpreted. The police that is mobilized in the downtown core aren't there to stop the people from protesting, but they're there to stop them from getting to the fences. If this was a protest that didn't happen during the G20 then it would've been an issue for the police to be stopping them. Besides, this is Canada, the police behind the shields are really polite and nice, I was at one point biking next them as they were marching.

The police was also around Spadina street because that street leads all the way down to where the lobbyists were all meeting.

Don't forget that what's happening now is not a police state issue, but trying to prevent the protesters from getting to where these people are meeting and from them getting attacked by angry protesters.

Mind you I'd be all with the people if the police was just beating on the protesters for just protesting on an event where the G20 wasn't taking place.

can any of the new 75 cameras installed to 'protect' toronto be used to show how the police stood by or set up the violence? who has access or can get access to these cameras?

Black Bloc Capitalism: no borders, no taxes, operate outside normal laws, do and take whatever you like with no consequences - but only for multinational corporations.

"The police bear the responsibility for what happened last night"? C'mon Judy. What a load of nonsense (to be polite about it). The cops made a choice not to repeat the security mistakes of past summits by going after the so-called "anarchists" in the midst of their little temper tantrum, thereby dispersing them further across the city and likely exacerbating the situation and rallying more idiots to the side of the brick-throwers. They made the right choice. If you want to give them credit for what "happened" last night, give them credit for the fact that what "happened" was relatively minor in the scheme of things. Some broken glass and a couple of burned cars. All mostly over within a very short period of time. No one was killed or even seriously injured in this "riot." If they had gone in there harder and started tasering and clubbing the violent protesters the situation would have been worse and people like you would be screaming bloody murder this morning about police brutality. But they didn't, so now you're accusing them of letting cars burn as a photo-op to prove their point that they are needed. What hypocrisy. They really can't win with you, can they? Well, actually, they ARE needed. Can you imagine how much worse this situation would have been without that large a police presence? I wish the G20 wasn't here. I wish we hadn't spent a billion dollars on security. And I'm sure there were a few cops on the beat last night who also acted less than perfectly. But: If we're willing to give the protesters the benefit of the doubt, and always be quick to point out that the vast majority of them were peaceful, and that it's just a few bad apples spoiling the party, why are we always equally quick to tar the police with such a large brush? Because it's knee jerk and popular and easy.

With respect to the car that was set afire on Queen, between Spadina and Peter, around 7:45PM on June 26 2010.

- The car was a plant to draw Black Bloc activity to one place rather than have them target dozens of locations. What you people obviously don't know is what happened at around 8:15PM: three unmarked charter buses rolled toward the scene and unloaded 100 riot police. Behind them were a dozen mounted units and a massive police truck that took video footage of the scene. The police then chased the Black Bloc north along Peter to funnel them toward Queen's Park. Once the area was clear fire fighters and EMS personnel dealt without burning car.

A billion dollars and they had no way to outfox the Black Bloc?
What a farce.
The guy in blue /not Blackcaptured smashing the widows may have been paid by a Con member.

This article is one of the worst examples of "analysis" I have read. It's circular in logic...then again so is the logic of most of these protesters.

You certainly are not getting the truth on any news channels. I just finished watching a scene and what the reporters were saying did not fit at all with what I was seeing. They seem to be a part of the social control infrastructure.

The footage I saw was of police attacking/shooting peaceful protesters with guns armed with rubber bullets (at close range)and the journalists were talking about anarchists and so on justifying their actions.

In another scene people called police by journalists were grabbing people into vans and driving off without ensuring the person was secure inside the vehicle - their feet were dangling outside the van as they drove off.

One media, "We want to be sure you are getting a really true image of what is going on." Give me a break.

The journalists seem to have been egging the police on for two days with this focus on a small element of vandalism. Änarchists, chaos, fear - and so on in their chatter. The police are so restrained and so on. Clearly the journalists are very much a part of the establishment and they are engaging in social control tactics - especially CBC.

I agree with the article, however I also think we have to make it clear in the future that the black bloc is not welcome in the movement. They hijacked the demo and destroyed its message. They gave the cops all the excuses they were looking for to repress activists and justify the security budget. Yesterday was a disaster. The cops were to blame, but so were the macho hooligan jerks who behaved like animals and massively disrespected the rest of the march. The groups who rioted owe a big apology to the rest of us.

Brilliant. Thank you.

Ive seen little or no film footage on TV of the hours and hours of peaceful protests. I was there and everything was fine, we have lots of photos that we took of everyone peacefully getting together and having a good time, even despite the rain. Labour groups marched and were loading onto the buses to head back home when we heard about the first police car being attacked.

The cops in riot gear were too close along Queen Street when we marched. There should have been a bit of space between the peaceful Labour marchers and the riot police. I was at the big 1997 March in Hamilton where there were 200,000 protesters ... the riot police were there but not so close to the marchers ...and everything was peaceful.

And I really question why did the police abandon those 4 or 5 vehicles? Did they leave them there knowing they would be vandalized/torched ...to justify turning Toronto into a $1Billion fortress?

PM Harper is an idiot to put the G20 in downtown Toronto. Businesses were closed for days, and now the TV/media is just exploiting the hooliganism that ran through the streets long after the ordinary Labour workers finished their peaceful protest march.