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Anyone who was downtown participating in the peaceful protests, as I did with many of my brothers and sisters on saturday, know that given the sheer numbers of police it is hard to believe they weren't able to stop the 100 or so folks who had chosen property damage as a tactic of protest. There were thousands of well equipped police downtown. Hard to believe they couldn't defend the cop cars when they successfully blocked multiple interesections with several lines of police.

I also witnessed the police shift positions, clear areas, use multiple tactics on peaceful protesters in Queens Park(many of whom were seated on the ground in clear passive resistance positions) who were not smashing windows, or doing much of anything other than chanting. While I personally don't subscribe to property damage as a tactic of protest the black bloc has been present at major protests such as this and their tactics and targets are quite well known. I find it convenient that police say they couldn't manage this predicted black bloc challenge. Every major media outlet covered those burning cars and smashed windows - few carried the messages of the peaceful protesters or the images of police charging protesters who were seated on the ground. It is naive to think that the tactics of the black bloc didn't serve to justify the outrageous spending on security - spending that could have gone a long way to reducing pressing social problems such as the lack of affordable housing and childcare not to mention how many good paying jobs could have been created if that billion dollars had been directed into community projects.
Clarke I don't blame the police for the actions of the black bloc but I certainly do recognize how helpful the burning cars and smashed windows were in justifying the spending. I do blame the police, the police chief and the Harper government for actions that saw peaceful protesters attacked, beaten, searched without cause, detained and generally harassed for engaging in democratic protests - publicly and peacefully engaging in political dissent. What kind of country are we becoming when dissent is treated with such disdain? and what does that mean for what I see as our already weak democracy?