Torontaunamo

[eyeball]

Freeze you Eastern bastards! Takes on a whole new meaning in a police state doesn't it?

Is the spectacle unfolding in Torontaunamo a clue to what crackin' down and gettin' tough on crime will look like? It sounds like it if the budgets being projected for doing so are any indication.

[kimmy]

YEAH MAN THE PIGS ARE GOING TO BUILD BARRICADES ALL OVER MAN THE G20 SECURITY IS THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME IT'S GONNA BE CRAZY JUST DON'T TAZE ME BRO

-k

[g_bambino]

Poor eyeball pines for better days of yore...

Mr. Giuliani, a convicted petty criminal outfitted in balaclava and combat boots, died in the act of hurling a fire extinguisher at a police Land Rover — "direct action," as protesters of the day euphemistically called it... Seen from the perspective of 2010, Mr. Giuliani seems like a man with a death-wish. But this was early 2001... [A]nti-globalization protesters of the era thought they could have it both ways. As part of their direct-action tactics, they attacked police with potentially deadly force, and rampaged through cities destroying "symbols of capitalism" (Starbucks was always a popular target). When the police fought back, they cried brutality and wept for their martyrs.

The golden age of anti-globalization protest, such as it was, began at the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle. It ended, two years later, on Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/11 attacks rendered random political violence taboo. They also created an emotional cult of admiration for the uniformed men and women who hold the thin blue line. The fire-extinguisher-throwers of the world suddenly were on the wrong side of history.

Johnathan Kay, G20 Protesters want to have their cake and eat it too

So sad.

[August1991]

Freeze you Eastern bastards! Takes on a whole new meaning in a police state doesn't it?

Is the spectacle unfolding in Torontaunamo a clue to what crackin' down and gettin' tough on crime will look like? It sounds like it if the budgets being projected for doing so are any indication.

The Liberals predicted that this would happen:

[DrGreenthumb]

The Liberals predicted that this would happen:

Those ads weren't so far off. Harper's Police State is a work in progress

[eyeball]

The 9/11 attacks rendered random political violence taboo. They also created an emotional cult of admiration for the uniformed men and women who hold the thin blue line.

The deaths of people like Ian Bush and Robert Dziekanski demolished as much admiration for the thin blue line as the invasion of Iraq cost in the wake of 9/11.

In the meantime the cognitive and moral dissonance buzzes away in the background like a symphony of vuvuzelas. Or is that just my tinnitus acting up?

Edited June 26, 2010 by eyeball

[August1991]

Those ads weren't so far off. Harper's Police State is a work in progress

Give it a break.

At worst, Harper's an incompetent, amateur spendthrift. He's no more a fascist than a bad tour guide.

[eyeball]

Those ads weren't so far off. Harper's Police State is a work in progress

The Liberals are just as much to blame for this work in progress. Their incessant fear of appearing to be soft on whatever it is the Conservatives are hard on pretty much guarantees the trend towards mutual assured dictatorship. As for the concentration of power into the PMO and Federal/Provincial cabinets that enables even more authoritarianism, has anyone ever seen successive governments dilute or roll back the new powers bequeathed by the previous administration?

[bloodyminded]

Poor eyeball pines for better days of yore...

So sad.

this is sad too; from the article:

They also created an emotional cult of admiration for the uniformed men and women who hold the thin blue line.

Was the author implicitly approving this admittedly cult-like, sycophantic mentality?

[g_bambino]

Was the author implicitly approving this admittedly cult-like, sycophantic mentality?

I don't know, but it seems to me he was merely making the observation.

I do think it's ridiculous, though, to do as some of the usuals have above: to stretch this to define a new public culture that gives authorities carte blanche to do whatever they wish whenever they wish. On some level, even the most ardent police supporter must realise that whatever they think is permissible for law enforcement to do to others may well end up being done to them.

[c/e]

Edited June 26, 2010 by g_bambino

[g_bambino]

The Liberals predicted that this would happen:

And likely would've done little different in the circumstances. In fact, in preparation for the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001:

From the beginning, the authorities indicated their intent to use very intensive security measures to restrict the ability of anti- and alter-globalization movement protesters to approach the area where the summit was to take place, in light of the well-known previous incidents in Seattle (November 30, 1999), Prague (September 26, 2000), and Montreal (November 20, 2000).

The most controversial of these preparations was the construction of a 3-metre high concrete and wire fence around a large section of La Colline Parlementaire that encircled the meeting site, the National Assembly and many government and residential buildings. Only residents, summit delegates and certain accredited journalists were allowed inside. Businesses and churches within the area were not permitted to open.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in collaboration with the Canadian Forces, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Sûreté du Québec and local municipal police forces provided security.

3rd Summit of the Americas

Soldiers in our streets, indeed. But they were kindly Liberal soldiers back then, not the evil ones we have now, controlled by the super-robot Harper.

[punct]

Edited June 26, 2010 by g_bambino

[bloodyminded]

I don't know, but it seems to me he was merely making the observation.

I do think it's ridiculous, though, to do as some of the usuals have above: to stretch this to define a new public culture that gives authorities carte blanche to do whatever they wish whenever they wish. On some level, even the most ardent police supporter must realise that whatever they think is permissible for law enforcement to do to others may well end up being done to them.

[c/e]

Absolutely. And ultimately, I think most people have fairly sober, reasonable reservations about the potential for police brutality, but without assuming we're already living in a fascist state.

I point this out because I don't want to give the impression that I'm a police paranoid. I'm not. The police, for the most part, have greater restrictions on their actions than they used to, and greater surveillance of their behaviour. They are less brutal than they used to be, not more.

I just see the overuse (not the use itself) of tasers as a disturbing step back, and one that should be carefully monitored.

[eyeball]

Was the author implicitly approving this admittedly cult-like, sycophantic mentality?

I'm actually more troubled by the cult-like, sycophantic approval of our being led from behind a barricade of official secrecy and privilege in addition to the barbed-wire and police.

Edited June 26, 2010 by eyeball

[eyeball]

YEAH MAN THE PIGS ARE GOING TO BUILD BARRICADES ALL OVER MAN THE G20 SECURITY IS THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME IT'S GONNA BE CRAZY JUST DON'T TAZE ME BRO

-k

The real shape of things to come - the growing distance and separation of the governed from the governors - was in place long before the first G summits ever began.

Everything else is pretty much for show. I can't say the cost of offsetting the fear of the message that will be communicated to us peons if they host these things in the middle of the Pacific on a luxury cruise ship is worth it, that said maybe the galvanizing effects of a burning police cruiser is.

It just might make people more sympathetic towards spending billions and billions of dollars on more police, prisons etc. The sorts of things that coincidently come in handy when trying to keep some distance between the ruled and the rulers.

[eyeball]

...that said maybe the galvanizing effects of a burning police cruiser is.

It just might make people more sympathetic towards spending billions and billions of dollars on more police, prisons etc. The sorts of things that coincidently come in handy when trying to keep some distance between the ruled and the rulers.

I rest my case.

That didn't take long.

[g_bambino]

That didn't take long.

No. But, was anything else expected?

I wonder, though: who are you placing the blame with?

[bloodyminded]

I rest my case.

That didn't take long.

Self-fulfilling prophecy.

It reminds me of driving the Nicraguan government into desperately seeking weapons from the Soviets...by barring everybody from trading with them, then attacking them militarily, so that they literally had no choice....and then saying, "See? Soviet agents!"

QED.

[eyeball]

No. But, was anything else expected?

The expectation of vindication is exactly what I expected and I wouldn't put it past someone in authority to also expect the same thing.

I wonder, though: who are you placing the blame with?

The suckers that keep falling for it.

Goebbels would understand.

[August1991]

I'm abroad and the only TV reports of this summit seem to show politicians shaking hands in rooms, and police with weird masks on bicycles. (Canada, what a civilized country! Even the riot police ride bikes!)

If that's what you get for a billion dollars in the 21st century, then I think I'll go to Walmart. IOW, banks and retail stores have had to deal with modern technology, ATMs and scanners, why have politicians/bureaucrats and other public sector workers (eg. police) had a free ride?

----

As Ezra Levant likes to post:

Fire.Them.All.

[Mr.Canada]

If they were no police at all down there and some protester/aka thug got killed you'd all be crying about the lack of police presence at the G20.

Damned if the do and damned if they don't. I hope these black bloc scum get their heads bashed in by the police officers. Bunch of cowards. I wonder who and what group funds these people to travel the world protesting. I'm sure many people would like to know who funds these cowards.

These cowards have no respect for property or authority and deserve what they get. I want to see lots of them bleeding and hospitalized, that would make me very happy.

[bloodyminded]

These cowards have no respect for property or authority and deserve what they get. I want to see lots of them bleeding and hospitalized, that would make me very happy.

Yeah, that's...so surprising.

[eyeball]

If they were no police at all down there and some protester/aka thug got killed you'd all be crying about the lack of police presence at the G20.

No, I'd be wondering who the idiot was that concluded hosting this provocative summit in the biggest city in Canada was a good idea.

[g_bambino]

The suckers that keep falling for it.

Sorry, I don't quite know who you mean. Are the suckers the authorities or the vandals?

[Mr.Canada]

No, I'd be wondering who the idiot was that concluded hosting this provocative summit in the biggest city in Canada was a good idea.

So it's the organizers fault that these cowards are smashing windows and destroying Toronto? Ok I see it now. So according to you the violent protesters aren't to blame at all. It's all the organizers and Police officers fault.

That's pathetic. If these thugs weren't smashing windows everything would be fine. I hope they use the video coverage and arrest many of these so called anarchists. I'd like to learn if they work for a living or just collect welfare.

[eyeball]

Sorry, I don't quite know who you mean. Are the suckers the authorities or the vandals?

The people that both the authorities and the vandals are both trying to galvanize. The public in other words.