Mon 28 Jun 2010
G20 gives Toronto a black eye
Posted by Canada / Pat Morin under Balkers
[4] Comments
These global paranoids come out of the woodwork at every summit of international leaders now. All the G20’s, climate summits like Copenhagen, just like clockwork.
I have to say it was more of a self-fulfilling prophecy this time. Most of the protestors are peaceful. Woven in there are always few troublemakers who are not there to promote any issue. The police and host government know that, so they show up in force. Then a few thugs start something, as they did this weekend in Toronto with some windows broken out and car or trash can fires, etc, etc.
The media shows the vandalism and announces a crowd size (10,000 or more for Saturday), making it look like a big riot. When actually it’s still just that few doing all the damage. The police are already there by the hundreds, then they overreact to the few troublemakers and start manhandling people who are peaceful!
Over 400 arrests in Toronto G20 riots
SUNDAY, JUN 27, 2010 11:53 ETAuthorities meet protester fury with handcuffs at the world economic meeting
BY ROB GILLIES, ASSOCIATED PRESSPolice made more than 400 arrests after black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the global economic summit and went on a rampage in downtown Toronto that lasted into the early morning hours, authorities said Sunday.
The roving band of protesters torched four police cruisers and shattered shop windows with baseball bats and hammers for blocks, including at police headquarters, then shed some of their black clothes, revealing other garments, and continued their rampage.
Police used shields, clubs, tear gas and pepper spray to push back the protesters who tried to head south toward the security fence surrounding the Group of 20 summit site. Some demonstrators hurled rocks and bottles at police.
The vandalism occurred just blocks from where U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders were meeting and staying.
“What we saw yesterday is a bunch of thugs that pretend to have a difference of opinion with policies and instead choose violence to express those so-called differences of opinion,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman Dimitri Soudas said Sunday.
Toronto Police Sgt. Tim Burrows said Sunday that at least 412 people had been arrested in the rampage that began Saturday afternoon. Those arrested were taken to a temporary holding center constructed for the summit.
The streets of downtown Toronto were quiet at daylight, but Burrows said police were expecting a large protest later Sunday morning at a park near the detention center.
Burrows said many of the violent protesters were Canadian. He added that authorities had known of their plans for some time.
“We’re not sure we have the leaders, but we have a large proportion of those people and the people who decided they wanted to be influenced by these violent protesters and join with their cause,” Burrows said. “A lot of them were home grown. There’s a lot of Canadian talent in the group.”
Thousands of police headed to Toronto to reinforce security there after the smaller Group of Eight summit ended Saturday in Huntsville, Ontario, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) away. Security was being provided by an estimated 19,000 law enforcement officers drawn from across Canada, and security costs were estimated at more than US$900 million.
Saturday’s protests began with a peaceful march, sponsored by labor unions and dubbed family friendly, that was the largest demonstration planned during the summit weekend. Its organizers had hoped to draw a crowd of 10,000, but only about half that number turned out on a rainy day.
Police in riot gear and riding bikes formed a blockade, keeping protesters from approaching the steel and concrete security fence a few blocks south of the march route. Police closed a stretch of Toronto’s subway system along the protest route and the largest shopping mall downtown closed after the protest took a turned for the worse.
The black-clad demonstrators broke off from the larger crowd of peaceful protesters and began torching police cars and smashing shop windows.
Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said the goal of the militant protesters was to draw police away from the security perimeter of the summit so that fellow protesters could attempt to disrupt the meeting.
Some police officers were struck by rocks and bottles and assaulted, but none was injured badly enough to stop working, Blair said.
“We have never seen that level of wanton criminality and vandalism and destruction on our streets,” Blair said.
Previous global summit protests have turned violent. In 1999, 50,000 protesters shut down World Trade Organization sessions in Seattle as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets. There were some 600 arrests and $3 million in property damage. One man died after clashes with police at a G-20 meeting held in London in April 2009.
At the September G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke and rubber bullets at marchers.
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Copyright ©2010 Associated Press
A bit of bad spin for Canada Pat, agreed. I share your assessment of how these things spiral and escalate on their own momentum.
Aside from the hoodlums and anarchists, the G20 brings in a hodgepodge
of activists for numerous issues ; some eco / green, some human rights, some fearing globalization of the economy. They seem to show up no matter what the host city is, no matter what the prior preparation for them.
The peaceful expression of causes and objections, is important of course. The free world is at it’s base a marketplace of ideas, and it thrives for that very reason. You don’t fear dissent, but rather welcome it as a crucible for testing and challenging concepts and viewpoints. That allows some – the superior ones – to validate, flourish & spread. You’re stronger as a society for it, not weaker.
I’ve mentioned before how you need to be trying for cooperation & coordination & agreements in these international venues, even while they usually get only partial results. You keep at it as a world. You’re not going to solve dire problems that affect everyone, by taking your marbles home. One of Obama’s greatest strengths, is an inherent understanding of that.
So I like these summits in any case, anytime. And we’re doing it more now, and probably a little better with each one.
People often expect Progressives to be anti-globalization – as in pro-labor / protect jobs from global competition. I don’t see it that way at all;
a) The global economy is here. There’s no reversing that.
b) Trade has been an engine for mutual gain between nations & upward prosperity, for centuries.
c) If communications and transportation technology have accelerated those capacities in recent decades, nations should look to harness the benefits in that – not try to shield themselves and miss out while other nations step in and cash in.
d) Globalization of industries, ultimately puts the world’s workers in the same boat with respect to our interests.
The banking meltdown for example, crashed economies all over the world. It’s in all of our interests to demand proper regulation of them, and oil drillers, nuclear materials, polluters, pharmaceuticals, safe consumer goods, on and on. With the advent of the WWW we can connect & unify
on some of these matters for the first time, whereas historically we were completely cut off from one another. That in my opinion can and will lead to a rising labor movement in this century – this time a coordinated one with our counterparts in a homogenized world of commerce. No labor union
opposes that.
e) What is to be protected, is the fortunes and fates of regular people, from the ravages of globalization. Industries and capital will move around. Jobs will be created, jobs will be cut. Looking at the trendlines of trade historically, net growth results from it. What you want to get to is green lights and open borders for it, appropriate oversight and governance of it (G20), and then don’t try to skimp on the safety nets your people need – unemployment stipends, full retraining/education allowances, and public works jobs programs for those not bouncing back right away into a private-sector job.
(That last one, public-sector jobs programs, is where we are in dire need
in the USA at the moment. We think we are too capitalistic to have it, and don’t want to tax the wealthy for it. But you need them in place, very badly. Leaving millions disenfranchised for months and years on end, is neither free, efficient nor humanitarian. It’s only stupid.)
The contention that we as regular workers & people on the planet ultimately have more to gain from globalization than to be fearful of, is one I like to amplify here on Balkingpoints.
Yesterday Canadian media reported the G20 arrests as the most numerous for any event in Canadian history! So, I take that to mean we’re usually pretty peaceful :)
For Roy: Your post makes good sense, problem is that those “green lights” are most often given well before the proper safeguards for citizenry’s are implemented. It would rather seem to be ‘go do the pillage and plunder straight away, then after the troubles hit we’ll see about imposing a rule or two’.
I do realise the need for meetings and coordination as you state however. Perhaps they’ll make a better go of it in the wake of the world financial crisis. In UK we’re going even further now into the ‘pain and sacrifice’ stage of it. And at that, we remain far better off than many nations the G20 likes to talk about helping, but not really do so.
Good point Martin. Helping poor countries should be a part and parcel of the job of the G20. That of putting workable rules in effect for trade, and setting up a level playing field that is fair for all the players. Along with that there is always a emergency of the present, what ever it is like the Darfur genocide, famine or earthquake relief, etc. etc.
Those may be more officially a UN job, but the G20 can always put financial pressure on someone like China on Darfur, or just ante up funds to help like for Haiti.