Protest Turns Violent
Personally, I have no use for the Olympics and can’t wait for the IOC to leave town taking its 5-ring circus with it. Having said that, there is no excuse for this,
“Vancouver Police are engaged with a group of more than 200 masked protesters near Granville and Georgia who are marching through the downtown core, kicking and causing damage to numerous cars, and businesses,” police said in a statement.
Why do some people feel they have the right to damage both public and private property? Whatever happened to protesting in a peaceful and civil manner? The behaviour exhibited by some of the protesters is not only childish but criminal.
For her part, Alissa Westergard-Thorpe, of the Olympic Resistance Network, seems to be of the opinion that because no one was hurt the protest was non-violent. Moreover, she accused the police of being the only group engaged in violence.
She said she considers the action non-violent as long as no one was hurt, no matter how much damage is caused.
Westergard-Thorpe did not condemn the broken windows and vandalism that touched off the stand-off.
“People can choose the tactics that they like,” she said, saying police were responsible for most of the violence.
So much for Ms. Westergard-Thorpe’s credibility.
Update: Seven protesters were arrested and face charges. Via CTV,
The demonstration involved a number of anarchists, some of whom dress all in black and employ a tactic, called Black Bloc. This included a loosely organized group of thugs from central Canada known to attach themselves to any cause, travel to any event that attracts media coverage and promote anarchy wherever they go.
Hopefully the authorities make an example of them. If I were one of the unfortunate victims who had property damaged by these thugs I would be tempted to launch a civil action just to make a point.
Len has been blogging for over 10 years. He is active in numerous places on the web including being a Moderator at BloggerForum and Administrator at Weblog Tools Collection Forum. You can also find him at his other site - WordPress Canada.
It is a crime in Canada to wear a mask while engaging in an unlawful act. All of these masked hoodlums should be arrested for criminal behaviour and appear before a judge in a court-of-law. Once convicted their identities should be made public.
I couldn’t agree more Russ.
They should all be arrested, if they resist, use batons to induce compliance, if that is to dangerous (to the police)use tasers, charge them and incarcerrate them as a danger to the public indefinately. Their contribution to society will be as great on the inside in solitary confinement as it is on the outside, They rank amongst the scum of the earth.
These protestors should be encouraged not persecuted. People like Libby and Omally should have the guts to get on the front lines and lead their dupes.
dillon16,
I have no problem with people exercising their democratic right to participate in peaceful protest. But the intentional destruction of property is another matter. There is no room for that kind of behaviour in a civilized society.
I am now more receptive to anarchy and am considering moving to Mogadishu.
Mogadishu? You might want to try Somalia. I hear piracy is quite profitable.
These must be the same professional protesters who keep crashing the G8 and G20 summits everywhere. Organized, and bused in, carrying weapons and wearing ski masks, these are no ordinary protesters. These are anarchists. Most of the time, these idiots don’t even know what they are protesting. All they look for is clashing with local police to get them on the evening news crying about police brutality.
Erwin Gerrits´s last blog ..All I know is…
I suspect you are right Erwin. I hope these losers get the proverbial book thrown at them. Additionally, as I stated in the post, hopefully they will even have a few civil actions to deal with.