All Too Familiar Scenes Means it's Time to Cancel the G-20

At the G-20 in Pittsburgh, in 2009; a wall of riot police attacked and cornered students on the stairs. Citizens were kidnapped, arrested and beaten, when they tried to protest against the bailing out of the corporate sector, while failing to address unemployment.

Journalists were also targeted and beaten.

Police Provocateurs were used to incite violence, giving reason for further brutality.

At the G-20 in London England, police brutality shocked citizens.

Police Provocateurs were used to incite.

One man was killed and others beaten, arrested and kidnapped. Journalists were targeted.

At the G-20 in Toronto, police brutality shocked citizens.

Police Provocateurs were used to incite.

Journalists were targeted beaten and arrested.

There is a pattern here. A message.

A committee is currently investigating complaints, but their scope is limited. We need a full public inquiry.

Only a full public inquiry will get to the bottom of the overwhelming evidence of civil rights abuses at the G20 meeting in Toronto, a New Democratic MP said Monday. Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) told a news conference that to do otherwise is to accept Canada is becoming a police state where the toe of a cop’s boot or punch in the gut is the rule of law.

Davies said not only has it been proven that police falsified evidence to justify widespread arrests – the largest in Canadian history – they also manufactured evidence, including so-called weapons seized from completely separate incidents. “What we need is a full public inquiry, we need a judicial inquiry, we need an independent inquiry, we need an inquiry with full powers to hear sworn evidence, subpoena witnesses and compel the production of all relevant documents,” he said.

“If not, one of the most shameful and largest mass violations of Canadians’ rights by police and the state in Canadian history will go totally unredressed. We live in a democratic state. We do not live in a police state. We live in a country that is supposed to be governed by the rules of law, not the rule of force.”

I think it's time to put an end to these summits, because they appear to be a test for martial law, around the globe.

But if you want some bragging rights, there was a journalist being interviewed, who had covered all three of the above G-20s, and stated emphatically that Toronto was the worst he'd ever seen.

Go Canada.

New York Times Also Questions Actions of Harper's Storm Troops

The use of police provocateurs are becoming all too common, not only in Canada but everywhere. Like me, the New York Times wonders why vandals acted unimpeded while peaceful protesters felt the wrath of Stephen.

An escalation of aggressive police tactics toward even apparently peaceful protests at the Group of 20 summit meeting led to calls for a review of security activities.

After allowing a small group of people to burn police cars and smash windows unimpeded on Saturday afternoon, many of the 20,000 police officers deployed in Toronto changed tactics that evening and during the last day of the gathering.

There was a notable increase in both the numbers of police officers who surrounded demonstrations as well as more use of tear gas and rubber or plastic bullets. At the same time, there was a visible drop in the number of demonstrators in the city streets.

This wasn't the first time for Canada, and won't be the last unless we demand an independent investigation, and not by the police or the government.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association agrees:

Reporters arrested, CCLA civil rights monitors arrested, over 500 people in detention, police unwilling to provide access to lawyers, cellphones seized, what is going on? Police will say that 4 to 7 police cars were set on fire and that there was much looting and spray painting, pop cans and rocks were thrown and more vandalism was planned at the fence or elsewhere. Is the policing proportionate to the threat?

CCLA is concerned about the conditions of detention: people are being denied access to lawyers, they are unable to contact their families and we have heard that there are no plans for prompt release.

A UK Guardian journalist was beaten and arrested:

Jesse Rosenfeld, a Canadian activist journalist who has written opinion pieces on the G20 for the Guardian newspaper, has been arrested and possibly beaten, his friends and father say. His girlfriend, Carmelle Wolfson, called Mr. Rosenfeld late Saturday night, only to have him tell her he was in police custody at the Novotel, where dozens of protesters were arrested en masse after a protracted sit-in.

“He said, ‘The cops are telling me that they’re going to arrest me. I’ve told them that I’m a journalist, but they’re not recognizing my press badge and they’re telling me that they’re going to arrest me,'” she said. “Then he told me to get on the phone with his editor.”

And this case of mistaken identity while a six-month-old was in the house

A Toronto veterinarian says he awoke around 4 a.m. Saturday to the sight of a gun pointed at him by a black-clad police officer standing at the foot of his bed.

Then, says John Booth, he was told to keep his hands visible and to produce identification, asked questions about a man named Peter he had never met, detained on his lawn in handcuffs for half an hour, and informed he would be charged with the crime of conspiracy to commit mischief — before being released by apologetic officers who belatedly realized he had no connection with the alleged anarchist organizer they were seeking.

I'm with the Star. It wasn't worth it.

Promised a chance to twinkle on the world stage, the centre of this City of Neighbourhoods became a ghost town, an armed camp and a fiery anarchists’ playground. As smoke clears from a G20 weekend that saw unprecedented
mayhem continue Sunday, with tense protests and mass arrests a day after police cars were torched and shop windows smashed, it’s hard to find a Torontonian who says hosting the G20 was worth it.

What scares me the most is that this will happen: a speech made after a violent purge:

"In a few weeks time brown shirts will again dominate the streets of German towns. ... I should like to offer forgetfulness from this moment to all who were in part guilty of this act of insanity! . . . May they all feel themselves responsible for the most precious gift that can exist for the German people: order within and domestic peace."

And not the words of Hitler so much as this:

Correspondents who dashed about Berlin while the speech blared from loud speakers reported that it seemed to be received by the populace with unusual apathy. (GERMANY: Purge Speech, Time Magazine, July 23, 1934)

If the Police are Going to Smash Windows and Set Stuff on Fire, they Should Change Their Damn Boots!

In 2007 at Montebello, when an otherwise peaceful protest turned violent, it was determined that it was the dirty work of police provocateurs.

In fact they would later admit that they were behind it, and yet it justified the use of brutality.

Global Research has again examined the boots and other 'gear' on the vandals, and it would appear that again the police are behind the violent acts, of both the 'rioters' and the uniformed brigade that used rubber bullets and brutality to subdue a crowd that was already peaceful.

As I asked in another post, why were there so many uniformed officers surrounding the peaceful protesters but none surrounding the vandals? Not a single one.

This government has given me many reasons to be ashamed over the past 4 1/2 years, but for the first time I am a little frightened. I've never lived under fascism before but I'm pretty sure this is what it looks like.

"Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong." Joseph Grcic

"Fascism is a political philosophy that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader and severe economic and social regimentation." Merriam Dictionary

"Fascism, especially in its early stages, is obliged to be antitheoretical and frankly opportunistic in order to appeal to many diverse groups. Nevertheless, a few key concepts are basic to it. First and most important is the glorification of the state and the total subordination of the individual to it. The state is defined as an organic whole into which individuals must be absorbed for their own and the state's benefit. This "total state" is absolute in its methods and unlimited by law in its control and direction of its citizens." Fascism Watch