regardless of what your opinion is about the protests at this past weekends G8/G20 summits, the fact remains that serious abuses of policing powers occurred and should be called into question.

you can read a first person summary of being arrested for no real reason and the aftermath here.

you can read several short examples of bystanders being arrested for no reason as told by the Toronto Star here.

you can read about photographers from the National Post with full press credentials and every journalistic right to be taking photos being arrested for ‘being amongst violent people’ here.

you can read about how Toronto’s Chief of Police openly admitted that there was no formal ‘5 meter rule’ surrounding the security fences. this ‘rule’ allowed police to arbitrarily detain individuals who they felt wandered too close.

you can read about how police confiscated, then displayed ‘weapons’ presumably to used by anarchists to cause mayhem and violence only to admit that most of them were not related to G8/G20 events.

there’s an interesting debate on the National Post (and having said that, it IS the national post, so, you know, grain of salt applies). The point that stands out to me the most is this:

CHRIS SELLEY: I’m confused. On the one hand, Jon says it’s all overkill — people were drinking and eating on Queen Street and Yonge Street just as normal. On the other hand, he says if people go down to Queen Street to eat and drink as normal — or, say, to go home, because they live there — they deserve to be arrested.

I’ve had discussions with people about the protests, and I make no effort to defend the actions of those people belonging to the Black Bloc or other groups that willingly and knowingly caused violence and vandalism. However, this quote perfectly captures the difficulty I’ve had getting a major point across; people still need to go about their daily lives because they either work or live in the area, so why should someone who exits a grocery store (see update at 6:30pm) and trying to get home be forced into a melee by huge numbers of riot police who either give conflicting demands or no explanation at all when asked why people, either passersby or peaceful protestors, are being hemmed into an area against their will when there is no immediate safety hazard apparent.

it may be the case that expanding police powers for global summits is needed, but not to the extent that innocent people are arrested, not read any rights, refused legal counsel and treated like cattle to justify excess amounts of spending on security.

you can bitch and moan all you want about how ‘people deserved to be arrested if they went down there’, but take a minute to think about what would have happened if this happened where you live. what would you do if you were one of those people thrown in a cage, only to be released without finding out why you spent 30 hours with little food or water and hear cries of “you were standing there, so you damn well deserved to be arrested.” give your fucking head a shake.

this was not security for a summit. this was policing for the sake of having a badge on.

Security organizers have claimed in the last few days that they will catch the criminal element responsible for causing all the trouble. this line has been repeated for virtually every major protest I’ve ever seen, with minimal results. Personally, i’ll believe it when I see it, and right now all I see are a bunch of bureaucrats who know they were caught red handed allowing abuses of power to occur and desperately trying to cover their asses.

Toronto’s mayor is sending the damage bill to Ottawa. All the power to him, I sincerely hope he succeeds and that this causes Harper and his Tories $1.2 billion worth of trouble.