[quote]Earlier this evening, The Star reported on what might somehow rank as one of the strangest videos on YouTube. Recorded on Monday afternoon at the protests in Montebello, the video shows the tail end of a confrontation between Dave Coles (president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada) and three masked men who seem hell-bent on rilling up him, his fellow protestors (“old guys, grandmothers, grandfathers”), and the line of riot-ready police.
For a minute or so, it’s just Coles being a good samaritan, trying to stop a potentially violent confrontation and demanding that one of the men who picks up a rock put it down. It’s already extremely tense by the time that someone starts pointing at the masked protestors and chanting “policier!” Coles demands that the men take off their masks, and the majority of the crowd join him––some even reach for the bandannas themselves––and accuse the masked men of being cops, police provocateurs hired to start a riot. When Coles actually looks at one of the men dead-on and says, “you’re a police officer,” the masked men all freeze, seemingly dumb-struck. And then they kind of start being aggressive again, until a little over two minutes in, when there’s the weirdest police takedown you’ll probably ever see.[/quote]
Weird stuff indeed. If you view the video, check out the masked guys’ reaction when the union president says “you guys are cops” – they freeze, and move to the police line. Weird thing for masked anarchists to do, right? They were just getting ready to throw bricks at the cops, and now they almost demand to be arrested.
The protesters are convinced that the police planted the 3 maked guys to start a riot, so there would be an excuse to remove the unwanted (but nonviolent) protest.
What do you think?
Judging by how the RCMP has behaved with other unwanted protests, it wouldn’t be surprising. I can’t figure out if the officers are RCMP or SQ, though.
heh, somebody on a forum pointed out that they were wearing the same boots and gloves as the police, and that the one guy had his hat on sideways (who does that in real life?)
And for anarchists, they sure have nice short haircuts, no piercings, no tattoos.
If you watch the one guy with the hat on sideways, watch how he approaches the line. I wish the camera had been kept on him, because he seems to say something to the police. Also notice how the police line almost dissolves after they “arrest” the three guys. As if to say “oh well, there’s not going to be a riot afterall”.
This photo answers my question – they’re SQ, not RCMP.
Pretty cool that anarchists wear the exact same boots as the police:
Those kind of tactics are really pretty risky for police. I mean if they are exposed they will really come back to haunt the police, so I don’t understand why they wouldn’t take the time to at least plan better. I guess they figured they could hide the boots under those pieces of duct tape they randomly put on the boots.
Frankly those kind of tactics are not what I personally believe policing is about.
Well, I guess it’s better than just charging in with pepper spray. We all remember how that one turned out.
They were probably given an order to remove the annoying union protest. But it was peaceful, and they didn’t want to look like goons. So it would have been a perfect setup, since the tv cameras would show the masked guys throwing rocks.
But yeah, if you’re going to put in agitators, at least make them believable.
Well smartass did just have a “friends and families” sale at the ole store, perhaps in Quebec they had a “friends and foes” sale on the latest in police and riot gear…
Yeah I think youtube is a good thing for the regular Joe as everyone has a cel phone or a camcorder these days…the powers that be can’t hide from the truth.
Score one for the little guy:-)
hahaha that’s about as pathetic an attempt by a cop to look like a normal person i’ve ever seen. i love the sideways hat, but he forgot not to walk around like a cop, the guy is pretty much marching back and forth, with his hands poised to try and grab something. I’ve had just about enough of this country’s lame fucken cops. the RCMP are about as crooked as the Federalis and should be taken apart and replaced with localized policing. what a joke
Pretty hard to condemn anyone for legitimate protest with all the duplicity in that summit, eh?
Calderon blows out the door for a “possible” hurricane.
Bush sticks foot in mouth about our “claim” to the NW passage.
Harper suddenly notices Bush is a lame duck and uses "protection of soveriegnty’ 300 times in two days, notes he must kiss corporate ass and at the very end trivializes protest with jellybean stories.
Diddly squat gets done one way or another.
SPP is dead, the Wall St/Bay St boys will have to bury future discussions in the Colorado caverns if they want to carry on.
[quote=“rollins”]
ok crazymike start your rant…now [/quote]
Rant about what? If you took the time to read it I already said I didn’t agree with these tactics. I actually agree that more local control over policing is better than the national model we have now. Put aside the angry rhetoric for a moment Rollins, and you might find that people are not always what you assume them to be.
i got a day off tomorrow and im phoning my MP from home and my current address about this. These guys have to be held accountable, the organizers of the protest should be able to take the police force responsible for planting them and intending to disrupt the organizers right to peaceful protest by provocation by the state.
Scenario like this needs to be jumped on and stomped flat and hung against the wall by citizens - so the next time the government gets some shit hot idea to do something so incredibly dumb and dangerous they think back to the time that Jacque’s Le Porcine of the quebec police force thought this up and maybe not such a great idea. GOD DAMN.
Thank you for posting the much heard about video…That was really scary…thought provoking stuff…good on that dude to call them out…but how many times has this happened already???
