G20 protest videos capture chaos on Toronto streets

This is absolutely insane. This is NOT the way for protestors to get their point across. It only stole the light away from causes that actually needed to be listened to. What a terrible day for us Torontonians. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully people will be able to protest freely and speak their mind without ridiculous acts of violence and attacks on our beautiful home.

You know how I can tell the black bloc aren't cops in disguise?

Because cops don't swing a bat like an 8 year old girl, or are so weak they can't break a window with a metal street post.

It's a sad day for Toronto.

This is such a sad day to be marked with shame. The violence and insanity of today has nothing to do with the issues of the G20, instead, it is an excuse for senseless vandalism and petty crime.

I applaud the police for using force with tear gas and rubber bullets against those who have caused tax payers thousands of dollars extra in damages. Throw them in jail for being hooligans, rather than political activists. It infuriates me that people are so STUPID. I hope with all of these youtube videos the police arrest every one of you!!!

Yah, burning a police car and breaking glass at the Starbucks really proves your point morons!

Are we supposed to be surprised that undercover cops dress the part?

Also, Che Guevera was a murdering asshole, but nevermind. I guess he was a iconic "rebel," with his image sold over a million times over, so dupes don't think they're buying into a cliched marketing concept almost identical to Starbucks or Pepsi.

Looks like most of you here have swallowed the propaganda whole. Go ahead, keep cheering on the cops--they'll be at your door soon enough and then you can thank them personally.

Jen,

As the person who shot the tear gas and rubber bullets video. 99.9% of the people at Queen's Park were not causing violence or senseless vandalism. Most were just watching what was happening. Another big portion of people were just taking photos. They were at what was told to be the protest area...

I'm not saying the people who were causing damage should not be arrested. But I have photos of police beating up little old ladies and a women being tramped on by horses.

Sad day in the city all around.

why do we only focus on the few acts of vandalism seen in the streets today?? what about the constant, relentless vandalism that is the police state.. that is globalization exploiting people across the planet. do 3 burnt cop cars and 50 smashed windows stand up to global devastation? let's start making changes and thinking globally..... act locally and help the people make this world a better place. would you even be thinking about this, having conversation if the windows hadn't been smashed?

They are not protesters! They are stupid people doing destructive, stupid things! I couldn't get any message!
Shame on those people!

Those burning cop cars were planted and set on fire by the police themselves to justify the security expenditure.

The cars were planted by police -- they have basically admitted this -- but it was the hooligans who set them on fire. I suspect it was a tactic by police not to 'justify the expenditure' but to divert protester anger away from themselves or civilian targets. It seems to have worked up to a point, but then the stupid 'Black Bloc' rampaged.

to all those protesting the cops: when someone breaks into your house, assaults your neighbour, or threaten yourself or those you care about, do us all a favour. don't bother calling the cops. i'll save some tax dollars.

these are people with wives, husbands, children. they've accomplished far more than you have and apparently, ever will.

So with 1.2 billion spent on security a protester can walk up to a police car and set it on fire and others can jump up and down on the trunk? Duh I get it, those damn protesters! A vacant police car with the windows down? Hmmm?

All of that was previously arranged. What a ugly show.

copied from another site:

"There is a message to all the smashing. It's poorly articulated and not well-delivered, but it's there if you look for it instead of being distracted by the messengers. It is, roughly, that modern industrialized society is immoral, especially multinational corporations. This immorality manifests in several ways, such as environmental pollution and resource depletion, exploitative labor practices, destruction of local capacity, suppressing indigenous rights, and so on. These threads are wound through all of the protests to the point where it almost seems confusing and an unrelated hodgepodge of causes. But there is a common thesis: a society structured around the pursuit of profits leads to injustices and is thus immoral.

All the protests, whether violent or not, can be viewed as a collective medium through which this message is transmitted. The use of violence adds another dimension to the message, however. Basically, it says that the magnitude of the injustices is sufficiently large as to justify violent action. It may be vandalism, but it's roughly targeted against corporations and chains which is consistent with the message, collateral damage notwithstanding. As to the collateral damage, it's inevitable in riot situations with individual actors who have agency and who may be more interested in smashing things than others -- but saying the group is interested only in destruction or doing it "just for kicks" is ignoring the bigger picture of what they're doing.

The violent protesters are caricatured as suburban kids and hypocrites who just want to start fights. I think this dismissive language is both incorrect, and possibly dangerous, because it shows a failure to engage with the root of the behavior. These people don't see themselves that way; they believe they're engaged in a struggle against an evil enemy. I remember similar caricatures against immigrant youth rioting in France a few years back. Maybe those were just kids who wanted to burn cars. Should you just dismiss the lot because they're violent and because they break the law, and hope they go away next time? What if the violent fringe gets stronger over time? Isn't it worth trying to understand what motivates these people?"

People can blather on all they want, but I saw: a couple dozen azzholes who drove/bussed to Toronto for a weekend of drinking beer and smashing stuff. They have no agenda. They just want to see how much fun they can have breaking things. Hopefully today the crowd will
a) beat the shyt out of them
b) follow/film them as they change their clothes so we can i.d. them

Stick a sock in it.

If you honestly believe these window breaking hooligans, who are all dressed in black hoodies from the GAP and black jeans from A&F, actually have some sort of higher message you are retarded and need to put down the bong. They are nothing but spoiled, bored rich white kids, who are a failure at life, and are taking this opportunity to throw the mother of all tantrums.

What the F*** is the "liberal media"? What kind of twisted logic lead you to believe that they are communists.
If you were to think you would realize communist are far right in the scheme of things.
Explain yourself!!! or get an education.

A photographer with a $200? Yeah right!

Maybe the peaceful protestors need to focus some of their attentions on the Black Bloc thugs. Get video of them doing their quick changes, expose their cowardice. From the outside, EVERYONE in that protest who witnessed the violence and destruction is complicit, and they are all going to be treated harshly as a result.

Toronto should take back what these punk thugs have taken.

I don't normally advocate the use of violence, but sometimes a good baseball bat to the head is necessary. I have a few spares in case someone wants to borrow.

predictable from both sides of the protest (violent protestors and police). i do find it curious with all the police presence and security that police cars were still able to be isolated and then set on fire. The above videos just prove that nothing good is going to come from the G20.

"Citizens on the ground are in the action and are recording it all: police posing as protesters, police in plain clothes making snatch and grab arrests...."


Blogto. Seriously? The police did the most respectable job yesterday. They kept composure and didn't reciprocate. It got to a point where protesters were on their side chanting.

Don't tarnish this act. They should be commended. Blogto, I'm ashamed of you right now.

they are doing a lousy job at protesting because i don't even know what point they are trying to make - i am so ashamed that canada was represented in such a pathetic way...the human race took a hard hit this day....how sad

I saw the riots and was in the earlier, much larger peaceful march, and the battle for queens park which was a mixture of protesters. The only violence I saw was on the part of the police, who cleared the park of people, none of whom were being violent. Simply by standing inside the designated 'free speech zone' we were shot with pepper balls, gassed and beaten bloody and finnally many were arrested for the crime of peaceful protest. If you werent there, maybe the footage of the burning cars would make you think there were unstoppable riots. This was not the case, a hardcore of 30-50 protesters used black bloc tactics, and were very obviously allowed to smash a few things while police looked on. The CIBC, Starbucks? These are obvious targets, the police did not attempt to defend these businesses, rather they let things get wild in what we can only assume would be an attempt to justify their later actions. The only time we saw 'restraint' by the police was when a small group went on rampage. It is really upseting to see that you have all been fooled so easily. Peaceful citizens were beaten and arrested yesterday, and none of you seem to care, because all you've seen is a burning car.

What?

So throwing bricks and breaking the glass of stores, with people still working inside and who have no pull with the big evil corporations but are just trying to make some money to support themselves, is a good way of getting this message across? Really?

And the little people who have to clean up after these assholes are just wayyy down in the chain. Wow great saying for showing these people "the message".

Relax emo guys, the cops are doing their job from the idiots breaking shit

I seriously cried my way through the first video. This type of insanity is NOT necessary. These middle class privileged white douchebags have no idea what it is really like to suffer "oppression". Real oppressed people, aka the people who participated in March on Washington, fought back with non-violence and made a real impact. These shit for brains violenge rage-filled privilidged assholes in black are doing nothing but causing violence because they weren't hugged enough as children. This level of riot is so unnecessary in Toronto.

I am seriously ashamed of my generation right now.

The amount of stupid paranoia going around is rediculous. No one is plotting against you. Time to up your meds people.

There is no such threat to lawful people in this Country. Should our police come to my door, they are welcome and I would do my best to cooperate with them. It is the unknowing and unthinking who vandalize our city and we need to present them with clear consequences for their hurtful actions.

In no way I am suggesting peaceful protests should not occur, what I'm more trying to unravel is how can protests make a difference (a lasting consequence) because I'm not sure any transformation will occur after this other than a further divide between the government, the police and the general public, and further, a divide between the public. <p>
I'm particularly shocked at the comments that support the police, and in such the police brutality...

In addition to that, I will also add that this is becoming less of a photo-opportunity for Toronto and more like a big, glittering showcase of why everyone should put their vote way the hell away from Harper and his people next election.

I for one believe that there were many mistakes made on the part of the police. I think they lost their cool, and I purely blame the vandals for that. The protests were going fine, there was no real brutality until vandals started busting up private property, setting police cars on fire and then running back into Queen's Park, putting innocent people in danger.

Do I believe the police should be arresting journalists and bystanders? No, that's insane and completely unconstitutional. But my biggest problem is them standing around while things were vandalized and then striking after the fact, taking innocent people down with them.

God - what a stinking pile of crap excuse for mindless property hooliganism.

Yes, yes, we've all heard it before - capitalism is the rape of the earth.

Time for some thinking... in the last 200 years, the world has seen progress on an unprecedented scale. The drive forward for profits has, as a side result (ha!) *only* seen the development of electricity, modern medicine and vaccines, manned flight, space exploration, etc, etc, etc.

At a minimum it is disingenuous to ignore that in the last 100 years the average life expectancy has more than doubled. When your grandfather was born, the average life expectancy was less than 50/55 (depending on how old you are). Consider now that reaching 80 isn't unusual anymore is a tremendous justification for progress.

Those who would advocate against our modern system need to understand what a world without these things would look like - imagine living to 50, if your lucky. In a world without electricity, or modern medicine. Just think how fun surgery must have been before the development of anesthesia in the 1850s... lucky you!

Now - can we do better? Absolutely! - consider that it took the burning of the Cuyahoga river to start the EPA and the Clean Water Act ( or acid rain in Canada) - but progress marches onward for the betterment of all.

To deny this progress is to romanticize a past that was hard, painful and short.

In a broad sense I think the police have behaved well in Canada and been a model of tolerance (certainly compared to the tarnished record of police in other countries).

Waving a camera in the face of officers after being very politely and repeatedly told to back off for clearly reasonable reasons (i.e. not walking up behind officers on a police line) doesn't give you a free pass to be a jerk. Those were some of the most polite officers I've seen on film in any similar situation.

Those who've used this as an excuse for wanton vandalism at this G8 (at the expense of the tax payer and to the endangerment of life) have been shown for the provocative mindless inarticulate thugs that they are, thanks to videos like these.

None of the participants are making even an attempt to express any cogent political argument. This is not peaceful protesting, and there were apparently more than just a small number of disruptive hoodlums. It's a clichéd display of teenage angst, as only wealthy white kids seem to know how.

Well done to those who covered this in the face of some pretty hostile behaviour on the part of the participants.

Calls to move all protest to remote locations seem eminently sensible. Obviously most people don't side with this extremism and tax payers shouldn't have to foot the bill for cleaning up these summits.

Too bad they couldn't just rent a bigass cruise ship and have their thing on there. Who the hell will attack the USA, Russia, and China? Just have a bunch of subs and ships around to make sure.

I only feel sorry for the journalists that got caught up in the mix.. and for the cops who went from guarding a boring protest, to having to deal with chaos and numerous things being thrown at them (like bottles of urine - nice). I don't feel sorry for the protesters or moronic bystanders. The only ppl being paid to be down there are the police and journalists. They have to be down there or they could lose their jobs. Everyone else voluntarily put themselves in that position. Getting arrested or hurt is a risk they knew (or should have known) they were taking. All of the smart people in Toronto left for the weekend or want nothing to do with the downtown core right now. A lot of these protesters down there right now, I'm positive are not from here. Please go home! ... and take the politicians with you. Thanks.

Oh, can I add that I also feel sorry for anyone who lives or works downtown who has no idea WTF they are going to do tomorrow morning. Monday is clearly not going to be business as usual.

These people who are posting these videos, especially the one who had their camera smashed, seem to think they can do whatever they want, the cop, told the person behind the camera not to touch him and he kept pushing it, and got his camera smashed, he was also in a security zone, what does this individual expect? When you put yourself into a bad situation, and cause problems with police, what do you expect to happen?

If you don't live downtown, and decide you want to check out the circus, don't be supprised if you're arrested. No reason for you to be there unless to be trouble.

I surprised the peaceful protesters didn't go violent on the thugs. Oxymoron, yes... but it's probably what I would have done.

You know who you have to thank for this mess? Stephen Harper himself. The events that occurred did not come as a surprise. They happen at every one of these meetings. So what the hell did they think was going to happen? Alberta did it right a few years back when they had the meetings out in the middle of nowhere. Hard to protest it if you can't even find it. Why the hell have it in the most populace city in Canada?

And you retards telling the protesters to stop the black bloc idiots. Isn't that the police force's job? You know.. The police force that you're saying everyone should just get out of their way so they can do their job? Make up your minds.

And to the internet tough guys in this thread. Shut the hell up. you make me sick.

Seeing the comments about how the police should be curb stomping the peaceful protesters is making me sick to my stomach. It is our right as citizens of this country to protest. 99.99% of the protesters there are exercising their rights. The bad elements should be arrested and tried for the crimes they've committed. But that one video of the crowd singing the national anthem and then being rushed by the riot cops is just disturbing.

the gov't spending 5 million dollars on a false lake for a week makes me wanna smash/burn things too.

Hey Jon Noble...you're a little b*tch with a small pecker woooooo

I was under the impression that the violent Black Bloc went after American or large international companies or banks with their destruction. Then for heaven's sake why would they attack the windows of Swiss Chalet which is a born in Toronto Canada restaurant with the first one on Bloor St. I know because our family made special trips to eat at it years ago. This small chain is so Canadian - what did they do to deserve having windows smashed?

none of it matters, the budget allocated for security is 1 billion dollars, so they expected all of this to happen - they could cause 10 billion in damage and it would not influence anything, the governments do not listen to the public and will do what they will, as they are doing. end of story.

If the guy who shouted " see you on YouTube" was shouting "bang, bang instead" would it be a reason enough for a cop to shoot him?

As a veteran protester (I'm come from Serbia) and after witnessing these events, my conclusion is that these were standard protests. All ingredients were present: hysterical police, critical masses, opportunistic drunken hooligans, obscure violent groups, more hysterical police, fire, broken glass, innocent people getting beaten and arrested....
I blame the police, naturally, cos they are payed not to loose their cool under any circumstances.

When you figure out who ordered the cops to put their holiday suits on and march against own citizens, you'll find the bad guy.

the RBS photo in question. hope it links

http://www.nrc.nl/multimedia/dynamic/00215/ENG-G20protests2_215217e.jpg

dude, these violent acts are brought on by agent provocateurs... the police.

quebec cops admitted they did the same thing a few years ago.

stop watching msm tv... it's scrambling your brain!

Not being on the police force, I'm obviously not privy to the command decision to rush in on the protestors singing the anthem. But if I had to guess at the logic: The police had told the protestors to back up. The protestors had done so, retreating some 40 feet or so, and starting up their song. Where things went wrong, in my opinion, is the one guy who decided to reapproach the cops, bridging the distance created, to sit with his back to him. Why is this an issue? Two seconds later, others join him. If nothing is done, more would join still. Eventually, the entire protest has moved 20 feet closer to the police line. Then some guy who wants to be a hero bridges that gap, and so on, until a point-blank confrontation with police lives in danger becomes inevitable - and how many protestors would have been hurt in a fight where the police feel the need to protect their lives? An equilibrium had been achieved at the forty foot mark and, to my mind, needed to be maintained for the safety of all involved. Bravo to the police for stopping a whole lot of ugliness before it could manifet.

It is rather obvious that Black Bloc thugs are convenient for the police. If you checked the license plate on the burned/vandalized cop cars, you'd notice that the registration was in 2005 or very early 2006 (the licence plate starts with AY..). Those cars are due for a replacement, so why not get insurance to cover for them? Anyway, it's a theory.

It's also obvious that there are instigators from the police ranks among the Black Bloc who incite violence - that's why they were allowed to run unhindered and cause violence.

It's also convenient because the media and everyone focuses on the chaos instead of the messages of the peaceful protesters.

This is such an old game that is played over and over again, and the media (the cesspool of media that CP24 is) gives its full support behind it.

One day it would be nice if the peaceful protesters caught the ones causing violence and arrested them. But as you can see, the Black Bloc is a large enough group that this is pretty much impossible. It's all by design.

So true. And obvious.

What the hell is wrong with all those people....they sure showed everyone didn't they??? Showed everyone how ignorant they are. How will destroying property help their cause...if they actually have one, what is the point of the violence? I don't think I heard any one of the cowardly group even mention why they were there other than "we're hear to commmit a crime, don't film us!"
What a fantastic way to spotlight our country....by showing the rest of the world the worst of ours!
I'm sure their parents would all be so proud

I'm a reasonable guy when the cause is reasonable. But if the protesters don't have a solid agenda, then it's super questionable. It's kinda like they wanted to clash against society and usually the G-summits are the way to go.

When the protesters are violent, heck yeah, I'll side with the police. I'm a liberal and I'm saying that because you gotta take a friggin' stand sometimes when crap like this happens.

I especially liked the protesters who finally got a megaphone in front of their mouths, only to blurt out something that shocked all the other protesters. I think it was "CAS kills kids". After she blurted it out, she said "maybe that's not a good cheer". Duh! Like most protesters, their message was garbled, too broad, no suggestions - just blame. They need to grow up.

I have watched the above videos and I cant believe the comments some of the people posted, are you so blind that you can't see that your fundamental rights are violated and taken away one by one. I guess that when you work 60 hours a week to pay your huge debt that we all have, you don't have the time to stop and smell the roses. "KEEP THEM OCCUPIED, KEEP THEM ENTERTAINED AND KEEP THEM STUPID" AND YOU CAN DO WHAT EVER YOU LIKE. That's what the summit is about, how to keep stealing from people on a global level, not just money but land, freedom rights, liberties, control. We are slowly becoming slaves who are fed a steady diet of lies, deceptions and propaganda by all levels of media. Our society is consumed by the drive of greed and over consuming to satisfy the void that could never be filled by material goods. We have detaching our self from everything that is important and vital. Ladies and Gentlemen, simple truth is that we can not keep going the way we are, we are over consuming, destroying and over populating.

I do not stand for violence and the people who did it should be arrested, however a person who is entering a public park has the right to do so without his belongings being searched.
Please watch it, the police could not explain to him why he was not allowed to do so. He was not violent, he did not commit a crime. Since when is it illegal to peacefully protest in Canada? There is a fine line between enforcing the laws and violating them.

While watching the video of the burning cruiser, i saw the slogan that stated " TO SERVE AND PROTECT" it should be written " TO ENSLAVE AND PUNISH".

It is a shame that the BLACK BLOC and the anarchists where only there to commit crime and violence because it destroyed the message that the peaceful demonstrators where trying to send.

We are not slaves and we don't want to be enslaved.

People who made the above comments and justified police brutality and unlawful acts of violence who are so eager to judge all the protesters because they saw the 6:00 news, and offcourse they saw what the they wanted you to see, violence by a small % of the demonstrators who were only there to cause anarchy. This is what dominated the news, not the real issues that exist. That's what the governments wanted you see and that is what u saw.

Wake up people, where there are to many laws, you are bound to break them. Canada is becoming a police state and most of you don't even know it. It is really easy to loose your
freedom and extremely hard to regain it.

G20 Injustice against women! They were strip searched in public!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN8PYPnCSxw

I cannot believe that the cops are applauded by the mayor and other politicians. To have spent $1 billion on security, to have made 900 arrests in total, and to allow the Black Bloc run UNIMPEDED while the police IDLY STOOD BY is a failure of gigantic proportions!!!

It's not how to get their point across? How do you expect anyone to get their point across if, as we've just seen in several of these videos, even PEACEFUL PROTESTERS get arrested?

Way to honour the charter of rights and freedoms.

I saw ZERO violent cops in those videos. I saw a HELL of a lot of violent protesters.

I've been saying this for weeks.

Instead of protesting in the downtown core, hop on the TTC and protest in Scarborough, peacefully and with no confrontations. Not only will expensive police resources and protection measures be made useless, but we'd finally be able to show the world that the people, and not governments, shape it.

but we'd finally be able to show the world that the people, and not governments, shape it.

oh boo hoo you poor little girls ... next time stay the hell away from an illegal protest and keep your mouth shout. Instead of typing 10,000 words and wasting all our time reading this garbage go volunteer your time at a charity and do some actual GOOD for a change you sorry pathetic whiners. Your continued whining makes me feel actually sorry for you all, get a life, a job and move on already. Do something productive for a change and next time don't protest and we won't need to spend $1 billion tax dollars...uh think about it for a sec 'tards, if it wasn't for you losers we wouldn't have needed the cops... you reap what you sow... now STFU already ALL of you pathetic excuses for lazy Canadians with nothing better to do with your time. Truly pathetic you all are, a real embarrassment for Canada. Thanks a lot....

I really cannot believe that people are actually on the side of police in this issue. Like I really cannot. What happened to the basic rights we once had? How come no police got charged for what they did? Back in the 60's if you smashed a camera you would get sued, now as long as you have a uniform you can do pretty much whatever you want. This is a terrible thing to happen to Canada.

One last thing I loved watching the protester's getting charged after singing O, Canada, that was a great reaction by the police, "Lets just charge them, beat the hell out of them and get off scot free".