Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre

"Contrary to published reports we were told that all female prisoners were strip searched by male officers."

Typo?

Is there a typo in the line "Contrary to published reports we were told that all female prisoners were strip searched by male officers."??

Sorry. CORRECTION: All female prisoners were strip searched by FEMALE officers

These accommodations are perfect for those individuals who caused destruction, which was somewhere between 50 and 150 individuals.

What about the rest of the 750+ people?

Some who were simply out walking the streets when the protest came upon them.

A large amount of people who were basically kidnapped by police because they were "present" at a protest.

I've seen enough video to be able to tell that the cops did do some things wrong.

Charging peaceful crowds for one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heb9BXjYcII&;feature=player_embedded

@ Adam Barratt
Clearly, people were expecting 5 star service at a detention centre. I'm surprised the Police didn't arrange room service with an complementary spa service...

Besides, it's not like people weren't forewarned to steer clear of downtown during G20.

How about people living there and were just going home? Haven't you read about that?

I'm kind of amazed that people don't understand that we won't keep our wonderful way of life in Canada if we don't stand up against illegal detainment and suppression of free speech. Paul Bernardo has better accomodations than those above. Are protestors to be treated worse than one of our worst serial killers?

Like, seriously, guys. People shouldn't have gone downtown? People LIVE downtown. It's not like they can just 'steer clear' of where they live. Nor should they have to. This is our city as much as the police's.

If we give up our rights, we will live in a place like the ones you keep telling us to go to. It's not like some of us haven't seen those places. It's not like some of the protestors don't come from them.

seriously, you canadians are so spoiled

you should go to Mexico and see some real problems, some seriously BAD police guys, some real riots, and some really ugly detention places

We FIGHT now, is what I meant...

Sure some people were clearly arrested for no reason but like Riley said it's not like people weren't forewarned to steer clear of downtown during G20 and when shit hits the fan and you caught in the middle...well guess what happens.

Get in cops face long enough you'll get arrested and possibly hurt.

Go to the hotel where dipolmats are staying and you'll get arrested.

I've heard people complain that they we're vegan and couldn't eat the food.

I've heard people complain that they weren't given blankets or pillows to sleep.

Cmon your in jail.

If you want to change your government, turn off your tv's, turn off the lights, ride your bike, volunteer in a social change project, teach, quit buying so much crap, grown your own vegatables. Change it don't whinge about it...

If they had moved like they were told to, after being blocked in all sides by the police in riot gear, they would have been arrested even faster for charging police lines. They were boxed in, told to vacate but were not given a route out and arrested for failure to comply. They couldn't win for losing.

Alecia, I meant it could have been worse as in the accomodations.. or excuse me detention area.... yeah, I know. Once in Mexico and another in South America... this place looked like the Hilton compared to those.... happy now?

It doesn't happen every year, but it will if we all take a 'no big deal' attitude about it.

Quincy, very well said.

Where did all the fake ninjas from Saturday go?

Apprehended at the UofT's GSU Pub, because the Police did their job right! Kudos to them

Just because there are conditions worse than this in other parts of the world does not mean we should be counting our blessings. I'm glad I don't have to count on you to defend my rights. "Oh well! At least you didn't get stoned to death! *high five*"

I'm really concerned about the lack of concern amongst Torontonians for the erosion of our Charter rights and freedoms. That's why we love Canada, and if we allow them to be taken away, we'll live in a very different nation.

Before this weekend, I would have argued that this sort of thing would never happen here. Now, so close to Canada Day, it's hard to feel like celebrating.

Thank you! Finally someone who gets it! This is the way the rest of the country sees it as well!!

These were my friends and members of my community that got arrested. Not just a few either, many! I could have easily been one of them but my common sense told me better then to get caught in the middle. I dunno cops walking around everywhere and in riot gear are a warning sign to me.

I could not speculate anything from the comfort of my home. I do not own a tv. Nor did I hide in my house. I tried as best as I could to enjoy the downtown core both saturday and sunday.

Criminals deserve to be in cages.

@hendrix: "i bet some homeless guys would consider that heaven..."

You'll have to ask the homeless people that were there - reports are that several dozen were swept off the streets to this facility BEFORE the summit began. I wonder what their crime was.

'Logistics' are their excuse? Would you accept that excuse if it were your daughter in jail? Well, then don't sweep up 700 people, most not 'black block' but legally protesting (as much as the law matters anymore), if you can only lay charges (you know, have anything called 'evidence') against a few dozen. This is not going to get the inquiry it deserves.

Those are some pretty nice looking phone booths BELL. Bell. Bell. Bell. If I was a big corporation like BELL, I sure wouldn't be happy to see my BELL logo in any connection to this mess. Bell. Bell. Bell. I wonder if they used "Bell Mobility" or "Bell TV" or "Bell Internet".

Bell.

I spent 22 hours in this detention center for a breach of the peace (arrested with hundreds of others outside Novotel HOtel). There is definitely some misinformation in this article. Nobody was EVER given fruit that I could see - We were carted out sandwiches twice and given water roughly every 3 hours (approx 200mL in a styrofoam cup). I was lucky to get that - I heard of others waiting hours for water.

"In this first area, it wasn't uncommon for prisoners to wait for hours while they awaited to be seen in the prisoner management trailer overseen by two sergeants."

I was never let out of the first area! I and many of the others in my cage spent the whole 22 hours in there, supposedly waiting to be "processed" while many others were arrested, brought in and let out again within an hour or two.

"A separate room contained pay phones were prisoners were allowed to make a phone call. Again, we were told that logistics may have prevented everyone from having access to the phone booths in a timely manner (if at all) but that they were certainly available."

I was NEVER read my rights, ONCE. I was NEVER given the opportunity to phone for a lawyer. The sign in the picture above which informed prisoners of their legal rights to a lawyer was never seen by me. Some of us were told we would be able to call "later", and some were told that there were supposedly only 2 phones in the building so it would take time to make a call.

"Overall, of the more than 900 arrested this weekend and brought here, approximately 200 were charged and the remainder (more than 700) were released with no charges."

Many of us were also released without ANY paperwork to show that we had ever even been in police custody (including myself)! When my girlfriend demanded paperwork to prove she had been held in custody, she was told to "call head office". She insisted being given paperwork, but they just repeated to call head office and escorted her out the door.

WHo said we have to steer clear of downtown because of G20, this is Canada, you know strong and 'free' I thought if you were free you could go anywhere in public, where ever you wanted, when ever you wanted, and you don't even need a reason to be there, remember freedom?

@Justin

If you want to roam where ever you want, then you have to be adult about it and accept the consequences of your actions.

You can't yell at the government for restricting your right to tapdance in a mine field.

prison=cell=cage

what did you expect? wallpaper? a chalkboard with color chalks to draw?

They were trying to move and disperse the crowd long before they got too Queen and Spadina.

@ JohnnyM: Best. Answer. Ever.

Those cells look way better than some of the best rooms you can get in a 'third world country' soo, what were those guys protesting about?
Torontians are just bored... and suck!

Behave like animals, you get caged like animals. I for one, watched the entire thing on various TV stations and saw anarchy at every street corner. Great job protesters. You've certainly won over the world masses to understand your cause - NOT.

Unless you have lived in a real police state, your hyperbole is easily dismissed. The vast majority support the police actions because they were necessary to deal with the criminals and all their enablers. Its easy for you armchair protesters to sit back and whine about the cops.

Nina - "seriously, you canadians are so spoiled you should go to Mexico and see some real problems, some seriously BAD police guys, some real riots, and some really ugly detention places"

Through upholding laws, filing complaints, and publicly looking into what happened we prevent ourselves from becoming Mexico.

All the amateur photographers with their cheap cameras couldn't be happier. And its the best thing to happen to Blogto and torontoist. I think they are enjoying it more then anyone.

Pretty nice facilities, and I'm NOT being sarcastic!

I have been inside a few Eastern European prisons (as a visitor), and these so-called Canadian "anarchist" pussies would be crying like littl girls who lost their dolly in about five minutes... give or take four minutes.

I'm glad you exist.

Neat - I've never seen the inside of a jail for white people before.

Here's an interesting account by a "photojournalist" who claims to have followed the Black Bloc all along:

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/6497-alt-perspectives-on-toronto-protests.html

Well, pretty interesting, that is, up to the point where he follows them to Queen's Park, sees them huddling in a circle shedding their clothes, but then FAILS TO TAKE A SINGLE F'ING PHOTO OF THIS. THEN FAILS TO TAKE SINGLE SHOT OF THEM DISPERSING. He then shrugs in his video commentary ""after that I just lost track of them"

WORST PHOTO JOURNALIST OF ALL TIME. THAT'S YOU.

I wanted to add, my brother lives downtown, not really in the security zone but close enough. He wandered on the streets taking pictures/videos but found himself boxed in by a shitload of cops for about an hour. They eventually let the crowd go but the intensity of the situation got to him... so guess what he did? Stayed the hell away from the hot areas the next day!

I told him exactly what I'm gonna say here "If you didn't wanna get harassed or fucked by the police, then why the hell did you go?" I had no sympathy/empathy/remorse for him cuz he made a very cognitive decision to go to the heart of the chaos, despite knowing full well of the most-likely outcome of said chaos. Police gestapo!

@Justin.

The land mines are the rioters, you know the ones that the 'peaceful protesters' didn't do anything about {like inform the police where they are and where they're going after they stripped out of their black clothing and hid among the peaceful ones?}

The Police were the mine sweepers, and if you willfully walked out into the mine field and you got snagged by a mine sweeper that's your fault, not the fault of the mine sweeper.

@Kenny, awesome post sir, I totally agree.

With Toronto voting Liberal/NDP every election, I'm surprised to see all these authoritarian comments on here. Where do you guys go on election day??

"..I for one, watched the entire thing on various TV stations.."

You couldn't have seen "the entire thing" because TV news is a highly selective presentation of events, narrated to convey a particular point of view which inevitably conceals the variety and complexity of what happened. Hence the term: news "story".

News doesn't just "exist" out there on its own, it's constructed by the people who present it to us. A volcano exploding somewhere isn't inherently "news" until someone decides it's something to which people's attention should be drawn. Many things happen in the world that we don't hear about or know about.

I'm not sanctioning the violence that happened but simply pointing out that the news media give disproportionate attention to spectacles like petty vandalism that are easy to cover and grab our attention. Other forms of violence/harm are hidden from our view even though their consequences may be far more devastating. We cannot rely on TV news to present "reality" to us.

For example, the killing of numerous *innocent* Afghan civilians far outweighs the horror of some broken windows and petty vandalism. But because those civilians are thousands of miles away and perhaps look and act differently than we do, what is done to them - in our name, with our money - is obscured from our view. To those who say "what if it was your house/property that was vandalized?" I say "what if it was your innocent relative who was killed by an invading army?"

You think these are actual Toronto citizens? Guess again, I'd say they're Con Party astroturfers. Wouldn't be the first nor the last time they've tried this shit.

suddenly you care what American think...wow

a couple of notes and inconsistencies in response to your article from my experience being detained in the prison:
- we were never given bottled water. the only people who had bottled water to drink were the cops themselves. also, many people report being given slightly discoloured water that smelled faintly of urine.
- nobody i was ever with was given apples or oranges. i made it very clear that i am unable to eat cheese and butter and requested many times if i could have just a plain slice of bread or if there were any other options but was told to shut the f*** up
- i was never told my rights, not when i was getting arrested nor when i was being processed
- i was repeatedly denied my right to use the phone to call my lawyer over my entire 18 hour detention

I am deeply embarassed for Canada. We were supposed to be a beacon of tolerant and dignified human behaviour to the world. Yes, the public mischief of a few miscreants was unacceptable. But have we not become equally abhorrent to tolerate make-shift jails like this for mass arrests without cause? And now we discover the public was mislead by public figures to exercise unprecedented powers! This is not a civil society. This is not Canada.

Exactly!

It's funny, you just called it a Police Gestapo, like that's ok have in Toronto; you just need to stay away from it.

I've lost hope in humanity.

It's so sick and a joke how they have this detention centre - a centre for such trite things, yet they still had to make sure to take the time to carry out the bilingual law and practise, with their signs (english and french) inside the centre. Pathetic and the police or whatever just made a joke of themselves. Very Royal Cdn. Air Farce or 22 Minutes skit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi-Q11MKx1g

As you can see from this video, the cop cars weren't set on fire by roaming packs of anarchists... a lone douchebag, face not covered, dropped a flaming substance in the car. Other people tried to put out the fire and stop it from happening. Violence is not evident anywhere. It's just people with cameras. The lack of police presence near the abandoned cop cars speaks volumes for how manufactured the situation was.

In case someone needs me to spell it out: the police were hoping that someone would start that fire so they could roll heavy the next day and sell their "we needed that 1 billion dollars, see?" story. There were many thousands of cops in town. The decision to leave those cars unprotected was just that -- a decision. They could easily have covered it and made arrests if they'd wanted to, and there wouldn't have been any outcry (police arrest suspects beside flaming cop car? well duh.)

Contrast that video with the one of people being rushed and boxed in by the cops at Queen and Spadina on sunday and it becomes all the more absurd. The police are OK leaving their property out and encouraging its destruction, but they really want to beat down a bunch of innocent randoms, some of who were just passing by a busy intersection?

Anyone who says "you deserved this if you were there" doesn't deserve to live in Canada. Simply disgraceful. This is shady police tactics through and through.

I think this sets a nice precidence for people who decide they want to take over the street / destroy property and inconvenient the rest of the city because they're "curious" or pretending to be hardcore and fight the man for a weekend.
If the 4,000 people that protested all weekend spent their time somewhere else planting trees they would have improved the planet but guess what - they didn't and got arrested and whined about it instead.
As for the people just trying to get home and not involved- that shouldn't have happened and I feel bad for them. I also feel bad for the police who stood there while people yelled in their face, taunted them, blew smoke in their eyes, made them stand in the heat and rain (yes they were being paid but it was unneccessary if people had decided to do something else besides protest in the street), maybe they planted a few cars to be set on fire and instigated some rioting - both sides are guilty of being ridiculous, but again maybe next time the entire city will think about it twice before going out and making a spectacle of the city and behaving themselves.

A lot of people were innocent and let go. And BTW we live in CANADA not Eastern Europe. So speak of particulars that apply to this.
May I remind you that 900+ people were held in a facility only made for 500, Imagine that! Only 250 people were actually charged. so there's 650+ that were innocent so yeah. Knowledge makes you wise, don't speak just because you can.(our right of free speech BTW)

@Kat

I had a ball reading it: it's amazing how, while you can easily imagine the shame of the situation, he makes it amusing as hell to read. He has an incredible memory!

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=397205503638&;id=511491565

Cage City... I passed 18 hours there. Sleeping on cold concrete floor, begging for water, for crappy cheeze sandwiches that were given every 8 hours, in no running water cells, in no toilet cells, without our shoes, without the rights of any calls, without any human rights at all. That was before I was transfered in a courthouse which was very lool alike, VERY... exept for the running water... where I have stayed another 13 hours... Before being transfered to the Maplehurst maximum security prison where I had my first hot meal.. But no calls to a layer, to anybody in 4 days in prison.

Free Speech. Reminder WE pay YOUR salary.

To "Alice" and all other blinkered self-righteous morons who have never left Toronto: Get over yourself... there is a real world out there with real consequences when you commit a crime. Are you one of those people who thinks meat is manufactured in supermarkets?

All these people had the right to get arrested for rioting... did you not see the news? Did they have the right to attack police, set cars on fire, attack & loot businesses? Many of these "peaceful protesters" showed up armed. They thoughtlessly put everyone's lives at risk and then whined about getting arrested.

If you look at the average "protester"/ arrestee they do not consist of a cross-section of society. Most are bored mommy/daddy funded youth (how many were actual Canadian citizens?). I truly wonder what kind of education most have (doubtfully past high school and most certainly none in post graduate economics).

If they had any brains, they would realize that THEY DO NOT REPRESENT CANADIAN SOCIETY and these "protests" are not only ignored but detested by the people who have to pay for this foolishness. I'd like the protesters to pay for the security which would not be required if all they really did was protest. Real protesters do not cover their faces and take bats & steel pipes to "demonstrate'. These people all showed up to create havoc and cause damage.

I think we need to get this straight
(1)The Black Bloc (dressed all in black masked) these were the people who set the police cars on fire and smashed windows
(2)The protesters these people have a right both under the Constitution and under common law (in Canada this is how Canadians have traditionally voiced concerns that they felt were not being adequately being addressed by their elected representatives and in fact many of the rights and freedoms that we all enjoy today came about as a result of protests led by our parents and our grandparent)
(3) The Police their job their motto "to serve and protect" it was their job to protect all the people in Toronto including the legitimate protesters and to stop the easily identifiable Black Boc from disrupting the protests and causing all the violence and damage right from the beginning
(4) The Politicians elected to Represent the Canadian People ( transparency is needed here folks)
WHO DID THEIR JOBS???

It's too bad the cops didn't hand out soothers in this temporary prison. It sounds like those detained needed them.

"something non cold to sit on would have been more fair especially seeing how 98% of the people arrested were probably innocent."
"98%. Really. And how did you arrive at this figure? Fuckwad."

he said probably. and after watching videos i saw very few people that should've been arrested. they said maybe 50-150 out of the 1000+

so you can do the real math yourself, fool

Well at least that looks a HELL of a lot better than Cook County jail in Chicago, IL.

This is sad. I can't believe how many people are willing to throw away the basic human rights that my relatives (and probably yours) fought and died for.

I think it's a case of "it didn't happen to me so I don't care"

We have to start caring about our fellow country men and women. We have a right to freedom of speech. We have a right to assemble and protest.

It's sad that a few clad in black had to ruin it for everyone but that doesn't mean we surrender our right to be free in this country.

I was arrested on bogus charges and then released unconditionally after 24 hours.

That fruit table was NOT for prisoners, it was for officers, who would often walk through the blocks while eating food. I am lactose intolerant and could only pick at the white bread of the sandwiches... I asked many times for more food as I began to feel ill but I never received anything else and was constantly told that the cheese sandwiches were the only food in the building. Very few people were given fruit, depending on whether or not they had an officer that was willing to break the rules a little bit.

Also, as far as the phones being "certainly available"... this is not true. I, and many others, were held for over 24 hours without ANY access to ANY phone call, or legal aid. This is illegal. No officer would deny this.

Water bottles were for officers, not prisoners. A small dixie cup of water every hour and a half is NOT enough water. Water is an intrinsic necessity to life on this planet, and no one should EVER have to beg for it.

Do NOT simply accept what was expressed by the officer who did this tour to be true. Read the many independent reports of people who were detained in this place and receive many accounts on what actually happened. Of course the officer will try to save face by making this place sound like a pleasant stay..... make up your own minds, please.

Criminal or not the laws of this country allow for some respect and dignity. Even if the person at the detention centre was guilty they deserved the same treatment that all other prisoners in this country receive like basic medical care, 3 meals a day and the right to contact a lawyer.

I wish all the naysayers would realize this!

"Everyone knew the risks of being amongst protests and riot police. Do the math."

So you don't think you should be able to have a peaceful protest without being arrested? You think that should be an expected result of protesting? Then I've got an idea for a police state I'm sure you'd love.

What do you expect peaceful protestors to do? Step infront of a flying brick unarmed? Attack those practicing Black Bloc tactic and start a street fight? Combat violence with violence? It would just be handing the Black Bloc and police exactly what they hoped for - to incite violence. Absolute idiocy to suggest such a thing.

I think you all need to move to North Korea where you will find you will be much more at home. In Canada, our rights and freedoms are something we value and protect.

They arrested people in the designated zone too. Jesus you people need to do your homework before commenting.

I'm sorry that you have to use exhausted stereotypes instead of an actual respectable argument to make a point. (A point wasn't even really made). It's a pretty sad attempt at lumping everyone into a group of morons that you can easily discredit. It would be far too frightening for you to consider smart, hardworking citizens being treated this way, it would mess with your belief in a just world and THAT would make you feel unsafe. By the way, I never said anything specific about what I went to school for or what I do. It might make your small mind blow up if you were to know I wasn't a hemp-wearing, dread-lock sporting, pot smoker (although there's nothing wrong with that).

The amount of apathy and sheer ignorance over what happpened is the most depressing thing about all of this.

Its amazing how so many are without question in support of the police, after they admitted to lying about the law and weapons on display.

Does that not raise red flags in your minds that perhaps the police lied about other events that unfolded this past weekend?

They lied to us and admitted it. Yet you're still taking everything they've said at face value?

Wake up!

Yeah, media/news cycle dictates that no one is going to remember this in another week's time. Let's get to the issues that really matter: Miley Cyrus upskirt pics.

To all the imbeciles who say the protesters are soft and whiners. Are you completely out of your minds??? Our parents and grandparents fought and died for our freedoms. Don't forget that!! At least these people/protesters are trying to continue the fight against injustice on behalf of the less fortunate here and abroad. What are you doing? Sitting at home being an armchair idiot? You people make me sick to my stomach suggesting we should never question authority or strong arm tactics taken on by political organization. And yes, I have lived abroad and I suggest you try doing it yourselves. I can't wait for the next election to vote out the head moron Harper that decided it was a good idea to hold the g20 in Toronto. Bye bye 1? 2? billion dollars.

Pretty much anything could be worse. Just add fire. People that can only comment 'Be glad you're in Canada and not somewhere worse' are foolish. Those in power are trying to turn Canada into somewhere else where your fantasy prisons can take place! The only reason we have it better here is because of the work and effort of activists like those who are getting arrested. They should be commended and applauded for their actions not condemned off hand because some agent provocateur started a small riot of a couple dozen people.

Weather they NEEDED to go out or not they have the RIGHT to. Besides the mayor told people to go about their normal lives which would mean for most people leaving their homes and doing the things that they normally do on a weekend.

Listen, the cops have admitted to lying and doing the wrong things why are people still siding with them?!

Huh, for all the whining the hippies have been doing, I thought the place would have looked much worse. It's not that bad, really, for a jail. Cheese sandwiches are good!

some of those people were at work, others out for dinner. They made an announcement at 8pm saying toronto is now safe, go enjoy it.

it wasn't until later that other things happened -

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=397205503638&;id=511491565&ref=mf

Yeah, totally Anne Bonny! I was one of the "smart" people who chose to "stay away" from my home at Front and Spadina. I stayed with a friend all weekend in the north end of the city, far away from the craziness. After a relatively quiet Sunday I decided to head back home late in the afternoon. Juuuuuuusssst as I arrived at Spadina Station to take the streetcar home (it had been running just fine according to TTC from Spadina all the way down to Union station at that point) that's when the Queen and Spadina "kettle" incident occurred. I side-stepped that luckily by just about 15 minutes or so. That's how easily I could have been sucked into the mess and detained illegally, just trying to go home.

So, to all the "you shouldn't have been there" people commenting, please realize that thousands of perfectly normal Torontians live and work in the immediate vicinity of the G20 "security zone". The event was pretty much over and even the police later around 8pm told everyone "ok, it's safe now". Let me guess, still my fault if I was arrested, right? My fault the Harper government just had to "showcase Toronto" by dropping a paramilitary warzone into a mixed commercial / residential neighborhood? Here, let me answer you in advance: no, not my fault.

@PoliceSupporter Stayed in my house for 4 days? I wasn't "out there in a middle of protest." I was out there taking care of life. Going to work, going to the bank machine, getting a newspaper. How defiant! We have protests downtown every day for chrissakes.

@Mike No one was "marching alongside the Black Bloc." They were at the end. Could be that the people who were around didn't stop them because they were scared, or figured there
were so many cops around downtown, they'd be along in a minute to take care of it. But they never came, did they?

@jennifer Hippies aren't lawyers or TTC drivers are they Jennifer? Because those people were in there too. And those pictures might have had more impact on you if those cages were full of your friends and neighbours. Or the building were full of confused, exhausted cops, some of them crying and apologizing to prisoners. Can't wait for those to come out! Because it's all on video. Yee-fucking-haw!

Probably not, in fact there is video account of a female journalist floating around the web who had said that there were threats of rape made towards her (albeit probably 'jokingly') and other females who had fingers put inside of them

After an hour and a half of Black Bloc on the rampage they took off their clothing and melted with the crowds. And at that point people Couldn't "just Leave"
Again - most of those people were just watching, or at work, or visitors.
The Eatons Center was on lock down until 6 - then they let the people out at the Canadian tire exit - at that point - where do you go if you live down there? Or you have kids at home with a baby sitter, or you have dinner in the oven - or you are just in toronto visiting and need to get to Union...

The people arrested and treated worse then animals were innocent. 1000 people arrested - how many of those were black bloc 10-50?

The thing that pissed me off the most was when these meatfucks were taking off thier BLACK BLOC GEAR there were a whole bunch of "peacefull protesters" surrounding them to provide cover (check the CBC site for pics of this). Secondly many of the groups protestors refused to discredit the blac block tactic by stating they supported a "Diversity of action".

Now that these guys got rounded up AFTER BEING TOLD TO STAY AWAY!!! They cry about having to eat cheese sandwitches?!?!!?

Give me a damn break.

It's rich that you're telling people to "use common sense". The people you're defending didn't use theirs, my friend.

May I ask you honestly, how I'm "actively causing harm to the country [you are] living in" by not wasting my time in a protest that fell on deaf ears and by not getting myself thrown in jail for 24 hours?

How dramatic you are to suggest that I've "participated in the continued erosion of human rights in this country". Realistically, do you know what protesters accomplished this weekend? They shut down the downtown core, broke a few windows, cost some businesses unneeded property damage expenses, and made sure that Roy Halladay didn't pitch here. That's ALL that was accomplished. If anybody wants to believe otherwise, then I suggest that you give your head a shake.

Mike, do you suggest that all the people living in the area should have locked themselves up in their houses for a week?

Forget work. Forget family and friends. Forget walking the dog. Forget the gym. Forget their lifestyle because of some protesters and cops?

How does ANYONE not feel any sympathy for truly innocent people that got looped into this whole mess by trying to mind their own and live their lives? And didn't the Mayor tell 'em to go out and enjoy themselves?

I would LOVE for Mike or any one of you soulless people to respond to what the people living in those neighbourhoods should have done. Put yourself in their shoes and REALLY tell me that you would be okay with dropping everything and staying inside for a week.

You're absolutely right Tina. Place should have been sealed and absolutely nothing touched. It was a crime scene. Hey not one single person who has been public about their experiences in there mentioned apples and oranges. Obviously, they were placed around for the photo shoot. Plus, they said they "cleaned." Place still looks pretty darn messy. You'd think they'd have taken down the paper cup messages first, wouldn't you? I'd say what really happened is that they cleaned up the bodily fluids and staged some food, because the presence and absence of those things would have gotten them in some serious shit.

Actually, the g20 governments and their supporters (miller, mcguinty, blair) shut down the core and kicked everyone out of the vicinity, to hold their million-dollar parties with a performance by the tenors.

Did they consult the people of Toronto? No.

Did they make any real commitments? No.

All this, at our expense.

And you're in front of a computer, doing nothing but support it all.

So your idea of democracy is to write the name of some self-serving leech on a piece of paper every few years and that's it? Protest and public discussion is the cornerstone of true and healthy democracy. The fact that people like you are so scared of that and are so willing to bend over and take a reaming like this is exactly what is wrong here. The entire history of the world has always been and always will be a battle between those with power, and those without. You apparently are fine with moving more of what little power we have into the hands of those that hold the most anyway.

Everyone so far that has voiced a viewpoint similar to that of Mike is completely missing the point. You are just looking at such a small part of this. Was it a good idea to go downtown that day if you weren't participating in the protests? Probably not. Fine, there you go. Point conceeded. But last I checked, this is Canada, not North Korea. Toronto, not Pyongyang. There is no reason that citizens of a city should be afraid to walk down their own streets on account of their own police force. Standing up for what's right and just, not what is merely convienent, is something that I thought Canada and Canadians stood for. But apparently not.

Apparently it's our own fault for being in the wrong place at the wrong time... apparently we should be grateful that, as innocent people, we had the privilige of eating a velveeta and wonderbread sandwich while being illegally detained for 24 hours...

Here ya go, proof that people were not just standing around watching all this happen. Note: the looter is not actually black bloc-ed because his face is uncovered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CKkLYYczdM&;feature=player_embedded

Great post and video. Thanks propcar!

Even prisoners get pillows and blankets. You try sleeping on cold concrete littered with everything from styrofoam cups to vomit. A mattress on the floors may not be much, but it beats that by a long shot. Maybe the police wouldn't have so many problems with logistics if they hadn't made such excessive amounts of unnecessary arrests. While I agree some spectators and protesters were stupid (like blocking cars with their bikes in the middle of a freaking major road, while not protesting anything in particular) they did not deserve to be treated like this, and our government should not enable such behaviour. The whole thing was ill thought out, and they should be accountable, as leaders and people in charge of our "protection", for their mistakes. They should know better.

If the police had responded equally harshly to World Cup Soccer hooligans, you wouldn't have the jokers who write for Now magazine and the whining self-righteous protesters talking about how this event has somehow heralded the end of Canada, and the loss of our freedoms, etc.

This was a manufactured event. Stephen Harper was a dummy for organizing it in the middle of a massive city like Toronto. But he did. And in so doing, he brought the eye of the storm onto this city, as every single person with a bone to pick with some pseudo-political issue saw their chance to run wild in the streets and get on youtube videos.

This was not a landmark event. It was a big spectacle, no better or worse, and definitely NOT more important in the grand scheme of things than say, people spilling onto the streets to celebrate a Blue Jays World Series or a Montreal Canadiens playoff win.

Get over yourselves. You didn't change the world and you didn't bring any sort of meaningful attention to your cause. If your goal was to make it onto G20KuruptCop's youtube video at the 1:11 mark, consider the weekend a roaring success.
Otherwise go back to squeegeing windows and holding Darfur fundraising potlucks in your church basements and leave the rest of us alone until you figure out exactly what goals you are hoping to achieve.

To stand here and bemoan the downfall of democracy, or the loss of Canadian identity with the events that transpired in Toronto this weekend, is to give yourselves WAYYYY too much credit.

Some homeless guys were there. From what I've heard, they didn't like it too much.

Since I know that somewhere in all these comments people are saying things like "what were people expecting in the detention centre, the Hilton? They should be glad that don't live __________ where they would have been killed..." etc., I am posting this.

My friend wrote something much more eloquently than I could (parenthetical comment was my frustration with these people):

"Totally agreed on the parenthetical comment. "Oh, you're such babies for complaining that it was cold and you were wet and you didn't get any food, when there are people in worse situations in war-torn countries!" The difference being, of course, that we are not a war-torn country; we have a standard of decency that is expected to be maintained, and when it is not we should rightfully be appalled. These are rights and privileges that we should be proud to have, and their revocation should not be treated lightly. It's the same reason why there's the big hubbub about the torture inquiry in Afghanistan - we, as a people, are supposed to be better than this, and our authority figures (military, police, or otherwise) are supposed to represent and uphold these ethics, rather than degenerate into thugs in uniforms, even when faced with people who are not willing to show the same respect.

I much prefer the police action of standing the line while Black Bloc hooligans destroyed things nearby than the police action of charging and attacking peaceful protestors. I can even approve of the former as a maintenance of order, prioritising safety of persons over property, but the latter was just bullying with the backing of threats of the law."

For some reason my post did not show who I was replying to........My comments of you don't speak for me were to a poster called OUTSIDER

You're an ignorant fool. What about us Canadian citizens who LIVE HERE? Perhaps if this type of injustice crawled up on your doorstep, you'd care more about other people. Imagine these cells all full of crying injured peaceful protesters, some of them denied the use of the toilet and made to urinate on the floor and stand with other prisoners for hours in their own urine. No one was given a phone call or access to legal counsel. None of the detainees I spoke with (and I spoke with many, as a member of the independent press) were given food or water. There were one thousand illegally detained prisoners sitting in urine and feces, including a man in a wheelchair. COME ON POLICE! WHAT THE HELL IS A MAN IS A WHEELCHAIR GOING TO DESTROY?

I have more stories but I'm just sick to death of defending this to people who obviously just sat on their sofa watching these events as if the removal of civil liberties doesn't affect them. You're an affront to a democracy, and I hope you remember this when a cop busts through your door illegally and points a gun at you, your wife, and child (see Hannah Booth's story in the National Post: http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/26/g20-veterinarian-couple-had-home-raided-by-police-in-error-husband-calls-incident-an-abusive-of-power/)

Shame on all of you disgusting and complacent sheep who seem to be pleased with your own ignorant blindness.

Actually the mayor told everyone to continue with their lives, avoiding, obviously, the protest zones. Many people were taken going to and from work, coming out of restaurants. Even an on duty TTC operator was taken into custody.

I am curious about all the tv interviews I saw with Sharmeen Khan of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network where she said many woman were strip searched by male police and threatened with rape.

Is this being investigated?

This NEEDS to be investigated.

It is a serious accusation...If true police should be seriously disciplined.

If it's not true Ms. Khan should be held legally responsible for her fabrications.

I'm not sure Ms. Khan's word alone is worth much when she is talking about Police..they were butchers/murderers/criminals on the day they registered at the police academy in her word view.

Stuff this ( http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/note.php?note_id=397205503638&;id=511491565&ref=nf ) in your comments about people getting put in there for being where they shouldn't have been. The point is that this ISN'T some 3rd world country, this is Canada. Sure there are places that are worse, but some place has to lead by example. So you've dealt with worse. There's always someone who's had it worse, it doesn't mean that less severe cases of social injustice should be ignored.

Lets just be clear here.
Stephen Harper and Bill Blair are the political heads who are responsible for the G20. NOT MAYOR MILLER. In fact David Miller didn't want it here to begin with and he told dimwit Harper to have it at Exhibition Place if they were going to have it at all, But as others have kindly pointed out. He (Harper) wanted to have a fancy tea party with his richy rich buddy's and show off the elite hotel as if it were a "tourist attraction" which it is not.
David Miller = good guy/ one of us

Stephen Harper& Bill Blair = Self righteous idiots/ At Blame.

dee dee,

What I meant by hundreds of people sharing the same story was in a more general way. hundreds were denied adequate water, food, and were abused. I did not mean hundreds of women were strip searched and threatened with rape... I am sure many were.
I was not threatened with rape but I was there when others were sexually degraded, I was called a dog by the police officers, I was watched by male officers and other prisoners when I went to the bathroom because it was in plain sight. Many many horrible things happened there so I do not doubt at all that women were threatened with rape and that this was an isolated incident.

I think people have the idea that these people are all radical fringe groups and hate the police. This is not true. The group was made up of vastly different individuals. You need to remember that a lot of these people were not even protesters. I did not hate the police, I still don't, but I am scared of them now as a group, and I know many others are as well. I think people hate the right to hate those who have abused them if that is what they want to do. If I was offered no compassion from the majority of people there, why should I have compassion for them?

Whoever is saying 'They should have known better than go downtown/go outside their homes/blah blah blah' is stupider than the people they claim is 'stupid enough to go downtown'.

Are you saying we should have expected that the police arrest hundreds of innocent people for no reason but being at the 'wrong place'? Really? Seriously?

Police arresting you and detaining you for no reason (which also happened outside of protest zones)? Tough shit! You asked for it! You should have known police were going to arrest you for wearing black! And for walking the streets of Toronto! It's common sense! ...NOT!

sorry I was there and have friend who got searched by male officers and said they were going to be gang bang

so if anyone wants to argue they can f*** themselfs

Actually Mike, I was out on the streets supporting the protestors. Not sitting in my home downtown allowing the police enforce whatever fake law they imposed on us.

What I witnessed were police actions completely disproportionate to the actual 'threat' the peaceful protestors presented.

I'm not saying that the police presence was not necessary. What I'm saying is the actions of many were so egregious, that to simply say that 'you deserve what you get for being there', is such a simplified view of what transpired.

Whether or not the protestors were effective in delivering their respective messages (I would say that that's a resounding 'no'), at the very least, this event has exposed the true power structure at play here -- the fact that the government and police at all levels can exert their power over the people with such ease because the majority are so unbelievably ignorant and complacent.

You think voting would really make a difference? Unless you vote NDP, I highly doubt it will.

@Duckie While Mayor Miller was against the idea of holding it at the Convention Centre, he was still in support of hosting the summit here, as it would showcase Toronto. We all know how that turned out.

From the comments above, I bet most of you would've been on the side of the British military on "Bloody Sunday".

Is it only me or most negative comments on this page feel like they are coming from policemen in civilian clothes?
During the week-end they did all they could to turn this into a fight and blame those showing their disagreement in a lawful manner; it's clear now they will pollute any public conversation relating to this topic.
Oh nice bit of PR on the police part. Wonder why they didn't invite the press when the place was full of people?

i was arrested and detained 2am Sunday morning and detained for 20 hours. I wasn't any where near the protests when i was busted. However during the protests there was very little violence on the part of the protesters. Windows were broken on very small stretches of Queen street and Younge. I watched people smash in the windows on the cop cars as i walked towards University. All of the reported violence was of the Black Bloc. Almost none of it was of the police. Which is wrong because i was personally there to witness an officer strike an old granny in the chest with his baton. This is just one of the many excesses on the part of the police.

I really hate when people comment on danger and violence from the safety of their homes. Im almost hurt by the armchair commentary about how we could have been treated worse. The fact is that we were treated exactly in a fashion that we were promised we would not be.

See the problem is not so much that the police are being unduly criticized for being in a tough situation. They are being correctly condemned for failing to do their jobs properly. Whether it was on the part of their leaders or the individual officers. They failed in many aspects. The least of which was holding the summit in a highly populated area.

The idea that some how worse could have happened is absurd. We are given guarantees by the government that we will not be subjected to certain kinds of treatment. It doesn't matter if Mexico is worse, or if people in Haiti are starving. Those are separate issues and to apply them within the scope of this argument is logically fallacious.

Are you kidding?

Which country do you live in?

We live in CANADA. A free country. The right to peacefully assemble in public (which includes Downtown Toronto) is enshrined in our constitution. What gives the Police or G20 organizers the right to tell people they cannot do what our constitution legally entitles them to do.

Many (read: most) of the detainees were wrongfully arrested for simply being in the area.

I agree wholeheartedly that every single one of the douchebags who were causing destruction to property and Police cars should have been arrested and punished to the full extent of the law but arresting or harassing people who were peacefully protesting should never have happened in Canada.

Yep, jail sucks. Just like it should.

Oops sorry I just noticed a mistake

That terrible fact does not justify holding people for 30hrs with no more to eat than a cheese sandwich***

no.

"Cheese sandwhiches, apples, oranges, water... more than I got in a whole day growing up downtown T.O.";

Actually, read some of the first-hand accounts. The officers in this article THEMSELVES admit that the water and food "may" have not been distributed properly. The water was there, but not given to prisoners for SEVERAL HOURS. Cramming people so tightly into a cell that they can only sit down in turns, withholding food and water to the point that some were passing out, with no due process, phone call, or even explanation for why they are being held, is torture.

What did you do?

My comment above was in Reply to Ednonymous but it didn't show up that way.

Angus Reid Poll...

...73% Of Torontonians believe police actions were justified.

Good job Toronto and Canada.

Now the rest of the world thinks you're all idiots.

I can not believe how many "don't be there if it looks dangerous" and "stay at home" and "what did you expect" comments there have been in response to the G20 horror show in Toronto last week. I don't expect anyone to read this, I just need an outlet to EXPRESS something. My hands are tied, but my fingers scream across this keyboard, the only weapon I may ever possess.

I admit to tears while watching the plethora of YouTube videos documenting this surrealistic comedy of errors. It boggles my mind that I have been so naive for so many years, to think I actually lived in a land of freedom of movement and freedom of speech. To think we as Canadians were somehow better off than our neighbours to the South. I admit to many more tears over the past week, while driving in my car, while play at the park with my young daughter, while simply sitting and staring -- an act I am not well known for, but have found myself to be in more and more since news of the G20 events first were told.

I. Feel. Powerless.

Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a farce.

SecII: ... freedom of expression, freedom of the press and of other media of communication, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association.
Sec VII: right to life, liberty, and security of the person.
Sec VIII: right from unreasonable search and seizure.
Sec IX: freedom from arbitrary detainment or imprisonment.

and all capped off by Section I:
"The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

DEMONSTRABLY JUSTIFIED.

People were walking home from work, home from dinner, out to gather with friends. People were exercising their freedom of movement and freedom of peaceful assembly ... and for using their Charter-given rights, they were aggressively approached, surrounded, psychologically attacked (as in told to go home, without being given a means by which to comply, and then arrested for non-compliance), and then detained without explanation for upwards of 20 hours.

This didn't happen to one, or ten people. This happened to at minimum, _ S E V E N H U N D R E D _ non-criminal bystanders. The criminals, or rather, the police express regret that innocent people were 'caught in the net'. If these were the odds of a fisherman's daily catch -- weeding out 700 of the wrong kind of fish, just to get 200 of the maybe kind of fish and 10 or 20 of the right kind of fish... he would not be employable for very long and his family would starve!

Heck, we even study the bystander-effect on children when related to bullying and how it can be damaging to the human psyche and future development. I certainly feel like these acts were done to my neighbours and my friends, not only my fellow Canadians, but merely my fellow human beings -- and I sat at a distance of 100km and did nothing. Could do nothing. Was powerless to assist.

How can we even consider "staying at home" as an option to AVOID what "was to be expected" from this event? Go to work, pay your taxes and don't make trouble, has been said (tongue-in-cheek) in previous comments. Does this sound like a democratic system? Did you invite the G20 to the center of Toronto? Did you choose to spend $1 billion (that we don't have) on so-called security measures which were used as a tool to harass the innocent? I certainly didn't, but then, no one asked me.

What is the solution? What is the recourse? For those who weren't even given paperwork to prove they were robbed of an entire day of their life and held in sub-standard conditions, what can be the recourse except multiple hours and dollars in long, drawn-out court appeals, which will never actually make up for the events that occurred.

The time for action has come.

If there truly are masses of people ready to take back their freedoms then we need to get organized, unify and choose to stop. As in -- stop using banks, stop paying bills, stop purchasing, stop giving them the means by which to control us, the money that funds their unwarranted expenditures and all-sweeping decision making.

I know its not really that easy -- you need a roof and ... electricity and food and running water, etc, etc, etc .......

But if millions can find a way to survive it in third world nations ..... why must we in the civilized (read: comfortable) world continue to be the fodder for their canons and funding all they do? We go to work, we pay taxes, those in power do what they want and when we disagree, they don't listen... but we continue to go to work and fund their decisions.

Getting educated about your rights is still important, but the time for getting ready to fight has come and gone. The fight is already upon us, and from the monotonous responses to the recent injustices, it is overtly apparent that long-standing propaganda and main-stream news agency are winning the silent war. Exercise your freedom. Words and placards and flowers and peace ... will get us nowhere, or, as we've just witnessed, will get us unlawfully removed and detained. ACTION is where its at, but nothing says it must be _violent_ action. Can it not simply be us saying enough is enough is enough?

I give up.

The masses are in support of what happened.

If I were there, being a peaceful protestor or bystander, I deserve to be beaten by the police, because someone beside me might have been a member of the Black Bloc.

I deserve to be arrested and hauled off to a detention centre, be subjected to strip searches, racist and sexual remarks, fondled, locked up with at least 15 people in a cage, and have food and water withheld from me for at least 8 hours.

I deserve to remain there for just under a day, with no phone call or no access to a lawyer.

I deserve all of this treatment, because I might have been among criminals.

Most of my opinions have already been more eloquently expressed. After reading the entirety of this comment thread, I now feel I have a much better understanding of what baffled me before.. where in Canada do you find the kind of people who laugh while human beings beg for water?

Look no further!

Sarcasm aside, this discussion does need to become more levelheaded. The unlawful detention of protestors is absolutely abhorrent, but I don't think the slope is as slippery as it's being made out to be. I still honestly think I could go outside (I'm in Vancouver) and hold a sign up in front of City Hall and not get abused. The next Critical Mass cycling protest is still going to happen (much as I disagree with it). I'm not overly concerned that this message might get traced back to my IP. Free speech took a beating, but it's not the harbinger of the collapse of democracy in Canada quite yet.

Also, for the sake of intellectual honesty I think we have to admit to ourselves that the police, even the sadists among them, were under extreme pressure, in circumstances which many of them might only experience once or twice in their career (?). As the saying goes, mistakes were made, and Mr. Blair should apologize for them and accept an independent inquiry... but do you folks honestly believe the combined police forces of so many cities got up that morning and decided to be evil? If you read Mr. Taylor's account of his imprisonment, some of those officers were holding back tears, probably risking reprimand by standing up to their superiors behind the scenes. It can't have been easy, and because cameras weren't there, we'll never hear about it. So how about a little less blanket villification for the police, who as many of you have pointed out in the case of protestors, are also our neighbors and friends?

sorry, I spoke hastily. I could protest in front of City Hall and not be abused... by the police. I would assuredly receive plenty of abuse from many of fellow commentators on this thread, presumably as they drove by at high speed on their way to important affairs.

Nothing ruins the foggy joy of complacency like the distressing sight of someone who looks like they might say something disagreeable.

People look for patterns of behaviour in others in order to protect themselves in the future. This is why you see such cold comments, as "they shouldn't have been there" regardless of how many times it is explained that people were told it was safe and Queen and Spadina are residential areas. Nobody wants to believe this could happen to them. It is the same mentality that questions the actions of a woman who was raped.

Logistical question: pay phones. Were people allowed access to their personal effects so they could get money to use the phones with? Was there a solution in place for if someone didn't have 50 cents worth of coins on them?

Rita Wong starts out saying the arrests were unconstitutional, but loses all credibility when she starts rambling on about the G2O policies for the simple reason that this is merely RITA WONG'S OPINION of the policies, we all have an asshole and an opinion, so what?

*if* the arrests were unconstitutional - and I'm not going to act like I even know, because I'm not a constitutional lawyer like everyone else here on BlogTo - it will come out when the lawsuits are files...as McGuinty says: use the legal channels. Anyone can get indignant and throw around accusations - show your faces and get your justice.

@D's remarks

What about the people who weren't given paperwork, whose names weren't taken .. I've heard of at least two specific cases, and I'm sure there were more, of people detained and released without ever being processed.

How are THOSE people supposed to "use the legal channels"???
Or how can you prove you were held for 8, 10, 23 hours, if your paperwork was taken at 8:15pm and you were released at 9:30pm?? Nothing in the evidence says you were taken at 10:30pm the previous night. When it is your word against the police.... who wins?

hahaha

my nayber was one of the police working at the jail him and two of his buddys jerked off into the marjarin for the sanwiches you dirty hippys ate there cum hahahaha sperm eaters

This is a horrible day for Canada, and I am ashamed of how the police treated the protesters.

This isn't my story, but one that needs to be shared: http://backofthebook.ca/2010/07/01/how-i-got-arrested-and-abused-at-the-g20-in-toronto-canada/3476/

except not.
because contrary to this, i heard accounts from actual girls who were strip searched by males
but of course, they don't want anyone to know this...

The black bloc isn't an organization, its a tactic used by many protest groups, to make it look like there are more then there are and to make them all look alike, so all the groups look like one group...

Hello R.McCourt: "REMEMBER RIGHTS ARE EARNED"

Who do we earn our Charter Rights from then? The police??

The protest on this day was peaceful, nothing compared to saturdays. Although they knew something might happen, many photographers were there to show the horrible things that the anarchists did, and to prove not all protesters are destructive.

Also, they did not know that every single one of them was going to be cornered and detained. Some people there probably deserved it, but the police took the easy way out by cornering everyone, (who were mostly peaceful).

Why didn't they try that tactic the day before? Maybe if the people on sunday were all dressed in black and causing thousands of dollars of damage like the anarcists on saturday they wouldnt have been cornered and sent to the holding centre. Maybe true, maybe not, but what kind of message is that either way?

heres a blog that anyone can enjoy this blog whether you agree or not.
http://www.dylanleeder.blogspot.com/

many people wore things over their faces so they wouldn't suffocate from the gas they correctly predicted cops would shoot at them (cops had masks on... are they cowardly)
- the fact is, cops targeted the masses (NOT THOSE TOSSING BRICKS), in fact its being widely reported that cops (and this is quite common) infiltrated the ranks of the brick throwers as anonymous antagonists... cops beat up and arrested those simply voicing their beliefs and even those merely walking on the streets of toronto; policing laws failed to exist and the people on the streets were subject to despicable abuse

"So how about a little less blanket villification for the police, who as many of you have pointed out in the case of protestors, are also our neighbors and friends?"

The fact that they are 'neighbors and friends' is even more reason to condemn their behavior. They would never tolerate this kind of treatment for themselves or their own families, and yet when their cop buddies are laughing at the disabled and cracking jokes about the Holocaust, they do nothing to stop them. There is no excuse. If they didn't want to be vilified, they should have been out there protecting and serving the public, not tolerating what many of them openly admitted was wrong for the sake of a paycheck.

For the cowed masses who do not understand what freedom means or what it costs, your pathetic bleatings do not wash out the stain of injustice that hangs over this infamous weekend. You are hypocrites, and you know it. You don't care about the rights of others because you're too busy looking out for yourself, which is coincidentally the only thing you care about. And what an unworthy object of obsession. There will come a day when those who defend tyranny and worship the malfeasance of state authority will have to answer to those who still cherish freedom...and I hope you change your minds before then.

I heartily approve of what happened here and hope it keeps happening. The more outrage they create, the deeper they dig their own hole. The more innocent people they round up for luxurious vacations in the injustice system, the more enemies they create. They're already vastly outnumbered.

What sad creatures they are, the oppressors and their sycophants. They think they will get away with this forever! Well, scum such as you have been put in your places before, and will be again. Freedom will always persevere.

The same people applauding the police now were applauding them back in the 60's in the US when they were brutalizing African-Americans for standing against oppression. They love to see people hurt and violated, because they are helpless against their own towering inadequacies and insecurities. They are the same ones who defended the British and sat by idly while their countrymen fought and died for freedom. Their stupidity is nothing new or surprising.

I wondered if anyone who attended this media open house bothered to bring along a tape measure or draw up a floor plan sketch? And how much of this concentration camp of a makeshift jail were attendees allowed to see?

A lot of them had gas masks... you know... for the fashion statement they were trying to make. =)

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