This video features Joe Wenkoff, a photo journalist who describes his experience following the black block as they rampaged through the streets of Toronto during the G20 Summit.
Watch it now, then meet me after the jump.
20,000 police and security officials and a $1 billion security budget were not enough to stop 75-100 black block anarchists from smashing windows and torching police cars during a 1.5 hour rampage. The Black Block were able to rampage through the street for 24 blocks until they reached the 'official protest zone' where they quickly changed clothes dispersed through the crowd of peaceful protesters and then left the site.
The police were fully aware of the rampage and watched the black block from a distance at a number of locations. It wasn't until they had dispersed into a crowd of peaceful protesters who thought that they were in a sanctioned area that the police took action beating innocent people with batons and spraying them with pepper spray.
Why was this allowed to happen? Police abandoned police cars at Bay and King when they didn't need to, why? Was this allowed to happen so the Harper government could justify an outrageous security bill when there was no credible terrorist threat (according to CSIS)? Who led this group of vandals? Were they infiltrated by government paid provocateurs as was the case in Montebello where police with masks and rocks attacked their own riot squad?
Compare and contrast how the police dealt with the black block with what went down at Queen and Spadina. It doesn't make sense to this Torontonian. Something's rotten...
If you read this blog, you know I rarely get political. Most of my entries are about our local sports teams, radio, television, movies or interesting and funny slices of the interwebs and every day life. I just can't shake this feeling in the pit of my stomach that the security cost was justified by letting the black block burn a few cars and break a few windows. Then, in a horrible juxtaposition, we watched peaceful protesters and innocent participants forcefully shut down and detained.
I can't be the only one who thinks something stinks here...
