I had no idea that I would be providing updates and reports on the G20 policing issue. I wrote my reflection on the idea of protesting a few days ago and then a follow-up with my thoughts on the subject again a day after seeing videos of what was really happening there. Since then, so many people have come forward with their thoughts and their opinions and their stories.
I wrote an article a while ago entitled “Why I write“. In it, I mention that I embrace my responsibility to listen. And I think that this is where traditional media has gone wrong for so long: there’s too much of a push to spin the story or to shorten it. Meanwhile, some of us really want to know the full story.
At the next rally, I’m hoping to talk to police officers. We’ll see how far my efforts will get me.
Here’s a story sent to me by a friend’s brother about his experiences being illegally detained during the G20. He was not a protester, he was not a thug, he was not a threat.
“Let me start off by saying that I am an electrician by trade but I am also a retail display photographer. I often shoot display windows for stores like The Bay and Holt Renfrew as well as my good friend’s store Le Chateau and so I was worried about their windows from Saturday’s events. So Sunday my day started off from going across the street to my local Starbucks for a Latte only to find them closed due to what happened on Saturday. I own a condo in the heart of downtown Toronto two minutes from the Eaton Centre. So I came back and got my camera and went out for a walk hoping to take some pictures like I always do.
During my walk up to Bloor St I decided to walk along Bay St and I noticed people getting searched by the police for what appeared to be for no reason. When I got to Bloor I was happy to find a coffee shop open so I could get my daily latte. As I was drinking my Latte I checked on my friend’s store at Bloor and it was ok. Holt Renfrew had boarded up their windows so there was no damage. Once I was done, I decided to walk back down Yonge Street .
When I got to College and Yonge at the College Park building I noticed the Police were arresting a group of people. I was curious and went over to look like several other people. Everyone had cameras and all were taking pictures. When I got closer I overheard a cop yell out at us to take a picture of these Dogs which really upset me, I thought they were professionals. I also believed that because the cops were getting their picture taken they would remain in check so I was shocked to see them take pictures of the people they were arresting, with a whiteboard held by their head that included their names for everyone to see. One person started yelling out their names and called them terrorists. Then a few more teenagers showed up on the scene and they were automatically stopped, searched and one was arrested for having a Swiss army knife and a joint.
So after all of this I decided to walk to Queen and Spadina where my friend’s other store is and it turns out this was a huge mistake. Along the way I noticed several stores on Queen were damaged but my friend’s store was fine. The streets were empty and there was hardly anyone around so it was a good time to snap some window shots. One I was done, I saw two security guards in front of the H&M shop so I went over to chat with them for a bit and I watched some people going here and there like a everyday normal thing and was thinking that maybe the big protests were all over . However as soon as I was done thinking that, I saw a group of protesters walking west on Queen Street. I checked to see if it was peaceful. Everyone was in a joyful mood, laughing and singing so I walked over to the CIBC bank wall to watch (big mistake) and to shoot some images. There were cops following them on bikes like they normally do so and nothing was said to me so I stayed and watched as people were walking by minding their own business. I even saw a family with their three children and one was a new born and the proud father sitting on the bench … Ok I thought this was a peaceful protest
Then some riot cops showed up. There wasn’t many of them so I was thinking they were there just in case. I saw some people leave and I was ready to leave if things changed but nothing happened and despite that hell broke loose. The riot cops next to me started to advance and told us to leave the area so I took that hint along with other people and we went where they told us to go only to find more riot cops blocking our way. We spoke to them and said we were told to leave and the reply was you are not leaving. Then the riot cops moved in on us and they wouldn’t answer our question of where should we go and we were being pushed together like a herd of cattle. We kept asking to leave and I saw one girl break out into tears asking to leave as she had been on her way home. The cops said no one got to leave and this poor girl started to shake in fear and I looked at them in disgust. How could they? We then heard a cop yell out that everyone was under arrest and a dead silence came over the crowd. Everyone was in shock as we were innocent. Most of us were not even involved in the protest and were just walking by coming home from work and other outings. How could we be under arrest?
No one was giving us any direction but I witnessed some cops running in the crowd and snatching people out of the crowd but still nothing and then the sky darkened and we knew we were in for some rain. Luckily I brought my umbrella that day and lucky for the people around me as the sky opened up and we all started to get wet and it was raining hard but the police didn’t do a thing to help us out we were all getting wet I saw people shivering and girls crying to go home and one girl begging a CP24 reporter to get her out of there and it was so bad but there is nothing we could do but to stand there and get wet . Hours passed by and it was closing in on five hours since this started and I noticed the crowd was getting smaller. A person from our group wanted answers on how do we get to leave and he came back and told us to line up and get arrested if we wanted to leave. It was our only choice to get out of the rain so I lined up. They made me put my umbrella and camera in my wet bag so I stood in the pouring rain.
When it was my turn they handcuffed me and I was assigned a cop to take my information. He took my wallet as I couldn’t help as my hands were tied and he put all my belongings into a plastic bag. This took a long time as the line to be arrested was a mile long with people waiting to be taken away! I was so scared as I a heard about the temporary holding cells on Eastern Ave and didn’t want to go there. In the meantime I was talking to my cop and he was from the 43rd Division. He seemed like a nice guy so I told him to please check on my hands as they were getting numb and he changed my plastic cuffs for bigger ones that were not as tight as the last ones. After a long time waiting handcuffed, several empty TTC buses arrived and we were finally able to get out of the rain. I was the first one on one of the busses and man was it cold so I asked the driver to turn off the air as we were all shaking from the rain it was miserable out there and she did and I thanked her for that and as soon as other people got on they thanked the bus driver as well.
By this time I was in my handcuffs for close to 2 hours and my shoulder was killing me I wanted to die from the pain of it so I asked the cop if he could please handcuff me with my hands if front of me. I explained that as an Electrician my arms are always up into the air and it was very painful. He made a phone call and when he got off he smiled and said I didn’t have a record so he took my hands in front of me. I was so relieved. Then a few minutes later another cop came on the bus and told everyone that we were going to be set free. Everyone was cut loose and the cops told us they were sorry for the inconvenience. I was out of there so fast and never looked back. I gathered my belonging and noticed my camera had been damaged and it will cost me a lot to repair. I also learned that I was lucky that I was next to the bank because all the people who were caught in front of the blockade were sent to the Eastern Avenue detention centre and were not released until Monday.
The Toronto Police must answer for illegally detaining and arresting us. They have lost my trust and the trust of many that day. Now I find myself questioning whether I’m going to be arrested when I see a group of cops. How crazy is that?”
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9 Comments
Apparently, Sgt. Mark Hayes is the man to talk to. I didn’t see him and so was unable to ask about police tactics, or, if he would be willing to stand still so I could throw a rock at his face. What sort of questions would you ask?
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Protest+police+tactics+noisy+calm/3222779/story.html
Hi Jeremy,
Your comment got stuck in my spam filter. I decided not to attend the last rally for personal reasons but will be going to the next one, again, to document it. I would have asked him to tell me more about general police tactics in regards to crowd control:
1) When do officers generally start to move people… in other words, if there’s a group protesting on a street corner, at what point are they deemed to be a nuisance? How does a protester know if he has breached the peace – is it loudness, is it excessive noise, the nature of the words being yelled out, etc?
2) Does the police have the right to tell people to move to a certain area if they are not deemed a nuisance? For how long do I have a right to stand in place on a sidewalk or to sit in a park without having to move? After being warned to move, what force can a police officer use to get a person to comply with his or her orders?
3) From a policing standpoint, what advice do you have to give to someone who is considering attending a protest, either as a demonstrator or as someone who wants to document the event?
4) What kind of advice would you give to your reporting officers? Tensions tend to run high, especially in an environment where officers are working with other officers that they don’t know or who have different training than them. Are all Ottawa police officers training in riot response and crowd control?
5) What are the most effective methods of crowd control? Pepper spray, water, horses, tear gas?
6) What are some of the ones that don’t work as well but are still used today?
7) There have been accusations of police brutality and abuse and though you probably can’t talk about the specifics, can you tell me what you would have done differently if you had been in charge of law enforcement in Toronto?
I saw videos of police officers cornering off a group of people, who from my perception, appeared peaceful and some were crying in fear. Then, a group of officers ran into the group and tackled them to the ground, one by one. It was dramatically violent for an arrest and I wondered why they didn’t just arrest them peacefully. Any ideas as to why the take down process was so rough?
9) Do you think that public media, public surveillance, blogs, youtube and social networking is painting an unfair picture of policing? If so, do you think that the police should release their videos to the public to present their sides of the story?
10) Everyone is talking about the Black Bloc and a lot of people are questioning why arrests weren’t made when they were vandalizing the local businesses. Can you offer some insight on that? Was that a policing tactic or a gaffe?
And now a question for you Jeremy.. why would you want to throw a rock in the sergeant’s face?
Thanks for sharing my brother’s story. I’m hoping that people don’t become apathetic and let all of this be swept under the rug. I’ve already talked to a few people about this and they don’t seem to care, they say things like “well I don’t watch the news, I’m just so busy…ect.” I’m not expecting people to drop everything and pick up a sign and head to the nearest police station or government building but a little reflection about what actually happened and what you can do about it would be nice. I guess because it didn’t happen to them they feel unaffected by it all and they convince themselves it would never happen to them because they would have stayed home in the first place. People tell my brother he should have just stayed home. Really? That’s the solution, become voluntary ‘detainees’ in our own home for an entire weekend because the government spent $1.2 billion on security and the police are itching to use it. Anyways, I’m struggling with what I can do, other than spreading the word. I can’t let this slide; I don’t want to have to teach my daughter one day that she’s free as long as she doesn’t speak her mind
Natalie, thanks for sharing his story.
One thing that I’m learning very quickly, as someone who is trying to document the events after the G20 protests, is that it feels like we’re all being asked to pick sides. I’ve even found myself in that position a few times. And frankly, it’s impossible for me to choose who to support 100%. Because there were protesters there who claim to have been peaceful and who were not. There are protesters who will actively seek to push the police into action. And then there are bystanders, like your brother as well as peaceful participants to get caught up in the moment or in the wrong place. Those are the individuals that I support much in the same way that I also support the police because a lot of these men and women aren’t bad cops – they’ve been thrown into a mess… and the bad guys amongst them got all the attention.
It’s frustrating because I hear stories of how some of the cops called the protesters “rats”, amongst other names. And now, I’m documenting protests where the protesters are calling cops ‘pigs’ and ‘facists’ and ‘sexual assaulters’ and much more. It’s as though we’re just continuing the divide. At one point, it has to stop. I wasn’t going to craft an opinion on my experiences so far, but I’m probably going to end up writing something soon to point out some of the hypocrisies that I’ve been witnessing.
Teach your daughter to speak her mind. Teach her to be a good person. I’ve expressed this before but the real revolution happens when we, as individuals, take responsibility for ourselves. When we stop to recognize the effect that power has on us and on the other hand, when we pause to break free from learned helplessness.
Picking sides isn’t necessary when looking at what happened. It would be simplistic to paint everyone with the same brush. Of course not all police officers are out to violate people’s rights just as not all protesters are peaceful and law abiding. All you can do is examine each event separately. For me, the kettle blockade at Queen and Spadina was unlawful and I do hold accountable all those police officers who played a part in detaining those people and arresting them, whether or not they were simply following orders or not. Your role as a police officer is to be ethical at all times, protect citizens and their rights and follow the law to a T. It isn’t enough to shrug your shoulders and say; well I was just following orders. You need to be held accountable to a higher standard. That means it isn’t professional or acceptable to call protesters ‘dogs’ and ‘rats’ even if you are being called names like ‘pigs’. It is your job to remain professional and objective, not the job of the few irresponsible protesters.
Here is an interesting link you might want to see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kZwps4CPwc&feature=player_embedded
I’m going to be contacting the Ontario NDP party as a first step to see what they have to say about this regulation and whether steps can be taken to have it struck down completely so it can’t be used in the future.
You are right, there are things that can be done. It just takes the decision to actually act on what you believe in.
Natalie, I’m happy to see that that video is being shared! I just saw it today and was thinking of including it in a future article because it’s an excellent piece of journalism (though I’d like to get more opinions on that piece of legislation) and it’s info that appears to have gotten lost amongst the other noise in the media.
I agree with you – I’ve personally never liked hearing a person say “just following orders”. Let’s set the law aside for a moment and I think that we can both agree that as a matter of principle, if you’re doing something unethical or something harmful because someone else asked you to do it, you’re also responsible for those actions.
You’re also right in saying that police officers should be held to a high standard and what I’m learning is that the onus is on them to prove that the force they used was necessary and justifiable. I think that some of the videos appear to show that some of these police officers at the G20 protest used force that looks to be pretty unreasonable (in the context of what we’re seeing in the video).
But I also think that if protesters want to win over public support and sway public opinion to their side, then they need to address the issues that really matter – specific incidents, like the kettle blockade, for example, and not cry out “pigs” or “fuck the police” and paint the police with the same brush. Some protesters would argue that their generalization of the police is fair as the police appear to have indiscriminately swept up entire groups of protesters. But even if that’s the case, someone has to stop with the name-calling at one point and start talking about the real issues. I respect their right to free speech… I just don’t think it’s winning them any points in the public support arena.
I would also recommend contacting the provincial Liberal party to see if they have any more thoughts on the subject and to see if they’re willing to review it. I’ve had some luck writing to provincial ministers before so don’t be afraid to give that a try. It will take them a few months to write back to you but at least you’ll get some sort of reply.
Sorry Julie, I forgot I had commented on this post, and therefore did not look back to see the question you asked me. I believe I probably answered it in my comment on your most recent post (most recent as July 5th anyway), but I’d just like to expound a bit further and say: ’cause it’s a class war, baby!!! The more I see, the more I hear, the more I’m exposed to solidifies my beliefs that the only way we will save this planet and evolve to a higher state of consciousness is to kill capitalism. Dead.
At the same time, I also acknowledge my newcomer status to the arena of political thought. There remains much that i do not know, more that I don’t understand and I welcome any and all attempts at education, regardless of the source.
P.S.: any luck in getting a statement out of police? Those were some incisive questions to which I would LOVE to hear some bullshit answers.
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Jeremy. The more I talk to people that I met at the rally, the more I am learning about the different beliefs that are held by people who gathered together that day. Some have expressed concern over specific police actions and others have a more global view of society and the role of government and policing. I’d be interested in learning more about your thoughts on capitalism – I sent you a note on Facebook so you can let me know how you feel about expanding your thoughts on that topic and more with me.
Yep, I had a phone and email interview with a sergeant today. Expect an article sometime by the end of this week!
Yup, you certainly lose most if not all credibility in an argument when you resort to name calling. I also think that sort of emotional response is a knee jerk reaction that satisfies the person’s desire to express their anger but leads to nothing afterwards.
I’ll let you know if and when I get a response. I’ll be addressing the kettle blockade incident and this Public Works Act regulation.