Some of my American friends have been emailing me to ask whether “Toronto is burning”? On YouTube and Twitter, they’ve been following the “highlights” of Saturday’s G20 riots — the wrecked cars and the broken storefront windows — and assumed that Toronto had become one giant Watts.
It’s not. This is one of those stories the social media has gotten wrong: a million tweeters all tweeting up the same three burning police cruisers and few dozen wrecked storefronts. The number of protestors wasn’t even that big (even if the media insists on calling the protests “massive.”) The estimate I’ve seen thrown around is about 10,000. To put that figure in perspective, the number of protestors who swarmed Quebec City at the Summit of the Americas in 2001 was approximately 100,000 — tens times as large.
At around 7pm last night, I biked south down Yonge Street, where a lot of the violence took place. I was surprised to see that the main commercial drag was thronged — with shoppers and diners going out on the town. Yes, I saw boarded up windows at Burger King, Starbucks, Money Mart and the “Club Zanzibar” strip club (Marquee: “Forget G8. Try G-strings”). Tim Horton’s and Swiss Chalet had been smashed, too. But the other businesses were mostly open. At the intersection of Dundas and Yonge, a band was playing. Smiling people were posing in front of the scattered vandalized stores and taking pictures. The whole area was in tourist mode.
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Related:
PM’s office praises police action against ‘thugs’
Notes:
This report does not surprise me and I applaud Jonathan for writing it. Apparently, from what I’m reading as the day wears on, the “Black block” walked into a nest of well advertised killer bees and right about now I suspect they are doing their best demonstration of “escape and evade”.
“Well done lads and lassies!”
Now let’s see how the Crown attorney’s deal with them in the days to come as they give the “bozo’s” a reason to never come back to Canada — ever.
Final point: This is the funniest thing I’ve witnessed in many years of policing. I can’t stop laughing at how stupid these pinheads were.
Call it my billion dollar laugh (and worth every penny) as Toronto creates it’s very first “chain gang” in the days ahead. They will be assigned to clean up the mess and pay for the damage.
What a hoot.
I would love to see coverage of said chain gang, dressed in pink underwear and eating prem sandwiches.
Good on the cops. Putting up with crap and not fitting some piece of crap out with a new A-hole…that’s what training does.
Good on ya’ guys & gals!!!
The police did a pretty good job, even allowing the media to weave in and out of their ranks within feet of the protesters. We have seen the new age of protesting, however:
-The protesters were videotaping the police
-The police were videotaping the protesters
-The media was videotaping the protesters and the police
-Bystanders were taping everyone
Everyone was waiting for everyone else to screw up so they could be crucified in the media and the cyber world. Cameras are more powerful than guns now.
I say Thank you to the brave police officers. They worked very hard for every cent they earned. I also want to say a big Thank you to their families who must have been very worried about their loved ones while watching the violent protest.
The police actions made Canadians proud, the MSM actions… not so much!
Bravo Zulu!
For the benfit of you landlubbers……This is a naval signal, conveyed by flaghoist or voice radio, meaning “well done”;