in answer to R.C. Rolf's editorial in Edmonton Journal today, saying there was double standard in the police reaction to the protest blocking Walerdale Bridge - that the police would have arrested him if he blocked traffic but did not terminate the anti-status quo protest quickly,
He is guessing what the police reaction would be. We can't know that.
We can though look at the recent pro-pipeline rally when truckers slowed traffic to snail pace on Henday. Were any arrested? NO.
So police recently even-handedly took a step back and let things progress to something of a natural conclusion. It is interesting in he media report of that event - there was little about the frustration felt by people caught in the snarl, unlike the Walterdale protest. This of course could be that those caught in the Henday snarl were moving and sealed up in their chrome bubbles and not able to show their displeasure in same way by stopping and getting out of thier cars.
Ah ha the de-personalization, de-humanization of car traffic.
The police apparently learned from the 2010 G20 summit meting held in Toronto and protested by 10,000, occasioning the largest mass arrests in Canadian history. Although the Wikipedia article implies that arrests were made due to rioting that caused damage to businesses in Toronto, i recall that the police did not step in at all during the rioting (which may have been performed by agents provocateurs, police agents doing illegal acts to inflame the situation ), but then the next day they rounded up all the people on streets including some Dutch tourists, by "kettling" them and then armoured police officers rushing in and grabbing individuals and pulling them kicking and screaming out of the enclosure in what was for many a very harrowing experience, not to mention those hit with rubber bullets, made out of same material as hockey pucks and fired with probably as much as speed as a professional hockey game slapshot, and those rounded up in a mass raid on church where people were sleeping I understand without a search warrant.
Legal compensation is still working through the system, now nine years later.
An interesting camera recording shows a police man talking to two teen-aged protesters, when they asked him to respect their rights as Canadian citizens, the policeman responded this is not Canada.
Unfortunately, the kids were too timid to ask then under what authority he as a member of the Toronto police force, a Canadian city, had in this mythical place that was not Canada?
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