No, They Wouldn’t Do That
Courtesy of Darcey at Dust My Broom a video of what looks suspiciously like some non-protesters working very hard at trying to cover up their faces trying to stir up trouble at Montebello.
Wouldn’t you like to know what the one guy was saying when he sidled up to the riot cops, could it have been:
(a) I’m really, really scared of this old, bald, guy in a suit, please help me!! or
(b) pretend to arrest me and make it look good, if we get caught at this we’re all in it deep.
August 21, 2007
Police accused of using provocateurs to spark violent confrontations at summit
By JOAN BRYDENOTTAWA (CP) – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders’ summit in Montebello, Que.
Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged “agents provocateurs” have been caught on video. The video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.
The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.
Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.
Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.
However, the three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.
Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.
Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.
“But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?” Singh said.
“I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed.”
Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their “toys,” like tear gas and rubber bullets.
“To a certain extent it’s self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two.”
Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.
“I cannot answer your question because I don’t have the information,” said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.
(emphasis mine)
If you can’t suppress dissent, making it look as bad as possible is the next best thing ‘eh.
I’m on the fence on this one, leaning towards calling BS on the protesters. However, I’d be a lot more comfortable if the # of arrests matched with the clip.
*sigh*
But it doesn’t, and unless you think the big bad masked anarchists were begging the riot cops to protect them from the scary old bald guy in a suit, backed up by a few grandmothers, the questions need to be asked.
I’ve read some doozers about this one, my favorite being that they were protesters, dressed as cops, pretending to be protesters, to discredit the cops, which is why there was a movie camera there (like no one ever takes a camera to a demo ‘eh?) — and they say those of us that are bent left are conspiracy moonbats
Unfortunately I have seen the RCMP try and provoke violence at demos, and at one rally I barely escaped a completely unnecessary riot cop squeeze — who knew a guy my age could run so fast, even with a Gatineau riot cop on my heels?
Our government has learned different ways of suppressing dissent while touting the right to protest, one is the protest pens they try and put us in that are so far away from the event being protested that the politicians involved end up pretending to watch on closed circuit TV – as happened during the SPP meetings.
The other is to instigate violence and discredit the protest and the protesters.
– sad, but true.
Compare and contrast the protesters in the video:
3 alleged “provocateurs” – big, muscular, no visible tattoos and piercings, clearly unknown to anyone in the crowd and seem to be in their late 20’s early 30’s. Carrying rocks and sticks
Other ‘anarchists’ – young (late teens, early 20’s), skinny, known to each other, some tattoos and piercings. All carrying signs and banners
Other Protesters – middle aged to grandparents in jeans, tee-shirts and business casual suits, carrying signs and banners.
Not only do I think they were cops, they were dumb cops.
Good eye Mike, I copied that over to Dust My Broom, a whole lot of folks over there seem to think that it’s all a grand moonbat conspiracy theory.
Thats messed up. That “protester” having a talk with one of the riot police is just an idiot. Did he not see the video camera being held over someones head?
Gonna keep a lookout at any future demonstrations I go to. IMHO, the real protesters should have pulled them back into the crowd and defrocked them. Not very “non-violent civil disobediance” kinda stuff, but just what I would have done.
That’s pretty underhanded if it’s true…
I can just imagine what the two were talking about… but I’d like to think it was somewhere along the line of:
“Hey, are you going to Frank’s retirement part on Friday? I don’t know what to get him, want to split on a gift?”
Here’s an interesting update to this story.
You’ll notice that some of the younger anarchists also talk about how the three “protestor cops” were telling them to be more aggressive.
The clincher for me is watching the one cop in protestor garb siddle up to the police and talk to them and then the three of them just happen to bust the line and get “arrested.” Such b.s.
Am heading for the news conference treehugger linked, taking the camera in case a good shot presents itself, and will let y’all know what happened when I get back.
GO SL GO!
What do you think will be the spin? “They were off-duty” maybe?
Heh! Looks like I got him all fired up this morning. There’s no telling what he will come back with.
Short comment, for now, the press conference was good. There is a separate post coming this evening on what was covered and the questions that were asked.
I gotta thank you for the heads-up treehugger, at the very least there’s an extra ration of mead headed your way.
I’ll take a pass on the mead…but Balbulican’s corner office with the comfy chair…hmm…
[...] prior post here  Stageleft went to the news conference and will post an update  Published 1 hour, 19 minutes ago // Used for showing and hiding user information in the comment form function ShowUtils() { document.getElementById(”authorinfo”).style.display = “”; document.getElementById(”showinfo”).style.display = “none”; document.getElementById(”hideinfo”).style.display = “”; } function HideUtils() { document.getElementById(”authorinfo”).style.display = “none”; document.getElementById(”showinfo”).style.display = “”; document.getElementById(”hideinfo”).style.display = “none”; } [...]
photos:
http://tinyurl.com/2qu5sr
C’mon s.l.
You’re killin’ us here……
(especially after Mr. Akin’s softpeddle)
.
Having never attended a protest, I will bow to your guys’s experience.
I don’t have a problem with cops going undercover, even in a demonstration, if their goal is to observe and report, particularly if things start looking ugly.
However, I draw the line at trying to MAKE things get ugly.
If they really are cops, I hope they get demoted to writing parking tickets in the boonies.
No Candace.. trust me on this one.. you don’t even want them types writing parking tickets.
Honest.. I know.
Sorry RossK, ended up in the general area of Ogdensburg NY last night and didn’t make it back to the bunker until almost 1:00AM – will post in a bit.
If you’ve never attended a protest, demo, or rally – you should. You’ll get a whole different perspective from what the media spoon feeds the masses on the 6:00 news.
That is a significant breach of trust don’t you think? Would you really want people who would incite a riot and willfully endanger the public safety in any sort of uniform that has a pistol strapped to it?
[...] Red Tory Art Threat Exile Infoshop Brian’s Thoughts Exposé Skateboard Magazine Pacific Tribune Canadian Cynic HawkEyeNews LiveJournal Goudaille Cent Papiers (boot shot) CUPE (boot shot) O’Neil Brooke Cathy from Canada Stageleft Bene Diction Gazetteer Gazetteer Rusty Idols Larry Hubich Galloping Beaver Climate and Capitalism Big City Lib Welcome to 1984 blogx Your Dirty Answer Impolitical A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land This Canadian Unrepentant Old Hippie Vanity Press Getting It Right Dodosville Far and Wide The Last Minute Blog (good hi-res pic of one of the “protesters”) Les Enragés.org Voice of Grant Drinking Liberally in New Milford Matthew Good Skippy the Bush Kangaroo Paulitics (interesting boot analysis) Audette-o-Blog Kate (good flikr photos, with commentary) YaYaCanada (comprehensive photo essay of the Montebello events) Torontoist Daily Kos AOL Newsbloggers CTV Ottawa Sun Harper Index Ottawa Indymedia National Post (if you can believe it) Toronto Star CBC CBC As It Happens (interview with David Coles) Maclean’s (columnist Kady O’Malley calls for an enquiry) [...]
The Government Shouldn’t Try to Make People Afraid of the People
Have a look at this video. It’s about five minutes of video shot by protesters at the Security and Prosperity Partnership talks in Montebello, Quebec. These talks are being hosted by Canada and featured Prime Minister Stephen Harper meeting with…