Saturday, June 26, 2010

Thou Do'st Protest Too Much

I saw a protester's banner on CTV news stating 'INDUSTRY RUNS CANADA' (plus two more lines I could not make out, NOT -something-).

[from AP]
I'm sure this guy doesn't own an IPOD or Blackberry.

[from the Canadian Press]
I'm pretty sure this guy has never purchased a pair of Doc Martins. Too 'capatalist'. 
But I bet he wants us to pay off his student loans.
Notice the threat of 'Die Pigs' painted on the cruiser door.

[from CTV]
This guy wants an extension on his unemployment claim, but first he has to protest against the very industries that provide the vast majority of that money.





*my own disclaimer.... I do not agree with all that keeps going on at thesee G8, G20 etc etc summits. I think we have enough trouble with all of our varying levels of government gaining too much control, so why would I want leaders of OTHER countries having some sort of say in how we do things here? However, this kind of thing takes things too far. And yet - the 'right wing' get called nut-jobs, idiots, control freaks.... How do those store owners feel about their places getting vandalized while others stand around to watch, take video for youtube, twitter, etc? One was a Pizza Palace. OOOOooooo the naughty organization selling pizza! How horrible and capitalistic could they be? That's unreal! They should be shown - let's wreck their store front and throw mannequin body parts around. That'll teach 'em. And then we will light some police cruisers on fire because we think that will really show what we believe in.... um... arson? violence? Good job boys! Keep it up! You just make it even easier for people to back away from you instead of supporting you.

ANOTHER thought....
[from CTV]
I wonder how many of these same 'anarchist' protesters support Greenpeace, protest the Oil Sands, and so on. There are now several plumes of black smoke belching into the sky from the burning of perhaps 6 or 7 police cruisers. What does that do for the lovely atmosphere they are trying to 'save', exactly? If you think there is a serious problem, why add to it intentionally?

I also saw some live video of an area protesters had been moved out of, and the ground is covered in litter. COVERED. I thought 'too much garbage' was something that they were trying to fight against too? So why leave it behind?

I also note how many are protesting the cost of these Summits, and then adding EXTRA cost by looting, vandalizing, committing arson, destroying public property (I saw two Canada Post boxes knocked over and dragged across the ground, and wondered how many people had mail in there waiting to reach their Gran or other loved ones that may have been destroyed). I saw $$$$ signs over each cruiser that was destroyed and will have to be replaced. Not to mention the fire crews and other associated clean-up costs.

What sense does it make to hold a protest and leave crap all over the place that will be cleaned up with MORE public money? Is it okay for one and not the other?

Oh yeah, I forgot the L-Mantra: "It's for YOU, not for US!"

5 comments:

  1. I saw that sign, it said "industry runs Canada, not democracy"

    fine words from a bed-wetting punk who has probably never worked a day in his life, or voted, or even cares one bit about democracy. I also thought about the poster board and sharpie marker he bought to make the sign, the factory made clothes he wore and cellphone in his pocket he probably got his hard-working mother to pay the bill for.

    TS

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  2. I completely agree with you on this. I am completely down with people trying to push agendas or ideas at these kind of things, or protesting opinions....but a handful of these people took things way to far. And it gives bad credit to those who are there protesting worthwile causes in a civilized manner. Its also rather embarrasing

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  3. I have an old school friend who lives in the Little Italy part of Toronto and she posted Saturday morning that some idiots had dumped a gallon of blue paint on her husband's car and spray painted her neighbours homes with G20 crap.... her neighbours are elderly italian and protuguese folk. Those were private homes - what did that have to do with the G20??

    There is also a lot of news going around that the police did virtually nothing to stop these bozos from damaging stores, but one of my above-mentioned friend's pals worked in an office above one of the stores they were attacking and he took photos of the crowd. In the photos there is a huge group of 'regular' protesters, cops are ALL around them - and in the middle is this gang of black-clad youth. One at a time one of them would burst from the crowd, throw bricks, smash with boards, etc and then dash back into the safety of the crowd. The police would have to bash 'innocent protesters' in order to get to the black-bloc gang. How would that go down I wonder? You can bet that those 'peaceful protesters' would freak out about police manhandling them out of the way. I've seen all sorts of photos and video taken Saturday afternoon from people that live in toronto and it was shocking.

    What I don't get is that many of the protesters claimed they were angry about the huge cost of this security fencing, etc and then a large group of them went around causing damage, the littering was crazy, and outright adding even MORE to the cost. What the heck kind of sense does that make? If they were angry about tax dollars going to summit security, why would they want even more tax dollars going to cleaning up their big mess?

    That to me shows they were NOT protesting the cost, they were NOT protesting the summit - anyone involved in those acts was just there to be a total idiot. Some of the stores they trashed were little mom and pop businesses - NOT 'big business'. They were out of control and don't have a brain in their head, obviously.

    That can be carried on to anyone who 'protests' like this. I swear they think they are living in old USSR or something and protesting the horrid living conditions those people had to endure. They have NO idea what it's REALLY like to live under oppressive rule but they are fast-tracking us to a life similar to that if they keep up this crap.

    All the PM can do is thank them all very much for proving his need to spend that much money on security. Can you imagine what they would have done if they had reached the area these leaders were meeting???

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  4. Another thought - about this being 'embarassing', I was watching coverage on CNN and the BBC and at least the news breaks I saw were focusing on this being a small contingent of misled dorks instead of singling out Canadians as a whole. But here's the thing - even they linked it to the violence and vandalism that occurred in Montreal after the recent Stanley Cup. And if my memory serves me right, the same thing has happened in Vancouver in the past. I also know there were G20 protests there where protesters were kicking police officers (in BC).

    It happens periodically and some people get arrested but many others just turn a blind eye and say it's drunken fools or misguided teenagers. Now, here we are on the world stage, with video and photos of these activities shown ALL over the world. Is it our own complacency towards 'activists' that allows this kind of thing to happen? What about all the 'peaceful protesters' who were standing around videoing the vandalism with their phones and cameras?

    What about the people who were not part of the Black Bloc but ended up tossing stuff onto the burning police cars in order to add more fuel to the flames? The group/mob mentality thing gets blamed but these are also individual humans that are supposed to be able to sort through thoughts and react rationally. I saw people clustered around police cars that were 'popping' from ammunition inside exploding.

    HELLO! DUH! Get the hell out of there! What a bunch of complete losers - all of them. Then one girl they interviewed on Sunday who was one of the organizers of a protest outside the jail seemed to be totally corked on something. My bf is a long time drug and alcohol addict. (he is clean now and has been for eons, but once and addict, always an addict). Anyway right off the bat he said that chick was on something. And when she started speaking, I had to agree. She was 'out to lunch' on national television.

    But aside from her space cadet look and voice, she was asked outright if her group advocates the kind of violence that was seen on Saturday, or if she advocates peaceful protests only. Wanna know what her answer was?

    'I don't advocate for any particular type of protest' (not verbatim but close enough). So what kind of answer was that? you don't advocate for violence and destruction -- but you don't advocate for peaceful either? Hmmmm. Interesting. And yet the news just interviews her like they were discussing a cupcake recipe and moves on. The whole thing is just mental. These people are allowed to act like this - and next time it could be even worse.

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  5. One last thought since I am on a roll - I saw some people on the news talking about the cost of the Summit security and other price tags on the whole event... and then later they talked about being organizers of Toronto's Pride Parade. It made me think about this because they receive money too, security, blocking off roads, and other costs associated to running their parade. They get money from the tax coffers too and think THAT is okay. And then there is the cleanup cost after all those people throw their junk on the ground and mess up the streets... all of that takes money from tax payers too. the toronto Pride parade is a huge event so it's not cheap.

    Why do they think it's not okay to provide security for world leaders meeting here, so Canada isn't horrified and embarrassed if something bad happens like a pie in the face of the new British PM or something... but it IS okay to spend money on a Pride parade and subsequent cleanup?

    I also mentally noted that they complained about how the streets were blocked off and people could not go about their regular business... oh really? Well how the hell do they go about regular business during your Pride Parade or the Santa Claus parade or any other parade buddy? DUH. It drives me freaking crazy.

    That's why I say that the liberal mantra is 'It's not for US, it's for YOU'. anything advancing their own agenda and ideals is okie-dokie, but anything else is not. What kind of brainless fool cannot see through their own charade on these matters? It's okay for them to own big business items like IPods and Iphones, but not okay for the businesses to make money off them. It's okay for them to live in a crowded city and contribute to greenhouse gases by taking the subways or buses, but it's not okay for Alberta to try to find more fuel to keep them going. It's okay for them to destroy public and private propety at Greenpeace demonstrations, but it's not okay for the police or some oilfield worker to grab them by the arm and drag them out of there.

    I just recently discovered that one of the Greenpeace members associated with and committing those acts is from my city. Mike Hudema is from Medicine Hat. He has vandalized and trespassed in Fort McMurray, Ottawa, one of Ed Stelmach's speeches etc... and his parents say they are proud of their son for sticking to his beliefs. OMG. And yes I can name him because he was named on our local news program and in the press so I'm not 'letting the cat out of the bag'. His actions are applauded and guess what - they LEAD to the type of stuff that happened in Toronto.

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These are my views and opinions. If you don't agree or think I am sadly misguided, that is your view. Feel free to share your thoughts but I also reserve my right to moderate content (IE foul language, excessive flaming, etc).