Black Block Propaganda - My experience at the G20 Riot

I was in the middle of the front line of protestors who were barricaded by the police on Spadina, just south of Quuen, as they attempted to make their way to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to protest at around 2:30 pm yesterday. The protestors were getting agitated by the police and made claims such as "Tell me what a police state looks like? THIS IS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE!" and other claims to their rights and freedoms and how the police were doing something that was not morally right and against the will of our Charter by refusing them passageway to the site of the of Summit. I stayed there for a short period of time and then decided to turn back and see what else was going on, as other protestors paraded back to Queen's park. Just as I was coming back into the intersection, I witnessed hundreds of black-clad people running Eastbound through Queen. When a large group of people begins to run like this in the middle of an area where people are otherwise only parading slowly or standing still, it is quite an attention-grabber. My friend and I became immediately interested and began to run with them, just to see where they were going. I referred to them as ninjas--because that's what they looked like to me, faces covered and entirely clothed in black.

We ran about 200 metres before our first big shock of the day. No more then 10 metres ahead of us, a Police officer in his cruiser was making his way down Queen st., when on-coming anarchist ninjas jumped up on his car and smashed the windshield as he was driving. He immediately braked, jumped out and escaped as the anarchists smashed the headlights, the windows, the sideview mirrors and dented the hood using bats and sticks. I was frightened and repeated to my friend more than a couple times that we should go before the police showed up and tear-gassed the crowd. My friend, the brave one, disagreed. He ordered me to march onwards with the ninjas and so we did. Within minutes we witnessed them break windows on a Scotiabank and a Starbucks coffee house. It soon became clear that they had specific targets in mind and had gone about hitting them in a strategic fashion. But where were the police? Where were those triple fortified lines of riot police with their shields and batons and intimidating phalanx positions? We marched onwards. Within every 100 metres or so, another glass window pane along the side of the street had been smashed open with bricks, flying hammers and wrenches, chairs, newspaper boxes... anything they could get their hands on. They were ruthless and reckless, and I was increasingly becoming paranoid by the prospect of the police coming to take care of the problem. But they never came...

We reached University and turned right. A BMO Branch was smashed open opposite a glass encasing housing a poster of Cristiano Ronaldo in underwear, which had also been attacked. Up ahead, someone screamed. Some more cracking glass could be heard and then the whole crowd turned and ran away... ran past me, backtracking at full speed. So we followed, scared for our lives... the police had FINALLY arrived (we thought)... we ran as fast as we could... for about 30 seconds, before realizing there was no reason to run. There was no police. Actually I lied... there was... but they ran away, apparently. We all turned around again and plowed further. When I got to the intersection up ahead I saw that another police car had been trampled, right in the middle of the intersection, and I was just in time to see a ninja with a lit piece of something, throw it into the broken-open driver side window and torch the car. Within minutes the vehicle was engulfed in flames. The smashed police cruiser behind the first one (yes, there were two this time) soon caught fire as well. I couldn't believe my eyes. Behind me, a police line formed. As the vehicle's flames picked up, the police backed up, allowing us to escape the blaze. We turned left on Yonge and ran for half a block. The police watched. I wondered what it was going to take for them to take action. They continued to do nothing.

As we walked up Yonge street, the anarchists grew more confident. They began smashing every second or third window. The mess was outstanding. I grabbed a hot dog from a streetside vendor and continued along. What? I was hungry... (just to show you how safe we felt at the time... the riots were directed towards the state, and towards the police... the people were 100% safe against these "hooligans" - unlike the media will have you believe, making them look like dangerous criminals).

The Toronto tourist information kiosk was smashed right in front of me at Yonge & Dundas Square. Windows lining the side of the Eaton centre weren't immune either. Footlocker uses some strong class, FYI... it didn't break despite numerous attempts from the rabid ninjas. A jeweller's glass was shattered and he was robbed. I didn't like that. The Bell Store was also smashed open. When some civillian bystanders decided to make good of the situation and jump in to loot it, another civilian vigilante (who was, of course 8 times bigger than the two little thieves) wrestled both to the ground simultaneously and told them to get lost... that the protest was not about stealing. I admired this. Other moments of brilliance included the way the mob worked together to create space for an innocent motorist who had mistakenly been stranded on Yonge as the mob progressed. Together they helped the motorist turn the car around and leave. Then they all cheered together. Clearly, the vandalism was not about chaos and absolute destruction. There was a clear plan and purpose - despite what the media and the government will have you believe.

The events of the day culminated back at Quuen's Park, where the police finally caught up to us and cornered us, in a painfully slow process where they arrived about 50 at a time and advanced in straight lines to surround us. We had ample time to escape if we wanted to. By now, we had been marching the streets for at least a couple of hours. The anarchists had left a huge trail of glass behind them and had proven their point that the 1.1 billion dollars spent on the G20 - including police - was in fact a complete waste. Where was the police as the anarchists chanted: "Who's streets? OUR STREETS!!!" for two hours and burned police cars and smashed windows at the POLICE STATION ITSELF. Even more painful to me, was that as the police sloooooooowly encircled us at Queen's Park, the anarchist ninjas formed huddles and changed their clothes. They came out of the huddles dressed like civillians and walked away innocently. I did not see a single one of them get arrested. Not one.

I also was able to leave this area with relative ease, despite a couple of scares when the police deployed their intimidation tactics to get the protestors to back down. We walked all the way back to the Queen and Spadina intersection, and went back to see that a second Police car had been smashed open right next to the first one I explained in this post. A man sat on top of this second cruiser, and we got there on time to see him light a piece of paper and tuck it under the breast of his blazer. His clothes started to smoke and once it became unbearably hot for this stoner, he retrieved the burning paper and dropped it on the hood of the car, where he stood. Unwittingly, however, it seems he dropped part of the burning paper INSIDE the car, where it ignited something inside. As he danced on the hood, he removed his jacket, shirt, and belt... until his pants were about to fall off. Then he realized that the car had caught fire, so he jumped off, grabbed a picket sign, opened the passenger door and stuck his torso inside to try and beat out the fire using the sign. He didn't realize that all this allowed him to do was actually stimulate the fire by fanning it and before long the smoke overwhelmed him. He ripped his half naked body out of the car and began throwing up. As he did, the car was overcome by flames. People crowded around to take pictures of the car and the half naked psycho dragged himself around, screaming "BACK OFF, THIS THING IS GONNA BLOW." People laughed at him and stayed there, taking pictures. What amazed me is that there were over 2000 police officers closing in on protestors up in Queen's Park... and not a single one here on Queen Street where civillians encircled a burning police car. Where was the police?

We were there for at least 30 minutes and not a single police officer or emergency response vehicle arrived. We decided to leave and headed for Wayne Gretzky's for a bite to eat. As we sat there, we watched CP24. What we found was shocking:

The reports of the events of that day's riots were almost complete contrary to what we actually saw. Where we saw an effective display of anarchist protesting, which was clearly anti-Capitalist and therefore anti-profit, anti-bank, and anti-corporation, the media portrayed the Black Block as a terrorist organization of vandals, comparable to Al-Qaeda. Where we saw an organized display of defiance that proved that the police forces were useless, the images made it look as if the police "had the situation under control." Doesn't anyone ask themselves what role the police could have possibly played in controlling the situation if they allowed 4 of their cruisers to be torched and the whole of Yonge's shopping district to be shattered? Doesn't this beg the question: "WHERE WERE THE POLICE THAT THE GOVERNMENT SPENT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ORGANIZING?" Not a SINGLE member of Black Block was caught when I was there. Not one.

The best part of our time watching the news was this: "Man who set police car on fire arrested." So you would think, oh good... they actually did something. Then it showed images of the dude that was high off his ass, stripped naked, passed out in the back of a police car - the same guy who accidentally set the cruiser ablaze and then tried desperately to put it out before making himself sick. It took the police more than half an hour to get there... I know this because I was there for a good half hour. And THIS is all they have to show for the day's events? They arrest a crackhead who basically arrested himself by passing out at the scene of the crime. If he was in his right state of mind, he, too, could have gotten away... just like the WHOLE of the Black Block movement. Yet the media makes it look like police were right there, caught one of the crazy anarchists on the spot. Wow. The investment in security must have been worthwhile then, huh?

When I got home I watched the news and saw a lot of what you must have seen. Reports of terrorist vandals downtown Toronto, destroying everything and causing chaos. People with no aim or purpose being reckless. Police clashing with them and arresting them - 300 of them to be exact. I read that THESE people are ruining it for the peaceful protestors, who now get a bad rap from them, etc etc. Yes, while this might be true, let's be clear on something. The Black Block had an agenda, and it was to discredit the police, the state, and capitalism on the World Stage. If anyone dares to argue that they were unsuccessful I challenge you to state your case. The Black Block, although questionable in their way of going about it, were the most successful protest group until the media quashed their cause and wrote them off to be terrorists.

Then, the grand finale. My favourite part. The Sunday after the destruction there were more protests. This time, the police decided to be aggressive and move in on the protestors. They apprehended close to 600 people by the end of the weekend as whole. And now there is all sorts of controversy about how more than half of these people were just innocent bystanders or peaceful protestors and that they had nothing to do with the vandalism of the anarchists from the previous day. On the news, however, they have no issues reporting that the police has done a great job controlling the crowds, arresting many from the Black Block and diffusing any possibly violent situations. LIES! The Black Block escaped. The peacful protestors paid the price. The innocent civillians paid the price. They were surrounded for 4 hours and made to stand out in the pouring rain for NOTHING. This, all to compensate for their lack of effort on the Saturday, when they SHOULD have mobilized. What a disaster. What a group of liars. I'm spent.