Is it a Movie, or Is it Toronto? 5 Insane Videos From the G20 Summit
Remember that scene in Children of Men where Clive Owen watches from the treeline as Michael Caine's character jokes with the gunman to pull his finger? And then the shooter blows his hand clean off? Yeah, Toronto -- you know which one I'm talking about, especially today as the city surveys the dystopian damage from the ongoing G20 Summit. Not surprisingly, it makes for riveting, ghastly online viewing as the user-generated videos mount; this is a location shoot no one would want a part of.
Take this insane showdown on Queen and Spadina streets. "This is from a movie, right, not from someone's window, right?" asked Ray Pride at Movie City Indie. "G20, it's something Belgian, right? Science fiction?" If only. Staggering.
Here are some folks attempting to reason with each other, if you can call shouting while vandals, anarchists and police come to blows around you "reasoning."
Here's a first-person glimpse of what it's like having Toronto's riot crew descend on you. A striking one-shot survey of the aftermath follows, complete with camera-strap obstruction -- which is a lot more unnerving than it sounds.
Here's another one-shot wonder of protesters just having a sit in Queen's Park until a wall of cops descends with bikes, batons and pepper spray. If there's anything that might be most compatible with an Alfonso Cuaron film, it's this.
And this is most compatible with a certain Stuart Townsend film you may have seen, but it's cinematic and shocking nonetheless. [via The Lost Boy]
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Comments
That video with the anarchists really pissed me off. Who are those dumb rats to be talking about oppression? And attacking people with cameras?
Those chuts wouldn't know oppression if it smacked them in the face. Maybe we should have them hauled to some of the nicer parts of the world to give them a real taste of what it's like. I'm think, I dunno, Somalia?
We live in a country that boasts cheaper education and health care.
Oppression. Hilarious.
ROFL!
Oppression comes in many forms, i have actually traveled and worked in many under developed countries and yeah the conditions really to suck. The major companies that have clout in the happenings of our world government are making decisions that will soon enough ruin what we have. I am glad to see that there are people willing to stand up to the force of these governments and let them know that we will no go down with out a fight. Those protesters are out there for a reason and a damn good reason at that but those cops are out there for a paycheck of dirty money and arresting people becuase someone told them to.
Its a sad when a few money hungry people are making decisions that will effect our world for decades to come. This place is going down the drain unless we as a whole are willing to stand up and say what is right.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
If you block public streets, taunt the police and throw things at them, destroy public and private property, and disrupt the lawful activities of others, you will get your ass kicked, and you will deserve it. Don't try to justify your actions on some platform of "social justice." This kind of protest has never brought about anything good.
Simply, fuck you.
The time is coming. Corporate America is going to fall, and Americans are going to be the ones to bring it down. How do I know this? Americans are stubborn and we do not like taking shit from anyone, even when it is our own. It's going to go down one of three ways. Corporate tyrants are going to be tried and prosecuted for neglecting the world and human race(in a nut shell, the list of crimes would be much too long), and they will go to prison for the rest of their lives, hopefully. The second way could sadly be a possibility too. Funding in our schools continues to get cut, along with inflation steadily rising while our pay steadily declines, creating a bunch of ignorant, poor people who will work great for one thing, slavery. We will become the minority Carnegie always dreamed of. We will have to depend on our wealthy breathren. It will be like the movie Idiocricy eventually, except there will still be a few smart people to control the dumber many. The third way is the most likely outcome- War. I give us, hmm, six maybe seven years before the majority of America is fed up and wants payback for the years upon years of time that was taken from them. What is this time I speak of? Well, lets see. How often do you see your family? How often do you get to go on vacation? How often do you have the time to sit down and read a book? How often do you do any of the things you would really like to do? Your answer is probably the same as mine, which is about once a week if you are lucky, and only a few short hours at that. Now, lets break that down. There are seven days in a week, 52 weeks a year. If you multiply those six days by 52, you get 312. Now, multiply that 312 by lets see, 40 years of work before you retire, you get 12,480 days. Divide that by 365 to find out the value in years and you get 34.191 years of your life spent dealing with the daily grind. This, mixed with our negative, cool to be disrespectful mentality, is the perfect brew for a pissed off population. When you take a man's time away, you are taking that man's freedom. A day is going to come, and I hope that day is very soon, when America finally stands up and takes back the time that was slipped out from under our feet. We are getting more pissed off by the day.....We can only get so pissed off.....
Oh, before anyone comments I realize this footage was shot in Canada. I just brought up America because our corporate leaders are pretty much the root of all bad things that happen in this world; that and
religion(as a whole, not as the individual). Sleep tight.
It's a shame that very, very few of the legitimate causes received any air time during the G20. Thanks to a few dozens douche-bags the really protesters were mistreated. The native rights and anti-WMF protests got zero air time. Thanks a lot douche bags.
The short sighted and angry children that smashed windows, looted and burned shops weren't being noble or protesting anything. Did any of these morons think about the people that work in these shops? "Striking a blow against the corporate establishment" only ends up hurting the little guys that work there. Corporations have insurance to pay for damage. Do you think poorly paid employees can afford to go a few days or even a week with getting paid?
I love how the cops get blamed for all that transpired when they planned ahead for exactly this type of mob scene. And No, they did not provoke it with their arrival, they knew it would happen. How? By looking back at every other G-summit that had exactly the same kind of violence and vandalism.
I find it odd that we can get lectured about corporate details and the evils of capitalism from people within non-profit orginizations.
One of the G20 protestors who stayed at my house is studying to become a lawyer, and plans to take over her father's firm. Another protestor I know is studying organic agriculture at Guelph. I wouldn't call these people couch surfers.
Memo to self:
When you go fuck with the "man" wear a helmet and a gas mask and don't expect not to get the shit beat out of you for not following his orders.
Oh ya,make sure my Blue Shield is current so I don't get stuck with medical bills I cannot afford.
BOTH sides were wrong in this situation. The protesters broke store front windows of Mom and Pop stores, and all around did NOT get their message heard - while the law showed really how brutal the police state we live in is. Many causes did not even get their point across due to this. In other words, the entire weekend was a disaster for all. No, I'm not an ANARCHIST (m/ (-.-) m/), but I truly find myself questioning authority and overall hierarchy as this war wages on. Something needs to be done -- and it's not breaking shit.
I went to one of these protests once, and promptly left a few minutes later. It's just a bunch of criminals out to cause criminal mayhem, and trying to promote their own twisted extremist views over the rights of democracy. It made me realize how wrong I was to protest against globalization.
Love them, or hate them, these politicians at the G-20 were voted in by more than 3 billion people world wide. They were democratically elected, and can be dismissed by a vote if they anger the majority.
The sensibilities of a few spoiled brats (and I was one of them at the time) should not be allowed to over ride the will of the people.
I wished the cops could have more power, and beat the fuck out of those assholes.
The situation was certainly highly predictable. Night follows day in G20 summits. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper deliberately chose to bring the summit to Toronto, unwisely, without prudence, without consultation, against the better judgment of elected municipal representatives, and every security and political analyst out there, intentionally to punish the city where his minority Conservative government has no representation in the Parliament of Canada. This is a colossal ego-trip for Stephen Harper. It is also a colossal transfer of wealth (of more than $1 billion) from ordinary tax-paying Canadians and Canadian corporations into the hands of police persons, institutions and political bases. The real movie to be made is the one behind the fence and security perimeter, where the so-called leaders will do the violence upon the populace in the coming years. The State police action in Toronto is one of many dress rehearsals in a power struggle that is going to play out necessarily, if you are a Hegelian, on the imagination and the will of the individuals, in so far as their individualism can still be defined, who will take part in the script but not in the box office receipts. It is a zero-sum game.
"First, for those complaining about our "corporate world": how did you post your message? How were these videos recorded and then shared with thousands? Through the devices that the corporate world system created. Without the corporate capitalistic system we would not have the technological wonders that we have today."
- The corporate world didn't invent the internet. The American government did. Neither did they invent cameras, the video camera, insulin or the theory of relativity. Motivated people with the freedom to purse their life dreams invented these things. Corporations have modified original designs and profited off of them. WE have made our technological and medical wonders, not corporations and not money. People.
"Secondly: what alternative do you propose to the western way of life? Other social and economic systems have been tried and they have all failed. Capitalism and corporate economies mixed with democracy and a fair safety net for citizens seems to work best. Perhaps there is a better system out there but I doubt that it will be discovered and developed by those who will immediately destroy property that is not theirs, that will throw stones at the police, that will destroy the property of our nation, and that delight in calling for the destruction of our way of life."
-- I'm calling for the destruction of our way of life because it's destructive. Capitalism has been the driving force behind things like hypersexualization of our youth, the pollution of our environment and the breakdown of ecosystems, the obesity epidemic in America and the weakening of democracy in every country it exists in. That's because capitalism exists to protect the wealthy and their associated power. That's ultimately not compatible with a healthy and robus democracy.
A worldwide equitable distribution of resources is a reality and the only reason we're not doing it is because it's not 'profitable'. Allowing millions to die each year of hunger, thirst, overexposure, or war caused by fear of these things, simply because they don't have enough slips of paper is unconscionable and history will judge us harshly for it. As for alternate systems, the previous generation has been so brainwashed by the Cold War that we can't even talk about it without being labelled a dirty commie.
Provide food, water, clothing and shelter for every person on the planet. Collectively decide what resources should be manufactured into what products (sorry, iPad). Everyone gets the things they need to live in exchange for working towards manufacturing the goods that we've collectively decided are necessary. Since the 60% of people who used to work selling crap that the rich would make a profit on are no longer necessary, the amount of labour needed to achieve your yearly quota in exchange for 'life-goods' would be significantly less than what you currently work now. So you work 6 months (tops, to begin with) to produce what society needs, you know that the work you do is beneficial to every person on the planet (No more "I'm just doing my job") and you're free for the rest of the year to pursue your own interests. And people's own interests will include those products and ideas, like the ones mentioned in my first paragraph, that benefit society as a whole and which will no longer have to pass the 'profit' test.
But that's just one workable idea. There are many more. We haven't all collectively decided not to try new ideas because they're unworkable - we're just kept fat and distracted with the main export of capitalism - high fat / high sugar foods and electronic, passive entertainment.
Just because protesting at the G20 is not the best way to have your voice heard, does not mean that these people deserved to be treated with zero respect from these sociopathic power-tripping police officers.
Although some protesters were violent - and these acts of violence and vandalism may have very well been lead by by undercover police officers or people planted there as in Montebello 3 years ago - most were not. These people are not spoiled brats, they are exercising their right of having their own opinion, and whether you view their opinions as misguided or not is irrelevant.
If this is the way the Harper government is encouraging our officers to act at any kind of protest, peaceful or not, there is clearly a big problem. Next time the protest may be against something truly unfair, and then what? Do you still wish the police had even MORE power than they did at the g20? Would it still be okay for them to give public unwarranted beatings to people sitting down and singing Oh Canada in the street? How about arresting people, holding them for 24 hours without food and just a drop of water without ever laying any charges?
The bottom line is that this is a slippery slope. Now that the bar has been set that this kind of shameless violence by police is acceptable and will be completely overlooked, we should all be concerned with how else our rights may be stomped on in the future.
That is because they have a couple of things you don't, a point to make and the courage to make it even when intimidated.
Wrong. The internet was the invention of the military and universities. The corporations came along later and made it their own like they did to everything else.
It is not hypocrisy to use the tools of modern life to protest modern life if modernity has been made inescapable. It is simply reality.
i know its a long time ago. but i just wanna say that shebang, you are an idiot. the police did thier job. i am an american so i have a constitution that protects me in a lot of ways. but if i got out staging protests and acting like an idiot i expect to get punished. these officers had a job to do. and they did it. and although you would hate to admit it if this was in ANY lesser nation those people would have been murdered right there in the street. so you should be happy that your idiot friends are still alive. thanks
There's nothing at all like strolling on a great mountain bike on a mountain path - particularly in the spring time. I cannot imagine anything I'd rather do - well, perhaps ONE thing .. 😉
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