While the Toronto Casseroles parade is fading, Vancouver is only getting started. And, unfortunately, things are not starting well. It seems that most of the crowd had good intentions, but the results of the evening were rather dismal…
A crowd of between 30-40 people gathered peacefully at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG)- a place near to my heart ever since Occupy Vancouver. Once everyone was there, they marched towards the Cambie street bridge, where they planned to meet with another group who were coming from City Hall.
The city hall group was about 80-100 people- including some of Vancouver’s more radical crazies. People like Lauren Gill, and Suresh Fernando decided to go all Ivan Drury and burst into the building. City Hall was in-session, and they thought it would be a good idea to get into a confrontation with the police.
Lauren Gill – Employee of Vancouver Coastal Health (Atria & RainCity Housing)
As expected, things didn’t go well at this point. There was a kerfuffle with the police, someone tried to break one of the windows, and a 50 year old security guard got punched in the face. Here’s how the ‘heroes’ at Vancouver Cop Watch explained it:
(click to expand)
Notice how they tried to misrepresent what actually happened? “Nobody got…injured by the VPD” is typical of how they frame things- funny how they left out the assault on an older man! Way to go Cop Watch, you are only further proving that you are the wrong people to be doing the job that you have assigned yourselves.
Well, it seems that some of the morons who were involved in this just don’t get that. First, let’s look at a comment from Suresh Fernando:
But, wait, Suresh- don’t you realize that there were families with children present? To my understanding, there was no mention that this event would be violent, so wasn’t it totally wrong and unfair to intentionally clash with the police and put the kids at-risk?
Here’s another moronic POV from yesterday- this time from a guy named Tyler (last name unknown)- according to my sources, he was drunk and stupid last night:
After the gong-show at City Hall, the crowd left and marched towards the Cambie Street Bridge, where they met with the peaceful group who marched from the VAG. For some unknown reason, the crowd got mildly feral on the bridge. Rather than just block one side of traffic, they decided to split-out and block both sides. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, they decided it would be a good idea to stop in the middle of the bridge and continue to block traffic for some time.
Not only did they block innocent members of the 99% on the bridge- but they also caused emergency vehicles to have to re-route through over other bridges and/or through the East side of the city. This is not cool- the Cambie bridge is the quickest route from downtown to Vancouver General Hospital. Let’s hope there that no people in ambulances had to endure any extra agony and/or injuries because of this.
The lesson here is that activist communities need to learn restraint and figure out how to self-police themselves. The majority of people at the Casseroles were peaceful and came with good intentions. But, the actions of a few radicals, and a stupid drunk, killed the spirit of the march. If anything, last night’s event hurt the cause much more than it helped it.
It is unfortunate that there are idiots out there who don’t understand this…
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aahh dingleberry again. Good riddence to him I am mailing a copy of that post and this article to the vancouver pd.
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He’s a stupid drunk. Funny thing is that he works for the capitalist White Spot chain of restaurants and is studying to be a chef at Vancouver Community College. Aren’t chefs part of the capitalist system?
Maybe being a chef is his calling, he’s sure good at serving up a shit sandwich and expecting everyone to enjoy it!
Author
Sounds about right. I had to block him on Facebook a couple of months ago- he’s not only a pest in realtime, but also online…
Sadly I agree, this guy is a ticking time bomb, I can support diversity of tactics as long as we continue to keep the peace. When enough people join a movement, it has lobbying power and credibility, violence or property damage is not only unnecessary to promote, it’s the most damning thing that can work against us.
Author
There are problematic individuals- but they are only symptomatic of a bigger problem. Self policing is the key here. Unless the activist community can agree on, and keep, a common set of rules this job will be taken by the police and the government. And that won’t be pretty…
See, Greg, that is where you are mistaken. In Montreal, there is a growing anger both with the more idiot type of protester and the police services “hands off” approach. These people keep claiming they want the sheep of the general public to wake up and get involved. What they don’t realise is that the general public is doing just that, and more and more the police will not be there to protect the public from the protesters, but the protesters from the public. We have already had incidents, and if the protesters keep diluting their messages to the point of being indiscernible, while inconveniencing and annoying the 90%, well, I can see it getting worse, not better.
Author
I was thinking it would probably go that direction all of the madness of the situation, and pain caused to the city’s residents was bound to cause trouble.
One thing that really disturbs me is how reluctant the police are to deal with the troublemakers in the crowd. Equally disturbing is how reluctant the crowds are to self-police when there are troublemakers.
As in most situations that go this direction, it is always a minority of miscreants who kill the public’s goodwill…
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