httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC6JgODP6iw

The Black Bloc on their unimpeded rampage through the financial district.  Where are the police?

Paul Manly, a B.C. film maker and community organizer, describes at the CBC’s Your Voice website his experience of watching the police bully, harass, and needlessly detain people over the course of a week, culminating with his detailed account of following the Black Bloc vandals on their 24 block, 90 minute spree of destruction while the police held back.  Here is how he concludes:

For a week I watched the police search, push, provoke and arrest people, the majority of whom only wanted to express their opposition to what they view as a corrupt and illegitimate organization.

How is it possible, with a $1-billion security budget and a 20,000 strong security force, that 75 to 100 Black Bloc anarchists can rampage 24 blocks through the city for 90 minutes without being stopped? What is going on here? Are the police completely incompetent or were the so called ‘Black Bloc’ led or infiltrated by police provocateurs or government agents?  Why were police cars abandoned on the street when they could have been moved? Was there a covert operation in play to help justify a massive security bill when it has been made clear by CSIS that there were no credible terrorist threats to the summit? If the Black Bloc were the only credible threat, why were they allowed to run amok?

While this may sound conspiratorial it is not without precedent. In 2007, I videotaped three police officers with masks and rocks in hand attack their own riot squad in Montebello, Que. The video shows one masked officer hit a member of the riot squad in the face-mask and bang his rock into a shield, a clear incitement of violence and a provocation against the riot squad. These masked thugs (as Stephen Harper likes to refer to them) were unmasked and exposed and after four days Quebec provincial police had to admit they were indeed police officers “performing their duty.”

Was Toronto a larger replay of Montebello? Only a full inquiry with unimpeded access to information regarding police tactics will reveal the truth.