How to justify a police state, or “This ain’t Canada anymore”

How do you justify police brutality on the level of last year’s G20 summit? And how do you justify turning Canada into a most unCanadian police state? Well, it helps if you get the media on side, as whoever infiltrated an “anarchist” gathering and took this top-seekwit hidden recording found out. And the Toronto Star was only too happy to run with the (very lame) bait:

It was the final meeting of the top anti-G20 anarchists in Toronto last year.

They were putting the finishing touches to a variety of anti-summit strategies, and were especially concerned about how to accommodate “smashy smashy” vandalism without endangering peaceful demonstrators.

“We believe in diversity of tactics,” said participant Julia Kerr.

“Anything goes,” said Adam Lewis, one of the leading speakers. “Like do what you need to do to bring the heat down on the security state and the security apparatus.”

On Friday, a provincial court judge allowed media access to a CD and transcript of the meeting, surreptitiously taped by an undercover OPP officer, Brenda Carey, who posed as a dedicated activist and won their trust.

[…]

The Spokes Council of the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance meeting at 519 Church Community Centre at 6 p.m., Friday, June 25, 2010, took place the day before rioters smashed store windows and torched cop cars in downtown Toronto.

At the meeting, participants were checked at the door and instructed by facilitator Adamiak to remove batteries from their cellphones, a security precaution.

Prychitka gave the rundown on Saturday Night Fever, a roaming dance party to “take back the streets,” starting in the Church St. gay village. “We’re looking for a lot of disco balls. We have a shipment of glow sticks. Bring banners and get ready to dance.”

Lewis outlined a plan to create “checkpoints” to prevent G20 delegates and support workers from entering the security fence surrounding the area downtown where the summit meetings were to take place. “It’s time to take back the city,” he said.

There was much talk of zones: green zones were to be safe areas for peaceful marchers; red zones for aggressive “direct action” for masked activists dressed in black — a tactic called black bloc; and orange zones were for people who wanted to support the black bloc without themselves being violent.

Gee, that sounds awfully incriminating and impressively planned, doesn’t it? But wait, there’s more:

But meeting participants had trouble coming to a consensus about how black bloc activists were to blend in with the peaceful Saturday afternoon march organized by the Canadian Labour Congress, and when they would break away to “smash or break” things.

Meghan Lankin said her group would be “marching sort of peacefully with the march,” but, if police interfered, “we will respond and do our f—ing s—”

One scenario outlined by a woman was to “bring a riot into the green zone, like we break s—, and then we have the cops that are f—ing running after us and then we run into a green zone of people and use them as cover.”

There was much talk of escape routes if police closed in.

Cadorette said it was “highly probable” they would have to “punch through a line of cops trying to encircle us.” He wanted to know how many affinity groups, small gatherings of protesters, were committed to doing this.

Cadorette also mused about going to Bloor St. to “smash it up, which in my mind is beautiful.”

Peters ventured some marchers would stay at Queen and John Sts. “to do smashy smashy.”

“The rest of the people can . . . stay with the march and bloc up after the end and then go off and do smashy smashy if they want to,” she added. “I just love to say smashy, smashy,” she confessed, to much laughter.

Tom Malleson complained activists were discussing tactics for “hours and hours and hours and we always come back to the same things.”

“Smashy smashy”? A few silly giggles over two silly words, and that’s supposed to convince us that a mass-destruction scheme was going down? FAIL.

Actually, it sounds like they were far from agreed as to what would actually happen. NOT that they had agreed to co-ordinate and carry out anything so violent as to justify the fascist crackdown you see in the video I posted above. In other words: Just like real anarchists anywhere, they have no real leadership and no real consensus. And thus, no real power to do any serious damage. (Except, of course, to the reputations of those who frankly deserve it.)

And this is what our media want us to fear and hate. This is the anarchist boogyman, people. It’s coming for us with glowsticks and disco balls! It’s gonna set fire to a few bait cars and do a little smashy-smashy! Booga, booga, booga…

Okay, here are a few OTHER things our fearless reporter forgot to mention:

“We believe in a diversity of tactics” is standard protest-speak for “You do your thing, I do my thing, and we don’t interfere in each other’s thing.” Doesn’t mean destruction and mayhem are actually about to go down, let alone on a grand scale.

And it doesn’t mean that they are terrorists, or a crack insurgency, or anything else that would justify a fascist crackdown on the level of what we saw.

But this chilling incident should make a few things clear: The cops aren’t above planting infiltrators. Or provocateurs, which I’m pretty sure the guys who did “smashy smashy” actually were. And the so-called liberal media isn’t above blowing up a chaotic, disagreement-filled meeting at a gay community centre into a veritable terror cell planning the next 9-11, either. The one hand washes the other. Media access is guaranteed by reporting things from the “right” angle. Meaning, “smashy smashy” dominates the headlines and the six-o’clock news. Even though the overwhelming majority of the protest was peaceful, and it was the COPS who were violent.

I have a few hints for the anarchists: Stop leaving yourselves so open to infiltration and abuse. Next time, strip-search everyone before EVERY meeting. Leave no earlobe unturned. Anyone who’s not willing to get naked to prove they’re not an infiltrator, gets tossed out on their ass, and never gets back in. No matter how dedicated and trustworthy they seem. And if you see someone doing smashy-smashy, don’t assume they’re really one of yours. Tackle the fucker and body-slam him, preferably while cameras are rolling. That’ll fuck the police’s (and the media’s, and the police state’s) shit right up.

You’re welcome.

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