Bad Timing
It is said timing is everything in life so imaging slaving away to write this little gem of a post:
I know I’m coming rather late to the party, but really, I’ve been trying to say something about the rioters and vandals we saw in action in Toronto over the weekend during the G20 summit that hadn’t been said already.
Yes, they’re thugs. Clearly, they don’t have jobs. Of course, they won’t be punished to the severity they deserve.Then it struck me just how Orwellian all this is. In fact, if you look, you can see layers and layers of Orwellian imagery in the G20 violence.
On the top, and most obvious, is the bitter irony. In George Orwell’s 1984, the government was vicious and violent and act without restraint on a captive populace who had nowhere to go to avoid that viciousness and violence. In Toronto at the G20, the police were trapped, forced to defend a fixed position, while the “populace” exercised far more freedom of action, and decided where to get violent and when.
Another Orwellian aspect to the weekend was just how the violent demonstrators whipped themselves into a fury, not unlike the “two-minute hates” that Winston Smith witnessed, and participated in. From the G20 Toronto Community Mobilization Network, you can almost hear the breathless excitement as the author discusses using violence six weeks ahead of the summit:
And to hit the post button on the very day the Chief of Police admits he deliberately mislead the public. If only the stupid ended with Angry’s Orwellian tome. If anything, I suspect it will go on and on and on. The Globe and Mail
Toronto Police staged a display of weaponry to demonstrate “the extent of the criminal conspiracy” among hard-line G20 protesters, but several of the items had nothing to do with the summit. Facing criticism for their tactics, police invited journalists on Tuesday to view a range of weapons, from a machete and baseball bat to bear spray and crowbars. Chief Bill Blair, who told reporters the items were evidence of the protesters’ intent, singled out arrows covered in sports socks, which he said were designed to be dipped in a flammable liquid and set ablaze.
However, the arrows belong to Brian Barrett, a 25-year-old landscaper who was heading to a role-playing fantasy game when he was stopped at Union Station on Saturday morning. Police took his jousting gear but let Mr. Barrett go, saying it was a case of bad timing.
In addition to the arrows – which Mr. Barrett made safe for live-action role playing by cutting off the pointy ends and attaching a bit of pool noodle covered in socks – police displayed his metal body armour, foam shields and several clubs made of plastic tubing covered with foam and fabric.
Mr. Barrett said he was “appalled” at the placement of his chain-mail beneath a machete. He regularly takes public transit from his Whitby, Ont., home to Centennial Park to play the game, called Amtgard, while wearing the 85-pound armour and is worried people will think: “Oh my God, that’s one of the terrorists from G20.” Police also displayed a crossbow and chainsaw seized in an incident on Friday that they said had no ties to the summit. When asked, Chief Blair acknowledged they were unrelated, but said “everything else” had been confiscated from demonstrators.
Oy vey.
