It’s obvious that the Surete’s actions violate some very deeply-held Canadian values. Let’s keep that in mind going forward — that we’re not diametrically opposed, and that we all engaged in these discussions for the best of reasons.

And the fact that they were holding rocks is just plain bad. There should have been no reason for them to be doing that even if they were trying to blend in. It’s like a cop voluntarily (i.e. without being demanded to) shooting heroine to blend into a drug deal. There’s no excuse.

When protesters are yelling at undercover police officers to “put down the rock!”, something’s clearly amiss. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Now the police have even claimed they were holding a rock to “blend in”. The only problem with that? He was the only one with a rock! Ironically, that’s actually what tipped off the protesters that something was wrong. You don’t “blend in” with peaceful protesters by brandishing rocks and sticks and acting belligerent.

As for bert’s comment that undercover operatives “did the job and did it well”. I would simply ask by what standard bert is judging that (and what job is he talking about?). If their job was just to observe (yeah right) then they failed miserably, as they were exposed as undercover police not just to the protesters, but to the wholle planet. If their job was to incite violence, they failed at that too, leading to the amazing spectacle of PROTESTERS demanding of a POLICE OFFICER that he put down the rock in his hand, and remain peaceful. I just can’t imagine what “job” bert thinks these guy did well. They blew their cover, ON VIDEO, and have been accused of trying to incite a riot. Could they have done much worse???

…two days later…

Cops: “Okay, we lied. There were cops undercover. But trust us! They weren’t going to cause any trouble!”

…everybody looks at the rocks in the cops’ hands…

Yeah… fool us once folks.

“An attempt to broadcast images of protesters ended on a grim note when the camera man taping the event was assaulted, summit organizers said.

“He was roughed up pretty badly, but his injuries weren’t bad enough to require a hospital visit”, a spokesman said.

“As a result the camera crew won’t be coming back”

I noticed they never specified WHO did the ‘roughing up’. Has there been any clarification on this?

~D

The problem is that they were clearly there to give the uniformed riot officers an excuse to crack peaceful hippie skulls. That type of forceful suppression of peaceful dissent is the domain of banana republics, and beyond the pale for a twenty-first century liberal democracy.

As I said in the other post, there should at least be an investigation here, to see if these officers crossed the line into instigation.