But there were plenty of cops herding us, some in riot gear, and men in black on all the roofs around the Quadrangle, with guns pointed at the crowd. There weere big helicopters buzzing the crowd. But there was NO one there from the media, and you heard almost nothing about the march on TV or in the newspapers. They had learned a good way to handle us–just to ignore us..

Now they've learned further tricks, like those described in the article. And they seem to have co-opted even people like Jon Stewart, who made fun of the G20 demonstrators on a recent show. I was so disappointed! Is there any avenue for protest left that hasn't been taken over?

As far as the demonstrations went, the ultimate blame rests with Prime Minister Harper of course … especially since he ignored Mayor Miller's plea to stage the event at the CNE. I don't know how the man ever got a reputation for being a “brilliant economist” or a “brilliant strategist” … unless his goal all along was to beat up Toronto and feed the hatred of the law-and-order thugs … in which case, maybe he is smarter than I think.

Premier McGuinty, with his shades-of-Trudeau's-War-Measures-Act-in-the-middle-of-the-night-shenanigans, was also culpable. But, wait … perhaps that's unfair to Trudeau, whose act was motivated by his irrational fear of “separatism” and his loathing of Levesque. At least Trudeau had sincere beliefs and actually rose (or sunk) to the level of a monstrous evil since Trudeau understood civil liberties and rights and knew what he was doing … but he did it anyway. McGuinty, on the other hand, is merely a gutless little demon whose behaviour was more akin to Robert Bourassa's … a thoughtlessly paranoid reaction from a man with the imagination and comprehension of a dyspeptic goat.

The Toronto Police Service, as well, is not off the hook. I agree that directing anger at the cop-on-the-beat is unfair (sort of like blaming the letter carriers for a rise in the price of stamps). At worst, they are “good Germans” who go along to get along. At the same time, having taught “law enforcement” on-and-off for over twenty years, I can attest to a certain strain of sadism-authoritarianism-racism-misogyny and so on a number of their aspirant recruits … and I have witnessed bad behaviour close up on too many occasions to give them a “free pass.” I do, however, mostly blame Police Chief Bill Blair. His late night sojourn to Queen's Park to solicit extraordinary powers in an executive order that won't officially be made public until Saturday was inexcusable. And his garbled statements since are transparent self-serving, even as they make him look the fool.

As well, I want the Toronto Police Service Board held to account. They are the civilian authorities who should be overseeing the police. Where were they when the secret regulations (which now seem not to have been regulations at all) were passed by five cabinet ministers in the middle of the night? Did they even know about Blair's approach to the Cabinet?

I also want to know how it is that the G-20 cost $1.2 billion for “security” and “intelligence,” and the cops still got “caught off guard.” As I see it, the mess resulted from conscious police tactics which involved a decision to let things get out of hand on Saturday so as to make Sunday's Darth Vader Dance seem justifiable. I can't prove an allegation of using agents provocateurs, but that is a “normal practice” and I see no reason to think that it wasn't used here. The police car that was torched seemed to me to have been brought in for precisely that purpose. As others have asked: “How come the gas tank didn't explode (was it drained for the purpose?)? Who stripped it of all its computer gadgetry before the fire? And why did the cops looks on approvingly for hours as the cruiser burned cheerfully away for the entertainment of the global media? Couldn't anyone find a fire truck?

It is true that the police on the line reacted with little more brutality than they usually do in such situations (which is plenty), and that the “boys [and girls] in blue” seemed stuck “between a rock and a hard place” (though they seemed to enjoy the exercise well enough). Their own personal pathologies, however, were merely let loose … as a guy with a new book called War (he spent months “embedded” with US troops in Afghanistan) said on the Joy Behar Show last night (and I paraphrase from a fading memory):

Those guys don't think much about the morality of the war, or care much about the reasons for it;
They are locked in a 'brotherhood';
They get a tremendous adrenaline rush from combat;
Some of them hate each other, but they'd also die for each other.

The authorities, I think, have learned well from that old Crosby, Stills and Nash song: “Teach Your Children Well.”

And, of course, there are also the “anarchists.” I've heard more than one commentator call them “professional protesters.” I'd like to know who's paying them.