Photo by C.S. Muncy, taken at Occupy Chicago’s anti-NATO demo. More here.
Good morning, Chicago! How are you liking life in your police state this fine May day? Not at all? Don’t worry, Montréal knows exactly how you feel:
“People were falling on each running inside to get away from the pepper spray, breaking things, and then people left by the back exit,” said Martin Guimond, who runs the Saint Bock brasserie in the city’s lively Latin Quarter.
“My waitress said, ‘we have to call 911.’ And then she said, ‘But wait, it’s the police that are doing this.’ That’s when you realize there’s a total loss of security.”
Stuff like this calls to mind Caetano Veloso’s reminiscences of the Brazilian military dictatorship, during which the police were so notoriously brutal and criminal themselves that the running joke was “Call the thief, the cops are here!”
What’s not so funny is that there really IS a police-state mentality behind all this unnecessary cracking-down:
Police were armed with Bill 78, which lays out regulations governing demonstrations of over 50 people. The bill passed last week includes requiring organizers to give eight hours’ notice for details such as the protest route, the duration and the time at which they’re being held.
The bill was intended to restore order and put an end to three months of student protests, but it appears only to have given the movement momentum.
A demonstration was held Sunday afternoon against Quebec’s new emergency law and another march was planned for later in the evening.
Nothing like a good backfire to show you just how well THAT works, eh?
Meanwhile, it’s a sad day for Canada when police and politicians arbitrarily get to decide just how much free speech is acceptable…and if it exceeds their expectations, they get to start a riot and then blame the demonstrators.
I’m just wondering how long it will be before someone sets fire to the Reichstag — er, National Assembly — and then blames the communists.
PS: Excellent blog post here. Go read!
