Continually Scratching the G20 Conspiracy Flea

BLOG POST posted on August 18, 2010 by Alley Katz

3:38:43 p.m. Camera exif data adjusted to Eastern Daylight Savings Time. Intersection of Bay and King Streets. Cruisers are here but where are their owners?

Here they are. 3:39:46. Police running from intersection heading east in Commerce Court towards CIBC Building

3:39:53. I don't live in Toronto but this can not be more than 20 meters from the intersection

3:40:38 Police at intersection gather together on east side of King and Bay Streets

3:41:30. Car 59 is smashed. Looking east on King Street there are very few police.

3:41:37. Police are not prepared to deal with demonstrators on east side of intersection.

3:43:38. east on King Street

3:44:18. east on King Street

3:44:20. east on King Street

3:44:27. There are five undamaged cruisers on the east corner of the intersection

3:46:22. Car 56 is on fire

3:46:25. Car 56

3:49:15. Car 56 in flames and to the right is Car 59

3:51:08. Looking north on Bay Street. The route back up Bay Street is now closed

3:51:55. Looking south on Bay Street towards G20 security perimeter location

3:53:23. The five functioning police cruisers on the east side of the Bay and King Streets intersection are gone. Demonstration moves in the only direction possible.

4:10:31. Yonge Street. Police running to keep ahead of demonstration

In silly police parlance they referred to their riding on the outside of the transit vehicle as a "Magic Carpet Ride"

During the Vancouver Under The Volcano Festival, held August 08, 2010, the issue of policing during the G20 Summit in Toronto in June 2010 was raised.  The particulars of the Under The Volcano Festival has been documented in an August 09, 2010 story published on the Dominion News website under the title Klein and Lewis Thrust into the Volcano written by INSURGENT G.  A concern in the article was Naomi Klein and now Avi Lewis maintaining at this event “…the idea that the police were told to “stand down” during the militant actions on Saturday. Presumably, “allowing” the anti-capitalists to “run wild” would then allow the police to justify a massive crackdown. The word “subsequent” was even used to describe the very necessary actions by the state in order to protect itself from the possibility of generalized revolt, as if to blame the revolutionaries for ending up at the end of a gun” (Klein and Lewis Thrust into the Volcano).  An interesting debate ensued within the comment section of the article including the police actions of that day.  A persistently common ‘theory’ has circulated since June 26, 2010 suggesting the police stood by and let the disruptive action take place.  The security apparatus then used those actions to justify its massive security budget.  To revisit that day I went through my photographic archives.  I wish to comment and provide photographic evidence that the police did not stand by and let the property damage happen; especially as it relates to the burning of the first police cruiser. 

In my role as a photojournalist with the G20 Alternative Media Centre I travelled with the disruptive components of the June 26 March in Toronto.  Having witnessed the actions of the police during the Vancouver Olympic Resistance events, I wanted to focus specifically on police actions.  No one disputes the police car on Queen Street was occupied when the Black Bloc and other marchers backtracked on the official march route and met this police cruiser.  The pivotal incident was at the intersection of King and Bay Streets.   This is where the first police cruiser was set ablaze.  It is also here that the security apparatus meets with its classic limitation; the war between the flea and the dog (War of the Flea, R. Taber).

As a flea, it is the disruptive elements of the March that decide and where and if to strike.  Therefore the security apparatus must be on guard everywhere.  The state security apparatus is placed into a defensive posture which compels it to use only tactics of policing.  The disruptive forces are not burdened with equipment, rules of engagement and rigid command.  Disruptive elements can embarrass, harass, destroy state authority symbols and then disperse when it is no longer safe; the act of survival itself a political victory.  The disruptive elements of the demonstration are the flea – small, ubiquitous and agile.  Up against such a force the state security apparatus is a dog – too much area and too many events to oversee and defend.  We can see this classic dynamic play out in Toronto on June 26, 2010 at the intersection of Bay and King Streets.

The City of Toronto police service has much to contend with on June 26.  The police still have their regular roles to perform in Canada’s largest city.  The police also have the G20 security perimeters (two perimeters) to defend, the officially sanctioned anti G20 March and the Get Off the Fence disruptive elements.  The limitations of the dog are finally exposed at Bay and King Streets.  An informative ‘blow by blow’ account of events of that day published by CrimethInc with the title

Toronto G20: Eyewitness Report Or, Riot 2010 Part Deux

from which I borrow just a short section:

http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/recentfeatures/toronto2.php

     “The huge windows of bank headquarters were smashed with hammers and rocks, to the        cheers of the crowd, and the bloc ran forward again overwhelming a cop car stationed at the intersection of Bay and King. The bloc surged past this car after smashing its windows and continued south for about half a block. The security perimeter was visible about a block and a half away, and those in front waited for the rest of the bloc to catch up and talked hurriedly of plans for some sort of attack on the fence. Unfortunately, no one had really expected to get this close to the fence and it didn’t seem as though anything could be done to breech the perimeter with what was available on hand.

     As the bloc gathered many screamed to push further south. The sounds of breaking glass         filled the air from every direction. Lines of riot cops ran in from both sides of Bay Street at Wellington Street and Front Street, and the bloc moved back towards King. The now iconic torching of the police car took place at some point during this back and forth, and it actually seemed to scare police off for a good few minutes. All the anarchists we subsequently spoke with about this situation reported that they had never before witnessed such a significant force of police acting as fearful as they did at this moment.

     Of course, this didn’t last long, and the bloc became boxed in on Bay Street as it attempted to retreat north. Somehow, at just the right moment, people charged the north-east corner of the intersection of Bay and King. Perhaps because one of their cruisers was burning behind them and hundreds of dangerous anarchists were hurtling towards them screaming, the line of riot cops actually retreated, stumbling backwards, and let the crowd through. The march was able to stay cohesive and continue east along King street without being split apart; to the best of our knowledge, not a single arrest had been made at that point” (G20 Eyewitness Report).

The CrimethInc article records, and as the photos I took at the time illustrate, the police did not just stand around and let the property damage happen. Large numbers of security resources are placed around the outer security perimeter at Wellington Street blocking further advance of the demonstrators in that direction. The route back north along Bay Street has also become an impossibility as riot police have moved in behind the demonstrators. Moving West along King Street would result in coming up against more police in a defensive posture.  The interesting location becomes the east corner of King and Bay Streets.  The police never expected the demonstrators would move back along the sanctioned parade route. Security forces are placed based on risk assessment and the location of King and Bay Streets could not be considered high-risk. The location has no real strategic value; however the location has high symbolic value to the demonstrators. This is the central area of Canadian finance capital. When the demonstrators arrive at this location they meet with relatively few hastily positioned police and their cruisers.

Contrary to conspiracy myths however, the police cruisers were not abandoned at the intersection of Bay and King Streets.  Those vehicles belonged to the police in the photos that we see running away from the protestors.  The police moved along Commerce Court towards the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building and congregated with other police on King Street in front of the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce buildings.  The photos clearly show the police numbers are few at this location because no one planning the security scenarios expected the demonstrators to view this location as strategic.  It is also obvious security forces that are available at this location do not wish to go up against the demonstrators.

I echo the comment in the G20 Eyewitness Report – I have never seen a “…significant force of police acting as fearful as they did at this moment.”  The police ran from their positions leaving their cruisers. Perhaps considering discretion being the better part of valour, and facing about two hundred members of the Black Bloc and hundreds more of other protestors, the police abandoned the east location of this intersection. They also chose to leave behind their smashed cruisers. That decision allowed the demonstration to move east on King Street allowing forces to be moved and eventually creating a box around the demonstrators. 

The impact of the property damage that day is a significant event. An image of the state security apparatus as an unassailable force is contradicted on a world stage.  Among the public, citizens who still have the ability to think critically might question why demonstrators chose property damage and what property was damaged?   Perhaps some might even begin to question the legitimacy of organizations such as the G20.    

We are made of more than this

Don’t let them define us

Don’t let them confine us

We warriors!

(Miracles – Arrested Development)