STORY posted on February 13, 2010 by Moira Peters
"Criminal Element" is VANOC and IOC
ORN says state violence disproportionate to protest damage
Also posted by Moira Peters:
Also in :
Police used disproportionate violence in arresting and detaining protesters during this morning's Olympics resistance "Heart Attack" march, said representatives of the Olympics Resistance Network (ORN) at a press conference this afternoon in Pigeon Park in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
"We witnessed excessive and disproportionate use of state forces," said Peggy Lee, of ORN's legal committee.
She described hundreds of riot police armed with a diverse array of weapons, including AR-15 assault rifles, shields and batons, forcibly detaining unarmed protesters.
An unconfirmed 13-15 arrests were made, all against peaceful protesters who had not caused property damage, including several protesters who were arrested after the demonstration had dispersed and they were leaving the intersection of Robson and Jervis Streets, according to Lee.
A Vancouver Police Department release today described a "criminal element" that "marched among about 200 legitimate protesters... breaking windows, turning over boxes and clashing with police."
Gord Hill of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation agreed that a criminal element had infiltrated the protest.
"I'm glad you brought up the criminal element. The IOC and VANOC is the criminal element, pillaging public coffers, the effects of which we will see long after the Games," with cuts to health care, affordable housing, education and meaningful social services, he said.
"Gangs like the VPD, the RCMP, CSIS and CAF make up some of the 17,000 thugs in our streets."
Hill said he disagreed that police were reacting fairly to the damage done by protesters to buildings and buses in downtown Vancouver.
"Buildings are not made of flesh and tissue. They are made of concrete and steel." Hill said buildings were targeted because they belong to the corporations – The Hudson Bay, The Toronto-Dominion Bank – that do damage to flesh and blood humans.
Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the ORN said compared to the violence to human beings sponsored by the state of Canada, the demonstration resulted in "minor property damage."
The march today was a "successful disruption of the messaging of the Olympics," according to Westergard-Thorpe.
She said the ORN is concerned police will use the property damage today as an excuse to disrupt the Women's Memorial March scheduled tomorrow. The March, in its 19th year, commemorates the 3,000 murdered and missing women in Canada since the 1970s, none of whose deaths and disappearances have been extensively investigated.
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Photo: ORN representative Alissa Westergard-Thorpe addresses media today in Pidgeon Park. Photograph by insurgentphoto.
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Comments
You know Alissa
You know Alissa Westergard-Thorpe you really lost my support yesterday. How could you justify such actions? I hope you fall back in the hole you crawled out of.
Um actually - yes - the VDP
Um actually - yes - the VDP happen to be correct - the so called "peaceful protestors" did in fact engage in indiscriminate vandalism and make themselves look like total idiots - indeed criminals. The VDP have accurately identified that the march was high jacked by a criminal element who are too stupid to see that smarter forms of criminality get you to be a member of the IOC. The behaviour of the vandals was pathetic. The police exhibited real professionalism ... until the riot squad arrived of course... but to see what lead the riot squad to arrive was very disappointing. Whoever engaged in the violence does not understand the dire message that so many organizations who participated in the march are trying to impart. For those organizations, the march was a complete trap - they were trapped into this march and have and will suffer enormously because of the criminals that stupidly began to destroy property and intimidated people on the street - people who happen to be flesh and blood as well. The criminals couldn't make the distinction between corporate property, public property, and individual property. ORN would be smart to disassociate as promptly as possible. What I saw was amazingly disappointing – not because of police violence (who showed great restraint) – but because the violence was very very childish, stupid, pathetic, ugly, unbecoming, disgraceful and completely contrary to indigenous spirit. Those who engaged in the initial violence of breaking shit have put more people at risk. No Thanks.
Vancouver Olympic Security Forces: Neo-Nazis & Not The Worst!
paradoxically unsurpisedly shocked to read the message demonstrated & declared by the Circassian peoples in solidarity with First Nations of Onowaregeh... So, let's everyone become perfectly crystal clear on the facts that the Bush's & Arnold Swartzenneger are Nazis, not just Neo-Nazis but bona-fide Nazis, & the Olympic Security Forces act as their minions... further, it's time to warn Jews that they are possibly-probably in great danger if the Bush Cheney cabal continue to get away with their evily sinister ambitions, I just do think they thay may be planning to turn public anger against Jews at the critical hour when global economics begin to really start hitting the skids. Who just offered to 'buy' Canwest out of bankruptcy~by the way?...
Hmm... No protester violence
Hmm... No protester violence on Friday, no disruption of the right to protest. Property damage on Saturday, protesters dispersed and arrested. No proteser violence on Sunday, no disruption of the right to protest. See the pattern?
So maybe it wasn`t the
So maybe it wasn`t the perfect protest but at least it was a large one .There doesn`t appear to have been any major fatalities and that`s a good thing.It would be nice if the IOC couldn`t even find a bidder for the Olympics after these winter games.
As opposed to...
.... "major fatalities".... as opposed to those pesky minor fatalities?
ORN and BCCLA
Please explain the ORN asking the BCCLA not to send Legal Observers to this protest.
The consensus is starting to
The consensus is starting to seem like the protest on Saturday was not as well planned as hoped:
http://apcvancouver.org/bbpress/topic.php?id=11
consensus?
sorry "Vancouver Anonymous" but I can't trust an online "consensus." We know the Israelis and the Colombians are paying folks to comment on websites. Wouldn't put the same past Canada, or the IOC.