Reply #10: Nothing personal at all intended...

[shockedcanadian]

I understand why you think this way Glarius, I was much like you a few years ago in fact, I wouldn't even entertain the idea that the police and intelligence create threats, that until I realized the ridiculous actions of some in our intelligence community against me personally. I always make this a point so that you understand my discourse; I speak from the perspective of a victim. That being said, I welcome your thoughts and counter-arguments, I don't have a monopoly on the truth.

As it stands, intelligence and policing in Canada has turned sharply for the worse. It is often not about security but rather optics, impression and budget increases; especially during high profile events like this as it is a perfect time for some to profit from peoples fears, anger and ignorance. Not too many people are curious about politics, democracy and intelligence matters, I know I wasn't. For those who have had such an interest from the start I have a grudging respect, as I feel silly being so uninformed.

There are videos of undercover RCMP officers in 2007 dressed in a crowd of protesters and egging on the crowd, they are holding bricks and baclava's over their faces. A simple youtube search will show you this. Of course, like all undercover operations by the RCMP and CSIS they denied denied denied. Standard procedure, the same way CSIS denied for years that Grant Bristow was one of theirs after he funded and created the Heritage Front. Years later, and probably after they had decided the best way to "come out", he admitted he was an agent (of course he defended his actions as necessary and stated he is a very loyal Canadian blah blah blah).
If these are the cases the public knows of, imagine how many we DON'T? I cannot imagine what the exponential multiplier would be.

As in the CSIS case, the RCMP were also caught red-handed with this undercover protest fiasco. They had to admit it, but said that they were not provokers (watch the video and judge for yourself) just part of the crowd, making sure nothing went wrong.

So, back to the G20. There were 19,000 police, they said they were ready for "anything". Well apparently not. Let's say these criminals and vandals were caught in the act. Arrested etc. People would be applauding. As it were, the police cars are shown around the world burning, you have some punks breaking glass of stores etc. People are angry when they see it, Harper does the predictable and says this is why the $1 Billion was necessary, ad naseau. The problem is, the $1 billion was spent to PROTECT wasn't it? 19,000 officers and some skinny runt with a stick can break store windows? Some young punks can destroy a car with an officer in it?

Many questions need to be asked. Why would there even be a police car present in that area? It is the G20. How did it happen? There are many video cameras down there, where is the video evidence of what happened? To me that would seem like the simple solution, reveal the video to the public. Why WOULDN'T this be provided? It hasn't as of yet, and don't expect them to do so.

It makes no sense. People know this makes no sense, even the common viewer who asks the same question "how the f_ _ _ can this happen with $1 BILLION spent? Where are any of the 19,000 police?

I will agree with you, that they would face probably face criticism no matter what they did, thats the problem with the genuius idea to have this event in Toronto. However, the decision to arrest a bunch of bystanders and a quiet protesting group while letting the city get smashed to hell doesn't seem to me to be good policing nor does it make sense. This is why people are curious about who these violent people are...people don't trust these agencies anymore, and they have only themselves to blame.