Over 200 Arrested After Montreal Protests

Yes that was strange.  I was suprised on how much anger some of these protesters had towards the police. Apparently this annual protest turns out violent each year.

It does not seem such protests would help get rid of police brutality when all they really do is incite it.

This is what happens when you have different social movements within one large beheaded mob.

It's a vicious circle.

Aaronfoley has contributed a photo to this story.

I guess it's hard to tell, unless you live there, who's at fault.  But it always turns violent, this one particular march, and they have many.

Sounds like mob brutality.

I have to agree with Blue Crush on this one. As none of us were in Montreal during the protest, it's hard to lay blame from outside.

Having previously lived in Montreal for many years, I can attest to the high levels of intimidation, aggression, and all too often unreported cases of physical violence and brutality enacted by Montreal police officers against civilians.

Law enforcement in the city has an unfortunately long history of discrimination and racial prejudice and a seemingly disproportionate lack of tolerance for protests that identify the police themselves as the ones who have incited or provoked violence.

The death of Mohamed Anas Bennis is just one of the most recent examples: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2009/02/montreal-gazette-police-union-trying-to.html

I would be interested to hear more about this story from people who were at Sunday's protest.

I was there. So was the rock that flew by a few inches from my face, while I took pictures. I was not for or against any party present, yet I was almost hurt by a projectile that was to hit, I suppose, an "enemy".

F*ckin losers!  If they have a beef with the police they should take it out on the police.  What did the hotel and store owners do to deserve being targetted by these idiots.  I am no fan of police brutality but I hope these "protestors" got some well placed batton blows on their way to lockup.  They should have to pay for every cent of damage they caused and then be subjust to some good old public humiliation. 

This was during a 2008 student strike.

misterb has contributed a photo to this story.

I think it's pretty easy to condemn and call people losers in the comfort of your own house, it shows character.

On a more serious note, I was one of the arrested protesters and I would tend to say a few things that might help people understand what happened. First of all, when people say that the protest was stupid, they look at the actions of a few to condemn a whole, like a protest is some sort of borg-like hive-entity where everyone has agrees to everything. I'm not giving the cliché speech about "a few bad seeds" or whatever, I'm saying that neither police or protesters were perfect, and if you're one of those still looking for perfection and total integrity in the rest of the world, I suggest you take a look at yourself first.

About the "violence", well, people have to vent, I regret that some stupidly go out on those weaker than them when given the chance, it's an all too human flaw we all know about. Then again, like I said, during that protest in particular, people vent, people panic, there's all sorts of reactions, no wonder it goes somewhat wrong. But let it be known that before it really became violent, dispersion of the protest was called for by the organizers, twice, but the megaphone didn't get a sound higher than the plastic bullets, and the second time, anti-riot people took the megaphone from the organizers, they just came and...took it.

Also, the protest was originally meant to go in one direction, but the police blocked that direction...as it was that of their union offices (and let me tell you, cops around here can get away with just about anything very often), they simply forced the protest to go where all the rich hotels and shopping centers were...

And finally, about the arrest in itself, the cops have to arrest people, someone has to pay, someone has to be guilty, so they just take those who happen to be there, they're not necessarily protesters (I personnally know at least two persons who were just passers by, but rumor has it there were quite a lot, even journalists were arrested).

Actually (you can't know as you weren't there), the organizers called for a non-violent protest, it was what they asked for and it was made very clear from the beginning (they made a whole point of their speech about that, asking people not to give cops any reasons to use violence themselves). So no, your argument doesn't work, as riot was not organized. When things started to look bad, they tried to call for dispersion, but the sound of their megaphone was covered by the sound of paint and plastic bullets being shot on the first occasion, on the second, the police simply took the megaphone away, so dispersion could not called. So it's not the organizers' fault either, I have personal issues with some of them, and yet, I can still see that they did what they could. Contrarily to popular belief, the same group has organized other protests (for other occasions, specific things I'll skip over) that went very well, everything was calm and peaceful, so I know fully well that unless they participated in the whole breaking people's cars and all, they're not much to blame.

As for the whole consistency thing, my point was that despite your saying you hope evildoers get batoned and everything, you condemn the whole group just as much ("your group's irresponsible actions").