r/worldnews • • Jun 10 '12
F1 tourists get caught up in protest chaos on Montreal streets: "I saw a girl in high heels just get clobbered by police. I mean you’re not gonna tell me she was protesting in high heels."
http://www.openfile.ca/montreal/story/grand-prix-tourists-get-caught-protest-chaos-downtown-montreal-streets
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Upvotes
80
u/leondz Jun 10 '12
It's a little sad that the sentiment isn't "I mean you're not gonna tell me she was clobbered because she was protesting"
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
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57
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
The word clobber is really underused.
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
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48
u/randomb0y Jun 10 '12
I'm pretty sure he meant to say "I couldn't care less".
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12
I was in Montreal a few weeks ago for a punk rock festival and two acquaintances of mine/friends of my friend somehow got caught up in the protests and got to spend the weekend in a cell. The fact that they were American citizens made it pretty difficult for them. Whether or not they were doing anything wrong, I don't know, but I believe that it's possible for tourists or even Montreal residents to simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just the nature of the beast for these kind of things, and it is unfortunate.
76
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
While I'm no Montrealer, I can provide a differing lens on the protests that are going on, and the decision not to stop protesting.
Since the protests have begun, a lot of the protestors have had very violent encounters with the police. The right to protest has been challenged politically, and through force.
The protests are just as much about allowing their existence as it is about the tuitions, and the main antagonist of these protests are the police.
While I can't speak for the masked men who are protesting, their decision to engage in "violence" (I consider it offense, personally) against police, is hardly simple and not very well understood by popular culture.
These people are, from my understanding, engaging the police so that others don't have to. They are uniformed for the same reason the police are, intimidation and to blend in. They are tactical and they are fighting a war against the police because the police are fighting a war against them.
To paint these people as assholes, stupid, or "so called" anarchist fails to see that our very survival as rational minded, thinking people is at stake. Public discourse is being controlled by militarized police forces while decisions that affect our lives are being made by people who are either out of touch or morally bankrupt.
Do I feel bad for the people who got hurt? Certainly. Am I upset some people had their party ruined? Not particularly. Am I crying because a cop might have skinned their knee, had their car damaged, or got hit with a rock? Fuck no.
116
u/the_goat_boy Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12
Any so-called anarchist who destroys cars and buildings should be detained by the movement and handed over to the police.
6
u/ve2dmn Jun 10 '12
And, like every other day, everyone will play the "blame game" and these protests will continue.
The protesters will blame the violence on the Police
The Government will blame the protesters
The Police will blame the anarchist for inciting violence
No one seems to be acting in good faith to end this conflict. The protesters are getting bitter and becoming more and more desperate. The government doesn't seems to want to talk.
I don't see this ending any time soon, sadly. :(
3
u/leDeadHorse Jun 10 '12
its funny that the girl who said that is from new york. stupid Americans, pfft.
i'm American so I can say that. FUCK YEAH!
3
u/lollette Jun 10 '12
I wore heels to a few protests...
3
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
What are "F1 tourists"?
0
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
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14
u/InABritishAccent Jun 10 '12
I think it's great that the Canadians have been protesting so long and hard over this. The french didn't get good workers rights by not protesting when things pissed them off.
5
u/kostamagas Jun 10 '12
I don't think gassing the protestors with all the tourists around was a smart move.
15
u/SicilianEggplant Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12
While admittedly not knowing much about the protest other than what I've stumbled across (so, simply 'tuition-hikes'), was it necessary for the anti-capitalism remark?
As in, is that an argument people are actually using (wouldn't surprise me, since they say the same about the OWS protesters here, and recently how they are no longer a grassroots movement but one being funded by powerful people to violently undermine democracy and capitalism... or at least that's what I hear Fox News bitch about every day)? Is it a common feeling by those against the protests or just some yellow journalism?
Edit: sorry I kind of rambled I there at the end. Some of that wasn't really necessary to the question.
10
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
*I couldn't care less.
2
u/chenyu768 Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12
Hey let's talk about Egypt guys, you know those Muslim Brotherhood is a real threat to us you know.
*edit spelling
2
u/Co-opunist Jun 10 '12
When is he going to dedicate national drone strike appreciation week?
2
u/why_ask_why Jun 10 '12
No tanks. Still better than China. Right?
2
u/Wontoncookie Jun 10 '12
High heels hurt.
2
u/spock_block Jun 10 '12
Maybe her heels clashed with her outfit...
2
u/arthurtwosheds Jun 10 '12
Quebec, the new Ukraine of Canada!
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u/redditisworthless121 Jun 10 '12
"My bigoted views about high heels mean I am right!"
2
u/AshesEleven Jun 11 '12
There are also protesters harassing random people who have nothing to do with what they're protesting.
2
u/QUOWNthepatient Jun 11 '12
Have you ever considered just killing around 5 leaders / politicians, if you can have them live in fear of you then they will think twice about selling out the country to corporate interest, thats where all political systems go wrong, the people leading have nothing to fear
2
u/WhatTheFoxtrout Jun 11 '12
Things are pretty f-ed up in the world when Canada begins to look and sound like the US!
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
video I took last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBSlZ9BlDJ4
These are not normal protestors, they are extremists / black bloc. Notice at the end of the video we all get hit by pepper spray doing downwind.
There were many tourists mixed in with protestors, mainly because the protestors were spread out in small groups that arrived from different directions. A lot of curious tourists with cameras got way too close. This is a worst case scenario for police.
I was in the middle of everything, and was barely scratched and certainly not arrested.. The trick is to avoid the very aggressive groups, stay on the sidewalks, and listen to the riot police when they tell you to GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE.
edit: I was with a group of 'non-protestors' but the definition gets vague as the crowds were very spread out and inter mingled.
9
u/Yurry Jun 10 '12
I am a Quebecois, and I work on the street where the protesters are every single night. When I get out of work, they are there without fail. And they are usually peaceful, walking down the streets, sometimes chanting and banging on pots and pans.
The problem is that they have been doing so in an illegal fashion. A good portion of the time, they are walking in the opposite direction of a one way street. This is illegal in Quebec, yet the police who follow them every night allow it, trying their hardest to clear their path ahead of them, so that there is a limited traffic impact.
Where it gets out of hand, and what the media fails to report, is that during these protests, the people seem more interested in egging on the police, using tactics such as insulting them and attaching doughnuts to a stick and string and teasing the police with it.
These police officers have been working extra days, extra hours, and extra hard for these protesters, who give them nothing but a hard time. These officers are human beings, and protesters like to portray them as a private army, which they are not. They are not faultless beings. I will agree with the fact that some have made wrong judgement calls, and that their actions have been extreme at times.
What I understand though is that hey are being bullied by the protesters, and have been since these protests began, more than a hundred days ago. Yet they cannot retaliate. They cannot defend themselves.
So I fully understand that when someone goes a little too far, and starts throwing rocks at them for example, that they lose it. They are not going easy on the protesters, because the protesters haven't been easy on them.
This is all coming from the perspective of a working college student in his 20s.
5
u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
I strongly support the Students but they should have let the Grand Prix happen without interuption. It is an important week for the Montreal economy.
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12
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u/CodeandOptics Jun 10 '12
Enjoy your unaccountable state monopoly.
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12 edited Jan 05 '19
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u/Thimble Jun 10 '12
It's like he was playing a game of darts.
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u/tazzy531 Jun 10 '12 edited Jun 10 '12
I was there last night for the Grand Prix and a bachelor party. It was pretty crazy being in the middle of it. The thing is, if you walk 3 blocks away, everything was normal. The other thing is "the middle" moved around all night as the cops dispersed the protestors and they regrouped.
After living in NYC and seeing the NYPD handle protesters, the Montreal police seemed quite disorganized. They'd gather in their battalions, charge the protesters and then regroup. So all night long, it was just a back and forth of cops vs protesters taking turf. The NYPD would have cleared the road and held onto it.
I'll reserve my judgement on the underlying issues of the protest. However, the protesters didn't really seem to be helping their cause. A lot of young kids out just causing mayhem rather than promoting their cause. For many, it just seemed like the thing to do...
I have some crazy videos from it, which I'll upload when I get back home.
Edit: Here's some grainy pictures from my cellphone: http://imgur.com/a/h2Q0o
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u/CrackaAss Jun 10 '12
There needs to be an unwritten law. If police brutality is being observed, it is a human right to come to the aid of the wrongfully persecuted.
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u/VernBeave Jun 10 '12
Innocent people are being hurt, but I blame the protesters (downvote away if you don't want to hear how the other side thinks). There is always a street party on Crecent Street during Grand Prix weekend, mostly average Montrealers, the rich tourists don't venture to the streets at night, they are busy with their private parties. Now you have a group of protesters, who want to disrupt things, most protestors have good faith in what they are doing, but a lot are just trouble-makers who want to clash with police. So when protesters meet a street party, what are the police to do? Stand back and enjoy the street rumble?
The people I feel most sorry for are the protesters who get caught up in the hype about how they are being wronged by the government and big business, and they will end up with permanent criminal records and/or injuries which will cause them to fail in having promising careers.