Occupying in Calgary Is Truly Courageous- fighting cold & nutcases!
I just ran across a story about an incident at Occupy Calgary where some idiot (probably one of Alberta’s many neocon redneck’s) sprayed pepper/bear spray into their Information/Library tent!
Occupy Vancouver had some threats back in October- some highly disturbed individual was trying to round-up a posse to ‘de-occupy’ OV. One of the occupiers met and labelled the guy “most likely to be a lone gunman”. But, with the invention if the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog.
When the threat was brought to my attention, I contacted Sargent Argent and he arranged for an investigation and for extra VPD on-site the night he was threatening to attack us.
A small number of people at Occupy Vancouver have anger with the VPD for our eviction. This seems rather misguided to me because the real culprit is Judge Anne MacKenzie who passed the injunction to have OV removed. The most that the VPD did to us was to politely ask that we leave after she made the ruling. And, of course, they arrested a couple of people who decided to resist the order a week later. (that said, I believe they gave them the option to walk away first…)
So, in reality, I’d estimate that about 99% of VPD (wo)man hours at OV were spent protecting us from the outside world! They helped keep dangerous people out, and did little things like make sure we weren’t hit by traffic while people decided to march and block traffic. Hardly oppressors…
But, still Chief Chu, you haven’t answered any of my questions I mailed, emailed and tweeted to you- not even a quick note to say you’d rather not answer. What’s up with that? Do you not think that this sort of attitude is why some of the 99% are so fixated on 1% of your activities at OV?
Time to engage with us- rebuild trust with the people. You owe it to us, and you owe it to your officers- because they don’t deserve that 99% of their efforts are overshadowed because of your petty politicking…
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You raise an interesting point here, one that people would do well to remember.
Police aren’t the law. They aren’t even necessarily enforcers of the law, per se.It is the job of the police, when they suspect a law is being contravened, to prevent/end it and then bring it to the attention of the citizens of the country ie the crown/courts, etc to decide if a law has been broken and what the consequences will be. The Courts themselves aren’t the Law, but interpreters/arbiters of the law. Although there are individuals in both the above groups, as in all groups, that don’t behave well, the average policeperson, member of the judiciary, etc is just working within a framework that argueably is the result of the general consensus of the population,by virtue of the fact that the laws are, in theory anyways, written by the people.
So if people feel that a 100 km/hr speed limit is unfair, fine, but don’t yell at the cop who is giving you the ticket for doing 120 km/hr. It wasn’t his/her choice to contravene that law, or for that matter, to write it.
Author
I agree with most of this, except for the part about the judge. She could have easily ruled for free speech over petty bylaws – judges have much more latitude in their decisions than police…
could you use the same example with the black block, you cant hate them, because they are just tools being used to uphold a specific ideology. Or gang members, most of them are just tools who joined the gang for money, whether or not they endorse raping women; i.e. VPD RCMP missing womens inquiry. When the law is broken, it even more of an injustice to enforce it, which is what the police are doing. Any of those cops can go get other jobs, hell if being a cop was so “right” why weren’t there more members at OV joining the VPD, they are always hiring. Remember Grendolf you may not have been abused by the police but it doesn’t mean that others haven’t or others are unjustified in there hate. One thing is for sure, people in Vancouver are so scared of the police its amazing, compared to Montreal of course.
Author
I’ve been abused by police before, in four countries. In Russia, a cop put a gun in my mouth to illegally evict me from my apartment on behalf of a wicked landlord who bribed them to do it. You should be careful with assumptions…
so what are you trying to say, that you are more submissive, and controlled to force then others? And if those things did happen, then you probably understand the reaction of certain groups to authority, especially those that walk around with guns.
Author
This subject really upsets you, doesn’t it? Why?
Regardless, you made more assumptions, and obviously have poor reading comprehension. If you re-read you will see what I was saying is that the police were more submissive to Occupy Vancouver than oppressive – by about 99 to 1.
They spent their time protecting us from traffic while we blocked it, and protecting us from people were so pissed off with our behaviour that they threatened us with violence. Quite comical really, and typically Canadian…
And, do remember, the police didn’t clear us out. The judge made an order and we complied by moving onto the opposite side of her courthouse, near the entrance to the family law court. Typically OV- we should have parked at least one tent in front of her entrance. But, we’re a new organisation, and still learning our way. As we mature, we will hopefully be more accurate selecting our targets…
wow, they really have you don’t they, the movement was going to block the streets whether or not the police were there to help, and just like most radical groups out there, threats are nothing new and I doubt the police help protect groups from such threats. The way I look at it is the police are just a street gang to the overall crime syndicate that is our justice system. I dont cut MS 13 slack just because they are a puppet club to the zeta cartel. Just as its hard to cut the VPD slack because they are puppets to the law.
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Regardless of whether they wanted to, the police put a lot of resources into protecting us- multiples what they spent oppressing us. That said, many of those who worked on oppression activities probably didn’t want to be doing them also. They have pensions, they understand the reasoning behind the Occupy movement.
There were a few cops involved who obviously wanted to oppress us. When I identified them, I’d point out my observations in front of the good cops saying : “Your one of the 25% who have bad intentions, aren’t you! Their faces would go red, and the good cops had a look of embarrassment on their faces…
Some cops are indeed bad, most Canadian cops are pretty agreeable in my experience. We are lucky to live in a country where the police are mostly submissive to the citizenry – it is the opposite down south, and in most 2nd / 3rd world countries…
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