While the G8 and G20 conferences may have accomplished great things, the image that will remain with most of us is a burning police cruiser.
As far as one can figure out from the accounts of the rioting and destruction of property, the people responsible for much of the mayhem are members of something called the Black Bloc. The name comes from the black clothing and masks the members hide behind.
These people are not protesters in the conventional sense of the word. They are anarchists. While their favoured targets seem to be banks, representing the corporate North American financial system, events in Toronto proved the goal is not so much to make a point, but to make a mess. They vandalized just about anything they came across, including small businesses and private vehicles.
Had this happened in just about any other city of a similar size hosting an international conference,  there probably would have been deaths, along with extensive looting and massive destruction. Surely that was what the anarchists intended. Instead of four police cruisers going up in flames, there would have been entire city blocks left in ruins.
The police in Toronto deserve to be commended for keeping a lid on things. Without a doubt, mistakes were made. Without a doubt, there were situations that could have been handled better. Rights probably were violated in some cases. But the bottom line is there were no deaths or serious injuries. Violent incidents were kept to a minimum. There were no incidents involving delegates to the conference and relatively few involving ordinary Torontonians. There were some involving out-of-towners who headed to Toronto to see what havoc they could cause. Property was damaged and several hundred people got locked up for a while and charged with various offences; many of them are now accusing the police of violating their rights.
One wonders what consideration the anarchists gave to the rights of the owners of the property they destroyed. For that matter, what about the rights of people whose found their lawful, non-violent demonstrations hijacked by a bunch of dangerous crackpots in ski masks? One would think by their behavior the anarchists do not believe in rights. Apparently they do, but only for themselves.
That whole mentality is wearing thin. We have seen it a few too many times, whether it is terrorists bent on attacking our entire society, or local punks who get drunk and wreak havoc on the downtown flower beds. They know their rights. They scream for their Legal Aid lawyers and dare police to say or do something that might be out of line. And the minute they get out of jail, they go ahead and violate someone else’s rights without a second thought. Sometimes it feels as if criminals have more rights than the law-abiding citizens they victimize.
While the G20 protesters – be they crackpots, vandals, loud-mouths or innocents who were in the wrong place at the wrong time – are calling for the resignation of the Toronto police chief and a major investigation into rights violations, no one seems to be in any rush to help the victims. They include the owners of and large businesses that were damaged, plus the workers at those businesses who were told to stay home for a couple of weeks because of the need to set up a security zone – the need for which is no longer being questioned.
The same federal government that chose to host the G20 conference in downtown Toronto, with the full knowledge attacks by anarchists were to be expected, should be going out of its way to reimburse these people for their losses instead of blithering about online applications to fill out. In an odd way, the anarchists are correct – it really is a question of rights.