[G20] Conspiracy?

Fascinating.
Two police cruisers are now on fire down the street from me.
And no firefolk in the vicinity...
Which is quite odd, due to the billion dollars spent on security and safety during this conference... and a police car shows up out of nowhere (possibly stolen) is left to burn dangerously close to a local business (and ironically beside a fire hydrant)... and no fire department signs... for over 30 minutes (usual response time here is under ten). Security is there making sure folks don't go to close.
Some ambitious reporters have "caught" a few young folks changing from their black garments (The Black Bloc folk) into street clothes.
One of the peaceful protesters interviewed said that the violence erupted out of nowhere and seemed far too organized... and that the police cars are being burned to support our prime minister's wild spending on this "secure" conference.
My thoughts? Conspiracies are too easy a conclusion to jump to, and often are too complex. Occam's razor.
Still, it's a disturbing thing to see this unfold in an incredibly peaceful city as Toronto.
Oh, the Firefolk showed up. I am surprised no one brought marshmallows in the meantime.

Wow, I can attest to how peaceful a town it is. I've been there a couple times out late at night and seen women out walking all by themselves downtown at Midnight. Dunno if you could say that about most other North American cities.

More serious than thou

Yeah, Toronto is amazing. It still is. During this whole kafuffle, our Police Chief kept repeating how important it was to demonstrate, and how the actions of a few necessitated some forceful moves.
I wish it were black and white - rebels vs imperials... but it ain't. Some really stupid jerks set fire to a police car and threw something at a horse. That ain't right.
But the cops were taking over Queen street (a major fashion and shopping district, home of the world-famous Silver Snail Comic Shop), and it turned from a bunch of hoodlums protesting nothing in particular to cops forcing people out of their own neighbourhoods - public transit was shut down so folks who wanted to leave had to walk - but they then became surrounded by armoured and armed riot police. And for what? The chants of "Our street" still echo in my mind, combined with images of a good cop and his innocent horse pelted by a moron's slug.

Thanks for the compliment of my home town.

Perhaps the protestors are as dis-connected and disorganized as the public safety folks. Perhaps it's not so much a consipracy as a microcosm...

Wise words.

is silver snail okay? was watching the news report and it seemed like a lot of the activities were happening in and around that area for some reason.

I think (with the exception of Tim Hortons), most of the destruction was directed towards American companies and the snail was spared. According to their website, they are opening again on July 1st for Canada Day.

Yeah, the protests went a bit nuts on Peter Street when a few psychos set fire to a Police car. That didn't get put out for half an hour. Excellent use of a Billion dollars worth of Security. They were too busy keeping folks contained at Queen's park.