RIGHT TO THE POINT: Protesters ...or criminals? You decide.
By Rob Leggett
A hateful and dangerous gang of vandals did their best to get a riot started in Toronto during the G20 summit and, even though they torched cars, smashed windows, insulted and attacked police and did their best to bully innocent spectators, no one was seriously hurt.
This group of malcontents are casting a cowardly disrepute over the causes of legitimate protestors, to the extent that the whole movement is seen by many Canadians – and even the world – as a facade for mindless vandalism and violence. I don’t believe that when people see these idiots in a frenzy of destruction, they ask themselves whether the political or social causes justify their outbursts of anger, but I think they hope the police get them off the streets. These so-called anarchists – who probably haven’t even heard of Malatesta or Bakunin, never mind read their works – are only opportunists. It’s my belief that real protestors have a moral standing that has little to do with violence or destruction of personal property. However, with this being said, I also feel the real protest groups have to grow up and realize the vandals that hide in their midst are painting them with the same brush, and if they want their thoughts taken seriously, they must take sides against the Moltov-cocktail-tossing horde and condemn the use of violence during their demonstrations. Instead there appears to be a misplaced sense of commonality and organizers of the protests in Toronto refused to condemn the use of violence and claimed that participants will resist in ways that make sense for them. Apparently this participation included the use of body armor, sledgehammers, machetes, crowbars, aluminum bats, dog repellant, bamboo rods and of course Moltov cocktails, but whatever the political swagger, it does not help one single poverty stricken individual to throw a Moltov cocktail into a police car. I think it is unfortunate that these amatuer anarchists took over a world stage for legitimate protest and arrogantly abused the idea of civic action. They are not real protestors, they aren’t even real anarchists… they offend the very idea.
