23:24 on 2012/05/24 Reply  

• mdblog 08:02 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  What a scoop.

• Ephraim 08:50 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  The policewoman was wrong and likely close to burnout. Still doesn’t make bullying her right, though.

• Bill Binns 09:42 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  That guy was begging for a nightstick across the bridge of his nose. The police didn’t raise tution rates, they didn’t pass bill 78 and they are not standing on the street in riot gear by choice. They do not deserve to be abused in that way.

• ant6n 09:49 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  What’s wrong with you people. Always claiming random “violence” of protesters against few windows is institutionalized; but defending the institutionalized violence against living people coming from police and the state.

• Bill Binns 10:01 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  30 days of protests, thousands of arrests, pretty much everyone present is carrying a camera or a cellphone capable of shotting images or video and the worst example of this “institutionalized violence” is one flagrant a-hole getting pepper sprayed?

• ant6n 10:39 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  strawman. There’s no claim that this is the worst or only example. And it become institutionalized because the police and justice system doesn’t properly deal with assaults coming from police offers – like the one by 728, which btw, targeted many bystanders, not just the loudmouth who still has the right not to be assaulted by the state.

• Hamza 11:12 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  Hey ant6n , I tried to make the same point yesterday and was met with ‘no name calling’ and ‘no snark’. We’re dealing with ppl who have no qualms about wishing bodily harm on others , while immediately going nuclear on anyone who calls them out on it.

  There’s a wise saying when dealing with this kind of behaviour – don’t feed the trolls.

• Bill Binns 11:19 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  @ant6n – It is the worst (only) example I have seen of anything aproaching brutality on the part of the police. Have you seen any others? Where are the photos of bruised and beaten protesters? Do you think it’s possible that this is occuring without being captured somehow? Everytime I have attended one of these protests, I have seen police calmly putting up with outrageous provocations. I think if you look at large scale demonstrations just about anywhere in the world you will have a hard time finding a police force that has shown greater restraint.

  I am no protector of the Montreal Police. For someone who does not own a car and spoends 90% of his time in his apartment, I have had a surprising number of negative experiences with them. However, I think in this case, they know they are being watched and filmed and have been on their best behavior.

• Kate 11:22 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  mdblog: if you don’t like what you see on this blog, nothing obliges you to read it.

  In addition, nobody is going to buy your “78 = 101″ principle. It just isn’t that interesting an idea. But if you think it has merit, please do start a blog – starting a blog is easy – and give us the benefit of your wisdom on the topic in your own space.

  Ephraim, Bill Binns: satire is always going to grow up around popular uprisings of this kind, it’s one of the human race’s weapons of choice. Too bad for Constable 728 – she stepped over a boundary into a world of hurt when she let loose pepper spray on people who posed her no threat. (Anyway, I was partly responding to Ian’s comment below about La Banquise renaming a pepper-sauce poutine after 728. It’s amazing how quickly satire spreads on the internet.)

• Josh 12:18 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  If you only want certain kinds of comments and commenters here Kate, just come right out and say it. I’ve been enjoying mdblog’s comments. As well as yours. As well as Raoul’s, qatzelok’s and ant6n’s.

  If it was just you, Raoul, qatzelok and ant6n, personally, I’d find this place much less interesting, and I suspect many others would get a lot less out of the comments.

• Kate 12:29 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  Josh, if someone just snipes “What a scoop” then my response is: why bother commenting if you’re just going to begrudge? I like comments that add to what I’ve posted, clarify points, bring up contrasting views, defend or attack opinions, not people.

  Abuse and ad hominem aren’t welcome here, but personally, what I most dislike is commenters who imply I’m somehow not living up to their expectations. This blog has been in existence for more than ten years. By now, people should have an idea what goes on here, and either they get something from it or they don’t. Poking me with a rhetorical stick is not a contribution, it’s a detraction, not just to me but to the general tone.

• steph 13:19 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  What I find deplorable is they expect protesters to call out and step up against any protesters that cross the line (ie black bloc) but the police will always stand as a brotherhood never condemning one another.
  Even worse is that the police claim they are the victims of the complaints now and won’t even be looking into every civilian complaint against officers. How stubborn of them to excuse the complaints as an attempt to flood the system. http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/conflit-etudiant/201205/24/01-4528375-lagente-728-dispensee-de-manifs.php

• Kate 13:35 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  Bill Binns: there are a lot of examples. I was struck by this Youtube showing police smashing store windows, just for starters. I spent about 15 seconds to find that one.

  I hadn’t intended to build a big case against the police here, but it wouldn’t be difficult if I wanted to. Unlike some, I’m willing to believe that most police want to do a reasonable job, and I’m aware that in any big city they’re asked to do difficult, messy and dangerous work nobody else wants to do, every day.

  On the other hand, there’s no culture of the good cops restraining the bad cops from acting like assholes, at least where the public can see. The fact that many people now carry pocket toys that let them take videos as evidence has not stopped some of them from taking out anger and frustration in inappropriate ways, but incidents like Constable 728′s may make them realize they’re now more accountable to the people they “serve.”

• mdblog 14:15 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  @Kate,
  Just the other day, you and some others were questioning how the GND rent story could possibly be considered news. I suppose I was asking the same question about this story above, albeit with a bit of snark. It’s not like I took up a lot of space, though perhaps I should have articulated my point a bit more – not that you would have agreed or supported me if I did.

  Maybe I will start a blog but just because I haven’t yet doesn’t make my views any less relevant. You care about Bill 78; I care about Bill 101. Both are bad laws and I’m saying that while we’re cleaning house, let’s clean the whole fucking house. Quebec has a lot of problems and I feel that the key to those problems is the fundamental injustice visited upon non-Francophones over the past 40 years by Franco-supremacists. Undo that, and you’d see some real positive change here. I love the French aspect of Quebec and I would fight to the death to defend it and I don’t need a fucking law to make me feel that way, ok? Or would they prefer that I just vanish?

  I’m not asking you to move or give up your fight so where do you get off telling me to do so with my beliefs. You provide a forum for discussion which I’ve chosen to use. I’m sorry I’m not towing the line but hey, that’s life. By the way, you say you abhor personal attacks but you tacitly support veiled threats. The other day ant6n gave me this whole line about how students will “remember” that the “Anglos” in the “West Island” didn’t support them and how this whole lack of support would be revisited upon them at some point. first he’s stereotyping all West islanders as Anglos (which they’re not) and all Anglos as arch-conservatives (which they’re not). Come on Kate, get your head out of the sand and look around you. Bill 101 and 78 are very much intertwined.

• Bill Binns 14:59 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  @Kate – Wow, what a clear cut case of police brutality in that video! Really? A police officer plinking out the sharp pices of glass on an already broken door of a business, who goes inside and secures the place all while being taunted by a-holes.

  If you want to see what it looks like when police get rough with protesters, look up video of the protests in New York or Greece or London or Toronto or anywhere else their have been big protests. It’s clearly not happening here.

• Kate 15:00 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  I feel that the key to those problems is the fundamental injustice visited upon non-Francophones over the past 40 years by Franco-supremacists

  Well, I don’t, and I don’t think anyone else here does either. Quebec has issues, but they stem more from bad economic management than language law. Snapping my fingers and disappearing the Charte de la langue française is not going to magically sort out our debt issues – never mind the fact that no government is going to disappear the Charte, so it’s academic.

  where do you get off telling me to do so with my beliefs

  It’s my blog, is why.

  you tacitly support veiled threats

  See, this is where you go into an area I find obsessive and paranoid.

  You want me to take up your cause, and because I don’t do that, you spread weird accusations like that onto me.

  Bill 101 and Bill 78 have nothing to do with each other. I don’t think anyone here is interested in discussing this further, and if you keep dinging on about this you will be given a time out to cool off.

• mdblog 15:39 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  @Kate

  Honestly, my goal is not not to have you “take up my cause”. I do find it strange that you have reacted so vehemently to my linking of Bills 78 and 101 though. I’m fine with you disagreeing with me but you do go a little far when you pretend to speak for all of your readership. I can’t be sure but there must be some of your readers who can live with me trying to link two bad laws together. Bill Binns? Spock?

  I really didn’t take you for having such a hard editorial line that needed to be towed. I’m sorry I challenged YOUR version of the truth on YOUR blog. I get it. This is YOUR soapbox. Geez, you didn’t have to be so capitalist about it.

  I don’t need a cool off period any more than the casseroles, the police, the government, the OQLF, the FEUQ, the CLASSE, quatelok, ant6n, or Raoul do. Point is you don’t want me on this site because I don’t agree with your politics, so I’ll respect that. Good day Ms. McDonald. I wish you all the best. :)

• Josh 15:40 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  Kate: Fair enough, but you seem to put people on one side of the debate in their place *way* more often than people on the other side.

• Kate 16:42 on 2012/05/25 Permalink

  Josh: Where does it say I’m committed to unbiased posting?

• Kate 00:12 on 2012/05/26 Permalink

  mdblog: as you wish. You were getting hard-ass with me and I should’ve realized you couldn’t handle the same medicine.

• Spock 17:02 on 2012/05/26 Permalink

  Stop just stop!

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