Support your local police state

At 4 am on June 26/2010, I was awoken to 4 police officers in my bedroom (our side door entrance was closed but unlocked). The officer in charge (name unknown) was pointing a handgun at me and asked me my name and who else was in the house and then had one of his colleagues monitor me in my bedroom while they searched the rest of the house. They repeatedly said they had a search warrant and arrest warrant for me. At no point did they produce this warrant to prove my name was on it and I suspect they were lying. --John Booth, veterinarian, not a G-20 protester

While this idiot from the Toronto Sun does the "Support Your Local Police" shtick, a colleague of his who was actually there, instead of mouthing off from his comfy den off-site, reported what he observed:

Police were able to come into the crowd and single out suspects, taking them — bound with plastic handcuffs — to a nearby bus.

Maybe there was a new secret law enacted. Some cops thought this was pretty funny and like the sluggos causing trouble, wanted a fight.

"I just wish I could have pummelled the little bastards the day before, “ said one copper of the Black Bloc, adding it “would have been great to ring their skinny little necks."

However, there was no Black Bloc present and the us-versus-them climate created during this summit is one of the great disgraces of Toronto’s history.

And the love-your-local-cops National Post saw two of its photographers arrested without provocation--while, once again, their resident idiot sent up paeans of praise to the uniforms.

Two stories: those who were present versus loudmouth whoop-de-do columnists well out of the line of fire.

But let's end this, er, anti-climactically. Would Mr. and Mrs. Shaidle have been critical of overreaching by Toronto's Finest if they hadn't ended up being treated to a little of Harper's billion-dollar hospitality themselves?

Sometimes it's worthwhile having the rednecks exposed to a little reality. And this isn't Schadenfreude on my part. Do I support them on this occasion? Obviously. Civil rights are civil rights and there should be no political litmus test in that respect. I won't join those laughing at the unfortunate duo.

But at the same time I can't help posing an impudent question: if a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, does that sort of thing also work in reverse?

[H/t Chet Scoville and Stageleft]