Silly Little Country

Are the Professionl Violent Protestors the Useful Idiots?

I had not thought of it this way, but Marcus Gee makes some very good points in this column.

John Thompson, who studies security issues at Toronto’s Mackenzie Institute, says that defending the G20 leaders against terrorism is consuming only about a quarter of the more than $900-million budgeted for security. The rest goes to fending off the rag-tag crew of street fighters who will honour our city with their presence in the next few days.
They are pretty clear about their intentions. In one Web video, kerchiefed rappers urge listeners to “leave Bay Street blazing.” A group called the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance will march on the downtown security fence in aid of its struggle against the “capitalist, colonial, racist, patriarchal, homophobic, transphobic Canadian state.” Its aim: to “humiliate the security apparatus” through “militant and confrontational” action.
It would be simple enough for other protest groups to distance themselves from this lawless fringe and commit themselves to purely peaceful protest. But they won’t.

None of this is news to me, but it seems to escape the standard CBC Worldview, and even more shockingly to me, it appeared to be missed by everyone on TVO's The Agenda last inght, when the focus was on balancing the billion versus the safety of the leaders, not protection of the city from those determined to get attention by causing destruction of various sorts. Shockingly, that show even allowed the canard about police provocation in Quebec pass without a demand for evidence; that canard has become a standard piece of leftist knowledge. (Yes there were police in the crowd dressed up in the standard protestor uniforms, as I would hope the police do this weekend as well, but no evidence I have seen that there was provocation).
But this had not really crossed my mind.

The fact is that activists find the violent fringe useful. Violence draws television cameras – if it bleeds, it leads – and cameras draw attention to the struggle. Activist leaders may not throw bricks themselves, but many will be quite content if others do.
And when it happens, you can be sure they will blame the violence entirely on the police.

Yes he is right and I had missed this; the CBC and the other rather feeble media will interview these guys who will truthfully say they did nothing, and then rather duplicitously, that they are shocked by the police actions (hiding the fact that they KNOW full well about the real cause of those actions.
To quote him making a good analogy:

When King Arthur accosts an annoying peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the peasant yelps, “Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system. Did you see him repressing me, you saw it didn’t you?” Expect lots of that kind of stagy complaint this weekend. But if real trouble does break out, remember that the groups who refused to commit themselves to non-violence are complicit in the result.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:00 AM