A second look at G20 police assault

Peacenik said there was no police forensic analysis of the video showing the assault of Adam Nobody. Chief Blair just keeps digging himself a deeper hole. When will the officers who assaulted Adam Nobody be arrested? When will Chief Blair resign? When will the rule of law return to Toronto, and when will it return to civilized society?

By Rosie DiManno


I see you, Mr. Policeman.
I see your mustachioed face, the visor so helpfully lifted up.
I see your arm — in short-sleeve uniform shirt — pumping back and forth, brutally beating.
I see the baton in that hand.
And do you, Police Chief Bill Blair, recognize this cop? Was he one of yours, pounding on Adam Nobody that awful day, June 26, 2010, when peaceful G20 protesters were assaulted by some law enforcement thugs at Queen’s Park?
If so, what do you intend to do about it now, sir?
The Toronto Star has come into possession of a new piece of videotape shot by a bystander that afternoon. It is 12 minutes and 20 seconds long — 23 seconds of which capture a vicious cop pile-on, officers pounding on Nobody, a stage designer who changed his name two years ago from Adam Trombetta for the pun value.
Read on...

Walkom: The G20 protests and judicial farce

By Thomas Walkom

Those who accused the authorities of criminalizing dissent during Toronto’s ill-starred G20 summit got it only half right. As this week’s judicial farce demonstrates, the people in charge of public security during that raucous weekend went off the rails. They acted as if potential dissent were a crime.

How else to explain the numbers? During the summit, police arrested more than 1,100 people. Of those, some 800 were jailed — in some cases for more than 36 hours — yet never charged.

Of the 304 who were charged, the government now acknowledges that nine were fingered mistakenly. Another 58 more had their charges withdrawn or stayed Monday during a mass court appearance. The reason? There never was enough evidence to charge them in the first place.

In some cases, hapless Crown prosecutors tried to cover their embarrassment by striking deals with the accused: Pay $50 or $100 to your favourite charity and we’ll forget the charges.

Read on...

Yep the police went crazy.
Peacenik says it is time for an official investigation into police misconduct. If the police broke the law, charge them. Accountability. Isn't that what the media was preaching for the protesters? Isn't that what the Chief was promising for the protesters? How about some police accountability. Heads should roll.

The Return of Punditman

Punditman has returned to the blogosphere to report on the G8/G20 Summits and protests and anything else that catches his eye.

Iran Said to Have Covert Nuclear Facility

Peacenik just watched Obama and Brown and Sarkozy get their shirts in a knot over Iran's "secret" nuclear facility. Looking grim they promised sanctions if Iran didn't stop doing whatever they say Iran is doing. By the way, the U.S., France, and U.K. have known about this facility for years.

Peacenik fears that as western leaders lose legitimacy they would like nothing better than heightened tensions with Iran in order to keep the sheeple terrified, and distracted from their own malfeasance. Who knows, they may even convince themselves that another war might be just the ticket. The neo cons in the U.S., highly placed neo cons in government and the media, have been openly advocating attacking Iran for years. If you were Iran, what would you do?

By DAVID E. SANGER and HELENE COOPER
Published: September 25, 2009

Richard Drew/Associated Press (left); Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

PITTSBURGH — President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France will accuse Iran Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying the country hid the covert operation from international weapons inspectors for years, according to senior administration officials.

The revelation, which the three leaders will make before the opening of the Group of 20 economic summit here, appears bound to add urgency to the diplomatic confrontation with Iran over its suspected ambitions to build a nuclear weapons capacity. Mr. Obama, along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, will demand that Iran allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct an immediate inspection of the facility, which is said to be 100 miles southwest of Tehran.

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Police Harassment Greets G-20 Protesters

Peacenik expected and witnessed this type of harrasment during the Bush/Cheney presidency. But this is Obama's justice department. Seems like the police didn't get the memo about civil rights and the right to protest. Or maybe there was no memo. Maybe protest is no more welcome in Obamaland then it was in Bushland.

by Robert S. Eshelman

Pittsburgh plays host this week to the G-20 summit, a gathering of leaders of the world's largest national economies and the European Union. And, as with many past international summits, protest groups are embroiled in legal battles over their ability to voice opposition to international political and corporate elites.

On Tuesday morning, lawyers for the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Center for Constitutional Rights presented arguments before US District Court Judge Gary Lancaster describing a pattern of unconstitutional searches and seizures on the part of local law enforcement against two protest groups--the Seeds of Peace Collective and the Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC).

Read on...

With Global Capitalism Exposed as a Sham, All the Global Elite Have Left Is Pure Force

That's right folks. You can't even protest what has gone wrong in the global economy or what will go wrong. You have no say. "De facto martial law". A combat battalion from Iraq to protect the G20 leaders in Pittsburgh from having to witness any protest.

It will only get worse. The leaders of the global economy are completed detached from the people and reality. They are incapable of fixing anything. They caused the collapse. Read the financial news and you can see everything coming apart. Peacenik doesn't think one battalion is going to be enough.

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted September 22, 2009.

Delegates from the world's wealthiest nations gather this week for G-20, walled off from protesters by a National Guard combat battalion recently returned from Iraq.

The rage of the disposed is fracturing the country, dividing it into camps that are unmoored from the political mainstream. Movements are building on the ends of the political spectrum that have lost faith in the mechanisms of democratic change. You can't blame them. But unless we on the left move quickly this rage will be captured by a virulent and racist right wing, one that seeks a disturbing proto-fascism.

Every day counts. Every deferral of protest hurts. We should, if we have the time and the ability, make our way to Pittsburgh for the meeting of the G-20 this week rather than do what the power elite is hoping we will do-stay home. Complacency comes at a horrible price.

"The leaders of the G-20 are meeting to try and salvage their power and money after everything that has gone wrong," said Benedicto Martinez Orozco, co-president of the Mexican Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), who is in Pittsburgh for the protests. "This is what this meeting is about."

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Debt Rattle, November 16 2008: Everybody Now!

Ilargi: Now the G20 meeting is finished, we see confirmed once more what I've said all along: the whole circus was an emtpy charade from the start, and nothing was achieved. Except perhaps for one notion that stands out: the vast majority of so-called leaders (isn't that a title you need work to deserve?) understand that it's everybody for himself.

The best illustration of this is provided by the fact that all participants agreed that a lot of studying and talking is left to do, before they meet again. Which is supposed to be in April 2009 (?!). That’s half a year away. Until then, the world will supposedly stand still. May I suggest you look back 6 months, to April of this year? Try some of the media headlines in those days. It'll give you a good indication of how much change can occur in such a relatively short period, and how useless therefore an agreement like this is.

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Peacenik watched the Sunday morning talking heads, went to the mall, did some shopping, and everything seemed "normal". The talking heads were more interested in Obama's new dog than they were in the G20 meeting. Lots of bonhomie. The mall was busy. The liquor store was busy. People enjoyed the Santa Claus parade. Meanwhile the economy continues to evaporate. While the ideologues argue about whether or not to save GM, GM is vaporizing. Peacenik thinks all this is very weird. It should be an interesting week.