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Last night around 6:30 Downtown a peaceful demonstration in front of
the US consulate on University Ave quickly escalated into a riot.
"Hundreds of rioters - of all colors - surged north on Yonge, police
were pelted with rocks and eggs, hundreds of windows were smashed and
stores were looted." - Toronto Star.
It seemed that the crowd escalated to a thousand or so in demonstration
of the Rodney King acquittal of four LA cops. The "Black Action Defense
Committee" organized this demonstration. There was another incident
over the past weekend which also escalated the demonstration. That
being that a Toronto cop shot and killed a black man. The shooting took
place when the knife-weilding, accused drug person confronted the cop.
The report says that the cop shot the black man in self-defense after
being threatened.
It appears that a number of police,news media and by standers were
injured by flying rocks and bottles. Approximately 30 people were
arrested and numerous stores were damaged or looted.
It's a very sad day for Toronto and for Canada for that matter, when
things like this happen. It only takes a few to spoil the image of
"Toronto the Good". Please don't get me wrong, Toronto does have it's
problems, but maybe not to the same degree as most large cities.
I certainly hope these differences of opinion work itself out, not only
here in Toronto and Canada, but in LA as well....
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| Well, unfortunately you heard correct. What started off as a
essentially anti-racism rally in front of the U.S. consulate on
University avenue (one of the main thoroughfares to the financial core,
and really quite an attractive street-good for parades, caribana, etc)
turned into a peaceful march that turned ugly. I'm not quite sure why
the U.S. embassy was picked as a protest spot, but it must have to do
with the Rodney King verdict in L.A.
The protesters then wound their way to Yonge and Bloor (probably the
busiest street corner in the city (it's also where the two subway lines
intersect) to stage a sit-in.
I should mention at this point that there was a shooting of a black
drug suspect on Saturday night by a white police officer. The killed
man was an illegal immigrant, wielding a 12" knife and was in the
possession of crack cocaine. Apparently, a warning shot was fired
(non-standard practice) before he was shot at close range. The area he
was killed in was not an area I would proudly show tourists to this
great city as it has a large drug reputation. In fact, crime
statistics released shortly showed that area reported an increase in
crimes over the previous year.
Anyways, after the sit-in, the 'protesters' who were of white AND black
colour (I think) marched down yonge street (sort of like the
Kurfurstendam (sp?) in Berlin, or the Picadilly circus area in London.
Although I have been to Geneva, I can't think of any area that you
might be able to compare it to. On their way their numbers swelled
from the original crowd size of about 1000 protesters at the embassy to
5-800 mostly young people. Several stores had bricks thrown through
their windows, a few electronic (good for smash and grab type of
shopping) had their windows cleared out, hotdog vendors had their carts
flipped over and trashed, apparently a truck was set on fire.
I don't think that many were injured, but about 50 were arrested and
~100 stores damaged.
I watched with fascination and revulsion at the TV reports showing the
marchers walking up Yonge street. I did not get the impression of
racial rage, but more of a typical saturday night gone very, very bad.
I have walked the length of the famous 'yonge street strip' many times,
and can attest to the level of tension that hangs over the street.
This sort of rampage could have happened before but just never had the
right spark to set it off. Even that statement isn't really correct,
in that, as I said before, I don't think race was the entire motivator
of the mindless destruction. Unemployment in Toronto and Canada in
general is still at around 10% (far too high for comforts sake) and the
recession has hit Canada far harder than the U.S. As a result, there
exists in Toronto an underclass of 'street kids' that provide a good
resource pool for social discontent. (sounds a bit deep, doesn't it)
There were many sane heads in the crowd trying to urge them not to do
the stupid thing, but of course the mob-mentality prevailed.
The protest started at around 5/6 PM and the streets weren't cleared
until 11/12PM.
Final points:
If it had been raining really hard, this wouldn't have happened. Since
it was a very nice day, people came out to 'participate'.
The police chief was in Ottawa at a dinner thing. He cut it short to
return, but I am not impressed with him nor his reaction. It is time
he gets the boot. Additionally, the mayor June Rowlands reaction was
almost laughible in its' attempt to be serious.
The police force is far too white for a city that until recently was a
world-leader in multicultural urban living. There has been a large
amount of immigration coming to this city for the last 20 years,
starting with Italians, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Jamiacans and other
Caribean countries, and most recently, Hong Kong chinese. The Greater
Toronto Area is growing quite rapidly and its face is changing just as
fast. While there are certainly no ghettos there are communities where
a white majority would feel a minority. It's time to make a concerted
effort (small efforts have been going on for 1 or 2 years now) to make
the police force more representative of the community they 'serve and
protect'. If this means reverse racism for a short time, then so be
it.
It wasn't only a Black crowd. In fact the front page of Toronto Star
had a picture splashed the complete width showing a store window being
looted, and 2 of the 5 kids (all couldn't be more than 20 yrs old) were
white.
Lastly, if anyone is planning on a convention in Toronto, they probably
won't have as hard a time in getting accomodations; unfortunately.
Comments please.
Doug
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