Further Thoughts Against Olympics "Protesters"

19446_302753476915_580041915_3948176_8363620_nThe Games opened yesterday with the start of what I suspect will persist throughout the Games — agitators doing everything they could to dampen the party.
As the ceremonies occurred, protesters tried to push their way there, and the inevitable clash with authorities ensued. Two cops suffered minor injuries, but no protesters were harmed.
Here’s my thinking, okay?
Vancouver’s a leftist city. If you want to live here, you probably shouldn’t be a conservative-minded person. We don’t have a lot for you that way.
Greenpeace was born here. Charities and human rights organizations thrive here, volunteerism and activism are big. Lonely Planet claims our Commercial Drive is even Canada’s counterculture capital.
And I fucking love it.
I love living in a city that believes in a better world. I love living in a city that wants to be a part of the solution, that embraces the arts and humanities.
Maybe the city management needs to get on page with those qualities more, but I believe they have been gradually headed there — in the last decade anyhow, more so in the last year.
Mayor Larry Campbell began some good things in Vancouver. He quit, the post went to the next victor, Sam Sullivan, who I really hated in a lot of ways, but Sam continued Insite, the safe-injection heroin site responsible for the lot of positive developments on our Downtown East Side, the area notorious for heroin, AIDS, crime, and third-world poverty. Now we have “Mayor Gregor” Robertson, who’s already trying to make small but important changes on the East Side. More beds are available for homeless, a lofty environmental plan has been born, and the city’s on the verge of its most leftist, humane era ever. IMHO, anyhow.
People around the world NEED to realize that Vancouver’s Downtown East Side is a horrible place to have to live your life — in some ways — but it’s also a community with a strong and vibrant heart. A broken society doesn’t mean the broken people can’t offer an amazing contribution to society — and it’s breathtaking to see the positive steps the DES has taken in the seven years since the Games were won by Vancouver.
There have been a LOT of improvements. And there’s SO far to go yet.
So, I absolutely support ANYONE’s endeavour to improve the DES. I support a lot of issues the “protesters” are rallying against during these games.
I just don’t support their methods.
19446_302754406915_580041915_3948189_3656346_nI can HATE the way their fight is being waged while supporting the causes at heart — not as rabidly as they do, but enough that I feel their voice is necessary.
So, sure, I support the arguments to an extent, but what don’t I support?
I don’t appreciate angry protesters who shout down opponents. I despise activists who have moral superiority because of the virtue of their political views. I deplore people who seek remedies to their causes while failing to respect the rights and allowances of others they deem as being “better off”.
I hate hypocrisy.
And that’s a lot of what I see in the “professional protester” class of agitator here in Vancouver.
It crushes me!
THESE ARE SERIOUS ISSUES. They need to be heard! They need to be shown! The world needs to see that we have a homeless problem, because it’s the rest of the country shipping their homeless here for our “mild” climate that has caused our problem. Our federal government NEEDS to be accountable to all its citizens, and BC can’t foot the bill for “transplanted problems” from other provinces.
Yesterday, the agitators decided they wanted to BLOCK the torch relay. So what’d they do? They made the torch relay have to divert from the worst area of the Downtown East Side.
For other Olympics, they try to avoid their shame. Here in Vancouver, we had a route planned that would run through the most impoverished areas of the city, including ALL our citizens, showing the world a city can be fractured and yet together.
Until, that is, protesters decided they knew what was right for the whole of the Downtown East Side, and they blocked the torch, prevented the route from going through, and instead of torch commentators around the world saying, “Hey, wow, Vancouver’s showing us their famed DES, the torch is running past homeless people, being carried BY a homeless man!”, we found ourselves just talking about these asshole protesters.
And that’s the problem. The protest isn’t even about the people anymore, it’s about hearing their own voices.
When you fight your fight with little or no regard to what’s important to other people that you’re NOT fighting for — instead of fighting FOR something, you start fighting against everything.
Please, if you see wrongs in the world, SAY SOMETHING about it.  I goddamned well do, and you know it.
But don’t disrespect others. Don’t hurt others. Don’t shout down people to their face. Don’t damage property. Don’t assume you have the moral high ground. Don’t mock others for disagreeing. Don’t think you’re always in the right.
Don’t be a fucking asshole.
I mean, dude, it’s a short list.
Fight from a place of respect. Fight from a place of righteousness, but not arrogance. Allow that society can be a place that accommodates many viewpoints.
And once you master how to fight properly, please, for the love of god, don’t go developing shortsighted vision.
Don’t only look at how far you have left to go for succeeding, but remember how much worse it was before you began.
I’ve lived here. I know the DES is a bad, bad place sometimes. But it’s a far better place than it was. There’s hope there now. There’s change happening. Yes, it’s slow, but any productive, longterm change does take a long time to implement if it’s going to be done well.
Life’s filled with enough assholes. I don’t care if you have great political causes — if you disrespect people to make your point, you’re an asshole.
Yesterday, I stopped to listen to protest speeches at the Art Gallery. I’m glad I did! I appreciate their viewpoint, I admired their passion!
But when I saw protesters crossing the Art Gallery lawn and yelling ragefully at pro-Games people, my appreciation stopped.
Then, my “Who the FUCK do YOU think YOU are?” mentality took over, and I stopped caring what they said. I stopped supporting it.
And these issues are far too important to be fought by people so intent on angering the other side.
It’s tragic.
That’s why I’m so pissed off. I want the fucking idiot agitators to shut the fuck up so the people who know how to passionately argue their point, who are intelligent and accessible, who know the issues and don’t use propaganda to spur their points — I want THEM to get screen-time on coverage. I want THEM to be heard by the world. I want THEM to offer opposing views that make people think worldwide.
When people HEAR these issues we have, they have empathy. This is not a hard-sell set of social problems! You tell someone “Hey, this guy can only afford a $200 room every month, it’s crawling with roaches, the water’s unsafe, people are shooting crack, heroin, and leaving needles everywhere” — it’s pretty hard for them to go, “Oh, whatever.” The reaction is the same, that we all deserve better.
The MESSAGE isn’t a hard sell.
So why are these assholes selling it so hard, assailing others, disrespecting anyone who isn’t with them? They’re the George Bush “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” types of the protesting world.
But agitators, they’re not going to get an audience. They’re not going to win this fight. I don’t know if they’re even gonna make any headway at all.
And that’d be a fucking tragic crime. The world’s here. Get your shit together, make your point constructively, and please, let’s gain something from all this and find a way to attain a new goal we need to work together toward as a city.
Spraying pepperspray at cops when there’s no fucking reason to… what’s that accomplish?
There’s protesting and there’s agitating. It’s time BC’s demonstrators figure that out and stop including the assholes who make them all look bad. ‘Cos we all know it’s a small percentage who are this brand of fuckwit, and it’s unthinkable that they’re preventing these protests from resonating.
Don’t like my viewpoint? Fine. Don’t tell me I’m against freedom of speech. I’m not. Have you seen the amount of balls-all-out postings I’ve written on politics and everything else? I value my freedoms.
I’m not against freedoms.
I’m against selfish assholes who think they’re morally superior to everyone that disagrees with them — whether they’re on the right OR the left.
That’s what I’m against.
[Photos are shot by me.]

45 thoughts on “Further Thoughts Against Olympics "Protesters"

  1. Lisa

    Brilliant post. Dead on. Because right now, they are being carted to jail – how is that going to help them in any respect? Thanks for taking the time to look at this issue critically!

  2. Michael

    Having shot some protests last year the one thing I noticed is that the protestors in general are much calmer than their counterparts in any part of Europe would be.
    In contrast, the cops at times showed an utter lack of situational awareness. Who in their right mind waits until half a protest march is by, then turns on the sirenes and tries to drive in the middle of the crowd?
    I think what you see right now is a rather simple thing: People who felt they didn’t get heard in the past will now try whatever they can to get the (world) media’s attention, regardless of what the cost.
    I think a lot will rely on police reaction to how far they are going to escalate it, but you can expect that probably a lot of outsiders will come into Vancouver as well to take “part in the festivities”, much like in Seattle a decade ago. You can also bet that many will write favourable about the “last stand”.

  3. Terri

    I just bet it was undercover security police who instigated the violence. The REAL protesters were most likely set up by these rogue undercover officer/instigators. I bet none of the violent people (undercover instigator cops) were actually
    arrested. I bet the only ones arrested were the poor peaceful protesters who have a good point about the expensive, rights-denying, promise-breaking, Earth-destroying VANOC.

  4. Nicole

    Bang on about the protesters. There is no need for thuggery.
    That said, it’s shameful that they feel so disenfranchised that they feel they must be violent to be heard.
    (Oh, and Larry Campbell didn’t run against Sam Sullivan – Jim Green did 🙂 Larry was already a Senator by then)

  5. Brendon J. Wilson

    A-men. There’s a brand of whinging in BC that underwrites these types of protests. Business and commerce is cast as unequivocally evil, and the solution to every problem is that the government should pour money into addressing a symptom rather than the root cause.
    It gets tiresome, and ignores the reality that real progress is slow, painful, and requires alignment of a lot of moving parts. Real change is hard, unlike putting on a hoodie and a bandana and shouting out tired slogans in self-righteous indignant anger.
    .-= Brendon J. Wilson´s last blog ..Twitter Hacked =-.

  6. Amber

    Bang on. Totally, totally bang on. Certain actions weaken your arguments and hurt your cause FAR more than anyone on the other side ever could. Why shoot yourself in the foot like that?
    .-= Amber´s last blog ..The Valentine Blues =-.

  7. Terri

    Hooray for the under cover cops who infiltrated the protesters and started the violence! Now you have full reign to finish carrying out your planned ‘poverticide’. Wouldn’t have expected the violent undercover security to have acted in any other (legal) way. Now you have all of Canada screaming “Death to the POOR!”

  8. Terri

    Campbell was the best Mayor Vancouver ever had. How well he represented the murder capitol of Canada, him being a coroner and all. The coroner king of the murder city. How appropriate.
    Over 260 people (many are healthy young men) have gone missing from the DTES since the arrest of Willy Pickton. OBVIOUSLY not everyone involve at the pigfarm was arrested. Can anyone say, “Organ trade”?

  9. Zoeyjane

    @Terri: NO ONE is screaming “death to the poor” as a result of this protest, regardless of who instigated it. We’re – even those of us in direct opposition of the Olympics – in outcry of the disrespect that’s being portrayed by our own citizens. Being an Olympic boycotter, I find it ridiculous that I’ve spent the past hour, glued to Twitter, and scared to take my daughter outside, for concern that she may be harmed – accidentally, or not – by what is so far from a productive protest, it’s a joke. This isn’t community activeness and spreading of awareness for our housing/poverty crisis, it’s bullying.
    .-= Zoeyjane´s last blog ..On reigning it in =-.

  10. raincoaster

    Well, here’s an ex-Greenpeacer who used to organize protests and who lives on the DTES to give some perspective:
    I don’t think things are much better here now. The DTES as we know it is an artificial construct that dates to about 1985 when the government decided to take a low-rent district and turn it into a concentration camp for The Poors. And when I worked on the census, I included people living in “marginal housing” and worse, and had my reports sent back for “correction” because the numbers of homeless people I was reporting were “too high/unrealistic”. Oh really?
    Anyway…I can pretty much guarantee that there WERE ringers in the crowd to make it more violent. When I worked at Greenpeace these people came from two sources: the government and various recreationally violent groups and gangs who just love to fuck shit up. The government’s preferred modus operandi, however, is to put on a protest that actually DOES NOT DO ANYTHING.
    Look for government support of the Stop The Olympics movement in particular. Because it gets people out, they wave their hands in protest, and they go home feeling they did something, when actually they had no effect. You can see how useful the government would find that; bleeding off the urge to act, while preventing them from taking any action.
    Governments HAVE been known to send in “agitators” to discredit opposition movements, and VANOC is fascist enough that they might have done this, but I can tell you for sure there were a lot of people who just want to bash the shit out of something and were really looking forward to this as an excuse to do it while retaining their smugness.
    The dancers on Robson, by the way, aren’t a protest at all: they’re Improv Everywhere, a participatory performance art group that scheduled that dance weeks in advance. Protesters joined in, and why not?
    By the way, last night the media reported there were 25,000 protestors outside BC Place. Cathy and Dave were there, and they’re not exactly wild-eyed activists, and they say there were maybe 500. So there IS some “incitement and hyperbole” involved here; one has to ask whose agenda it serves.
    VANOC’s.
    It gives them license to do anything. You can see it on Twitter this second: “LOCK THEM UP! BASH THEIR HEADS IN!” and, in fact, my friend Kris got smashed in the face twice by a riot shield. I know this dude; he wasn’t breaking any windows, he was probably just taking pictures.
    Anyway, rant over. You did a great post, but please don’t fall for the “this is spontaneous violence by nasty, nasty dreadlockistas” rhetoric. You’re too smart for that.
    .-= raincoaster´s last blog ..Olympic torchbearer news =-.

  11. Mike Cantelon

    You make a lot of good points. The problem is a lot of the energy of more extreme protesters comes from frustration at being part of a sinking world. Corporations increasingly consolidate their power, the environment increasingly declines, and the gap between the rich and poor grows. As things get worse, and the establishment does nothing to address it, conflict will escalate.
    Side note: the phrase “professional protester” was created by corporate media pundits to demonize protesters in general. Anyone know who originally coined the term?

  12. Warren Daly

    Brilliant Post Steff!! You ROCK!!!
    Undercover Violent Cops? Strange Theory..I think this may be a product of our Paranoid..conspiracy theory culture…I absolutley despise the overuse of force and fear by many Police Officers..but I think the problem here is Ignorance more than anything…Problems are fixed through undertanding, empathy, patience and kindness not anger and violence…and violence can be physical or non-physical…The world needs more real activists like you steff…Id be happy to call you a friend any day of the week!
    Peace n’ Love
    Warren 🙂

  13. Terri

    Zoeyjane- I see you are one of those who scream, “CONVICT THEM WITHOUT EVIDENCE AND DENY THEM THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL!!!”. You must have lived in the wild west in your past life. This could have been the work of PAC-RIM for all you know.

  14. Terri

    Warren Daly – You are out of the loop. It is through blatant naivety of people like you that cops are able to pull this shit off. Me Paranoid? Please, you naively ignorant.

  15. Zoeyjane

    @Terri: I have no idea where you would gather that conclusion, but you’re entitled to your own opinion of me. But if you’re accusing me of being judiciously judgmental, you might want to examine how you decided that you could sum me up in three sentences. I’m extremely adverse to any climate in which innocence or guilt (and punishment) is brought upon any person without due diligence.
    I didn’t address your concern about WHO started it. I said that it was unneeded, inefficient and frankly, frightening to a mother who lives in the neighbourhood that protesters were being ushered toward (as a means to protect the downtown core, I assume).
    .-= Zoeyjane´s last blog ..On reigning it in =-.

  16. Chrissy

    Excellently put – this event has divided a city, and I see myself as largely neutral. I can see the excitement in people, and I can see the necessity of protest. But when barbed wire is strung across torch routes and black-clad balaclava wearing individuals aggressively block the way of innocent people just trying to enjoy an event, their voices are muted. They become thugs and crackpots. Their message IS so important, and part of me understands why they feel the need to employ such harsh tactics to be heard… it’s the “shocking” that makes the news, not the calm, eloquent, rational objector. Sad, but true. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out for the duration of the event. I hope in the end people around the world get a sense of how incredible Vancouver is, but also DO see the rough parts, not just the glossed-over, diluted, television version of us… thank you for posting this.

  17. Warren Daly

    YOu could very well be right Terry…Read my full post before you get upset…..The point I was trying to make is that Violence produces more violence and in this case it seems to be coming from both sides….Nothing will ever get solved this way…I am the first to critisize cops for many of their tactics…but me naively ignorant…probably the furthest thing from the truth…and you probably not paronoid..but rather searching everywhere for the truth…more likely that we both want to be part of a solution not part part of the argument….I just chose to focus on what I can do and not what others tell me seem to think to think they can prevent me from doing..All in all Steff nailed this post…cant say anything more than that! 🙂
    Violence is the Ultimated Ignorance, Our Revolution is Peacefull!!
    .-= Warren Daly´s last blog ..3 Straightforward Techniques To Get Your Website Top Rankings =-.

  18. Jay

    Infiltrators? Puhleeze.
    I’m usually first on board for conspiracies like that. If that’s the case then why didn’t all the other non-instigators jump them and hand them over to the cops and carry on peacefully? Was the mother with a stroller kicking over a mailbox on Robson an undercover cop? Get real.
    .-= Jay´s last blog ..j_holtslander: RT @DuaneStorey: Here’s a shot of the lady pushing a stroller that I saw kick over a newspaper bin, http://bit.ly/czsXDl #tnmh #van2010 =-.

  19. James

    Is it possible that those protesters were actually the establishment, or even cops planted by the BC gov’t or Vanoc? Would it surprise you if thats who started it so that that particular photo op could be avoided. Me personally I think it is more then likely. They planted cops as protesters in Quebec and in Seattle and probably in Denmark.
    Thoughts?

  20. Terri

    Warren Daly – Good to hear it Warren. It looked for a minute like everyone is being geared up to attack anyone who looks poor or is not in favour of the Olympic games and who voted against it democratically, as if THEY were the ones who started the violence. I bet it was a set up, because the people who held the march are my friends and they are NOT violent, just courageously poor. Anyone who thought they started it would be a bunch of ignorant fanatics….. to be honest.

  21. Ian Alexander Martin

    As I said over at my post:

    Well, frankly, SmuttySteff covers the whole local protest issue far better than could be even imagined within my capabilities, frankly. For as start, I’d probably be more sweary. Read her take on the matter right here. Honesty do it: you’ll be glad you did.

    And thanks for making me think, pass on the thoughts to others, and hopefully explain to the rest of the world that this city isn’t really full of wack-jobs ready to demonstrate how they can live down to other’s expectations of how incredibly illogical that can behave.
    .-= Ian Alexander Martin´s last blog ..Winter Olympics (They’re Being Held Here, You Know…) =-.

  22. A Scribe Called Steff Post author

    Terri, the only people rightfully going “HUH?” here are all those of us reading your comments.
    You’re a blathering idiot, and everything you say just further crystallizes what everyone else is saying. But, you know, go ahead. Shoot yourself in the foot. Even though I think you’re a moron, I’ve given you posting ability.
    Have at ‘er. Prove us right.

  23. Lara

    I have written and re-written this comment several times but I’ve realized I’m far too emotional to articulate myself rationally right now.
    I so completely support the right to protest and it angers me that their actions may harm their own reputation. We should all support peaceful protest. But their aggressive, hurtful and disrespectful actions are going to lead to disgust with protesters, which could very well lead to disgust with their cause, which doesn’t do ANYONE any good.
    I’m going downtown in a few hours. I’m mad that my printer is broken – I’d like to print up some fliers with the definition of hypocrisy on them along with “Don’t be a fucking asshole”.
    I’m glad you wrote this. Once again, if I find myself inarticulately stumbling around trying to explain my thoughts, I will pass on the link. You nailed it. As always.

  24. Zoeyjane

    Terri: I’m not sure why you’re choosing to use language that seems to be attacking me. You’re quotation of my words implies that I’m claiming ownership over the West End. It’s a neighbourhood, a community, that I belong to, not a place that I own any more than any other resident.
    Your proclamations of attacks on the poor are unjust, at least by anyone here.
    Do you know any of the economics behind your fellow commenters, here? Have you assumed that I’m well-off, or even middle class? If so, you’re incorrect. I’m considered to be living in poverty – sharing a 1 br apartment that costs me approximately 70% of my monthly income.
    Your ignorance of my words – that I am anti-Olympics – leaves your arguments toward me increasingly without a backbone. I am part of the community that has to deal with the cutbacks, and my friends have to as well. The fact that I was denied the right to vote no in the referendum by an employer who was staunchly for the Games (at the risk of losing my job) doesn’t negate my feelings.
    Consider a new past-time, if you thing debating is your forte.
    .-= Zoeyjane´s last blog ..On reigning it in =-.

  25. Kate W

    Nicely put, Steff.
    Some friends and I had the same discussion last night. Protest, which in essence is bringing to light important aspects in a system or situation that are being overlooked or disregarded, is necessary. But it always comes across to me as the ‘mob mentality’ version of dialoguing. Often the act of being contrary, or protesting, gets in the way of the argument you are trying to lay on the table. Eg. a few years back when the Bus Riders Union disrupted city council with chants and signs, etc., Mr Campbell had them removed. If their statement had been added to the agenda and the supporters could have shown their numbers when they were given the floor, their presence would have been much more effective.
    As soon as your main stance is to be opposed to the people you are seeking understanding from, the knee-jerk response is for them to ‘oppose’ you. Polarisation is the death of open discussion.
    But I digress…
    Thanks for putting this out there

  26. Annabelle

    You are making huge and sweeping generalizations that every person who was out there resisting the circus that is the Olympics is an “agitator”. I don’t believe that violence accomplishes anything, but the right to peaceful protest is a freedom we are so lucky to have.
    And how can you really think that allowing the torch to parade through the Downtown Eastside would really cause the world to finally open its eyes about the drastic housing problem we have here? By allowing the torch to pass through the Downtown Eastside would have been a slap in the face. If protesters hadn’t stopped the torch the residents would have. I work in the Downtown Eastside and countless residents were outraged that they would have the nerve to throw the torch in their faces.
    Do your homework before writing such garbage. And it’s Downtown Eastside not Downtown East Side and DTES not DES.

  27. Helen Martin

    I really appreciated the summation of the situation. Jim Green, who’s worked for the DES for dunnamany years, said he felt there was too much spent on the games & not enough in the area BUT he felt a lot had been done & he didn’t appreciate the blockage of the torch run at Victory Square where vets had prepared a presentation & where the fire dep’t had was also going to salute the run. The 4 local first nations are hosts of the games so why the -what I always think of as – Mohawk Warriors and other Nations were there protesting their brothers and sisters I can’t imagine. Anyone who hides their identity with a mask is not a protester but a thug and should be treated as such.

  28. A Scribe Called Steff Post author

    Annabelle, if the residents would have stopped the torch, you know what? They should’ve been allowed to do so.
    You saying they would have, that does jack shit — it doesn’t prove your point.
    If the residents would have had the opportunity, then, to stop the torch relay, how much louder would that have spoken around the world?
    Much.
    You’re the one jumping to the conclusion that I mean every person out there. I’ve distinctly said protest does NOT equal agitation, and that’s why I’m angry — the ones who are taking it up several notches are losing the message that so desperately needs to be heard.
    But, fine, whatever you want to think.
    BTW, if you do work down there, fantastic — honestly, I applaud that.
    As I said in my previous post, the torch going through that neighbourhood would’ve been a highly sanitized view, but at least it would’ve given commentators a chance to talk about the issues, see some of the people perhaps, but then the diverting of the route by protesters makes the conversation about the protesters.
    Personally, had the torch GONE through the neighbourhood and RESIDENTS stopped its progress so that the RESIDENTS became the story, I would’ve been ELATED that it was THEM stopping the torch.
    They have the fucking right, they’ve earned it. And I would’ve been elated because THEY would have been the story, and THAT’S what it’s all about.
    ALSO — it’s WHERE the protesters diverted it.
    I’m offended they diverted the torch from giving veterans the chance to be honoured for their contribution to Canada. They picked a shitty fucking spot to do it. They could’ve been a block further down.
    It’s insulting. They need to offend another group of society that deserves a tribute just to make their point?
    I don’t think so.
    It’s THAT shit I have a problem with.
    I honestly believe it’s maybe 150-200 particularly militant people that are the problem — not the 1,500 or so that have turned up at a couple of protests, like the Art Gallery one I attended.
    So, it’s maybe 10% of the crowd.
    Unfortunately, they’re a huge part of the problem, and every time THEY act, the message that the other 90% really want the world to hear, that gets lost.
    So, what’s the fucking point?
    And sometimes the residents need to be allowed to speak for themselves — usually none of us would see that covered, ever.
    And yesterday they had the chance to stop that torch relay and show the world why they were angry, if you’re right and that’s what they spoke of doing.
    Now who’s fault is it THEIR voices won’t be heard?
    Yeah, fucking ironic, that.

  29. Michael

    As I said in my previous post, the torch going through that neighbourhood would’ve been a highly sanitized view, but at least it would’ve given commentators a chance to talk about the issues, see some of the people perhaps, but then the diverting of the route by protesters makes the conversation about the protesters.

    You are making the presumption that the commentators would want to talk about the DTSE, which considering that it would be broadcast in the sports segment would be highly unlikely.
    As for the media in general: If it bleeds it leads. Meaning: If they want to show something of the DTSE they will try to find the worst hellhole and present it as representative of the entire community.
    Think I am joking? I had a buddy from Toronto pester me for months to “get him those photos”. What photos did he want? People lying in the street passed out and high on IV drug use or stabbing each other.
    That already is the perception outside of downtown Vancouver (just go out 30 clicks here in the lower mainland and you will hear similar views on the area).
    Did the detour / protests / street fighting change that perception? Probably not, but on the other it seems to get people all going on talking about what needs to be done, so maybe they aren’t a complete loss.
    As I said earlier this morning though, I fully expect more violence and chaos, the only ones who have something to lose are the game organizers and the city.
    Here’s a thought btw. Why didn’t VANOC organize a joint press conference with advocates from DTSE so that they could present their case to the world media? Yes yes, the Olympics forbid any kind of political statements, but if you read the press release yesterday by the president of Georgia he did use the tragedy for a political speech too. VANOC and / or the city could probably have gotten this sorted out if they would have wanted to, but as far as I can tell it has mostly been about containing the protests without crossing the line where they would get dragged into court and would get bad press for their actions.

  30. siri, your coworker

    Hey! Sorry to intrude on your awesome discussion group here, but when you said, “what’s the fucking point?”, it rang a bell in me. I started to have a sinking feeling that, somewhere along the line, for some very cunning people, this question is the point.. this question is the point we’re being driven towards.
    Further to what James and Mike mentioned about “agents provocateurs,” here’s link to a photo from the Montebello protest where the peaceful demonstrators turned over to the swat team a group of violent mask-wearing agitators who, it was later proven, were in fact undercover police (hence the masks, I guess).
    Notice in the photo how all are wearing the same police-issue boots. http://cupe.ca/gallery/albums/montebello-monday/Montebello_20_ao_t_050.sized.jpg
    Moral of the story? Before doing anything rash, make sure you’re not doing it on the say-so of someone just trying to get you in trouble and make everything you stand for look bad.
    Our democratic rights are fragile and fraught, and let’s hope we never get tired of improving them.
    Wicked blog, Steff!

  31. Terri

    Hooray!!! Black Water and their High-Powered rifles to the rescue!!! That’ll teach those nasty WINDOW BREAKERS!!! I’m with you Mayor Robertson, DEATH to the WINDOW BREAKERS!!! DEATH to all homeless who carry a black KNAPSACK!!! Hooray for BLACK WATER!!! They’ll SAVE the Olympics from those evil WINDOW BREAKERS & HOMELESS PEOPLE!!!

  32. Terri

    All the nasty, ignorant talk about the residents of the DTES and who caused the most violence during the games? Sports nuts. Maybe even some of you with the potty mouths.

  33. Terri

    My friend, an older gentleman who fought in two wars, lived in an SRO in the DTES. He was forcefully evicted from his hotel by VPD, with no where to go, before the games. He had a heart attack while homeless on the streets and nearly died before the city decided maybe they SHOULD give the veteran a good home. All heart Olympiads.

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