{"id":574,"date":"2009-03-16T04:55:50","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T09:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/?p=574"},"modified":"2015-11-16T09:22:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T14:22:24","slug":"police-brutalize-anti-police-brutality-demonstration-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/police-brutalize-anti-police-brutality-demonstration-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Police brutalize Anti-Police Brutality Demo – again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 15th marked the 13th International Day Against Police Brutality<\/a>, and in Montreal the mood was tense after an unusually brutal year whereby police officers killed a young man after they found him playing dice with his friends. Early in the evening on August 9th, 2008, 18 year old Fredy Villanueva<\/a> was shot dead at point-blank range by Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe, as his accomplice, St\u00e9phanie Pilotte, looked on. After killing the unarmed Villanueva, Lapointe went on to shoot two of the other youth present, one of them in the back. In Montreal police abuse is systemic, and there are special concerns about racial profiling<\/a>, harassment of the disadvantaged, and police brutality in general.<\/p>\n

\"Protest

Protest Against Police Brutality<\/p><\/div>\n

Protesters met at 2 p.m. in front of Mount Royal metro station to express their displeasure with the Montreal police and their brutal ways. Organized by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality<\/a> (COBP), the protesters are demanding justice for victims of police brutality and the end of police oppression. The COPB also provides legal information<\/a> for people who are threatened by police.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately most years in Montreal the International Day Against Police Brutality turns violent once police begin attacking protesters. Ironically by instigating violence against those opposing police brutality, the police actually highlight the message that they are, in fact, brutal. Last year there were over 30 arrests<\/a>\u00a0after police turned violent.<\/p>\n

Dramatically-speaking, it has been a farcical year in Montreal with the police attempting to control the theatre in the streets, demanding\u00a0the banning of\u00a0masks<\/a> and even attempting to make illegal certain types of discourse, script or language<\/a>. Exacerbating these problems is the fact that the police not only want to curtail critical drama on the streets, but they have also upped the stakes\u00a0of their own intimidating performance;\u00a0\u00a0allegedly as a form of protest for higher wages, police have altered their uniform\/costume by dressing up in military fatigues<\/a>. Despite the fact that the mayor of Montreal has asked police to act professionally<\/a> and not to wear the camoflage pants at the protest, the police refused, essentially creating provocative recipe for violence.<\/p>\n

The protest began at 2 p.m. at Mount Royal metro station. Usually a bustling square, the public space was transformed into a huge carnivalesque gathering place, with protesters preparing to march as the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble<\/a> rehearsed.<\/p>\n

\"Chaotic

Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble rehearsing<\/p><\/div>\n

The crowd was thick with arts-activists and many people wore masks of all varieties, a reminder of\u00a0the recent\u00a0victory\u00a0against the attempted mask-ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Lovely

Lovely dramatic masks<\/p><\/div>\n

One man even dressed up as a Taser to raise awareness about the deadly police weapons.<\/p>\n

\"Taser

Taser costume<\/p><\/div>\n

Visiting the fringes of the gathering was a surreal experience, as critical citizens and dramatic voices melted away to what resembled a police state. Hidden in alleyways were riot cops, two helicopters\u00a0buzzed overhead, and vans full of police officers lined surrounding streets.<\/p>\n

\"Police

Police chopper overhead<\/p><\/div>\n

More overtly, a few lines of riot cops were visible on most sides of the square. One officer\u00a0belonging to\u00a0the very police force that attempted to ban masks was actually spotted wearing two <\/em>masks himself.<\/p>\n

\"Officer

Officer wearing 2 masks<\/p><\/div>\n

Even more bizarrely, the horses of the cavalry unit were actually outfitted with riot masks.<\/p>\n

\"Even

Even police horses wore masks<\/p><\/div>\n

At 2:30 p.m. the crowd began to surge and move. The marching band started playing, vegetables were thrown and fireworks exploded in the air, adding to the festive atmosphere. The line of riot police had to get out of the way at 2:50 p.m. as the protest surged to the west towards the tony Saint Denis street, which was quickly inundated with protesters chanting “A qui la rue? A nous la rue!” The Reclaim the Streets<\/a> action quickly shut down traffic in both directions, and the avenue of pricey consumerism was transformed into a theatre of protest, complete with activist couples dancing as the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble played on.<\/p>\n

\"Dancing

Dancing in the streets<\/p><\/div>\n

As the carnivalesque march moved south, at around 3:25 p.m. it was greeted by a wall of riot cops on Saint Denis and Sherbrooke streets. Rather than let the dramatic march continue, police fired tear gas at the crowd, who responded by pelting their own projectiles such as vegetables, eggs, and paint bombs.<\/p>\n

\"Police

Police fire tear gas at activists<\/p><\/div>\n

The police responded with more tear gas and strategies to divide and disperse the crowd. Activists broke into smaller groups and police played cat and mouse with many of them throughout the afternoon, with reports of rubber bullets being fired at demonstrators. How many people were injured by the police is the subject of speculation, but there is evidence that over 200 people were arrested<\/a>, an unusually high number for a march of this nature. Shell casings retieved\u00a0following the police tear gas attack revealled that the chemical weapon is actually\u00a0called “Direct Impact”.<\/p>\n

\"police

police chemical weapon casing<\/p><\/div>\n

Upon reflection, this important\u00a0protest was very theatrical in nature. As activists struggled\u00a0for control of the\u00a0street performance to get the critical message out, police cracked down on the show with their own brutal theatricality. It was empowering to see activists countering the police’s helicopters, cavalry units, tear gas shells, and military costumes – with fireworks, a DIY marching band, Reclaim the Streets, dramatic performances, and a strong, clear message that\u00a0every Montrealer should heed\u00a0– no more police brutality!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 15th marked the 13th International Day Against Police Brutality, and in Montreal the mood was tense after an unusually brutal year whereby police officers killed a young man after they found him playing dice with his friends. Early in the evening on August 9th, 2008, 18 year old Fredy Villanueva was shot dead at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,36,5,3,118,1],"tags":[215,214,212,213,211,11,9,216],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community-issues","category-culture-jams","category-general","category-performance","category-uncategorized","tag-chaotic-insurrection-ensemble","tag-collective-opposed-to-police-brutality","tag-copb","tag-fredy-villanueva","tag-international-day-against-police-brutality","tag-montreal","tag-optative-theatrical-laboratories","tag-taser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2846,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/2846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optative.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}