G20....2

In the aftermath of the G20 let's-justify-the-expense photo-op staged yesterday, complete with media props such as burning police cars and endless CNN/CBC video loops of supposed “black bloc” urban terrorists trashing the same 3 windows at the Adidas Store and Starbucks downtown, you really have to wonder how gullible both sets of clowns think we all are. Well, if the subsequent twitterverse chatter and media coverage is any indication, it's hard to question the tactics of the right at the very least. In order for protest to be effective, it requires focus. The left continues to struggle with focus/direction and perpetually lose in the public opinion arena because of it. Yesterday's fisaco, the direct result of splinter groups within a larger and unfocused protest have come to dominate and define the day's events. It's yet another example of the left just not playing in the same league as their opponents. Amateurs.

The entire protest has been marginalized by the violence of a few, their voices drowned out in a sea of media noise focused on the flashpoints. Once again, the politicos played the media like a fiddle, leaving police cars burning for hours and looters untouched for the world and local media to lap up, record and regurgitate for the following 24 hour news cycle. I find it depressing that NO ONE mentions this (Hume came closest yesterday, but otherwise it almost never gets acknowledged). The left are like sheep - disorganized and unaware that most of what transpired yesterday played out exactly on cue and as expected. The G20/politico's/globalists understand and manipulate media optics to their advantage. For the most part all they need to do is pepper the set with visual symbols of power (security fences/riot gear/ temporary extensions of policing powers/etc.) and then just wait for the protestors to take the bait. Like clockwork, they inevitably do. It may be Machiavellian and smack of paranoia, but it's where the real power rests – understanding and directing the optics to marginalize your opposition ….and until the left understands this and finally starts working the optics to their own advantage, they will remain sadly powerless to effect change and advance their agenda.

In a shout out to the Roncesvalles BIA, the original estimate of 10,000 protestors was, in the early afternoon, revised to around half that amount. By 6pm however, the media estimates had climbed back up to 10,000 (it makes for better copy). With 5500 police in place and ON THE STREETS - that's one cop per protestor (or two if you believe the higher crowd estimates) - surely the 4 hour looting and property destruction photo-op-spree could have been dealt with more effectively. 19,000 cops and 0 firemen? Please......

It's a far cry from the 200,000(!?!) attendees of last year's Polish Festival, where I believe the Toronto Police Service coughed up an extra 3 officers, but then again, no one wants Keith Denning dead either.

This entire G20 weekend has been about the projection of symbolic power. The location, timing, extra security provisions, media centres, fake lakes, burning police cars, cops in riot gear, military helicopters, road restrictions, cement barriers and the +$1B price tag are all props to remind us who's in charge.

…..and it ain't you and I, that's for fucking sure.

To quote a black comedian whose name I can't remember, only white people run toward police in riot gear, bedlam, fire and explosions. Black people, quite sensibly, run away from them.

Too true.

(That isn't Jen Reed is it?)





Sporgey.