G20 PROTEST EDMONTON July 3, 2010. part 1

Edmonton Sun: Frustration over police actions at the G20 Summit in Toronto spilled out onto Edmonton streets Saturday.

About 200 people protested the treatment of protestors in Toronto a week ago, as well as the participation of about 100 Edmonton-area officers in the security detail there.

"It's really impressive to see this many people turn out," said Keely Kidner, a 27-year-old phD student who attended the Toronto protests.

"We have a right to protest, to peaceful assembly. That's just too precious to have taken away."

She's protested a handful of times around Edmonton, mostly related to climate change.

"I've had a good relationship with police," she said.

But what she said were unjustified, heavy-handed police actions in Toronto - Including the arrest of her friend as he walked to meet his grandparents — motivated her to speak out.

"After seeing what happened, my trust has faltered a little. We'd like to be able to trust the police," Kidner said.

She got her chance to protest, walking the streets around Queens Park, Ontario's legislature, in downtown Toronto.

Minutes after she left the area, she said police clamped down on protestors in the zone.

Meanwhile, her friend Kevin Force was arrested for carrying a black hoodie and rain jacket in his backpack on the way to meet his grandparents, she said.

Kidner said police thought he might be "black blocking" — where vandals wore black clothing from head to toe when committing acts of vandalism.

He was not a vandal, she said.

He was released and not charged after spending hours in small cells without beds set up especially for arrested activists, Kidner said.

Back in Edmonton, protestor Paul Folk, who described himself as an anarchist, said he sympathized with the Toronto vandals.

"I support the black block tactics, but I'm not violent myself. I understand their anger. They're young and they've just realized they've been brainwashed for all these years," he said.

There were three EPS officers who watched the protest from a distance.

One who didn't want his name published sighed as the crowd chanted anti-police slogans.

"They have their right to protest, there's nothing we can really do," he said. "Everyone has their own opinion of law enforcement and police officers. Everyone paints their own picture, and we just go on."

More than 900 people were arrest in Toronto during the G20 Summit.

Cops in Toronto seized arrows, notebooks, gas masks, plastic pipes, spray paint, shields, crowbars, body armour and other items during the event.

richard.liebrecht@sunmedia.ca

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• G20 Summit
• Edmonton
• Protest
• Rally
• Edmonton Police Headquarters
• Civil Information
• Media Activism

[Slavestorms]

If you can't make them care then maybe making them ashamed for their moral cowardice would work as a wake up call.

[4swzb]

Thanks again Doug for your Relentless effort to keep truth alive...you work is so important...george

[Grimace]

thanks for covering this