Tag Archives: G20

Canadian style police brutality involving a prosthetic leg

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Mr. John Pruyn, 57, of Thorold was among the protesters at the recent G20 summit in Toronto; unlike most of the protesters, he has a prosthetic leg – but, so he alleges, that didn’t stop the police mistreating him:

“‘Get the four of them!'” Pruyn recalled a police officer saying.

“One of them put a knee on my head, and pinned me to the ground [and] my arms were underneath me,” he said. “And one of them said I was trying to resist arrest, but I wasn’t… I couldn’t move.”

Police then “yanked” his arms out from underneath him, tied his wrists together behind his back with plastic ties, and ordered him to get up and walk, he alleges.

“I said I couldn’t. So then one of them grabbed my artificial leg, and yanked it off and then they ordered me to hop.”

When Pruyn told police he couldn’t hop, they picked him up by his armpits and dragged him across the ground, scraping his elbows on the rough pavement, he said. His glasses fell off at some point during the altercation and were lost.

Police took Pruyn to a police van, where he sat without his leg for more than an hour, he said. He was later transported to a temporary detention centre in the city’s east end, given a wheelchair and put in a cell, he said.

Police refused to give him back his prosthetic leg for fear he would use it as a weapon, he said.

It’s difficult not to feel sorry for someone with a prosthetic leg, so, in spite of the nagging thought that Mr. Pruyn is well aware of this and has used it to his advantage, I am trying to see his side of things and feel the outrage he obviously wants me to feel at his misadventure with the Canadian police force. At the same time, I find myself valiantly struggling (Anglicans enjoy struggling) against a rising note of comedy that would find itself quite at home in a P. G. Wodehouse story.

Here is Mr. Pruyn shortly before losing his leg: his unwillingness to move doesn’t help his case, neither does the squeaky voice do much to bolster my resolve not to see him as Wodehouse creation:

Many years ago I was in San Francisco when flag burning was a popular way of expressing distaste for something or other the US was doing overseas. As I wandered innocently along the sidewalk admiring the view and inhaling the salty air, a man sidled up to me and suggested I cross the road; he flashed a police badge. I obliged and stood to watch the scene that unfolded. After a few minutes a couple of youngish men ran to the middle of the road and ignited a flag; police and news cameras followed. Before the police actually reached the young men, they started rolling on the ground screaming “police brutality” – all recorded for public edification. As Malcolm Muggeridge used to like saying – often while in front of a camera – “the camera always lies.”

Very probably Mr. Pruyn was treated badly by the police. In the aftermath, he does seem to be enjoying the attention, though: his photograph is popping up in newspapers all over the place – with and without leg.

Who gets to pay for the G20 Toronto damage?

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In the socialist paradise of North Korea or China, the government would cover the cost by selling the perpetrators’ body parts. In Canada, filled as it is with capitalist greed, we all get to pay:

Toronto Mayor David Miller said Monday that he’s sending the bill for damages and compensation from the G20 summit to the federal government.

Police vehicles were burned, bank windows smashed and storefronts vandalized Saturday as a small band of militant protesters ran riot in the downtown core.

As the city that resembled a police state on the weekend resumed business as usual Monday, Mayor David Miller called on Ottawa to assume financial responsibility for the mess.

“This is a federal responsibility. It’s their conference,” Miller said at a news conference.

G20 “prayer vigil”

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The Student Christian Movement has organised a prayer vigil:

Join the Student Christian Movement and friends for a nonviolent, prayerful action, to remember the victims of social and economic oppression in the G20 countries, and of IMF/World Bank economic policies worldwide, and to express our hope that the world leaders gathered in Toronto will act in the interests of all people, rather than just the economic elite.

We will gather on Sunday, June 27, at 2 pm, on the grounds of St James Anglican Cathedral (King and Church), and walk to the barricade, where we will remain in prayer and vigil for as long as possible. Some of the participants may choose to obstruct the entry point or the road, and may be arrested, but those who don’t choose to risk arrest can also be full participants in the vigil. Nonviolence and inclusiveness are important values underlying our planning.

You might wonder why the SCM members didn’t just pray at home or in their own local church. Simple: God can’t hear these kinds of prayers unless they are spoken while standing next to a barricade. Or, possibly, this has nothing to do with praying and is just another disconnected-from-reality bunch of left-wing monomaniacs angling to be arrested in order to reinforce their self-inflicted victim status.

Toronto police chief unveils bizarre new crime fighting strategy

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As thugs trash Toronto unimpeded, police chief Blair congratulates himself on not being diverted from the real job at hand:

After a day that left downtown Toronto looking like a combat zone, the city is bracing for more disruptions Sunday.

The demonstrators who broke off from a noisy but peaceful march against the G20 on Saturday and provoked hours of confrontations with police will be back, Toronto’s top police officer says.

“There will be more violence Sunday because they have not achieved their objectives yet,” police Chief Bill Blair told CBC News Saturday.

The demonstration Saturday split into two parts, as protesters from a variety of causes marched while so-called Black Bloc anarchists — who promote violent confrontation with the authorities — tried repeatedly to break into the secure zone where leaders of the G20 are meeting.

Police successfully moved to block the militants, who then smashed windows and spray-painted walls. Four police cars were set alight, more than 300 people were arrested, and hospitals and the Eaton Centre shopping mall were locked down.

Parts of the city’s subway and streetcar routes and commuter trains were closed down.

Confrontations continued into the early hours of Sunday.

“The tactic of criminal destruction of property was intended quite clearly to draw police resources away from that [G20] perimeter,” Blair said, but it did not work.

I only hope that once the G20 is over, this breakthrough crime fighting technique will also encourage police to ignore speeders and illegal parking in Toronto – on the grounds that the offenders are only trying to distract the police from catching bank robbers and murderers. One can dream.