Rob2012 Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 You can be liberal and left wing but without being an arsehole though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 The anti-2010 protesters are the polar opposites of the anti-healthcare/religious nuts in the United States. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceNarcissus Posted February 2, 2010 Report Share Posted February 2, 2010 After working around the stadium I would find it hard to think that protestors could infiltrate team 2010. Especially on the ceremonies teams as they are very strict security wise and also keep tabs on everybody regularly, where they are, what they're doing, how long they're doing it, who they are with, the people they report to, what they're qualified/cleared to do, and even the general idea of what else is going on in their life that they have to fit shifts around or fit rehearsal/actual opening ceremony time around. When you're calling/e-mailing at least once a day and establishing relationships with the production team/VANOC workforce people/contractors/performers/etc. it would be pretty easy for them to sniff out somebody plotting to cause some hijinks if that person hasn't folded in well or is found to be poking around suspiciously, or is just standoffish in general. Mind you, this is on top of FULL background checks and a grueling interview and orientation process in the summer and fall of 09, along with more orientations in November and December when the support teams were finalized. I predict any dire protest situation would be involving bicycles. The "Critical Mass" events are extremely annoying and they are most certainly planning an Olympic one at some point. If not the bike protests causing roadblocks, then the worst scenarios would be an all out attack on security forces from within crowds of spectators. I'm really hoping security is prepared and bold enough to hold back on protests, and even forcibly move people. It's better to risk the scrutiny of moving people to open up roads and pathways than to risk larger disasters by letting the blockages just happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jawnbc Posted February 2, 2010 Report Share Posted February 2, 2010 Unfortunately you're wrong. We've had a number of high profile incidents where the RCMP have used pepper spray or violently assaulted on peaceful protestors, arrested and detained protesters who were lawful and peaceful, and Tasering innocent people. All of which has escalated these conflicts. I have a good friend--a school teacher who was punched in the face and slammed on the ground by RCMP. His "crime" was holding up a sign when the Prime Minister came to Vancouver. The RCMP bought off all the others who filed suits against them...he refused. Yeah there are a lot of jerks among the anti-Games protestors. But we're a democracy and peaceful protest is why we're Canada and not China. I support peaceful, non-disruptive protest--even if I disagree with it. Ridicules anti-Olympic propaganda, If someone is being pepper sprayed or arrested by police they did something to deserve it. Why these nut jobs think this is helping there cause is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoNutz Posted February 2, 2010 Report Share Posted February 2, 2010 You know I used to agree and think these protesters are harmful, but after reading and watching some of the stories CBC has been posting, Vanoc's not winning any friends. And it seems like they have almost no public relations skills, and are sending out a tyrannical vibe. The City of Vancouver doesn't seem like it's winning any friends with the residents in the "Parking Restricted" areas either. If the protesters do something illegal the police should use the necessary force to quell it, nothing more nothing less. Condoning "brutality" on someone that disagrees with you is downright evil. I feel for the man on the story from CTV who won't be able to have his grand daughter visit his home for 2 months because his daughter is unable to park close to his home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceNarcissus Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 You know I used to agree and think these protesters are harmful, but after reading and watching some of the stories CBC has been posting, Vanoc's not winning any friends. And it seems like they have almost no public relations skills, and are sending out a tyrannical vibe. The City of Vancouver doesn't seem like it's winning any friends with the residents in the "Parking Restricted" areas either. If the protesters do something illegal the police should use the necessary force to quell it, nothing more nothing less. Condoning "brutality" on someone that disagrees with you is downright evil. I feel for the man on the story from CTV who won't be able to have his grand daughter visit his home for 2 months because his daughter is unable to park close to his home. The problem that VANOC faces is the same problem public relations wise as anybody else operating on a large scale in Vancouver and BC, and that is that in order to handle everything peacefully they have to in effect ignore the peaceful protests. Protest groups in Vancouver thrive on attention and giving them attention will only escalate conflict and create potentially dangerous situations. Why? Because local protest groups don't have any unified goals or leadership: these people are hobbyists and make a subculture living off of various types of organizations and political causes, which is absolutely fine and many of them do important work, but it also means that elements of danger or crime can exist within their ranks without responsibility or oversight. There is no "head protestor" Vancouver or the province could "negotiate" with because there are no specific terms of contention. It would also create a bad image of appearing to be losing control if any protest groups were acknowledged on such a publicity level. Ironically, VANOC perpetuating any perceived tyrannical vibe is the main ingredient to it being successful in handling security and civil disobedience. It's all about riding a wave of the status quo instead of risking inciting hysteria by "sinking to their level". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoNutz Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Wow -3 really? You can't make Vancouverites disappear, you can't condone beating someone's skull in because they're expressing an opinion. Vanoc's PR on all faces not just in regards to legal or illegal demonstrations is abysmal. Why aren't they spending some of that $6 billion on damage control. Silence is a bad response to negativity. So while the normal standard-operating-procedures for large events in Vancouver and BC is to ignore them, the rest of the world, is noticing the vacuum, and this guy from the Guardian is the first, but if the PR force of Vanoc doesn't do something I can't see the story going away. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/31/vancouver-winter-olympics-police http://www.kelowna.com/2010/02/03/what-theyre-saying-about-us-no-money-no-snow-media-around-the-world-have-started-writing-about-the-2010-games-in-vancouver-which-start-in-fewer-than-two-weeks/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jawnbc Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 I was at UBC when APEC happened--the RCMP escalated everything and were genuinely brutal. I was heading to class when I noticed a kerfuffle about 200m away. There was a noisy protest and a line of RCMP. Without cause they began pepperspraying students--and a CBC camera crew. Lots of people got injured. There was no perimeter fence; just a roadblock--the students were on the public side of the roadblock. Why? So that dirtbag Suharto wouldn't have his totalitarian sensibilities offended. The students were right--and had the right--to protest. There's lots of ways to control these things without pepper spray. A law school student standing on the front lawn of his residence was arrest and removed because he refused to put his sign down. Where he lived, on a public university in Canada. There were some dirtbags involved (Jaggi Singh comes to mind), but the whole thing was handled badly--and if the RCMP hadn't been tasked to "investigate itself", heads would have rolled. Canadians need to protect the right to lawful, peaceful protest--regards of the issue or event. That's what our country is about. Not disrupting, or assaulting or vandalizing--protesting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jawnbc Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 The local CBC radio guy--who's a lame journalist--fairly skewered the guy who wrote the Guardian piece to cite some sources. "It's an opinion piece, not journalism" was his refrain. When challenged about the budget overruns he wouldn't acknowledge that all the capital projects were completed on time and on budget--most 2+ year ago. "What about the village" was all he could come up with. Which the City of Vancouver has funded, but will also profit from. Unlike the rest of the continent, VAncouver's real estate market experienced a slight blip then went back to its usually 5-20% annual increase in property values. We're surrounced by water and mountains; this containment means property in the city will continue to increase in price. I'll guess the city will come out ahead by about $100 million on the villages in the end. Folks don't like the Olympics, fair enough. But skip the BS and lies...and do a bit of homework. Wow -3 really? You can't make Vancouverites disappear, you can't condone beating someone's skull in because they're expressing an opinion. Vanoc's PR on all faces not just in regards to legal or illegal demonstrations is abysmal. Why aren't they spending some of that $6 billion on damage control. Silence is a bad response to negativity. So while the normal standard-operating-procedures for large events in Vancouver and BC is to ignore them, the rest of the world, is noticing the vacuum, and this guy from the Guardian is the first, but if the PR force of Vanoc doesn't do something I can't see the story going away. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/31/vancouver-winter-olympics-police http://www.kelowna.com/2010/02/03/what-theyre-saying-about-us-no-money-no-snow-media-around-the-world-have-started-writing-about-the-2010-games-in-vancouver-which-start-in-fewer-than-two-weeks/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoNutz Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 The local CBC radio guy--who's a lame journalist--fairly skewered the guy who wrote the Guardian piece to cite some sources. "It's an opinion piece, not journalism" was his refrain. When challenged about the budget overruns he wouldn't acknowledge that all the capital projects were completed on time and on budget--most 2+ year ago. "What about the village" was all he could come up with. Which the City of Vancouver has funded, but will also profit from. Unlike the rest of the continent, VAncouver's real estate market experienced a slight blip then went back to its usually 5-20% annual increase in property values. We're surrounced by water and mountains; this containment means property in the city will continue to increase in price. I'll guess the city will come out ahead by about $100 million on the villages in the end. Folks don't like the Olympics, fair enough. But skip the BS and lies...and do a bit of homework. The story is lame, but shouldn't Vanoc PR/Marketing be quashing this stuff before it happens, instead of spending all the time talking about the lack of snow, and pointing out how they're bringing dump trucks full of snow from 2 hours away, when they should be doing puff pieces talking about just how great everything will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoNutz Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 More minus, I give up. Well at least the protesters aren't even close to the main story. The snow or lack thereof is now the big news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceNarcissus Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 More minus, I give up. Well at least the protesters aren't even close to the main story. The snow or lack thereof is now the big news. I really wish that you could understand the logic of the situation and why nobody can sit down and do news conferences or press releases trying to appease anti-Olympism. Regardless of whoever incites violence at any occasion whether it is the protesters or the police, it could have all been prevented if there hadn't been any physical aggravation en masse. This is somewhat of a post-modernist development in social order: At a certain extent there is no such thing as peaceful protest. People who occupy critical space at a large volume are indeed violent because they disrupt the paths of others who have the right to assemble at their intended destination which is no different than being physically moved, and they also are preventing routes and space for emergency crews. It's kind of like saying you laid out a land mine and somebody stepped on it but you shouldn't be responsible because you weren't there to physically create the explosion. Not doing anything and taking up space can be just as dangerous as being one person wielding a weapon. And how many times have we seen the news story that says "Violence at protest started by ______________ doing __________, but police are also suspected in the altercations. _____________ of the activist group ___________ says that the individual charged was not known to them and not a supporter of their cause, and they also went on to say they don't condone violent acts of protest. __________ of the other activist group ______________ concurred." Helpful, huh? Protesters aren't a unified entity and there is no way for them to regroup and stop violence from happening if there is one bad apple in the bunch. This is why the police need to be tough and jumpy. They need to react quickly if there happens to be just one person who's gone a little bit hell bent and decided to strap a bomb to themselves. Nobody condones the police beating protesters, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. It is far better to risk the negative media attention for minor assaults on a few than to allow windows of opportunity to open for some seriously heinous acts to occur. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted February 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 Vancouver's getting excited about the Olympics! I've been at UBC for about 5 hours now and I've overheard at least 2 dozen conversations about students being excited for the Games! It's a good sign!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted February 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 This sign would be a pretty good photo-op...it was actually [and sadly] approved by some left-wing city councillor loons about 5-years ago. They spent about 5-hours debating about it! Not sure if it's still up today...they're located at all of the city's entrances, the one below is at the Stanley Park causeway entrance: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeCee Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Those signs have actually been around since the 80s. Only recently, however, they put more up. Here's an article from the Straight about it (if you can stomach it the Straight that is..) http://www.straight.com/article-268634/nonuke-signs-go-olympic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cormiermax Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Just watched a news article on the CTV national news about the protesters. My god there stupid, why do they think this is gonna help there cause?? If anything the general public will see them as scum from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Here's the vid clip on CTV BC: Olympic protesters converging on Vancouver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 This is quite a worrying report. Olympic protesters converging on VancouverThe Olympic Resistance Network, which represents a coalition of social-activist groups in B.C., says it will do whatever it can to disrupt the journey of the torch when it reaches Vancouver and inconvenience supporters of the 2010 Winter Games. Representatives of the network told reporters Thursday that they are inviting protesters from around the world to come disrupt the Games. They said billions of dollars are being spent on the Games to entertain the world's elite when the money could have gone to help the poor. They said they hope to educate the world about Canada's poverty, homelessness and addiction issues. "The Olympic Games are a capitalist industry, it's a corporatized industry whose gains and profits are sought only by a few, while the majority of people in Vancouver continue to suffer," said network member Harsha Walia. Members of the resistance network have already disrupted the Olympic torch run in several places. They say protesters from Ontario have arrived in Vancouver and more are expected to come from the U.S. They say if things turn ugly, it won't be their fault. "If there is violence it is not coming from us. The only violence I have seen in these sorts of things has come from the police," said high-profile anti-Olympic activist Chris Shaw. The group is preparing for violence anyway. It is planning to set up its own medical clinic in the Downtown Eastside. And protesters have been advised to wear goggles and bandanas soaked in apple cider to counteract the effects of pepper spray and tear gas. With files from CTV British Columbia's Peter Grainger and The Canadian Press Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeCee Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 I hope they don't try to obstruct the SkyTrain (subway/metro) system in some way. That would certainly cause a lot of problems.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted February 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 I hope they don't try to obstruct the SkyTrain (subway/metro) system in some way. That would certainly cause a lot of problems.. So many things can go wrong really...if they block Lions Gate Bridge or any part of the Sea-to-Sky highway to Whistler, it's going to be chaos and police will be forced to use force to get rid of them and then they'll cry out "police brutality". I don't think they would try to obstruct SkyTrain, that would be quite dangerous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Vancouver needs Homer Simpson with his snow plow to drive right thru the protestors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.x Posted February 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Vancouver needs Homer Simpson with his snow plow to drive right thru the protestors. No, I actually want to see some police oppression. Most of these protesters deserve a beating of a lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 No, I actually want to see some police oppression. Most of these protesters deserve a beating of a lifetime. Or they need those riot control dump trucks as seen in the movie Soylent Green. Dump truck would come along and dump 'em in the back and just truck them off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cormiermax Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 I say let the army deal with it, send it some tanks and really give them a scare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Ask the Aussies to send the boxing kangaroo after 'em! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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