Anti-2010 Protesters "get Their Game On"

[dave199]

These people are fucking retarded. I could never stand people like this who like to rain on other peoples parades.

[GoNutz]

Wow you guys are something else. You know Olympics are special and pretty cool, it's an awesome party. But nothing is more awesome and sacred than Freedom of speech, and Freedom of assembly. Condoning violence on someone because they don't think the party is as cool as you do, is pretty wicked. I don't entirely know the story behind the protesters but I stick up for anyone anywhere who is protesting anything. That's our rights and freedom you're talking about. If we strip away the rights of the people that you all don't agree with, what's to say next week someone else disagrees with you, and your opinions and wants to strip away your rights and freedoms. So chill on the "bash their brains in", "police brutality" talk. You know I'm kinda new here, and I'm getting red minus marks, but if this is the kind of people you guys are, I really don't think I'd fit in, or want to be around here.

[cormiermax]

^^^

These people are not just "Protesters" There basically terrorist's who want to cause violence, they don't want a peaceful protest they want to scare people and basically ruin the even for everyone.

[Ikarus360]

Ok i'm horrible saying this, but really, i dont give a flying f*** if they beat the crap out of those protesters. Seriously, what a party poopers. The great part of Vancouver wants to enjoy the party, its not fair that they have to suffer just because of a minority >_> (specially when they keep thinking that violence is part of freedom...even freedom must have its limits)

[Faster]

^^^

These people are not just "Protesters" There basically terrorist's who want to cause violence, they don't want a peaceful protest they want to scare people and basically ruin the even for everyone.

I originally thought this assessment was wrong, but now that many of them are publicly saying they hope to recreate the Battle of Seattle and APEC, it is obviously the case the the organizers and promoters are hoping for violence and to make Canada, British Columbia and Vancouver look as bad as possible.

[GoNutz]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/02/04/bc-olympic-protest-plans.html

The leader seems to be on the up and up to me, just leading a protest against something he disagrees with.

http://olympicresistance.net/content/about

[Ikarus360]

Why i'm afraid we're going to have another Centennial Park Bombing...

This people are very dangerous for the games. Police must brute force whatever they like it or not

[Rob2012]

Why i'm afraid we're going to have another Centennial Park Bombing...

This people are very dangerous for the games. Police must brute force whatever they like it or not

No, police must use necessary force if, and hopefully not when, it's needed.

[mr.x]

Wow you guys are something else. You know Olympics are special and pretty cool, it's an awesome party. But nothing is more awesome and sacred than Freedom of speech, and Freedom of assembly. Condoning violence on someone because they don't think the party is as cool as you do, is pretty wicked. I don't entirely know the story behind the protesters but I stick up for anyone anywhere who is protesting anything. That's our rights and freedom you're talking about. If we strip away the rights of the people that you all don't agree with, what's to say next week someone else disagrees with you, and your opinions and wants to strip away your rights and freedoms. So chill on the "bash their brains in", "police brutality" talk. You know I'm kinda new here, and I'm getting red minus marks, but if this is the kind of people you guys are, I really don't think I'd fit in, or want to be around here.

If they're peacefully protesting and not disrupting traffic and events, that's fine - nobody would have problems with them. But that's not their intention.

And what happened to our rights to enjoy this event? Since when does the minority quash the majority?

These are career protesters, and many were responsible for the violence that happened at the Battle in Seattle.

Vancouver has been far too lenient with these groups in the past at Olympic countdown celebrations, but this time - during the Games - there is to be absolutely zero tolerance for such disruptive and violent behaviour.

[Sir Rols]

If they're peacefully protesting and not disrupting traffic and events, that's fine - nobody would have problems with them. But that's not their intention.

And what happened to our rights to enjoy this event? Since when does the minority quash the majority?

These are career protesters, and many were responsible for the violence that happened at the Battle in Seattle.

Vancouver has been far too lenient with these groups in the past at Olympic countdown celebrations, but this time - during the Games - there is to be absolutely zero tolerance for such disruptive and violent behaviour.

Exactly, X. The right to protest is important, and one I'm sure just about every Canadian - and VANOC - defends. But these guts have made clear their aim is far more than that.

Sigh. We had similar fears on the eve of Sydney. Hopefully, the same will happen here when the protest groups realise they're getting swamped by supporters.

[BTHarner]

I'm sure the security forces have planned for things such as this and if the protesters get out of line, they will be dealt with in the appropriate manner.

[mr.x]

^ and here it comes Roltel:

Anti-Olympic activists plan massive disruption on opening day of Vancouver Olympics

By Ian MacLeod , Canwest News Service

February 5, 2010 2:22 PM

OTTAWA — A call has gone out for anti-Olympic activists from across the continent to clog the streets of Vancouver and disrupt the first full day of the Winter Games.

Details of the planned Feb. 13 street march, called “2010 Heart Attack: clog the arteries of Capitalism,” appeared Friday on InfoShop News, a U.S.-based anarchist web site and Vancouver’s Olympic Resistance Network site.

“Several anti-capitalist, anti-colonial groups and individuals are organizing a demonstration respecting the diversity of tactics,” it announced.

“We expect your group to have a collective position on how confrontational you want to be during the demonstration. We also expect that discussion or proposal of illegal acts remains between comrades and affinity groups in order to keep everyone safe.”

The planned march will take place outside a designated area near the Pacific Coliseum for protesters to assemble. Police say the site and other “safe assembly areas” are not meant to stifle dissent, but rather to provide areas where protest is possible.

The online call to action urges protesters to support, “each others’ chosen method of resistance while not threatening the lives of those around us. It is a way by which we hope to create space for the realization of tension, uncertainty, action, humour and beauty as we strive for new ways to engage with each other and against a common enemy.

“As participants we agree to leave the policing of tactics to our oppressors, not our comrades; we will not attack each other for using methods that are not our own. Through a diversity of tactics we are stronger and more cohesive towards our goal of giving Capitalism a massive coronary.”

Organizers could not be reached to elaborate.

The march is to coincide with the first “autonomous day of action,” sponsored by the Olympic Resistance Network, which bills the events as, “action including anti-corporate actions, rallies to oppose militarization and more.”

“People are expecting trouble from the police, this is not specific to the 13th, but for all the actions that have been called,” said Harjap Grewal, a network member. “The police have never dealt with a situation where they’re actually doing security against a mass demonstration at an Olympic Games. They’ve done this at the WTO and the Free Trade Area of the Americas meetings, where they can basically set up a police line around one venue and they’re OK.

“But they’re dealing with 50,000 tourists and a city that’s going to have all sorts of things going on.” he said. “People are curious about what’s going to happen, but there’s always more of a concern in these situations about what the police action is going to be then what the protesters’ actions are.”

For months now, a loose coalition of anti-Olympic, anti-global, anti-poverty and anti-capitalists have been organizing protests to take place at the Games, always a favourite backdrop for demonstrators. Olympic security is responding with more than 15,000 police, military and private security guards and a total security budget of $900 million.

The only violence over the past two years has come from rebels who have claimed direct action against upward of 50 windows at nationwide branches of RBC, a chief sponsor of the Games.

Meanwhile, the risk of terrorism or other attacks aimed at disrupting the Olympics in Vancouver remains at a low level, the head of security for the Vancouver Olympics said this week.

As for smaller threats to the Games from the Olympic Resistance Network and others, Assistant RCMP Commissioner Bud Mercer said no citizen would be allowed to disrupt the Games in a way that breaks the law.

“Everyone has the right to enjoy the Games ...,” he said. “Not just the Olympic Resistance Network.”

© Copyright © The Vancouver Sun

And in amidst all this chaos will be a terrorist's opportunity to carry out a real terrorist attack...

[mr.x]

Police outline rules for Olympic protesters

Feb 05, 2010 12:41:30 PM

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - From soccer moms to anarchists, up to 1,500 demonstrators are expected when the Olympic Games begin a week from today. The police have laid down the rules for what they will and will not allow protesters to do. Both the RCMP and Vancouver Police say they want to make it very clear they have nothing against lawful, peaceful demonstrations that do not keep other people from enjoying normal lawful activities.

However, Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Steve Sweeney says they have plans for protestors who don't know what the 'no-no's' are after some anti-Olympic activists have pledged to do their best to disrupt the Games. "It depends on what they mean by disruption, again if they're going to tackle the torchbearer, that's unlawful."

Sweeney says police won't let demonstrators block the path of the Olympic torch either. Special areas have been set aside at most venues where demonstrators can vent whatever they want.

[Sir Rols]

Police outline rules for Olympic protesters

Feb 05, 2010 12:41:30 PM

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - From soccer moms to anarchists, up to 1,500 demonstrators are expected when the Olympic Games begin a week from today. The police have laid down the rules for what they will and will not allow protesters to do. Both the RCMP and Vancouver Police say they want to make it very clear they have nothing against lawful, peaceful demonstrations that do not keep other people from enjoying normal lawful activities.

However, Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Steve Sweeney says they have plans for protestors who don't know what the 'no-no's' are after some anti-Olympic activists have pledged to do their best to disrupt the Games. "It depends on what they mean by disruption, again if they're going to tackle the torchbearer, that's unlawful."

Sweeney says police won't let demonstrators block the path of the Olympic torch either. Special areas have been set aside at most venues where demonstrators can vent whatever they want.

That's fair and appropriate.

[Faster]

I think in the end they have already reached their goals, the IOC will be skiddish to award the games to Canada in the near to medium future.

[SkiFreak]

Just wait when Axl Rose doesn't show up. All hell will break loose at GM Place, er, Canada Hockey Place.

[GoNutz]

If they're peacefully protesting and not disrupting traffic and events, that's fine - nobody would have problems with them. But that's not their intention.

And what happened to our rights to enjoy this event? Since when does the minority quash the majority?

These are career protesters, and many were responsible for the violence that happened at the Battle in Seattle.

Vancouver has been far too lenient with these groups in the past at Olympic countdown celebrations, but this time - during the Games - there is to be absolutely zero tolerance for such disruptive and violent behaviour.

What's a career protester? I've protested before and violence was the farthest thing from my mind. If we take what Mr Shaw says as fact, then they're just trying to converge and be a mass, that's what a protest does. It has nothing to do with your rights vs. their rights, it's a public street. If you want to avoid it, plan ahead an go early. If the protests move into gray/less than legal areas than police should use the least physical force possible to apprehend the violating protesters and take them to the station give them their citations blah blah blah. I don't know how you can be too lenient with something as fundamental as free speech. If protesters are breaking the law (and not gerry rigged laws that are designed to be punitive to one group of protesters whom you choose not to like), then those protesters should face consequences.

[GoNutz]

Police outline rules for Olympic protesters

Feb 05, 2010 12:41:30 PM

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - From soccer moms to anarchists, up to 1,500 demonstrators are expected when the Olympic Games begin a week from today. The police have laid down the rules for what they will and will not allow protesters to do. Both the RCMP and Vancouver Police say they want to make it very clear they have nothing against lawful, peaceful demonstrations that do not keep other people from enjoying normal lawful activities.

However, Vancouver Deputy Police Chief Steve Sweeney says they have plans for protestors who don't know what the 'no-no's' are after some anti-Olympic activists have pledged to do their best to disrupt the Games. "It depends on what they mean by disruption, again if they're going to tackle the torchbearer, that's unlawful."

Sweeney says police won't let demonstrators block the path of the Olympic torch either. Special areas have been set aside at most venues where demonstrators can vent whatever they want.

The protest I was at, I knew the laws and rules, what I could do and what not to do, and luckily I wasn't arrested or maced, or had police bash my skull in. I think most of these protesters will do just that, and yeah it's a pain dealing with traffic anyway, but it'll pass, and you'll be able to enjoy your time watching the US kick butt!

[mr.x]

Whistler has a population of 10,000:

Olympic party already underway in Whistler

Crowd of 10,000 welcomes torch to venue city

By DAPHNE BRAMHAM, Vancouver SunFebruary 5, 2010

WHISTLER — It may be a week before the 2010 Winter Olympics officially begin. But the party’s already underway here.

This is a party, but there’s never been anything like this before.

So, it was no surprise that hours before the torch arrived at the base of the mountain and the cauldron was lit at 7 p.m., après ski was well underway. By 5 p.m. the village square was filled with music and close to 3,000 people, by one police estimate. Snowboarders were dancing in their boots and helmets. There was also someone in a chicken costume. There were Canadian flags on hockey sticks, on people’s faces, worn as capes and ponchos and small ones simply being waved. And, of course, occasionally the smell of B.C. Bud wafted by.

An hour later, the party moved to Skiers Plaza.

There an even larger crowd was screaming, singing and bouncing up and down as the torch-relay entertainers wound them up.

“It’s awesome,” said former Olympic alpine skier Brian Stemmle. “There’s so much energy here that it might be like this for the next three weeks.”

But Stemmle said he’s glad to be a commentator and not a competitor at these Games. “It’s way more fun and way less stress.”

Kenneth de Jong and Debbie Andrade held up the ends of a huge Canadian flag, singing and bopping to the music. They’re from Calgary, veterans of the 1988 Winter Games and here for both the Olympics and Paralympics.

“I hope I can keep this up,” said de Jong, who is here working for Vanoc.

Premier Gordon Campbell passed out B.C. government Olympic pins at the edges of the crowd, watched closely by RCMP.

Can Whistler keep this up? he was asked. “Absolutely. This will continue and it’s only going to get better and better,” he said.

This is what Vanoc CEO John Furlong, Campbell and everyone connected with the Games has banked on: that once the flame arrived, once the posters were up and the athletes started to arrive, the naysayers would be shouted down.

Even a few self-confessed cynics in the crowd said they were having a great time. “Why not?” said one. “We’re paying for it.”

Earlier in the day, developer Jim Moodie was one of the torchbearers at Whistler Olympic Park, the first official venue to have the torch pass through it. He’d worked on the athletes’ village. He’d spent six years volunteering for the organizing committee.

“We’ve waited 50 years for this,” he said. “I’ve been skiing at Whistler since it opened in 1966. It is really, really special ... It’s just so emotional.”

At 80, John O’Brien-Bell was the oldest of a group of 20 B.C. doctors who ran together for a kilometre with the torch.

“The relay has really drawn people together as proponents of the Olympics,” said the former president of the Canadian Medical Association. “Everything that the Olympics is doing for B.C. is worthwhile. And a lot of it should have been done long ago,” he said, mentioning the Canada Line and the Sea-to-Sky Highway improvements.

Others who ran with the torch or watched it go by talked about how thrilled they were to see it. Alphonso Garcia from Puerto Vallarta exchanged houses with someone in Brackendale. Garcia said he couldn’t imagine why anyone would have wanted to leave when the Olympics are in their backyard.

Garcia planned to be there when the torch came down the mountain at 7 p.m.

I didn’t see him. But by then the crowd had grown to 10,000 or so. They were entertained by Coca-Cola’s drummers and circus acrobats, and RBC’s speed-artist, who did his 99th painting (with only seven left to do). They bounced big, red beach balls and shook their blue RBC tambourines.

And finally, they turned en masse to look up the mountain. Former Olympic alpine skier and Crazy Canuck Steve Podborski stood at the top of the hill and lit his torch from the flame carried on a snowmobile by Julia Murray, a 2010 Olympic freestyle skier from Whistler whose late father, Dave Murray, had been Podborski’s teammate. It’s on the run named after her father that the men’s gold medal for downhill will be won.

Podborski skied slowly down with the torch — and, yes, a helmet over his white toque — and passed the torch to 17-year-old mountain biker Tyler Allison, who hopes to compete for Canada at the 2012 Summer Games in London.

The organizers wouldn’t let Allison ride his bike up to the cauldron. The crowd was too big, the pathway too small.

The cheer that went up when he touched his torch to the cauldron, that roar, it must have been heard halfway to Whistler Olympic Park. And with that much noise and all that energy, it’s hard to be a cynic.

dbramham@vancouversun.com

© Copyright © The Vancouver Sun

[TheZue]

What's a career protester? I've protested before and violence was the farthest thing from my mind. If we take what Mr Shaw says as fact, then they're just trying to converge and be a mass, that's what a protest does. It has nothing to do with your rights vs. their rights, it's a public street. If you want to avoid it, plan ahead an go early. If the protests move into gray/less than legal areas than police should use the least physical force possible to apprehend the violating protesters and take them to the station give them their citations blah blah blah. I don't know how you can be too lenient with something as fundamental as free speech. If protesters are breaking the law (and not gerry rigged laws that are designed to be punitive to one group of protesters whom you choose not to like), then those protesters should face consequences.

Now I'm going to trust you are actually from Ohio, because clearly you don't understand the people we have here who literally do nothing but protest. Many are on welfare, they don't have jobs. Yes all they do is protest. They'll protest over anything. It's almost to the point they'll protest because they had gas the night before. They don't want to protest peacefully, they want the police to intervene, and once the police do they want some brutality so they can cry about it to the media. It is a pretty standard event here. As for freedom of speech, they are often the ones ruing other people's ability to speak.

There was an incident in the 90s where some people were having their rent increased some absurd amount on land they had a long term lease on. They had built houses and planned on being there for a very long time. When the Prime Minister came to town they tried to have a peaceful protest in hopes of actually talking to him. Well guess who showed up screaming about capitalism and the usual garbage? Our resident wack job career protesters. They were loud enough, obnoxious enough, and so in your face the people who were there with a legitimate fixable problem were never heard. These people don't care about free speech, they care about getting their message out and opressing everyone else.

If they cared about free speech they wouldn't be so threatened by other people's speech to rush the stage and steal the mike. They wouldn't push small chilren out of the way at olympic events so they could scream at the stage. They wouldn't be throwing marbles under the feet of horses to disrupt a parade. They wouldn't want to actually stop the opening ceremonies, in fact that makes me think they aren't actually even concerned about the finances of the thing because that money will be spent whether they ruin it or not. They are babies crying out for attention from society. Instead of doing something positive like actually helping the homeless or something of use all they can do is tear down other people's work because they are pathetically useless.

They have places to speak. We have set up areas for protest. Nobody is saying they shouldn't speak. But they shouldn't interphere with the people who have positive things to say about the olympics and want to enjoy them. By "taking back the city" they are denying other people their rights to move through the city. But they don't want to stay in the designated spaces because their message isn't very compelling. If it was they wouldn't need to be destructive bullies.

[IceNarcissus]

There is a whole contingent of career protesters in Vancouver and you just need to trust it's there if you haven't seen it for yourself, GoNutz. This isn't your normal college-kids-disagree-with-tearing-down-a-city-park or vegan-girls-make-a-public-display-of-animal-skeletons, it's literally a few thousand people who make 100% of their living and spend 100% of their time on fringe left wing political causes that are (generally) anti-capitalist and anarchist in nature, and rarely (thankfully) terrorist in nature. A lot of people would argue that they aren't behind violent measures at all, but there are always the few individuals who are the extreme of the extreme that believes their viewpoint of the world warrants them to make public conflicts dangerous and potentially deadly.

Vancouver was the place that birthed Greenpeace, after all, and is the top destination for left wing Americans who want to escape the "downward spiral capitalist society" to find like-minded people.

[cormiermax]

Up to 1,400 out-of-town Olympics protesters:

By Geoff Dembicki

Somewhere between 1,000 to 1,400 people from outside Vancouver will join local Games protesters, according to Olympics security forces.

Most will come from across Canada, though police information suggests some American involvement. There will likely be “minimal numbers” from outside North America.

The estimates came courtesy of RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, who provided reporters with a Games security update today.

In 2007, delegates at an indigenous people’s assembly in Sonora, Mexico, called for an international boycott of the 2010 Olympics. The Olympics Resistance Network, a vocal protest coalition based in Vancouver, sent out a request for solidarity in early 2009.

A two-day summit for the "2010 Convergence" started Wednesday afternoon at two locations in east Vancouver.

The first major protest takes place Feb. 12, day one of the Games. A "welcoming committee" plans to meet at 3pm on the front lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Security forces haven’t identified any credible threats to the Olympics, Mercer said. Still, the 2010 Integrated Security Unit will go to “enhanced levels of resources” for major events such as the opening ceremonies.

Anti-Olympics activists have indicated their willingness to block roads and cause disruptions. A Feb. 13 protest is entitled “2010 Heart Attack: Street march to clog the arteries of capitalism.”

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Olympics2010/2010/02/10/protesters-convergence-Mercer/

Edited February 10, 2010 by cormiermac

[mr.x]

VANCOUVER 2010 DEMONSTRATION SPORT: SHOOT A PROTESTER WITH A TRANQUILIZER!

[dave199]

Don't they have better things to do with their time?

I just think it's such a waste of energy. What a bunch of losers!

[canuckfan]

And all this money it's gonna cost them to come and stay, wouldn't be better to give it to charity?

I hope they're not coming by plane or car. Think about the carbon footprint...