Thread: Police accused of using provocateurs at summit

I came across this on www.fark.com.

http://www.fark.com/politics/


Police accused of using provocateurs at summit

Aug 21, 2007 09:14 PM
Canadian Press

OTTAWA – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.

Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.

The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.

Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.

Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.

"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.

The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.

Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.

Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.

"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.

"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed."

Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."

Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.

"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information," said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608?repost=yes

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

HaHa!! Proof that someone is out to frame the protesters and make them look real bad. This needs attention fast before its sweeped up under the rug.

This flat out sucks. What a great find, StokeyBob!

Here is the link to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow

Wow

Yep, there's a yellow triangle on the bottom of the arresting police officer's boot! Someone is guilty of conspiracy and probably a bunch of other stuff.

I just saw the video and the photos. Boy are they busted! Even if you can accept that the boots may very well be the most popular style offered in Canada, how do you explain how these "hostile" protesters were treated. Why did they choose to come to the front where the police were? Why didn't either one of them do something -anything to make their voices heard as to why they were there? Why didn't the cops immediately take and search the backpacks? Why were the masks not removed once they were in custody? Why is there no report of their arrests? If you ask me, more points to them being cops than points to them being protesters. I would laugh if it wasn't so real and so scary...

I think the most telling part of this video is the part where the three police officers disquised as anarchists went over to the wall and the police line and tried to whisper their way through.

The body language seems to read

"Come on man I know you are part of the line, but we are cops and we have been ID'd and we need to get out of here fast so just let us walk through and get away from this angry crowd"

You can see the three cops move towards the police line for comfort and protection once they get fingered.

Then you can see two of them against the wall talking to police in the line asking them to get them out. Then you can see a guy on the line shaking his head. Then they try to push through hugging the wall.

These guys are so busted.

W

This is a picture of the boots with a better resolution. Vibram soles are not that uncommon but these look like they are from the same lot.

Well, maybe that is a stretch.





P.S. The credit for this picture should go to webadmin at the Truth Brigade message boards.

http://www.truthbrigade.org/truth/viewtopic.php?t=1524

Originally Posted by StokeyBob

This is a picture of the boots with a better resolution. Vibram soles are not that uncommon but these look like they are from the same lot.

Well, maybe that is a stretch.

They were clearly detained by the police, yet the police never arrested them ? I read four protesters were arrested and they weren't these three.

Boots or no boots, the most telling thing is that those three men instinctively moved towards the police for protection when confronted by angry protesters yelling that they were police.

Anarchists with rocks in their hands would never move towards police defensively. They would not approach police near the wall and start obviously asking them question about getting through the line.

While you cannot hear what they are saying to the police you can see an officer on the line shake his head NO. Then they try to push through.

You can tell they are not confronting the police, they just want to get away from the crowd identifying them as police.

When the man pulls down the mask on one man, he keeps his eyes towards the police line. They are clearly imploring the police line to make exception and get them clear.

W