Theoria

No doubt most readers are more or less aware of what transpired in Toronto last weekend surrounding the G8 and G20 meetings. I haven’t read any international reporting, but if it is anything like mainstream reporting in Canada then it tends to be excessively pro-police and pro-state (if not always pro-government: the media, being a branch of capital, has no problem with the coercive functions of the state).

“It is the opinion of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association that police conduct during the G20 Summit was, at times, disproportionate, arbitrary and excessive. In our view, despite instances of commendable and professional conduct, the policing and security efforts, especially after 5PM on June 26 and June 27, failed to demonstrate commitment to Canada’s constitutional values.” Canadian Civil Liberties Association Preliminary G20 Report

“I know that some folks feel that their rights have been abridged, and there are avenues available to them and I would encourage them to pursue any remedies that are available to them through those avenues.” Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario

• Passing secret regulations in Cabinet designating (not published in The Ontario Gazette until after the G8/G20 meetings had ended)–or not!–a five meter perimeter around the gathering site as a “public work,” effectively suspending civil and political rights (e.g., in Canada, outside of public works, you are not required to identity yourself to police if they ask you to nor are you required to submit to searches–within public works, you are required to identity yourself and submit to searches; public works are ordinarily police stations, government offices, court houses, prisons, and the like); the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is apparently working on a lawsuit, however this would only address the particular handling of the regulation and not the regulation as such;
• Not only were huge numbers of peaceful protesters arrested without knowing the charges against them, many of the “detainees” were completely uninvolved in protesting at all–bar patrons, tourists, the homeless, spectators, people passing by, and even a LARPer; a Globe & Mail journalist reports her story here; and reports submitted to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association;
• The “black bloc” segment of the protest was allowed to riot unhampered by police (despite the police blocking off cross-cutting streets with human fences) and fortuitously stumbled upon abandoned (and stripped) police cars, which were then destroyed (but the video and photographs, frankly, look no different than a post-championship sports part in North America or after any hockey game in Montreal); video footage by journalist Joe Wenkoff;
• After plainclothes police stormed a protest outside the temporary detention centre (formerly Eastern Avenue movie studios) in a series of targeted arrests, a woman received a “muzzle blast” at short range for no apparent reason–of course, we shouldn’t fall into the error of believing this was exceptional violence: coercion and brutality are normal modes of being for the police;
• It seems highly probable that the police acted as “agents provocateur” in the “black bloc” segment given that it is highly improbable that participants in the “black block” would wear new Nike clothing (I am reminded of the scene in “The Wire” when Sydnor dresses up as a junkie and Bubbles makes fun of him for looking like a cop trying to look like a junkie); another video;
• Among the “weapons” seized by police over the course of the weekend, was a copy of Upping the Anti journal (clear confirmation of Althusser’s thesis: “Philosophy is class warfare in thought”) and a fantasy knight’s costume and foam weapons for use at a live action role playing game:

Note "Upping the Anti" journal at middle left

• Lastly, a video of a citizen refusing to submit to a search, captured by (what appears to be) a Toronto-based animal rights activist–the citizen is told that “we don’t live in Canada anymore.”

Some points to remember: police work for the society of capital and not for society as such (this is easily confirmed in any history of police), however, police always justifies their violence in the name of society as such. One of the originary functions of the state, created when power is separated from the control of the collective, is to concentrate the means of violence via the transformation of force into violence: the weak can use force, but they cannot use violence. Only the state can use or authorize violence. The significant victory of the police since Seattle has been shifting the terrain of the debate: rather than having capital under discussion, the issue of police violence is under discussion. Further, popular anger has been successfully directed at the police rather than at their masters.

(Later I’ll recount my story about being interrogated by military police on Friday evening for the crime of consuming a coffee and a snack in my car in a parking lot at the university where I work.)