Get your gas masks out, boys and girls

This weekend, the city where I live is hosting the G20 summit. And as such I'm staying indoors, listening to the radio, and hearing what is happening in the downtown area.

I support activism and peaceful protest, I have been involved in peaceful protests, but I can't sympathize with the people who are creating the violence that has taken over downtown.

I can't understand how people will expect others to listen and be aware of their cause when they are responsible for disruption and vandalism. A person trapped in their car during a traffic jam that is the result of a protest is not going to have sympathy. A peaceful protest rarely results in a difference being made; how will these actions do anything more than incite anger? Violence and oppression occur around the world everyday; I fail to see the logic behind a chaotic protest by people who want to spread messages of peace, justice, and equality.

And how can a person protesting these summits say that Toronto is now a police state? It is not a police state. A person who is here, protesting, exercising his or her right to free speech and demonstration, etc., is likely to have no way of knowing what it is really like to live in a police state. There exists a police presence downtown because of the events that are taking place. It is a response to the threat of violence, which has become a real situation. As soon as this kind of violence manifests itself, I see no issue with an equal response by authorities.

Continuing to listen to the radio, I heard an interview on the street with a protester who said that they are attacking places like Starbucks, and banks, because they oppose the sentiments of the corporations behind them. Fine. I get that. The protester said that they will not be attacking small businesses because that is the kind of business they support. However, only minutes later I am hearing about independent businesses on Yonge Street and Queen Street being vandalised.

I can't help but feel almost indignant about all of this. It's my fucking city. I know there's shit happening all over the world, and I like being safe from it. Stop trying to turn the place where I live into more shit. And why, if so many people are so opposed to the money that has been spent on this summit, are they creating a situation that will require more money, in the end, to put everything back together?

An acquaintance from university once told me that I am too "conservative". I forget even what issues we were talking about, all I recall was that I said I don't support radicals, and this whole idea that a deep injustice has been done to a someone on a personal level, and so they must lash out irrationally. She said that I didn't understand passion, especially passion for a cause, and we never really spoke again.

How is passion equated with violence here? I was always taught the opposite; the idea that passion is associated with love, not violence (unless of course I'm in the mood for a little sadomasochistic action, but that's a whole other area to delve into on another day). And how is this kind of violence proactive? I feel so frustrated at this kind of behaviour; on one hand, among many of the issues at the heart of all this are things I believe need to be addressed, the sooner the better. On the other, I can't have sympathy for these people at all, who claim police brutality and a police state, but from what I'm hearing they are being allowed to run amok, and there doesn't seem to have been any police-to-protester violence because they are allowed to demonstrate. And of course if there is a violent clash the reaction from protesters will be that it was unnecessary. Ridiculous.

P.S. My comments about people's complaint comes mainly from people on Facebook who are involved in protests this weekend who post pictures of police and caption things like, "This is the REAL violence, there are the REAL terrorists". Unless they are beating your ass for just standing there with a sign, I fail to see the validity of your point of view.