Toronto police deal with university protestors w/o tasering

There's a great summary of what happens in this video - or surrounds this video, on CityNews' website.

As much as I support students fighting to lower their tuition fees, the cops showed ADMIRABLE restraint in not shoving socks in the gullets of the shrillest protestors who were, at the very least, guilty of trespassing, and also making complete asses of themselves after the fact by claiming that this video "proves" police brutality. No beatings, no taserings, just removal of rowdy protestors?

Um, sorry honey bunches, but you failed to incite true repression. Go to Pittsburgh and protest a military recruiting centre if your lust for getting a beating is not sated.

Here's a long quote from the article, with considerably less bias than I showed above:
"U of T. Disputes Students' Version Of Protest Violence Involving Police

It may be a question of whether you believe what either side says ... A group of angry U. of T. students claim they were 'brutalized' by Toronto Police as they attempted to present the school's president with a petition protesting an increase in residence fees on Thursday.

They wound up staging a sit-in to press their demands. The students claim that while their supporters waited outside, about 35 tried to get a meeting with President David Naylor to address their concerns.

But that's where the stories about what happened next diverge significantly. They say the police moved in on those in the building, manhandling them and making them fear for their safety.

"The response of the University of Toronto was to violently remove students from their peaceful sit-in," a statement from the Students' Union charges. "The police aggressively grabbed students and dragged them away from the entrance of the office. The students feared for their safety and after four hours in the building, the police violence forced the students to leave."

They also insist the administrators they were there to see 'walked over them' in their efforts to get out of their offices.

That's not what happened at all, according to the brass at the school. A U. of T. spokesman maintains the protestors were there to complain about a host of issues outside of the institution's purview, including the war in Afghanistan and the quality of coffee at a local food chain. And he notes many of them weren't even enrolled at the school.

He insists police only moved in after a number of officers were attacked by increasingly rowdy demonstrators.

The students have posted a video on YouTube they say shows what happened and are talking to a lawyer about filing a formal complaint.

But the university maintains it was just trying to keep order and points out the demonstrators didn't even have their facts straight on the main reason for their gathering. He says they were griping about a 20 per cent increase in residence fees - when it's really only 10.

It's unlikely either side will ever convince the other of what really happened.

"It started with one of these undercovers grabbing me by the arms but then at one point there were three people grabbing me and trying to drag me away," student union president Ryan Hayes relates.

But spokesman Robert Steiner counters that it was the protestors who were harassing the staff, because they tried to trip them up as they left the building. "As my colleagues were being escorted out of their offices, and here we're talking about VP's of the university, the protesters were grabbing onto their legs, grabbing onto their arms," he maintains.

And as for the YouTube video? "I see no kind of evidence of anything they would call police brutality," Steiner makes clear. "If they want to file some kind of complaint, that's entirely their right.""

I put this in the cult channel because this is one of those shining examples where student activists look more like cult-members than intelligent protesters.

If only a Ghandi-like figure was around to teach them how to campaign with style.
12609says...

The accused are Farrah Miranda and Liisa Schofield, campus organizers for the Ontario Public Interest Research Group; Michal Hay, former VP university affairs at UTSU; Hayes, who is president of ASSU; Edward Wong, an ASSU executive; APUS staffers Oriel Varga and Chris Ramsaroop; recent U of T graduate Noaman Ali; Farshad Azadian and Semra Eylul Sevi, members of the activist group Always Question; and students Luis Granados, Golta Shahidi, and Gabi Rodriguez. The accused also include one minor who cannot be named, and who has been additionally charged with uttering a death threat. The minor is undergoing a separate legal process at youth court.

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