Montreal: 8 Undercover Cops Flee From Real Protesters

[NaxalbariZindabad]

Since 1997, there's an annual protest against police brutality in Montreal, Canada. The call for the march (http://www.cmaq.net/en/node/38973) is issued each year by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (http://www.cobp.resist.ca) (COBP). This protest is pretty much always the most repressed political gathering in Quebec. Scores of demonstrators are often arrested on bullshit charges (stuff like unlawful assembly, nuisance for traffic, or obstructing police work). Even the UN reprimanded the Montreal police (http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:Jv7IQQ9AescJ:www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/7616e3478238be01c12570ae00397f5d/%24FILE/G0641362.DOC+%22The+State+party+should+ensure+that +the+right+of+persons+to+peacefully+participate+in +social+protests+is+respected%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca) for their tactics of mass arrests. About 200 were arrested last year.

(All the pics below are from this year's march. You can click on some of them to enlarge.)

Here's an article (http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2010/03/16/News/Police.Arrest.100.During.March.Against.Police.Brut ality-3890447.shtml) in English about this year's protest. If you don't wanna read it all, here's a few highlights of it +comments:



According to that report, about 900 people managed to participate in the demo. (I say "managed" because the cops really do all they legally and politically can to repress it. For example, they shut down the public transport -- subway -- leading to the protest's meeting point. They also arrested some people before the start of the demo, like the woman in charge of the sound system.)


http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/4771/03152010mtlcrowd.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4250/03152010mtlcrowd2.jpg



The article says no protesters or cops were injured. (However, this is probably not true as there are pics of bloodied protesters on the web.)


http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7766/manif150501.jpg (http://ruefrontenac.com/images/stories/galleries/manifestation15mars/manif150501.jpg)
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3686/manif150601.jpg (http://ruefrontenac.com/images/stories/galleries/manifestation15mars/manif150601.jpg)



There was little vandalism, particularly compared to last year's $200,000+ in property damage. (This is without a doubt because this year's march took place in a working class neighborhood, while last year's was in a petit-bourgeois & commercial area.)



Still, the cops declared the protest illegal about 30 minutes after it started moving (because of a few firecrackers + fireworks).


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4438623104_8cd9e0b27e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamscotti/4436881221/sizes/l/)
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3089/manif148401x.jpg (http://ruefrontenac.com/images/stories/galleries/manifestation15mars/manif148401.jpg)



100 protesters and journalists were arrested. 17 had specific charges against them. The rest were arrested because "they were there" after the protest was declared illegal. (The funny thing about this is that when the protest was declared unlawful, the protesters couldn't really leave because the cops had just blocked another subway station right next to the crowd.)



The cops used paint guns to mark from a distance some people they wanted to arrest later.


----------------------

Anyway, here's the part about the 8 undercovers who had to run for their lives :lol: (Ok I'm exaggerating, they didn't really run for their lives, but still, it's funny to see them escaping scared from the growing mob.) Quebec protesters are less hardcore then their European counterparts. I guess if this had happened in Greece or Germany these guys would have been burned at a stake or something

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/7162/03152010mtl8cops.jpg

According to eyewitnesses, not long after the demo started, 10 masked-up protesters attacked a line of riot policemen. Turns out only 2 of them were real protesters, the rest were pigs. One can wonder if these 8 did it to establish their credibility as "protesters" or to give their coworkers an excuse for more repression.

However, some folks recognized them as cops and confronted them.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4438621090_48f2a06f37.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamscotti/4438621090/sizes/l/)

The cops were then chased away.
Someone filmed a good bit of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8cdnlU50Zs

There were probably much more undercovers then this group however. Just here we see more of them arresting comrades:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6273/manif150801.jpg (http://ruefrontenac.com/images/stories/galleries/manifestation15mars/manif150801.jpg)
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/8577/manif149901.jpg (http://ruefrontenac.com/images/stories/galleries/manifestation15mars/manif149901.jpg)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sT6lU1Uf2kA/S5_btU4cv_I/AAAAAAAAAy0/28ZSA9SfBP4/s400/arrestation.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sT6lU1Uf2kA/S5_btU4cv_I/AAAAAAAAAy0/28ZSA9SfBP4/s1600-h/arrestation.jpg)

Anyway, fuck the police!
One day there will be no need for these bastards anymore. :hammersickle:

[Comrade Gwydion]

Wow... That is..... dumb.

Undercovers performing arrests? Seriously. I almost feel pity for them. And all this while I thought they were denying to use undercover police against us?

[chegitz guevara]

Assault with a deadly weapon and showing pictures of it? Not smart.

[NaxalbariZindabad]

^ I agree it would have been better if these pictures weren't taken at all, but it's not an activist who took them, it's some reactionary who put them on his website already. I have now removed them from my post just in case, but I'm skeptical it will change a thing since they are easily available elsewhere. I hope the cops don't know how to use Google.

[jake williams]

Wow... That is..... dumb.

Undercovers performing arrests? Seriously. I almost feel pity for them. And all this while I thought they were denying to use undercover police against us?
In Quebec the police don't even pretend to deny it. They're pretty fucking bold about it, they practically brag about it actually.

[Delenda Carthago]

why my comrades were un armed?of course they gon flea,they had globs with them.and i see no safeguard in the protest,were there any?


check this out.greek anarchists in 90s out an undercover cop!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9z1cSwZL_M

ps.i know that i bust your nuts all the time with what goes on here,but its all i can offer to the converstation.

[danyboy27]

In Quebec the police don't even pretend to deny it. They're pretty fucking bold about it, they practically brag about it actually.

in montreal maybe, we dont have this kind of thing in quebec city, go figure why.

[jake williams]

in montreal maybe, we dont have this kind of thing in quebec city, go figure why.
At the Montebello SPP summit the SQ, not the SPVM, sent agents provocateurs who were captured on a now-famous YouTube video. The SQ denied it for a little while, and then basically said, yeah, we did it, what are you gonna do about it?

[danyboy27]

At the Montebello SPP summit the SQ, not the SPVM, sent agents provocateurs who were captured on a now-famous YouTube video. The SQ denied it for a little while, and then basically said, yeah, we did it, what are you gonna do about it?

still dosnt explain why i dont have this kind of thing in quebec city.

[The Vegan Marxist]

wow, although I congratulate the rioters for spotting out the cops in their group, I can't help but wonder where this post makes anything better.

"Oh, all they did was have fireworks & whatnot, I don't know why they deemed it illegal after that..." then it shows a picture below that showing cops being hit by these firecrackers. I could be wrong, & looking at this the wrong way, but it doesn't help make us look any better.

[NaxalbariZindabad]

^ I didn't really want to make any particular political point, I just tried to spread some information about the event.

Although I guess one could argue, from a social-democratic point of view, that relatively small incidents of violence (no injuries, no vandalism rampage) by a handful of activists should not serve as an excuse to outlaw a whole demonstration of hundreds of people. Which is pretty much what the UN Human Rights Committee said in its criticisms of Montreal PD ("ensure that only those committing criminal offences during demonstrations are arrested")

[lipmeister]

Actualy I knew that was going to happen. A friend of mine works in an army surplus store and he told me that 4 cops went in and bought merchandise that could make them look like anarkists. Everyone basicaly knew that there will be provocateurs.

And this is why anarkist tactics don't work, but play right into the hands of the cops :)

[jake williams]

still dosnt explain why i dont have this kind of thing in quebec city.
? Nothing else happens in Quebec City.

[blake 3:17]

Undercovers performing arrests? Seriously. I almost feel pity for them.

Seen it happen. Got whipped across the face by one. When melees break out figuring out who's cool and who's not is very very hard.

I hadn't heard of them using paint guns for later arrests before. Thanks.