If a pie in the face is terrorism... what's this?

[ballz]

This is just ridiculous. Picture at the link.

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=23452903

Anti-Olympics rioters smash store windows

A group of more than 200 masked protesters smashed windows, vandalized cars and newspaper boxes and intimidated pedestrians in downtown Vancouver Saturday morning, before being confronted and dispersed by police in riot gear.

The anti-Olympics protesters, many dressed in black balaclavas and masks and carrying a ladder, smashed up to three windows at the Hudson's Bay store and one at the Toronto-Dominion Bank near the intersection of Granville and West Georgia streets.

The group also sprayed the windows with red paint and threw marbles and spat at police before marching down West Georgia Street toward the Bayshore Hotel in Coal Harbour where the International Olympic Committee members are staying.

But as the marchers neared the hotel they were turned back by the Vancouver Police Department crowd control unit and the 2010 Integrated Security Unit at the Cardero Street intersection.

The protesters were also involved in several confrontations with supporters of the Olympic Games.

At least one protester was arrested and at one point part of the group was encircled by police at the intersection of the Robson and Jervis Streets in the downtown area.

But by noon, the rest of the protesters had been largely dispersed by police, although some of the protesters said they planned to regroup later in the day.

Meanwhile Translink, the Vancouver transit agency, said it was forced to close the Lions Gate Bridge to traffic in both directions because of a serious accident, but the bridge was reopened at 11:30 a.m. PT.

 

[The Bread Guy]

C'mon, now, don't you think this is exaggerated?  After all, a protester says it wasn't all THAT bad - this, via the Canadian Press:

.... Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the Olympic Resistance Network accused the police of trying to intimidate Olympic critics and suggested the protesters hadn't been violent at all, even though many had been videotaped and photographed damaging property earlier in the day.

"Protesters have never been violent toward human beings," said Westergard-Thorpe.

"Property damage is not the same as violence, and it certainly is nothing compared to the tools that police have, manhandling them, pushing them, hitting them with bicycles."

She also said the people who were arrested weren't responsible for the property damage ....

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, it's the COPS who are the aggressors - this, from CTV.ca, on a Friday protest:

.... The protest was largely peaceful until objects began being hurled at police from inside a group of masked, black-clad demonstrators shielded by their own large banners.

Police reacted by beginning to push the crowd back step-by-step. Scuffles broke out on the front line as banners were torn down.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said two officers were hurt -- one stabbed in the hand by a pointed stick, the other taken to hospital after being hit in the shoulder by something thrown from the crowd ....

Protest & dissent = OK
Assault + Vandalism =/= Protest & Dissent

 

[Barts]

More from CTV.ca.  I can't see any legitimacy to what this organized group of anarchists (how can that make sense?) is doing.
[quote author=anonymous, arrogant and incoherent anarchist in story]It's upsetting when you're ‘standing up for people's rights who don't know that you're standing up for their rights and they are against you [when] little do they know, a few years down the road, they're going to be in our shoes themselves.  [/quote]
I'm not sure how pushing newspaper boxes down the street like sleds, or inserting them in plate glass windows = standing up for people's rights.

But on a lighter note, this:
[quote author=CTV.ca]...one stabbed in the hand by a pointed stick...[/quote]
instantly reminded me of this.

 

[GAP]

I wonder if they gnawed on the pointed stick after to disarm him........

 

[ModlrMike]

My favourite sketch ever!

 

[ArmyRick]

That was protest was an excuse for hoodlums to behave like jack*ss, pure and simple. Pick a cause and insert later on.