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basseca — What the Protestors Saw
Published: 2010-06-28 17:24:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 2175; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 0
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Sunday afternoon at the south end of Queen's Park near the G20 protestors...Initially I was miffed at having cut off their heads (my camera was down by my waist) but the more I look at it, the more I like it. This is what the protestors would have seen... A sea of blue and black coming at them with all of their armour and armament, virtually faceless and impersonal... Cutting off their heads seems to reinforce the facelessness...
Personally, I think the white line helps complete the image... Kind of in a "don't cross this line" manner...
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Comments: 49
Faceless thugs with badges and guns. A shameful day in Canadian History. Nice capture, and I hope you didn't get your rights violated by these criminals in uniform.
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Thanks and thankfully no... My 6 year old was with me and they pretty much left me alone...
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I would have to agree with the facelessness adding so much to the photo, especially the way the rest of them seem to be fanning out behind a central enforcer. I've seen a lot of this type of photography (taking away the identity) and it really is a good way to add a kind of power to the shot. I also like how everything in the photo is still except for his feet; so yeah, nice shot.
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I like the composition. Cutting of their heads, no pun intended, really did fit the situation like you said.
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I like it even though the heads are cut off it makes it look really dramatic!
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I find this photo very interesting, Isn't Canada spouse to be known for peace keeping? Im do not know alot about the politics and whats really going on, but this photo just does have a good feel with me, Don't get me wrong the photo it self it great, but the feeling is wrong about, does anyone else feel the same ?
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I understand your thoughts. You're right, this doesn't happen a lot here, only for the protection of the world leaders for the G20 summit.
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It remains very ironic that so much money was spent on security, and we endend up withi so many people arrersted, almost a "police state", not to mention all those non-governmental organisations which had no or little possibility to get in touch with journalists or press room...
I feel deeply hurt in my pride and my confidence of an easy going democratic country....
But I guess we'll get over it....
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I agree with you so much. I think it just goes to show how far the federal government and police forces are prepared to go to stamp all over our rights...
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Really nice! It doesn't look unintended at all, and your comment is my thoughts exactly! Nice one!
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It's easy to say how much fewer law enforcement personnel is 'actually needed' because of how surprising the numbers were.
I think the Toronto Police made their effort to do their jobs. It's unfortunate that some innocents were targetted and arrested, but the police would have no idea who's who. Selected targetting isn't perfect.
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I couldn't agree more on the first point!
Not so sure on the second... My issue with the police is in the manner in which they treated the innocents that were surrounded and arrested. Everyone was assumed guilty. They wouldn't listen to anybody... Old ladies were standing there with grocery bags from the store around the corner. Many people there were clearly not involved and they would have been easy to separate from the others if they had simply been bused away and interviewed. The fact that they were held in the rain and couldn't leave unless they gave themselves up to be arrested is insane. While I understand the need for heavy security and precaution the police's singular response to everyone there was that of automatons, not adults. Yes, you need a firm response but after the action where they surrounded everyone, it just got stupider and stupider. Unfortunately, that and numerous other nasty, unprovoked actions like beating a journalist for covering the events clouds how amazing so many other officers were. We're going to remember where they crossed the line, not how honourably so many of them behaved.
Once again, if they stood up, admitted they made mistakes, faced the consequences and apologized I'd have a lot more respect for them as a whole. I tend to have lot of respect for many of the individuals, but not as a collective. Too bad the force has a history of never willingly admitting mistakes. I'd be very shocked and humbled if they did it in this instance! Can't see it happening though...
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that's unfortunate, and i would agree on you with all the points you've made..
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What they saw was faceless drones "Pretenders"
Nice shot
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I'd agree, especially if you came across those in full on riot gear. But personally, I have to tell you that over the entire week (and I work downtown) every cop I came across personally was nothing but amazing. There's good and bad everywhere. And unfortunately that includes the police force. My biggest issue with them is that the good ones never speak out against the bad ones or do anything to anything to tarnish their command, even when they deserve it.
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So true, well said.
There has to be bad cops so good ones can exist, this world is full of dualities. Especially when it comes to a Justice system.
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And said even better! Have an amazing weekend!
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I think this photo is amazing. It's really frightening, the way things got out of control there. And to think, people were complaining about how much was being spent on security. When it came down to it, bringing in all of those police officers was actually necessary, considering all of the chaos that errupted.
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As much as Saturday night was completely the fault of the Black Bloc anarchist goons, I think that the Police mishandled a ton of other situations and caused a bunch of issues themselves. Their press conference yesterday (today?) where they displayed "weapons" seized during the summit, the one where a number of their key items on display had nothing to do with the summit kind of shows how bad they might have handled it... And dug themselves a deeper PR hole by either being incompetent or by virtually lying to the press by choosing what they assembled to display.
Don't get me wrong. Every time I personally dealt with a police officer during the G20 it was a very positive experience. They went out of their way to be nice or helpful. The female officer who offered to take my daughter to an off-limits washroom was wonderful. The cops that pointed out cool things to shoot were amazing. I can't personally fault any officer based upon my experiences.
But the bullshit at Queen and Spadina, all caught on tape is stupidity incarnate. I blame the twits that gave to order to round up completely innocent people, just because they were in the wrong location at the wrong time, they will be remembered as commiting a pretty serious error. How could they forget that people live on that block, people who had EVERY right to be there or shop there. And no matter how much they try to spin it, it was wrong. And releasing everyone who was held unconditionally after several hours probably points to someone's understanding of how much they made Toronto look like a police state answerable to no-one - not to mention how badly they would have been making a horribly serious PR gaffe to have actually charged all of the innocent people caught.
And the fact that they've admitted that they referenced completely "made up" laws to treat people harsher than they were legally entitled to be treated.
Y'know, I might be willing to forgive them if they admitted that they made several mistakes... But I certainly can't see that happening.
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It's unfortunate about their mistreatment of innocent people. I really hope that they can admit their mistakes, but certainly a bigger mistake would have been hiring fewer officers. I guess things just got really out of control, really fast. I wasn't there (though it was certainly on the news and in the papers), but all of the images and videos seemed like they belonged to some war-torn country and NOT a city that I visit frequently, and a city where I'll be living soon.
Thankfully this event will probably only happen this one time in our lifetime (I think).
Regardless, this was a wonderful photo, and it most certainly has a story to tell and a message to share.
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DX yeah god, there were so many police, it was insane.
I love how this photo came out
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Thanks so much and are you ever right... I can't believe how many of them were around and the size of the packs they travelled in.
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You're welcome
I know... I was in Toronto twice while this was going on. Once I was there like a week before the G20 and there were still a lot of police... like, there were vans full of them, bicycles, helicopters, cars, and ones that walked Dx When I went there the second time, it was like a ghost town. So weird... I don't think we needed THAT many :S
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I like it! Seeing that come towards you would definitely get the adrenaline going!
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This was actually a fairly calm time and location. There were other things happening elsewhere but this area seemed like an oasis of calm. That's why I ended up here because I was wandering around with my 5 year old daughter and didn't want her to be at any kind of risk. I think having her there made the police quite open to having me shoot near them because they figured it was just a dad and his daughter.
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I really like how you caught the moment in a picture...
I really feel the rising panic a protester wud have saw..
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Thank you so very much!!!
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You are so welcome!
That weekend scared me tho..
watching it all on the news and the
2 cars burning...jeez..
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You know it depended on where you were... I took my 5 year old daughter down to Queen's Park on Sunday and there was absolutely nothing to worry about. As much as some of the police took very stupid, rights-abusing tactics (those that you can see all over YouTube) I have to say that the vast majority, those that I encountered over the entire weekend were nothing but wonderful...
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Thank you so very, VERY much!
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I agree. It looks intentional though.
Kinda wish I was there.
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they moved the remaining detainees to milton, maybe you'll get some action there...
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Did they really?
Wow, if I went, I could have got a free ride back!
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should have gone and gotten your protest on!
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Thanks! Although I'm pretty glad I wasn't there on Saturday...
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Sounds like Sunday was even worse!
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