Saturday was a protest march against the austerity measures being taken by the Quebec government. 10 people were arrested before it even started and charged with conspiracy and possession of a weapon, for sitting on the grass and wearing black. On Monday there was a march to the municipal court and the palais de justice to demand their release. The 10 had their court date that day at 2pm but I didn't make it, I ended up falling asleep at home.
Later that evening I went to UQAM with Dreads and met with Cinema Politica there and watched Dive which is a fun documentary about dumpstering. Dreads and I brought a whole box of found cheese and some others had prepared fruits, vegetables, muffins and dips (all dumpstered). The movie was ok I had seen it before with my parents but I enjoyed it still, there was a quick discussion afterward, which was interesting.
Later in the night I went to Katakombes with Chef and Crow, once we got there we ran into Rainbow and Crass. There were lots of awesome bands (five played that night, all for Radical Queer Semaine), I really liked the Sissy Fist (check out their song welfare http://www.myspace.com/sissyfist) and the Mistake Makers (http://www.myspace.com/mistakemakers). The night was rad, there was good moshing and I ran into a bunch of friends through out. I even kissed someone!
Woke up today, kinda worried. Today was the march in protest of police brutality. Last time I went I just managed to not get arrested (mostly by running through alleys and a bit of climbing). I talked to Kunoichi and we got ready to meet everyone (she took forever, bleh). Dreads was there, as were, Rainbow, Crass, a friend we met recently Kunoichi and I, we got into pairs (I was with Dreads) then headed off.
Once there we mostly stuck to our pairs. There was less people than we expected. Once we started marching things were going fine, and people were chill. However once we arrived on St Denis the cops kettled the majority of the crowd. Stuck between two lines of riot cops people threw projectiles and demanded to be let out. Cops completely ignored the demands, held up their shields and shot off a few stun grenades, yay cops, the kings of douchebaggery!
Luckily a apartment building that was between the two lines was opened somehow and by running through the parking garage and back up some stairs one could arrive into an alley behind the building :D
Some running ensued, a fence was climbed, friends were joined in the process and not long after we had made good our escape (not all of us mind you, at least a hundred people were arrested).
Dreads, the two friends we ran into and I went back to the house and ate and tried to figure out what happened to our friends. After a while everyone went home tired. Final results:
Everyone is free
Rainbow and Crass (and Igs who showed up during the march) were held in the kettle and dropped off at random points in the city and fined $488.
Our friends' friends are fine, as am I and Dreads is good too.
Showing posts with label pursuit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pursuit. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Batons, black blocs and pretty lights
In a class about leisure I was told that "deviant leisure" was a great way to gnaw at social bonds, upon hearing this I felt confused the people I was closest with were those that I got trouble with the most...
Today was pretty great. I went to the protest against police brutality, I went with Ice Cream, Australia, TKJ, Guts and Dreads was there as a photographer (not that it mattered later on). The protest was great and of course deteriorated into a proto-riot at the end. It started out pretty calm, an anarchist marching band playing music, people standing around and a punk throwing some muffins at cops. After we started marching towards the downtown (we never got out the suburbs since we were far and the cops...) a black bloc started to take action.
These guys were prepared and had brought along all kinds of goodies for the police and of course were decked out in head to toe in black. They started by shooting off some fire works at the riot cops who lined up on the sides of the streets we were marching down, it was really spectacular seeing the fireworks blow up against the police shields. They had some flares to throw around also. After their assault they broke up and slipped into the crowd. And for a while we kept marching just fine, As we turned a corner and started up through a playground some black bloc kids were kicking out bricks from the foot paths, but once we reached the middle of the playground people at the front of the march were telling us to change route and be careful because the police had cut off the initial route in their first attempt to break up the protest. As people gathered and looked for a new path we realized that another route was also blocked. As everyone walked into the last remaining street the black bloc kids were hurling bricks and fireworks at the cops to the cheers of everyone present. At this point I was with only TKJ and Australia since we had lost everyone else in the chaos. As we stood in the only clear street left we realized that we had been trapped, at the top of the street was a line of riot cops complete with shields and batons! We weren't immediately concerned until they began charging down the street beating everyone they could reach while shouting "BOUGE!" (French for move). At that point we had already decided we want to get outta the protest since I had an exam to write that I was already late to and Australia wasn't feeling it. We were walking into an alley when one of the riot cops ran past us shouting and or course hitting us with their batons (don't worry riot cop batons are padded), we dashed in to more dealings with the cops. I climbed a wall along with some others and crossed a yard into another street behind a police wall. I looked around having lost track of TKJ and Australia so I called TKJ, went back to the alley, helped a few people up the wall and we all continued to follow what was left of the crowd.
The remaining crowd was only a fraction of its former mass. We walked a few blocks, before having some routes cut off by police again, this time mail boxes and trash cans were upturned and some kids who remained from the black bloc turned over a cart full of woods and set it on fire, we looked around and saw that police were giving chase so we dashed down another alley way. TKJ traded phone numbers with a friend until police turned the corner and we vanished into another alley.
At this point we were set on just leaving (going back to the metro station where everyone locked up their bikes). We passed a gas station were we saw something strange, a group of protesters seemed to be hanging out with the cops right next to their cars; we were confused until we realized they were undercover instigators, they were there to cause enough trouble to "justify" police brutality, *sigh* bastards.
We got the metro without mush trouble after that and I was able to take my exam (I think I did okay).
Later that night I went to hang with Guts, TKJ, Dreads and Australia. We just kicked it, talked about the protest and went dumpstering, we found a shit ton of stuff but I only brought back a bit since the fridge is pretty full at the moment, can't wait to move, I'll be living with 4 or 5 people and will have two fridges!
Today was pretty great. I went to the protest against police brutality, I went with Ice Cream, Australia, TKJ, Guts and Dreads was there as a photographer (not that it mattered later on). The protest was great and of course deteriorated into a proto-riot at the end. It started out pretty calm, an anarchist marching band playing music, people standing around and a punk throwing some muffins at cops. After we started marching towards the downtown (we never got out the suburbs since we were far and the cops...) a black bloc started to take action.
These guys were prepared and had brought along all kinds of goodies for the police and of course were decked out in head to toe in black. They started by shooting off some fire works at the riot cops who lined up on the sides of the streets we were marching down, it was really spectacular seeing the fireworks blow up against the police shields. They had some flares to throw around also. After their assault they broke up and slipped into the crowd. And for a while we kept marching just fine, As we turned a corner and started up through a playground some black bloc kids were kicking out bricks from the foot paths, but once we reached the middle of the playground people at the front of the march were telling us to change route and be careful because the police had cut off the initial route in their first attempt to break up the protest. As people gathered and looked for a new path we realized that another route was also blocked. As everyone walked into the last remaining street the black bloc kids were hurling bricks and fireworks at the cops to the cheers of everyone present. At this point I was with only TKJ and Australia since we had lost everyone else in the chaos. As we stood in the only clear street left we realized that we had been trapped, at the top of the street was a line of riot cops complete with shields and batons! We weren't immediately concerned until they began charging down the street beating everyone they could reach while shouting "BOUGE!" (French for move). At that point we had already decided we want to get outta the protest since I had an exam to write that I was already late to and Australia wasn't feeling it. We were walking into an alley when one of the riot cops ran past us shouting and or course hitting us with their batons (don't worry riot cop batons are padded), we dashed in to more dealings with the cops. I climbed a wall along with some others and crossed a yard into another street behind a police wall. I looked around having lost track of TKJ and Australia so I called TKJ, went back to the alley, helped a few people up the wall and we all continued to follow what was left of the crowd.
The remaining crowd was only a fraction of its former mass. We walked a few blocks, before having some routes cut off by police again, this time mail boxes and trash cans were upturned and some kids who remained from the black bloc turned over a cart full of woods and set it on fire, we looked around and saw that police were giving chase so we dashed down another alley way. TKJ traded phone numbers with a friend until police turned the corner and we vanished into another alley.
At this point we were set on just leaving (going back to the metro station where everyone locked up their bikes). We passed a gas station were we saw something strange, a group of protesters seemed to be hanging out with the cops right next to their cars; we were confused until we realized they were undercover instigators, they were there to cause enough trouble to "justify" police brutality, *sigh* bastards.
We got the metro without mush trouble after that and I was able to take my exam (I think I did okay).
Later that night I went to hang with Guts, TKJ, Dreads and Australia. We just kicked it, talked about the protest and went dumpstering, we found a shit ton of stuff but I only brought back a bit since the fridge is pretty full at the moment, can't wait to move, I'll be living with 4 or 5 people and will have two fridges!
Friday, July 17, 2009
CTF!
The long awaited game of CTF, was really happy with it even though it could have gone a lot better. A bunch of traceurs were playing (all on the same team of course) and I was there with Crisis. We were on the blue team, there was a red team as well. Did pretty well mostly, social stealth was a big thing here, was not dark out yet so walking around looking bogged down by the heat got you far and usually left you unnoticed. Most of the time people did realize I wasn't supposed to be on their side I used some wall runs and low jumps over things to evade them, speed helps a lot too. I went in a black tank top with black cargo sweats, my waterboats and a black bandanna, Crisis wore the navy blue BDU pants and a black tee. Overall was a good time. Parkour was super useful here for both reach and escape (as it was intended), moved through construction sites, yards, streets and a variety of places to move in on the flag.
Here's the downside: Police cops ruined our game. After some how acquiring a map they patrolled the play area constantly and started to spread deception. Police officers told us (people playing) that someone had gotten hit by a car and the game was paused/cancelled/delayed, wasn't true at all. Later they shut the game down under the pretense that we didn't have a permit, I didn't know you needed a permit to run down the street.
Lessons learned:
Be aware of police if I ever set up a game of this sort (which I'm considering)
Social stealth works really well, adapt a look that works for the situation and walk past sentries.
Most people will rush in situations like this if they get into groups, not much tactics, especially on the defensive side.
Here's the downside: Police cops ruined our game. After some how acquiring a map they patrolled the play area constantly and started to spread deception. Police officers told us (people playing) that someone had gotten hit by a car and the game was paused/cancelled/delayed, wasn't true at all. Later they shut the game down under the pretense that we didn't have a permit, I didn't know you needed a permit to run down the street.
Lessons learned:
Be aware of police if I ever set up a game of this sort (which I'm considering)
Social stealth works really well, adapt a look that works for the situation and walk past sentries.
Most people will rush in situations like this if they get into groups, not much tactics, especially on the defensive side.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
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