An undercover cop watched Lower Mainland anti-Olympic torch relay protesters in the rear-view mirror on Oct. 30, according to Victoria Police chief Jamie Graham.
"You knew that the protesters weren't that organized when on the ferry on the way over they all rented a bus, they all came over on a bus, and there was a cop driving the bus!” Graham told the 12th Vancouver International Security Conference on Monday.
Graham said protesters were “probably going to be violent,” so uniformed police infiltrated the crowd. A group of 300 people, many in Hallowe’en costumes, peacefully blocked traffic, diverted the torch relay and delayed its arrival at the Parliament Buildings.
“The relationships individual field officers have with protesters and so on just kills these kinds of disturbances and it worked extremely well,” he said.
Graham described the $220,000 policing bill as “well beyond our ability to pay,” but worth it.
"Police departments from all over the country have taken our game plan, our operational plan and adopted it as their own,” he said.
The day was not without incident. Graham said two ferry passengers were arrested for dumping water on an undercover security person, while two motorcycle cops wiped out on slippery pavement. “One of them was hurt quite badly, but has since recovered,” he said.
Meanwhile, a secondary security vehicle "got T-boned by an old guy who ran a red light.”
Bob Mackin reports for Vancouver 24 hours.
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DPL
2 years ago
Boy are we lucky to have so
Boy are we lucky to have so many undercover cops, drawing overtime while they keep watch on the peasants.The money spent in Victoria should come out of the police budget. I wonder if the cop driving the bus had a correct license for doing that job?
MichaelT
2 years ago
good they are doing their job
what's the problem?
I tell ya if some group was going around saying they would shut down union meetings, I'm pretty sure you'd be squawking to the cops as well.
idiots.
bcliberals_suck
2 years ago
Rights Schmights
"Graham said protesters were “probably going to be violent,” so uniformed police infiltrated the crowd."
And pray tell how is it that Chief Jamie "retired while being investigated for misconduct" Graham is so prescient as to predict "violence." Sounds like a little provocation was planned.
It's pretty ironic (and sickening) that someone who was so protected by things like rights, confidentiality and privacy has no problem trampling and excusing away said trampling on the Charter rights of citizens he's sworn to serve and protect. What a joke.
Different laws for cops and civilians, eh?
Frank
2 years ago
Typical
Boy, tough job those guys have. I wonder if they brought tasers in case they got bored.
Adam M
2 years ago
MichaelT
"I tell ya if some group was going around saying they would shut down union meetings, I'm pretty sure you'd be squawking to the cops as well."
Oh MichaelT, you and I know that the BC Liberals make shutting down union meetings legal before they do it.
Well, sorry, not exactly. They legally make unions pointless, negating the need for a meeting in the first place, thereby shutting down the meeting in advance. It's like traveling back in time to kill someone's dad before that person is conceived... except the only thing being killed is workers rights to demand fair pay.
Marysue52
2 years ago
police infiltrators
Every policeman or policewoman should make a serious decision very soon: Are they on the side of Canadians or corporations? On the side of the Working Class or on the side of the Predator Class? Some police--usually the incompetent, the bigotted, the misogynistic, sadistic and plain mad stupid--have already shown where their allegience lies--and it isn't with us. These morons give the really decent police a bad name! Fortunately, most of our police personnel really try their best to serve and protect us citizens and go the extra mile.
dgiVista.org
2 years ago
I wish I could control reality as well as VANOC!
ok, i just had to go to town on this one:
http://politicsrespun.org/2009/12/psychoanalyzing-vanocs-security-mentality/
Van Isle
2 years ago
I know a few people who were
I know a few people who were in the torch protest and they say that the uniformed police tried to provoke the protesters at the beginning of the march. Then there was a group of people who seemed to be in the protest but were dressed all in black with their faces covered in bandanas. The strange thing about these people is that they would come in and out of the procession and throw rocks at any RBC vehicle. Everybody saw what they were doing but the police didn't arrest them and left them alone. About the business with the marbles? To a person that I talked to are pretty well certain that it was the police who threw down the marbles. Why? To discredit the protesters. Also the protesters were pretty well disciplined in that they stuck together. The only unruly people were the ones dressed in black.
dgiVista.org
2 years ago
apologies for the multiple postings above
there was a script error when i posted my comment. it seemed to work like a xerox machine. :)
DPL
2 years ago
One wonders why multiple
One wonders why multiple postings show up often on this site? Somebodies computer has a few problems but since it happens to more than one person maybe the Tyee should check it out.
But most of us do know that when having a demonstration be learkt of the kooks who show up to "help" as well as they guys wearing police boots. I was in a couple of national strikes and in both cases a few outsiders showed up to "help". Show us you union card or some other identifcation or get lost got rid of them rather quickly. The guy with the video is around to help get you arrested.
janet666
2 years ago
i know a few people
believe it or not, i was there when bob mackin told the organizers about it on monday night to get their reaction before it went to press. very interesting how the realization of betrayal is processed ...
max von smartt
2 years ago
citizens arrest
maybe suspicious black "anarchists" should be tackled and searched and have their weapons, communication devices, id etc. confiscated and outed. sometimes i think protesters are too passive and timid.
funshoe
2 years ago
money back!
I say we ask for our money back! Tax money wasted and then proudly so? When is enough going to be enough? These Olympics are a complete farce of decency and personal freedom. They are going to happen so let's do something about how money is being spent. How OUR MONEY is being spent. We are putting up capital and demanding nothing of its return, in fact, we are content to have a few buildings that we could never afford to live in stand as our precious prize for a tax bill that will be paid by future generations. Let's just demand that ALL of the returns on this investment is returned to the public sector fairly and the private sector be given a fair profit share NOT the MOON!