Andre,

While you certainly did not provide the deference that one should naturally show to someone connected to establishment institutions, I would say that the purposeful inclusion of "fuck off" at the end of the blogger's response to your intitial letter hints at his institutional bias and his probable parochial attitude relating to issues of state/corporate control of life in general.  Of course, anyone who has risen to the level of Torontoist Staffer should have enough professionalism and confidence to deal with some criticism.  However, your simple, and accurate, critique of his blog must have wounded his already fragile ego, ending in a respectfully articulate invitation to participate in some form of carnal pleasuring.

I just read Mr. Bird's blog post and watched the video and was impressed with Mr. Bird's intrinsic ability to distrust the stories from those in the streets, while innately seeing a violent outburst from a police officer as a shove, and a well-deserved one at that.  It reminds me of my experience with the "Battle of Seattle" back in 1999. 

I was in the streets of Seattle that day with a few people I knew, having taken a union negotiated Personal Day off from work in order to get involved.  The same sort of chicanery took place downtown that seemed to occur in Toronto.  At some point during the morning, before the actual marches/protests took place, a group of black clad anarchists, numbering no more than 30 to 50 from what I remember, rambled around the business district smashing some windows and doing some property damage. A convenient target for local media to focus on instead of the peaceful marches that took place.  As with Toronto, I couldn't help wondering, "Where were the police?"  Really, they were stationed all over downtown in order to set up for the protests, yet they could not organize themselves in order to chase down a small group of hooligans, or worse yet, agent provocateurs.  I know the same questions about in Toronto - where were the police, when this group of 'anarchists' decided to do some property damage?  Why weren't these people targeted and tracked down?  Instead, hundreds of innocent citizens and others had to arrested in a show of force.

That brings me to the police cars on fire - once again a convenient symbol/image for the mainstream media to focus on as a means of justifying the $1 billion dollar cost of hosting businessmen and dignataries, who could accomplish the same goals via skype, or email, or teleconference.  However, they must meet in person at taxpayer expense in order to establish further control and hegemony, or the new "global financial architecture", as I believe a S. Korean govt. official deemed it.  In Seattle, we too had our street fire which became an image emblazoned on tv screens throughout the night after the protest and the week the followed.  A week in which in the downtown area, all civil liberties were suspended in order to protect the well-being of the most powerful people on earth at the time. 

I remember at the end of the protest, maybe around 3:30 or 4:00pm, we were meandering down the streets of downtown and in the middle of the street was a large trash bin, you know, the big kind used by businesses.  Obviously, it had been moved from an alley into the middle of the street.  At this point, the major marches were over and the direct actions to prevent the WTO from taking place had already ocurred.  The official union marchers had dispersed mainly as they had to stay to the official route, but many other citizens and visitors still gathered and marched down various downtown streets.  At this point, there was no visible phalanx of police officers.  We decided to go home, which was a relatively short walk away from downtown in a part of Seattle called Queen Anne Hill.  So, we slowly made our way home and then turned on the tv to see what had happened.  The time was about 5:00 pm maybe.  In the hour that it took us to get from the march to the apartment, things had turned chaotic. 

At the same spot where the trash container had been, there was now a fracas.  At one end of the street were a battalion of police officers, black clad themselves with armor and weapons, including tear gas, and at the other end were the remnants of the marchers and other citizens, including my roommate, who had to start work at a restaurant at 5:30 or 6:00 pm.  In between the groups was that same trash container, now set aflame and this drove the news people on the television stations crazy.  They blamed the fire on the protesters and bemoaned the lost day of shopping.  I remember one media personality, who was almost in tears, wishing that "the beautiful shopping day" had not been lost due to this protest.  The police riot that ensued has since cost the City of Seattle millions in settlement money paid to innocent people who were attacked by the police at the behest of President Clinton, who, if I remember correctly, ordered the police, through our Police Chief, to move so that "order" could be re-established and the world could be shown who was really in charge.

Later on that night, when I talked to my roommate, he explained that the fire in the trash bin started when a tear gas cannister fired by the police landed in the trash can.  He told me he was right there and saw the police start the attack on the people.  It was only after the police first started shooting tear gas that the citizens started to make any move in retaliation.  My buddy worked at a first class steak house that was just around the corner from where the police riot took place.  It was soon after the police instigated chaos began that a second round of 'anarchist' mischief (i.e. - property damage) took place at a Starbucks and some other locations.

Naturally, the early morning property destruction, the fire in the trash can, and the late afternoon property damage were the main story on local media, with some reporting about the rally, the march and the message.  Yes, at least 50,000 people marched peacefully through the streets and, yes, the powers that be got the message and at every protest since then, the response of the elites and their institutions has become more draconian and surreptitious.

Two or three days after the main march, while the WTO still met and protests were banned, my friend that I had marched with took some signs and stood outside of the local ABC affiliate in order to signify our disgust with the media coverage.  While we stood outside on a main thoroughfare in Seattle, most people honked in support.  Of course a couple flipped us off and nobody from ABC would come outside to talk to us.  Who were we, of course?  Just a couple of crazy school teachers.  My sign read, "No More Lies."  The same as the shirt of the man in the Chris Bird blog post.  Apparently the lies continue and Mr. Bird helps to promulgate them with the fallacious idea that if only the two sides could talk peacefully then all could be well.  The pattern was set in Seattle, when authorities decided that the citizens were the enemy and needed to be kept at bay.  Mr. Bird thinks that in the negotiation that the parties have equal bargaining power, but the citizens are not invited to the table, except throught their "democratically elected representatives", who we all know, are beholden only to the interests of the citizens who elected them, and not to the powerful institutional organizations that perpetuate themselves throught the corporately controlled election process.

So, please continue to speak truth to power and learn along the way.  Some people were meant to be a part of the struggle to change the world and some were meant to blog about it.  I think we know where both you and Mr. Bird stand with respect to that idea.  Stay strong!

I prefer using the 'Guimond Method' as described June 13:  write some caustic reply... wait an hour... edit with civility... post.