Hi, how are you this morning? I’m still trying to come to grips with the fact that my city was turned into a war zone over the weekend…

I suspect that people all over Canada have seen the iconic image of that burning police cruiser on their nightly newscast. Here’s some video you may not have seen…

On Friday morning this outspoken young man questioned the legality of a mandatory bag search before he being allowed to enter a public park. As I wrote on Friday an emergency law was passed here giving police the power to do this — but only near the security perimeter of the G-20 summit. I’m not entirely sure what the law states as I’m still waiting for it to be officially published.

This video has generated a lot of discussion amongst my Facebook friends. What do you make of it?

I’ve included this video for two reasons: (1) to show the vicious behaviour of these plainclothed police officers, particularly the one in the poster frame, and (2) because at around 46 seconds (there’s a pause in the video) you can see a black bloc protester slip safely behind the police line. Was this person working undercover to observe and report, or were they planted to incite violence and justify a response in kind from the police?

That second thing has happened in this country before…

G20 – Cops Charge Protesters at Queen and Spadina, After “O Canada” from Torontoist on Vimeo.

I admit to having next to no context for this one, I just find it disturbing and sad that police would attack what seems like a peaceful crowd the moment they finish our national anthem. This also happened a few blocks from where I live.

I don’t know what else to say really, except that I’ll never look at a police officer in this city the same way again…