{"id":1399,"date":"2010-07-06T04:29:03","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T08:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2010-07-06T04:33:51","modified_gmt":"2010-07-06T08:33:51","slug":"g-20-police-violence-no-escaping-the-citizen-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/2010\/07\/06\/g-20-police-violence-no-escaping-the-citizen-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"G-20 Police violence: No escaping the citizen camera"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Riot<\/a>
Riot police on the streets of Toronto for the G20 summit. Photo taken on June 25, 2010 by Katerkate (Flickr CreativeCommons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pioneering cinematographer Dziga Vertov<\/a> (the Camera Eye) dreamed of an omnipresent camera, one which could look at reality from all angles and at all times. Could he ever have imagined today’s reality, with everyone recording video on their cameras and cell phones?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Quebec filmmaker Philippe Falardeau<\/a> says, we are in the age of “tout le monde filmant, tout film\u00e9.” (“Everyone filming, everything filmed.”) And we have known since the 1991 case of Rodney King<\/a>, a black man savagely beaten by police in which an amateur video proved there was a police cover-up, that video is now a precious tool for democracy and against repression.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Katarina Cizek<\/a> and Peter Wintonick<\/a> made a film about this ten years ago or so, (Seeing is Believing<\/a>, 2002) and since then cell phones and social networks have caused the citizen camera phenomenon to grow exponentially.<\/p>\n

The latest case in point is the way the scandalous brutality of the police intervention at the Toronto G20 summit was documented on video<\/strong>. For a good first-hand account and commentary by Ezra Winton<\/a> (Cinema Politica<\/a>, Art Threat<\/a>) rest here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have had my share of experiences shooting at political summit meetings. With my friends Anna Paskal<\/a> and Malcolm Guy<\/a>, I made Pressure Point<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, about a civil disobedience action at the 1998 Montreal Conference. I documented the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001 with the help of six other directors and crews. (View from the Summit<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, co-produced by Erezi<\/a> and the NFB<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

And I was at the Montebello summit<\/a> in 2007<\/strong>, filming with the Raging Grannies<\/a>. That’s where<\/strong> a police agent provocateur was caught on camera<\/a><\/strong>, providing conclusive proof<\/a> – for those who still doubted it – that fueling violence to discredit and criminalize dissent is indeed a police tactic.<\/p>\n

In Toronto, the authorities needed to show that there was serious trouble. How else would they justify spending more than a billion dollars on security?<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Paul Manly<\/a> and the Communications Energy and Paper Workers Union <\/strong>provided these links to images from the police intervention in Toronto. <\/strong>Watch and draw your own conclusions! Their comments included.<\/p>\n

And there is quite a lot of conjecture about the footwear worn by some of the supposed Black Block smashers. It is rumoured that the police collective agreement specifies that regulation footwear be worn on the job no matter what, and it does seem that the smashers were wearing footwear that looked very like police footwear….
\nhttp:\/\/globalresearch.ca\/index.php?context=va&aid=19928<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=u6XgEI5dCrE<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span>This video shows police dressed as anarchists helping with arrest raids at Queens park.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CaoDCPDrQ18<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ru4V3dPJGYw<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span>This series shows police near police cars at King and Bay before the cars get trashed.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xeU8ObPrI3I<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1M2NKWve-z4<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VlqHTUz3C9g<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span>This series shows riot police half a block away from Young and College doing nothing. <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WjOMYlsVNCo<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is another angle of the police cars at Bay and King before the black bloc arrive – police had lots of time to act but didn’t. <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oMbWTc4pmUo<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to Tobi Elliott<\/a> for her help with this blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pioneering cinematographer Dziga Vertov (the Camera Eye) dreamed of an omnipresent camera, one which could look at reality from all angles and at all times. Could he ever have imagined today’s reality, with everyone recording video on their cameras and cell phones? As Quebec filmmaker Philippe Falardeau says, we are in the age of “tout … Continue reading G-20 Police violence: No escaping the citizen camera<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[76,95,89,94,82,81,86,80,92,74,88,90,79,77,39,93,87,83,73,91,75,84,85,78,17],"class_list":["post-1399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","tag-agent-provocateur","tag-anarchists","tag-anna-paskal","tag-black-bloc","tag-camera-phone","tag-cell-phones","tag-democracy","tag-dziga-vertov","tag-erezi","tag-g20","tag-katarina-cizek","tag-malcolm-guy","tag-man-with-the-camera","tag-montebello","tag-nfb","tag-paul-manly","tag-peter-wintonick","tag-philippe-falardeau","tag-police-brutality","tag-pressure-point","tag-riot-police","tag-rodney-king","tag-seeing-is-believing","tag-summit-of-the-americas","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}