Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Mind Your Outrage


Trust me, there isn't anybody around here who wants to see Roy Halladay return to Toronto more than me; even if he's wearing a different uniform. When the inevitable happens and the series is moved, I'll be pretty upset.

But please, please, please do not let a displaced baseball game distract from what's really important: this G20 event turning our fair city into a complete police state. A preemptive police state, with foreign governments dictating the movement and ability to gather and speak freely in our own city.

I'm hardly a keffiyeh-wearing class warrior, but the real bullshit is "free speech zones" and an entire city on lockdown. Baseball takes a distant backseat to glad-handing politicians and their dog and pony shows.

Update: It's official. The games moved. So did the Designated Speech Zone. It's a doubleplus good weekend all around!

16 comments:

  1. Meh. I'm sure you'll be let out of your house.

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  2. Super. I'm glad it wasn't a series that everyone has been waiting for or anything...

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  3. Yah this is really wrong. Free speech zones is like something that happens in China. At least they are honest about it.

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  4. The fact that the original "designated protest site" was at Trinity Bellwoods park made me want to puke. In another few years, they're going to designate separate cities (in neighbouring countries) as designated protest sites to be absolutely sure that no world leader will get so much as a tomato seed splashed on his coat.

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  5. Further bullshit: Comerica Park will be sitting completely empty that weekend while the Jays play three "home" games in Philly.

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  6. Shit is fucked. Large.

    /a

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  7. I'm always surprised by how accepting people have become of things like "free speech zones" and "designated protest sites". What happened to democratically elected politicians actually being, you know, in contact with the people?

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  8. I had refrained from commenting on the free speech/police state issues until now. Seriously... if they know from past G20 experiences that there will be enough protesters, police, traffic disruptions and general chaos to make it impossible to hold a baseball game... why haven't they learned from past experience to hold the G20 somewhere isolated, on the edge of town?

    And by "they", I mean the bureaucrats who fancy themselves kings. If they're that worried about people voting from the rooftops, maybe they should stop holding these G-whatever confabs altogether.

    Rotten luck for Rogers to have the G20 affect this series, and not one of the other 25-odd home series they'll play this year.

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  9. I say we bring whatever Halladay signs we were bringing to the Philly series, and join the protesters.

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  10. "designated speech zones". So much for our charter rights. What a crock. The slippery slope commences.

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  11. What gets me, too, is that these kinds of conferences might as well be held somewhere completely inaccessible. Because with all the security, barricades, and police escorts, no one can even catch a peak of our "leaders".

    If people can't access the politicians and these summits cause nothing but headaches and traffic jams for the host city, why not just hold them in Siberia or outer Mongolia?

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  12. Do we actually think a baseball game matters? Sure it matters to us, and these ones more than any, but big picture, no.

    And democratically elected politicians stopped being in contact with the people when the people turned all psycho.

    And free speech zones is not about controlling protestors, it's about setting the rules of engagement in the confrontation with anarchists.

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  13. Why do I get the feeling that anonymous is the guy with his finger poised on the trigger of a taser?

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  14. Not at all Andre. I'm against tasers. I think that fat fuck cop in Philadelphia is an embarassment to his profession. I'm not a cop and I'm not a right-winger. I just think when we get on a blog, we tend to blow things out of proportion a wee bit. I've seen areas of communities roped off before - doesn't mean I've had my human rights violated. It's a big fuckin' inconvenience, but let's tone down the rhetoric.

    World leaders should meet in person, probably more regularly than they do. But there has to be a cheaper, safer, less intrusive way to do it. I agree that they should come up with a better idea than closing down a city core like they are.

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  15. I don't mean to blow this out of proportion, but when did the "people turn all pshycho"?

    I imagine you're talking about stuff like the riots in Seattle in 1999, but really, people were doing much crazier shit than that decades ago. Emma Goldman and other anarchists were busy in the US in the late 20th century.

    I dunno, I hate to use the overused "slippery slope" phrase, but you've got to be vigilant about stuff like this. You give 'em an inch, they'll take a yard.

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  16. Touche.

    You may be right in the end. I guess ten or twenty years ago I probably would have been saying the same things. I'm concerned about different things these days. Pick my battles I guess.

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