A FEW DAYS BEFORE the Group of 20 industrialised and developing nations met in Toronto, I watched a video on YouTube posted by what I immediately decided was a wholly misinformed and misguided man.
His camcorder approached a police officer asking a pedestrian for ID inside the six-kilometre security perimeter set up around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the G20 summit took place on 26-27 June. After the “documentary filmmaker” interceded and goaded the officer into the only reaction possible, which was, of course, to ask for ID, he cried foul and set off on a tirade of malapropisms: The US had invaded Iraq under “false acquisitions,” we must not let G20 leaders “decimate” us, his human rights were being “segregated.” He told the officer, “Of course I can show ID, but I refuse to,” after handing the camera to his accomplice so he could produce his Ontario driver’s licence for inspection. He even titled his chronicle of public space policing: ‘G20 Toronto Gestapo.’
He must be a performer of some kind, trying to be ironic, I hoped. Alas, the urbanite was more than likely out for his 15 minutes however he could get it. No real anti-New World Order soldier would intentionally taunt police in a Justin Timberlake hat and P Diddy shades unless he wanted to be seen doing it. He may have just come from a bout at the gym to look pumped on camera as well. What an idiot. This guy would be the type to jump into a lion’s den and curse the laws of nature for being eaten alive.
COMMENT