G20 Protests: How Not to Bring Attention to a Cause

Downtown Toronto was not the place to be if you wanted a nice and relaxing Saturday. Though if you thought your diet was missing a little fire, brick and shattered glass, then Toronto was the perfect places to remedy that problem. Some would want to blame this mass chaos on 'protesters' but is this really protesting?



The average and reasonable human being who clicks on the news at 11pm and sees those type of actions, is not going to respond, 'Now, those there kids are fighting for a just and worthwhile cause that I want to support' but rather will likely think, 'Damn Thugs.' Because burning cop cars, smashing bricks through windows, attacking cameramen, and destroying innocent people's places of business are things that are done by inbred, Neanderthalic thugs. A person with a properly functioning brain rarely wants to support the causes and agendas of thugs.

The sad thing is some of the causes these folks are trying to fight for, are things that I would likely agree with and support. My issue is they decided to go about it in the most asshated fashion possible. Instead of garnering any kind of sympathy for their case, they decided to make themselves look like raging, vicious, self-centered psychopaths. And again, most tend to want to disassociate themselves from psychopaths. Especially from thugs who scream they want certain 'destructive' types away from their city, but then proceed to destroying said city. 'The government is ruining our streets and lands, and in protest, I am going to destroy them my self!'

It is incidents like this, that cause people to look at protests as vile and evil things. The problem is, what happened here was not a protest, but just a blatant act of savagery. Yes, these thugs thought they had an agenda and cause, but the thrashing of a storefront is not expressing any valid and clear message other than, 'I am a violent brute, who is scared of windows.'

Protests have worked in the past and have not caused unneeded violence and destruction. I'd like to invite these folks to pick up a textbook and read about the Velvet Revolution, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King. You will then read about protests that not only lacked chaos and violence upon the innocent, but actually brought about major change. These were protests about actual and real causes, and the non violent and peaceful protests actually lead to the change that was hoped for. History shows that protest can have love and peace implemented in them, and still be incredibly effective. Often, the peaceful protester is able to garner waves of sympathy and support because they aren't looking like a raging, lunatic. Actually, they usually are looking like victims or the oppressed. One of the huge turning points in the Civil Rights movement was when the police turned the high powered water hoses on the Civil Right marchers, who just happened to have a bunch of children on the front line. Martin Luther King and his supporters definitely looked like the good guys compared to those who were willing to knocked down innocent children. You could argue that putting children right at front, with the knowledge that there could be some possible harm, is a very manipulative tactic. The fact remains, they weren't doing anything wrong with their marching, and they were allowing police and government be left with having to implement the acts of violence (though, they could have chosen to just allow them to march too).

That is not what was witnessed on Saturday in Toronto. The thugs disguised as protesters implemented wanton acts of destruction and violence. You had protesters who were arguing that our nation is becoming a police state or that billions were being wasted on security. Then they proceeded to justify the need for security and a mass police presence by unleashing unwarranted attacks. Do you really think the store owners and their employees are really going to support the protesters after thugs damaged their source of livelihood? Or does anyone really think most citizens are going to be more willing to take up the protesters' causes after witnessing sheer anarchy? On this day, the government looked like the victim which is an example of an ineffective protest. Even sadder, most people are completely unaware of what any of the causes or agenda where, because all they witnessed was havoc.

This wasn't an example of why protesting is wrong, but rather, this was proof why some should pick up a textbook and learn some history before demonstrating to the world how much of an asshole they are.