Riots in Toronto

I’ve been meaning to make a world cup post, and will soon, but other things that seem more time appropriate keep coming up, so I guess the world cup will have to wait.

I’m also going to try something new with this post and Google Buzz to see if it might get more people to read this who I otherwise wouldn’t know these posts are here. If this works feel free to let me know, and if you’ve never seen the site before consider reading older posts too, there’s not that many of them yet.  (Edit: so it appears it just posted the entire thing in buzz instead of directing you to my website I’m not sure I like that because of how long this post is but don’t know a simpler way)

So this past weekend in Toronto there were some protests and such, and they seem to have got out of hand. Over 900 arrests were made, the police are being criticized for both reacting not harshly enough, and being too harsh. Downtown store owners who’ve had their storefronts destroyed are demanding someone pay for their repairs. So where to start?

Let’s start with the people who really need to be called out most here, the rioters. Here’s the question I pose to the internet because I really just cannot fathom an answer to it. What message do they think they’re trying to get across by doing the things like burning police cars, and destroying store fronts for no reason other than the fact that they’re there? The most positive thing I can possibly think they’re trying to say is “I’m a moron who should be put in jail.”

Even all these so called “anarchists” strike me as completely failing to get a message across.  If these people were anything more than stupid, immature posers (I couldn’t actually think of a good enough noun for this spot.  If you have a better one to use let me know I’ll edit the post) then we should hear more about their attempts to undermine our society than just at these types of events, instead they only come out at times like these so they can destroy things, and use a crowd to try and get away.  That’s not making a point, that’s just cowardly sociopathic behaviour.

What about people who will claim that what these world leaders are doing to the poor people of the world, either in other nations or in their own is as bad or worse that what happened in the streets of Toronto.  To that I’d say, yeah the poor of the world are quite regularly getting screwed over much much harder than anything that happened to anybody in Toronto this past weekend, and that is a message that really should be spread.  However if you think that this was the way to get that message across, then you are probably among the worst kind of people there are: hypocrites.  Basically when it comes down to actions that are wrong there’s really only two ways you can describe the perpetrator.  Either they’re being ignorant or they’re being hypocritical.  Between the two, ignorance is easy to solve, all you need to do is team them why it’s wrong.  Sometimes they’re resist you and refuse to learn, and it can be a difficult process that may never work, but still easier than solving the problem of someone knowing something is wrong and yet doing it anyway.

Enough about those people though, many of them probably just want attention, and if that’s the case then they probably should only get enough to be taken out of society and forgotten.  There were over 900 people arrested, and I guarantee that they weren’t all those people I was just talking about.  I’m sure not all of them are really guilty of things deserving of criminal records, and those people will be let out, but let’s take another look at all the people claiming they were unjustly detained.  First and most important of all let’s remember that of course everyone detained is going to say that, in a case like this one of the best things you can possibly have going for you is public sympathy, and whether you believe it or not you’re going to say this because it’s going to get reactions in your favour.  But let’s look at things another way too.

When rioting breaks out and you’re in a crowd what actions do you have?  You could join in, you could stay put and stay neutral, you could leave, or you could oppose it.  I don’t think I need to tell you why joining in is wrong, but by staying around but thinking you’re not taking part in it you are getting in the way preventing the police from doing their job (try blocking a fire fighters from a fire, or paramedics from helping and taking someone to the hospital, you’re going to end up in a lot of trouble, just like if you block police from the criminals they’re trying to get).  In this case your inaction is only making things worse, allowing the others to get away and hide, and in that case, I’d say you probably deserve at least a night in jail and you should be lucky to be let out later without being charged.  As for the other options of either leaving as soon as it starts or helping prevent it, let’s listen to all the stories of the “unjustly arrested” and see how many are along the lines of “as soon as the rioting started I decided to peacefully get out of their so I could get out of the way and because I didn’t want to be involved in this, but the police arrested me as I tried to leave” or “I was trying to point out to the police one of the guys who started a fire, but instead of arresting him they arrested me.”  I bet you’ll find it wasn’t very many.

Now, who pays for the damage.  This is the simple one that I can’t believe other people aren’t suggesting it.  The store owners are saying they shouldn’t have to pay for it, as it’s not their responsibility.  I’m sure insurance companies are saying it’s not covered on policies.  Every level of government seems to be saying something like “we think someone should pay for it, but it’s not our job it should be the next higher level.”  Basically everyone is saying “we didn’t do it, so why should we pay?”  and they’re all right.  Right now there’s lots of calls for the federal government to pay for damage, but since they get their money from the taxes of everyone that means that some fisherman from Nova Scotia, some logger from B.C. and me may all end up paying for it.  If this happens that that means each and every citizen is going to be held as liable for the damages as the people who actually did the damage (assuming they pay their taxes, which I actually bet pretty much all those anarchists do).  So here’s what I suggest, let’s make the people convicted of crimes related to the rioting split the cost.  A year from now or two or even five let’s take everyone who was convicted and divide the damages up among them and make them pay.  It doesn’t need to be an even distribution, someone convicted of actual acts of vandalism can pay as several people, whereas someone whose only crime was obstructing the police doesn’t.  We could even convict people after the money goes out, and when those people have to pay it can go as a refund to the people who’ve now paid larger than their share.  If the time line is too long for the store owners which I fully agree it can be, I think it’s perfectly reasonable for someone like the federal government giving them the money, then keeping the payments made at a later date.

The genius of this plan is twofold in that it’s the ones responsible for the damage that pay for it and also it encourages people to name names.  If you got caught and need to pay it could save yourself hundreds or thousands of dollars to tell the police about that acquaintance of yours who was there doing the same things as you but didn’t get caught (as long as these people also get reminded that I do believe it’s illegal to file false police reports so they risk additional punishment for trying to get people in trouble who weren’t there).