The Quebec Police at the SPP

Let's take a moment to ponder the utter boneheaded stupidity of what the Quebec police did, sending their agents into the crowd of protesters in Montebello at the anti-SPP rally. I think we can all agree that there is good police work and there is bad police work -- and this was just all kinds of bad.

First of all, let's ponder the ethics of what they did. It's understandable that the police would have undercover officers mingling with the crowd, but these guys deliberately disguised themselves as the worst elements of any protest. Sure, they can claim all they like that they weren't trying to be provocateurs, but they were still swelling the ranks of any troublemakers that might have been there, and people tend to get bolder and more reckless if they think they've got numbers around them. And even if they didn't start or encourage any violent action, the fact is that they were propagating and reinforcing a negative stereotype --the crazy, violent, faceless protester -- in such a way that couldn't have helped but discredit the people who were at the rally. That's the police making a political statement, or at least it can easily be seen that way.

Second, let's consider the skill, or lack thereof, in what they did, and we may as well begin by noting how truly awful their disguises were. Not only did they choose to wear their own standard-issue police boots, but they also seem to have believed that dressing in all black, wearing masks, and carrying a rock would make them blend in perfectly while standing next to people like Maude Barlow.

Left: Maude Barlow. Right : One cunning disguise.

And then there were their plan and their performance thereof. When confronted with protesters who'd figured out their game, they had no cover story at all. They had no idea what to say or do. And when they backed toward the police line for safety (something real anarchists would never do), they allowed themselves to be "arrested" without a struggle or even any objection. [Update: CC points out the SQ's clumsy denials and backpedalling, showing that they also had no official story prepared in the event of a screwup. They really had no plan B of any kind, and plan A totally sucked.]

Finally, let's ponder what the actual job of the police is at events like this: to prevent any incidents from happening, to conduct their operations smoothly, and to safeguard the process of what was happening inside the perimeter. They blew it on all counts: they caused an incident, they utterly screwed up their operation, and they finally put the SPP on the media's radar, thereby violating one of the SPP's most important intentions: to keep itself low-key and quiet.

For the last of these, I guess, we actually owe the Quebec police some thanks. The SPP is now front-page news. Good work, guys!

Update: Ohhhhh-kay, now the SQ are claiming that the protesters gave their guy the rock. There is no evidence on the video that any such thing happened; the guy clearly arrives with the rock right from the start of the incident. I suppose it's possible that the cop might have been given the rock before the video starts, but this claim just has nothing concrete (so to speak) to support it. And given the fact that the SQ have made several other denials in the past few days that didn't stand up, I don't think we ought to believe this one until and unless some proof of it surfaces. But as M.J. says, this latest denial will give this story legs for at least several more days.