Genoa Police Admit Fabrication, Agents Provocateurs Exposed In Canada
Various | 23.08.2007 18:45 | Repression | World
I thought the timing of this article was rather poignant, given the reveleations from Montebello. This, coupled with the illegal roundups of protestors (held for the duration of similar summits, then released without charge), presents a pretty clear pattern of illegal repression on the part of police forces and those corrupt politicians involved in the process of Global Corporatization.
Genoa police 'admit fabrication'
Protester injured in school raid
Some 200 people were hurt during the two-day summit
Italian media have been publishing transcripts of an inquiry into the policing of the 2001 Genoa G8 summit in which officers admit fabricating evidence against protesters.
Suspected truths which had already emerged are being officially confirmed
Rai Uno television
At the centre of the inquiry is a police raid on a school being used as a dormitory by anti-globalisation demonstrators, in which dozens of people were injured.
A senior officer, Pietro Troiani, reportedly admitted under questioning that two petrol bombs allegedly found at the school were planted by police to justify the raid.
In fact, they had been found elsewhere in the city, in the Corsa Italia, where protesters and police had clashed earlier in the day.
Mr Troiani's lawyer later denied any involvement of his client in fabricating evidence, saying he had only handed the bombs to another police official, reports say.
Police disciplined
Out of 93 people arrested at the school in the early hours of 22 July, 72 suffered injuries, and all were later released without charge.
Police show weapons they say were recovered in the raid
Police say they found weapons in the school
"Now that the investigation into the G8 events is drawing to a close, suspected truths which had already emerged are being officially confirmed," reported the Italian television channel, Rai Uno.
At least 77 police officers have been under investigation for alleged brutality, and three police chiefs have been moved to other jobs.
Transcripts of some of their interviews have been published in Italian newspapers, including Italy's leading left-wing daily, La Repubblica, and the Genoa daily newspaper, Il Secolo XIX.
Demonstrators said riot police beat them with clubs, smashed windows and wrecked computers in the raid.
The BBC's Bill Hayton was among those who stood outside the Diaz school, hearing the screams coming from within, then watching bodies brought out on stretchers.
When the police left he went in and saw blood on the walls, floors and radiators of an upstairs room.
'Simulated' stabbing
One of the key witnesses is Michele Burgio, Mr Troiani's driver, who admits to planting petrol bombs at the school.
According to the media reports, Mr Troiani later admitted to prosecutors that fabricating evidence was a "silly thing" to do.
Attention is also focusing on a knife attack on one police officer, Massimo Nucera.
A senior police chief, Franco Gratteri, head of the Central Operations Services, is quoted as saying that the stabbing was not carried out by protesters, but was simulated.
Mr Gratteri says the "attack" could have been aimed at justifying the excessive use of violence used by some flying squads.
Hundreds of police and protesters were injured in street battles during the summit, which was attended by violent anarchists as well as peaceful protesters.
One protester died after being shot by police.
(And then driven over several times by a police armoured car)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2636647.stm
Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader
YouTube video shows union leaders trying to push back masked men
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 | 4:06 PM ET
CBC News
Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que., say they have video that shows police disguised as masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday.
The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.
(CBC)
About 1,200 protesters were in the small resort town near Ottawa as Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a two-day summit to discuss issues under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America pact.
The video titled Stop SPP Protest — Union Leader stops provocateurs, posted on YouTube Tuesday, was shown at a news conference held Wednesday in Ottawa by protest organizers, including Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, who appears in the video.
In the footage filmed Monday afternoon, three burly men with bandanas and other covers over their faces push through protesters toward a line of riot police. One of the men has a rock in his hand.
As they move forward, Coles and other union leaders dressed in suits order the men to put the rock down and leave, accuse them of being police agents provocateurs, and try unsuccessfully to unmask them.
Continue Article
In the end, they squeeze behind the police line, where they are calmly handcuffed.
In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the summit.In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the summit.
(CUPE/Canadian Press)
"The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and to provoke incidents," Coles told reporters. "I think the evidence that we've shown you today reinforces the view."
Coles showed photographs of the masked men's and police officers' boots taken during the handcuffing, in which they appear to have identical tread patterns on their soles.
He also questioned why other activists have been unable to identify the three men whose images have been broadcast worldwide and demanded to know who the masked men were.
"Do they have any connection to the Quebec police force or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or are they part of some other security force that was at Montebello?" Coles asked, adding that he wants to know how the Prime Minister's Office was involved in security during the protests.
He suggested that the government might want to provoke violence in order justify its security budget for the summit and discredit protesters.
"They want to defuse our questions ... by trying to make it look like some radical group trying to create a confrontation," he said.
The RCMP has refused to comment, while Quebec's provincial force has flatly denied that its officers were involved in the incident.
It said it is not releasing any names as no charges were laid.
Retired police officer believes masked men were cops
Meanwhile, a retired Ottawa police officer who was formerly in charge of overseeing demonstrations for the force said he questions who the masked men really are, after viewing the video.
"Were they legitimate protesters? I don’t think so," said Doug Kirkland.
"Well, if they weren't police, I think they might well have been working in the best interests of police."
He added that if the situation was as it appeared, he did not approve of the tactic. "It's pretty close to baiting," he said.
On Wednesday, the mayor of Montebello thanked police and protesters, praising the fact that there wasn't a single report of damage during the two-day summit.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership pact, signed in 2005, is intended to forge closer trade and security links between the countries.
Opponents say negotiations about the agreement are secretive and undemocratic, and the treaty itself erodes Canada's control over its natural resources, security and defence.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/08/22/ot-police-070822.html
Police accused of using provocateurs at summit
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Aug 21, 2007 09:14 PM
Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.
Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.
A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.
The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.
Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.
Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.
Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.
Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.
"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.
The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.
Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.
Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.
"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.
"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed."
Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.
"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."
Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.
"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information," said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608
Protester injured in school raid
Some 200 people were hurt during the two-day summit
Italian media have been publishing transcripts of an inquiry into the policing of the 2001 Genoa G8 summit in which officers admit fabricating evidence against protesters.
Suspected truths which had already emerged are being officially confirmed
Rai Uno television
At the centre of the inquiry is a police raid on a school being used as a dormitory by anti-globalisation demonstrators, in which dozens of people were injured.
A senior officer, Pietro Troiani, reportedly admitted under questioning that two petrol bombs allegedly found at the school were planted by police to justify the raid.
In fact, they had been found elsewhere in the city, in the Corsa Italia, where protesters and police had clashed earlier in the day.
Mr Troiani's lawyer later denied any involvement of his client in fabricating evidence, saying he had only handed the bombs to another police official, reports say.
Police disciplined
Out of 93 people arrested at the school in the early hours of 22 July, 72 suffered injuries, and all were later released without charge.
Police show weapons they say were recovered in the raid
Police say they found weapons in the school
"Now that the investigation into the G8 events is drawing to a close, suspected truths which had already emerged are being officially confirmed," reported the Italian television channel, Rai Uno.
At least 77 police officers have been under investigation for alleged brutality, and three police chiefs have been moved to other jobs.
Transcripts of some of their interviews have been published in Italian newspapers, including Italy's leading left-wing daily, La Repubblica, and the Genoa daily newspaper, Il Secolo XIX.
Demonstrators said riot police beat them with clubs, smashed windows and wrecked computers in the raid.
The BBC's Bill Hayton was among those who stood outside the Diaz school, hearing the screams coming from within, then watching bodies brought out on stretchers.
When the police left he went in and saw blood on the walls, floors and radiators of an upstairs room.
'Simulated' stabbing
One of the key witnesses is Michele Burgio, Mr Troiani's driver, who admits to planting petrol bombs at the school.
According to the media reports, Mr Troiani later admitted to prosecutors that fabricating evidence was a "silly thing" to do.
Attention is also focusing on a knife attack on one police officer, Massimo Nucera.
A senior police chief, Franco Gratteri, head of the Central Operations Services, is quoted as saying that the stabbing was not carried out by protesters, but was simulated.
Mr Gratteri says the "attack" could have been aimed at justifying the excessive use of violence used by some flying squads.
Hundreds of police and protesters were injured in street battles during the summit, which was attended by violent anarchists as well as peaceful protesters.
One protester died after being shot by police.
(And then driven over several times by a police armoured car)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2636647.stm Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader
YouTube video shows union leaders trying to push back masked men
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 | 4:06 PM ET
CBC News
Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que., say they have video that shows police disguised as masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday.
The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.
(CBC)
About 1,200 protesters were in the small resort town near Ottawa as Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a two-day summit to discuss issues under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America pact.
The video titled Stop SPP Protest — Union Leader stops provocateurs, posted on YouTube Tuesday, was shown at a news conference held Wednesday in Ottawa by protest organizers, including Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, who appears in the video.
In the footage filmed Monday afternoon, three burly men with bandanas and other covers over their faces push through protesters toward a line of riot police. One of the men has a rock in his hand.
As they move forward, Coles and other union leaders dressed in suits order the men to put the rock down and leave, accuse them of being police agents provocateurs, and try unsuccessfully to unmask them.
Continue Article
In the end, they squeeze behind the police line, where they are calmly handcuffed.
In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the summit.In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the summit.
(CUPE/Canadian Press)
"The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and to provoke incidents," Coles told reporters. "I think the evidence that we've shown you today reinforces the view."
Coles showed photographs of the masked men's and police officers' boots taken during the handcuffing, in which they appear to have identical tread patterns on their soles.
He also questioned why other activists have been unable to identify the three men whose images have been broadcast worldwide and demanded to know who the masked men were.
"Do they have any connection to the Quebec police force or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or are they part of some other security force that was at Montebello?" Coles asked, adding that he wants to know how the Prime Minister's Office was involved in security during the protests.
He suggested that the government might want to provoke violence in order justify its security budget for the summit and discredit protesters.
"They want to defuse our questions ... by trying to make it look like some radical group trying to create a confrontation," he said.
The RCMP has refused to comment, while Quebec's provincial force has flatly denied that its officers were involved in the incident.
It said it is not releasing any names as no charges were laid.
Retired police officer believes masked men were cops
Meanwhile, a retired Ottawa police officer who was formerly in charge of overseeing demonstrations for the force said he questions who the masked men really are, after viewing the video.
"Were they legitimate protesters? I don’t think so," said Doug Kirkland.
"Well, if they weren't police, I think they might well have been working in the best interests of police."
He added that if the situation was as it appeared, he did not approve of the tactic. "It's pretty close to baiting," he said.
On Wednesday, the mayor of Montebello thanked police and protesters, praising the fact that there wasn't a single report of damage during the two-day summit.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership pact, signed in 2005, is intended to forge closer trade and security links between the countries.
Opponents say negotiations about the agreement are secretive and undemocratic, and the treaty itself erodes Canada's control over its natural resources, security and defence.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/08/22/ot-police-070822.html Police accused of using provocateurs at summit
Email Story Email story
Print Print
Text Size Text Size Text SizeChoose text size
Report Typo Report typo or correction
Tag and Save Digg this story
Share on Facebook Add to Facebook
Tag and Save Tag on Delicious
Aug 21, 2007 09:14 PM
Canadian Press
OTTAWA – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.
Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.
A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.
The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.
Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.
Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.
Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.
Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.
"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.
The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.
Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.
Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.
"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.
"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed."
Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.
"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."
Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.
"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information," said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608
Various