Did you hear aboot the reporter in Toronto who got punched by a Muslim woman for accidentally taking her picture and then mobbed by her friends?

[source:  "Yonge-Dundas smackdown"]

Thank universe for the internet, bringing us all in contact with each other, exposing the worlds that we think of as objectively real aren't, but are really the worlds that have been created by other people for a reason.

Lest we forget: The Arab spring was preceded by a revolution in Iran that was brutally put down by the Basij and by Hizbullah thugs imported to beat and murder demonstrators. 

A side effect of the current revolution against the Syrian regime is that, when it's successful, it will result in Iran's further isolation, and after that, who knows, maybe the ayatollahs will finally fall from power.

Whimsey,

Yeah, I saw a YouTube clip of him from Sun TV. Turn out his hobbyhorse is that the police don't enforce the law equally.

So I'll bet it was terrifying at the time, being whacked in the face, then surrounded by 20 men and women screaming at him to hand over his camera. But now that he's safely out of it, the reporter probably considers it the best thing that's happened to him in years.

Whimsey,

Yeah, I saw a YouTube clip of him from Sun TV. Turn out his hobbyhorse is that the police don't enforce the law equally.

So I'll bet it was terrifying at the time, being whacked in the face, then surrounded by 20 men and women screaming at him to hand over his camera. But now that he's safely out of it, the reporter probably considers it the best thing that's happened to him in years.

Whimsey,

Yeah, I saw a YouTube clip of him from Sun TV. Turn out his hobbyhorse is that the police don't enforce the law equally.

So I'll bet it was terrifying at the time, being whacked in the face, then surrounded by 20 men and women screaming at him to hand over his camera. But now that he's safely out of it, the reporter probably considers it the best thing that's happened to him in years.

Whoops - Seems to be a glitch with the save button - or else the moderator thought my comment was so brilliant he posted it 3 times.

We can only hope that soon the revolution will sweep through Iran and brush away all forms of extremism, be they Statist Religious Reactionaries, or Fundamentalist Islamists in the streets.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

Brian from Toronto,

yuppers, you've been hit by the WC Fae Squad.  They try to make things happen in threes.  They are responsible for such things as the Laws of Thermodynamics, the Laws of Robotics, and the Laws of Magic :3

How are the anti-Netanyahu demonstrations going in Israel? Is this the Israeli Spring?

Most police forces all over the world routinely arrest people with water pistols at a demonstration. All over the world includes Canada, the US, and Israel. To use any sort of weapon, even a water pistol, in such a situation is illegal. Indeed, using even a water pistol in, say, a theft, is treated exactly the same as using a real gun.

graeme,

do you mean these?

A woman in Toronto got arrest for blowing bubbles at a demonstration. One of my students got serious jail time for trying to stick up a convenience store with a little, rubber water pistol. I've seen riot police club people just for being within reach. It happens in every country.

graeme,

don't worry, the governments corporations of the world will soon have everything in tip top order.  Supermax, making the World Safe for VIPs.

It's very close. And inherently unstable.

There's a difference between using a water gun as a weapon (to intimidate, get others to think it's a gun) and to have a water fight with people who are in on the fun.  I don't understand why the water fight in Tehran was considered to be illegal (other than the fact it was Iran of course).

graeme,

here's an interesting attempt towards an explanation of certain domesticated ape proclivities.

There have been massive problems with the New Yorker, article, though.

chemgal,

Graeme pretends to not understand the difference between using a water gun as a weapon and having a water fight for fun because he's a fan of the Iranian regime.

Obviously the folk in Tehran were having a great time - just look at the photos. The ayatollahs - and Graeme -  can't stand it. The ayatollahs think people should be off doing something serious, like denying the Holocaust.

Brian,

\once again you are putting words that graeme has never said into his mouth.

YEs they were having fun.  But yes it wasa also a protest.  ANd in any totalitartian country a protest is illegal. 

It didn't appear to start off as a protest (that might be a fault with the article itself though).  Are public gatherings also illegal in Iran?

chemgal,

Legal / illegal are terms that work better in a country governed by the rule of law, which doesn't include Iran. 

The Iranian authorities didn't clamp down on the squirt gun fight because it was a protest or because the people were doing anything illegal.

Rather, the ayatollahs don't like people having fun - it looks suspicious to them: "immoral" they called it or "morally abnormal."

Moreover, the ayatollahs are afraid whenever a group of people gather for something the ayatollahs haven't organized. Not because it is a protest but because they suspect anything not organized by them must be aimed against them. It's typical totalitarian thinking.

Also, not to put words into his mouth, but GordW seems to think (a) it is illegal to have a squirt gun fight in Tehran and (b) that therefore it's okay to lock up those wielding water pistols. Hopefully, he'll correct me.

Sorry Brian, but legal and illegal are completely up to the whim of nations, so you really can't say that what they did wasn't illegal, because it was.  The ​reason​ it's illegal is because they don't like people having fun, but it's still illegal.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

In any country, almost any action can be considered an assault - especially iin a demonstration. As I said, a woman in Toronto was arrested for blowing bubbles at a demonstration. It's hard to see how that was considered intimidating - but she was arrested for assault. Having known some riot cops and t he kind of person attracted to that, I know they take a very broad view of what assault means. The slightest sign of just about anything can be taken as an assault with an arrest if you"re lucky - with a clubbing if you're not.

ACtually in a totalitarian state it is the state that decides if something is legal or not, and also it is is a protest or not.

Whether I agree with the arrests is not relevant to my point.  My point is that you are applying standards that don't apply to the situation.  The state is the law, the state determines what is illegal or not.  The only way out of it is to change the state.

At the riot, it matters not at all whether the tate in totalitarian or democratic. US troops in the US have frequently arrested, beaten and shot peaceful protesters. The prime function of the Canadian militia up to 1014 was to use muscle on strikers and/or demonstrators. And Kent State was no a unique incident in US history.

As well, a prime reason for sending th NWMP was to keep railway construction workers in line. That's why numbers of NWM Police were trained to drive steam engines.

Graeme,

while IO have no doubrt that keeping navvies in line was a task the NWMP was given (there are stories of Supt. Sam Steele facing down (and reading the Riot Act) to a mob of unpaid workers), it can hardly have been one of the reasons they were sent to an area =where the railroad would not reach for over a decade.

However, asserting sovereignty and taking control of the former Hudson's Bay territoriea to allow the land to be "negotiated" away from the people already there was most certainly a prime reason, as was keeping it from being overrun by USans, who were well into Manifest Destiny at the time.

IThey were sent for the reasons you suggest. As well, they were also sent, and well before the railway, because the major purpose of confederation in the first place WAS to build the railway. Confederation gave Canada the credit base to make it possibe to attract investment. And without a railway, making the west a part of Canada would have been impossible.

The NWMP had little power to defend the west against the US. With superior numbers, far superior communication lines, and lack of any British interest in fighting such a remote war, the NWMP would have been brushed aside.

This is worth some reflection too:

http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/exclusive-donald-vance-on-tort...