Imperfect boys with their perfect ploys...

In stories that I hope are going to spread around the blogosphere, and break in the media rather more extensively than they already have, and start a real debate on the use of this kind of tactics, this one is wonderful.

Within activist circles, people have been pretty much certain since Quebec City at least that at least a substantial number of the truly violent protesters who "mar" demonstrations are in fact undercover police provocateurs, based on a number of factors -- the fact that nobody ever knows who they are, that often people who have been seen instigating violent acts never have charges pressed against them, and that nebulous feel that can never quite be substantiated.

But at Montebello, they screwed up. Showing up at a peaceful union protest line with rocks, some of these goons were confronted by Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union, who insisted that this was a peaceful protest and they should leave. When they kept trying to push through to attack the cops, some actual anarchists showed up, saying that they recognized these people, and that they were police agents, at which point Coles started to question them, asking them to take off their masks for photos. Their reactions throughout this, all captured on video, are - to put it mildly - not what I would expect from any of the Black Bloc types I know. Finally, after chatting for a bit with the riot cops, they "charge" the police lines, and are promptly arrested -- but, as the CP stories linked at the top point out, no charges are laid against any of them.



But where it becomes truly, hilariously fishy is in the wonderful photos that my colleague Sebastien managed to take of them being arrested by the police, some of which have already started floating around the Internet. It's actually a little less clear in the version I've seen online than in the originals, but still visible -- the "protesters" being arrested are wearing (all three of them) exactly the same issue boots that the "police" arresting them are wearing; they've simply throwing some duct tape on them to make them look "anarchist chic." Particularly noticeable are the yellow triangles of the ANSI certification on all of the boots.



Edit: There's a really nice photo with zooming in that shows the identical sole patterns on the boots.

Coles and the CEP are holding a press conference this afternoon, and I'm really hoping that this becomes the story -- a state so afraid of legitimate, peaceful dissent that they will initiate violence that can be used to justify repression. So if there's anywhere on the Net that any of you can help spread this story to -- and it's already moving fairly quickly -- I'd deeply appreciate it.