Police State? (or state your policy at least)

Why are police hiding their badge numbers?  If they are doing their jobs as authorized, then they should be unafraid of repercussions.  If there is some unofficial policy whereby harassment is acceptable, but for accountability's sake reprimands will be issued if officers can be identified, then there is a serious problem, and when a lack of visible police identification becomes a trend, that starts to become a valid concern.

Unidentified Officers harassing anarchists again?

Especially when police are bringing shotguns to a peaceful gathering.  We are entitled to gather together as citizens to discuss, quite frankly, whatever the hell we want to. 

I saw the police at the G20, and I watched the G20 videos with tears streaming down my face, because we, as Mommas, and crips left before people started getting beaten up and arrested, for the sake of the kiddos we had with us.  It was the police who were getting ugly, not the crowd, that day, and as anyone who has ever been in charge of a group of people knows, there are ways to diffuse tension in a situation, and ways to escalate it. 

The Toronto police could use some training in de-escalation.  How to talk to people.  How to calm people down, How to be a human being.  There wasn't any need for the way that they behaved that day, and there wasn't any need to bring a shotgun to an Anarchist Studies Conference.  It wasn't violent.  No one was in danger.   Their "gun call" was a spurious attempt to gain entrance into, and to violate the rights of those present at an academic conference.

A Conference!  A place where people posit new ideas, and discuss innovative theory.

*sigh*

At least it's sunny here.