Because, Canada

[Colin]

Truth

[Tim Sielbeck]

 

[R011]

This is being investigated by the Ontario Special Investigations Unit which reviews fatalities involving police.  They have 120 days to issue a report.

[Tim Sielbeck]

 

[R011]

So a head-of-government's bodyguards did their job.  What do you think would have happened to this guy if he tried to approach any US president in living memory?

[Tim Sielbeck]

A reporter? Nothing would happen to him.  The reporter might be blocked from getting closer but that's it.

[R011]

7 minutes ago, Tim Sielbeck said:

A reporter? Nothing would happen to him.  The reporter might be blocked from getting closer but that's it.

And if he didn't want to move?

[Tim Sielbeck]

Blocking is not forcing someone to move, it is to prevent someone from moving in a certain direction.  Forcing someone to move face first into a wall because your boss doesn't like that person, or the organization the person works for, is wrong.  Period.

[R011]

16 minutes ago, Tim Sielbeck said:

Blocking is not forcing someone to move, it is to prevent someone from moving in a certain direction.  Forcing someone to move face first into a wall because your boss doesn't like that person, or the organization the person works for, is wrong.  Period.

How about forcibly stopping someone who won't stop even when blocked?

[Tim Sielbeck]

Stopping them is not the same as throwing them face first into a wall.

[R011]

1 hour ago, Tim Sielbeck said:

Stopping them is not the same as throwing them face first into a wall.

Actually, it often is.

[Tim Sielbeck]

A rioter/someone with criminal intent?  Maybe.  A reporter? Absolutely not.

 

[R011]

48 minutes ago, Tim Sielbeck said:

A rioter/someone with criminal intent?  Maybe.  A reporter? Absolutely not.

 

And, of course, anyone claiming to be a reporter would never have criminal intent.  And anyone with a YouTube channel is a reporter.

[Tim Sielbeck]

Anyone?  This guy has a history of shouting questions at Trudeau, had cameras, microphones, credentials, and had a Canadian court tell this particular government that his organization IS a legitimate "news organization," and you think he should be treated like an unknown person with unknown intent?  Really?

 

[R011]

1 hour ago, Tim Sielbeck said:

Anyone?  This guy has a history of shouting questions at Trudeau, had cameras, microphones, credentials, and had a Canadian court tell this particular government that his organization IS a legitimate "news organization," and you think he should be treated like an unknown person with unknown intent?  Really?

 

Yep.  Just because he's a known radical activist doesn't mean he's safe.

[Tim Sielbeck]

Just because he's a known radical activist reporter doesn't mean he's safe.

 

FIFY.

[BansheeOne]

11 hours ago, R011 said:

So a head-of-government's bodyguards did their job.  What do you think would have happened to this guy if he tried to approach any US president in living memory?

Journalists get pushed around by nervous security for not following rules and instructions around political leaders all the time while both try to do their jobs and in the course of it sometimes overstep.

Quote

Secret Service Agent 'Choke Slams' Journalist at Donald Trump Rally

Video footage shows a Secret Service agent grabbing a journalist by the throat and slamming him to the ground after he tried to photograph protesters at Trump a rally in Virginia.

by Olivia Becker

February 29, 2016, 8:25pm

A Secret Service agent allegedly assaulted a journalist who left a designated media area at a Donald Trump rally in Virginia and tried to photograph protesters who were being escorted out of the event.

"I stepped 18 inches outside of the pen and he grabbed me by the neck and started choking me and slammed me to the ground," Christopher Morris, a photographer for Time, told reporters after he was ejected from the rally on Monday.

Footage posted on Twitter showed Morris on his back, kicking at a Secret Service agent and angrily gesturing as if he had been grabbed by the throat. One reporter who posted video of the incident described the takedown as a "choke slam." Another video that was posted on Instagram and later taken down clearly shows Morris being grabbed by the throat and slammed to the ground.

Gabby Morrongiello, a campaign reporter for Washington Examiner who was at the rally and saw Morris being taken away by the agents, said the altercation began when Morris tried to leave the designated press pen to take pictures of protesters at the rally.

Another video appeared to show Morris saying "Fuck you," to a Secret Service agent moments before the confrontation.

Morris said he would not attempt to press criminal charges against the agent.

Other footage showed Morris briefly grab the agent's throat moments after he picks himself up off the ground.

[...]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wja4db/secret-service-agents-allegedly-choke-slam-journalist-at-donald-trump-rally

 

[R011]

8 hours ago, Tim Sielbeck said:

Just because he's a known radical activist reporter doesn't mean he's safe.

 

FIFY.

Wasnt broken.

[rmgill]

Does normal executive security concerns trump other laws about assault and battery? Rules or laws? 

I'm all for presidential security but if it means that their detail can all but kill someone that gets in their way or they feel is getting in their way without any other sort of actions (reports, charges, accountability, etc) that smacks of exactly the sort of thing that equates to nobility and 2 classes of people. 

Could a random person who's being followed by aggressive reporters hire private security to jack an aggressive reporter up against a wall like that? 

There has to be a bright line here. 

Edited December 18, 2021 by rmgill

[R011]

1 hour ago, rmgill said:

Does normal executive security concerns trump other laws about assault and battery? Rules or laws? 

I'm all for presidential security but if it means that their detail can all but kill someone that gets in their way or they feel is getting in their way without any other sort of actions (reports, charges, accountability, etc) that smacks of exactly the sort of thing that equates to nobility and 2 classes of people. 

Could a random person who's being followed by aggressive reporters hire private security to jack an aggressive reporter up against a wall like that? 

There has to be a bright line here. 

After Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, both Roosevelts, Kennedy, Ford, and Reagan, there's been lots of support for heavy handed security for heads-of-government in North America.  It's grown even even in Canada.  Compare this scrum involving Justin's father a half century ago:

 

[glenn239]

22 hours ago, R011 said:

So a head-of-government's bodyguards did their job.  What do you think would have happened to this guy if he tried to approach any US president in living memory?

Here I was expecting something rough, but it was nothing.  

[rmgill]

If I was Canadian I'd be figuring out how to make a giant pie cannon with some sort of rennaisance spring engine. 

[glenn239]

10 hours ago, rmgill said:

If I was Canadian I'd be figuring out how to make a giant pie cannon with some sort of rennaisance spring engine. 

One big difference between where the US and Canada are right now is that the US is very polarized on the figure of the president depending on who the president is, while Canadians still have huge respect for office of the prime minister regardless of the fact that most of us don't much like Trudeau anymore.  

Edited December 19, 2021 by glenn239

[rmgill]

So, we say we're sorry after we fire the pie cannon at the PM? 

[glenn239]

5 hours ago, rmgill said:

So, we say we're sorry after we fire the pie cannon at the PM? 

I guess the big question is, what kind of pie?