Black Block Very Convenient for Conservatives and Police

People who believe the attacks of Sept. 11 were a conspiracy talk about two theories: Make It Happen On Purpose (MIHOP) - the theory that the US government was directly involved in planning the attacks and Let It Happen On Purpose (LIHOP) - that the US government was not directly involved but knew it was going to happen and allowed it to happen so they could pursue political goals. I try to keep an open mind but haven't seen enough evidence to convince me that anyone is right - too much of the information is classified.

One thing is clear though - the response to the 9-11 attacks has had little or nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden. Wars have been started, alot of money has been spread around and civil rights have been rolled back by a few hundred years but the alleged perpetrator of the attacks has become an afterthought.

The reason for going over all of this will, I hope, become clear momentarily. Yesterday the streets of Toronto were turned into a demilitarized zone. Most people say black block anarchists were responsible, others claim it was agents provocateurs. Who is right, ultimately, doesn't matter very much.

The reality is that the police (or 'combined security force') did little or nothing until after the streets had turned to chaos and significant damage had been done. Once the damage had been done, the media had their photographs and the news had turned from the protests to the damage the police cracked down. They are now using the violence as to justify more than 1 billion in security costs, as a justification for rolling back civil rights, for warrantless raids, for police brutality (1, 2, 3, 4) and while most people agree that it was 50-75 people causing all the damage in downtown Toronto, there have now been well over 500 arrests.

The reality is that none of this is justified. The crack down, the extra powers, the billion dollar cost did not prevent any violence. Security reacted to the violence, they did not keep it from happening.

Did they "make it happen on purpose" ( agents provocateurs ) did they "let it happen on purpose" ( wait until the media was focused on the violence and the local population was angry before doing anything ) or were they simply too poorly led to do anything when violence was actually happening ? Who knows? There will likely be investigations and the government and security forces at all levels surely knew that something was going to happen, but it ultimately doesn't matter very much.

The point it that it has been very, very convenient for those who want to justify inappropriate action by police and government spending that borders on embezzlement.