By Ali Mustafa

Background

Public outcry continues to grow across Canada over the widespread abuse of civil liberties during the recent G20 Summit in Toronto. Over 1,000 people were rounded-up and arrested between June 26th- 27th, resulting in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. While the majority of those arrested have since been released, at least 16 people remain under strict bail conditions and face a variety of serious criminal charges. Countless others who managed to avoid arrest were indiscriminately searched, detained for hours, and even violently attacked by police.

Indeed, all the warning signs of a ‘police state’ were present: a pervasive state of fear and paranoia loomed over the city; freedom of movement was heavily restricted; massive police presence was encountered at every turn; ‘Big Brother’-like CCTV cameras closely watched over every move; and demonstrators stayed tightly together in groups, too afraid to travel the streets alone.

By Krystalline Kraus

Fresh from the sting of having 73 G20-related cases dropped or settled in court on Monday August 23, 2010, the police fought back with a new Most Wanted list of G20 activists. These are allegedly the bad boys (+girls) of the Summit protests, les menace to society.

This isn’t the first time the police have used the media to host duelling press conferences and media releases to shape public opinion.

At the very least, the release of such a sensationalized criminal list was a cynical attempt to buy media attention away from all the failed G20 charges that triggered more calls for a G20 inquiry and back to their law and order agenda. This isn’t the first time the police have used the media to host duelling press conferences and media releases against the activist community.

PRESSEMITTEILUNG

Das Gericht der Stadt Kopenhagen hat heute Natasha Verco und Noah Weiss freigesprochen. Den zwei KlimaaktivistInnen wurde vorgeworfen, illegale Aktivitäten während des UN-Klimagipfels in Kopenhagen 2009 (COP15) organisiert zu haben. Doch diese Anklagepunkte konnten sich im Gericht nicht behaupten. Das Gerichtsurteil diskreditiert hingegen die gewaltsamen Methoden der Polizei während des Gipfels. Klimapolitisch engagierten Menschen wurde ihr demokratisches Recht verweigert die Klimaverhandlungen zu kritisieren.

Natasha Verco bewertet den gesamten Prozess als absurd:
“Das man uns vor Gericht bringt hat einen sehr klaren politischen Zweck und die Verhandlung war denn auch vollkommen absurd. Im gesamten Verlauf gründete die Beweisführung auf vollkommen legalen Aktivitäten, die die Polizei versuchte zu manipulieren, um sie illegal erscheinen zu lassen. Dazu zählte der Druck von Postern, die Suche nach Parkplätzen für Musikanlagen und die Teilnahme an öffentlichen Informationsveranstaltungen für Hunderte von Menschen.”

PRESS RELEASE

The Copenhagen City Court has today ruled that Natasha Verco and Noah Weiss are innocent. The two climate activists were charged for organizing illegal activities during the COP15 summit in Copenhagen in 2009. But the charges didn’t stand in court. The verdict discredits the violent methods adopted by police during the climate summit, when politically active people were denied their democratic right to criticize the climate negotiations.

Natasha Verco feels that the entire process has been absurd:
“There has been a very clear political purpose behind these court cases, and the verdict is totally absurd. In the whole case the evidence has been related to fully legal activities, that the police has tried to manipulate, in order to make them appear illegal. It has been all from prints of posters, to finding parking lots fors sound equipments and participating in open information meetings for hundreds of people.”

11.September
13 Uhr / Potsdamer Platz / Berlin
http://outofcontrol.blogsport.de

GET OUT OF CONTROL

Zusammen gegen Polizeigewalt, Überwachung und die EU-Sicherheitsarchitektur!

Unter dem Motto „Freiheit statt Angst – Stoppt den Überwachungswahn!“ ruft ein breites Bündnis zu einer Demonstration am 11. September 2010 in Berlin auf. Mit einem antikapitalistischen Block beteiligen wir uns an der Demonstration und wollen dabei insbesondere auf den europäischen Charakter von Repression, Überwachung und Kontrolle aufmerksam machen, sowie gegen die präventive Kriminalisierung linker und linksradikaler Strukturen im Rahmen des „Extremismus- und Radikalisierungsdiskurses“ protestieren.

Welcome to European Police State…

Spätestens seit dem Verfassungsgerichtsurteil zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung oder den Ausreiseverboten zum NATO-Geburtstag in Straßburg ist klar geworden, dass Repression international ist und eine auf Deutschland fixierte Kritik am „Überwachungsstaat“ seine buchstäblichen Grenzen hat. Die Europäische Union ist dabei, sich als Staat zu konstituieren und baut fleißig eigene Strukturen auf, die darauf abzielen, Menschen zu kontrollieren und sie möglichst effizient ökonomisch auszubeuten.

Frontex ist wohl noch die bekannteste unter den neuen Repressionsbehörden der EU. Die Grenzschutzagentur ist dafür verantwortlich, dass täglich Menschen im Mittelmeer ertrinken, indem sie Boote von Flüchtlingen zur „Umkehr überredet“ oder ihnen Sprit und Essen abnimmt, damit auch klar wird, wer in der EU willkommen ist und wer nicht. Zu diesem Zweck soll Frontex demnächst auch eigenes Equipment wie Helikopter, Drohnen und Schnellboote bekommen. Außerdem organisiert Frontex seit 2010 eigene Abschiebe-Charterflüge. Künftig sollen nationale Einsatzkräfte für sechs Monate ohne besondere Mission engagiert werden können, um der Agentur mehr Eigenständigkeit und Flexibilität zu verschaffen. So werden schrittweise eigene Kapazitäten aufgebaut. Legitimiert wird die militarisierte Migrationspolitik mit Behauptungen wie die Flüchtlinge teilten sich Infrastrukturen mit Terrornetzwerken. So wird auch gleich noch suggeriert, dass „Ausländerkriminalität“ schon im Herkunftsland ihren Anfang nimmt. Zudem fertigt Frontex eigene Analysen und Lageberichte an.

Dazu kooperieren die Grenzschützer mit anderen Institutionen wie Europol, Interpol oder dem Situation Center in Brüssel, wo sämtliche EU-Geheimdienste an einem Tisch sitzen.

By IAN ROBERTSON

Toronto Police are using hi-tech facial recognition software to comb through tens of thousands of images in the hunt for the ringleaders of the G20 riots, the lead investigator says.

The DVD images come from closed-circuit cameras installed throughout the downtown area, 12 metres above street-level, Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux says.

Some of the 28,000 images from private and police cameras plus 500 to 600 videos have been given to a Canadian Bankers Association facial recognition specialist, Giroux said. “The analyst does have the materials.”

The team concentrated for weeks on identifying the most-easily-recognized suspects from the best photos, he said in an interview.

Community Update by the Community Solidarity Network
Post G20

This report has been a long time coming. Many people that spent the last year as the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, putting together the infrastructure for the Convergence have been arrested, beaten, and intimidated. Many of our most beloved and central organizers are under house arrest conditions while many others in the city have leaped forward to join the resistance.

A new organizing space, the Community Solidarity Network, has just been formed. We see ourselves as the central networking, trust-building and organizing hub for the post-G20 defence happening in different spheres across Toronto. Though our primary mandate is to ensure that all charges against everyone who opposed the G20 be dropped, we will be hosting open meetings shortly for everyone who is organizing various initiatives in the city.

We have established a legal defence fund that is independent, held in trust by a lawyer and overseen by seven highly respected trustees. All money raised at this time is being directed to this G20 Legal Defence Fund that will soon be accepting applications from anyone that requires money for defence.

Toronto police are using hi-tech facial recognition software to comb through tens of thousands of images in the hunt for the ringleaders of the G20 riots, the lead investigator says.

The DVD images come from closed-circuit cameras installed throughout the downtown area, 12 metres above street-level, Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux says.

Some of the 28,000 images from private and police cameras plus 500 to 600 videos have been given to a Canadian Bankers Association facial recognition specialist, Giroux said. “The analyst does have the materials.”

The team concentrated for weeks on identifying the most-easily-recognized suspects from the best photos, he said in an interview.

“We’re moving into an area we expect to be more of a challenge … the core crowd responsible for the large dollar value damage.”

Civilians turned in about 80% of the images police have, after public appeals for help in identifying thugs who burned four cruisers and smashed store windows, the detective said.

Toronto police working with U.S. counterparts

Toronto police’s G20 Investigative Team has now arrested 20 individuals, including one young offender, who are facing a total of 60 charges in relation to acts committed during the June 26 and 27 summit.

During an Aug. 26 press conference, police released new videos and photographs of several outstanding suspects on their “most wanted” list.

Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux, who heads the 22-member team, said Thursday afternoon investigators are confident the charges laid against these individuals won’t be dropped calling the wanted persons “the most prolific individuals in terms of damage done to the city.”

TORONTO – Toronto police have released photos of suspects they call the “worst of the worst” who are wanted in connection to the damage caused during the G20 protests.

Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux says the new photos and videos show the worst offenders, who are responsible for thousands of dollars of damage to the city during the protests in late June.

Giroux says one of the videos released today shows a suspect carrying a pointed pickaxe, running around and smashing glass in the downtown core.

Ein fahrender Holzhandwerker, bei dem die Kopenhagener Polizei am 14. Dezember 2009 während des Klimagipfels ein Messer gefunden hatte, wurde heute vom Amtsgericht Kopenhagen freigesprochen. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hatte ihn unter dem Vorwurf angeklagt, er habe an den Demonstrationen im Umfeld des Konferenzzentrums teilnehmen wollen und ein Messer dabei gehabt, dessen Klinge ein klein wenig länger war, als die im Waffengesetz erlaubten sechs Zentimeter. Dafür forderte sie die Höchststrafe von sieben Tagen Gefängnis. Der Handwerker wurde freigesprochen – mit der Begründung, dass es sich bei dem Messer eindeutig um ein Werkzeug handle, das er benötigt habe, um seinen Beruf auszuüben.

By Thomas Walkom

Those who accused the authorities of criminalizing dissent during Toronto’s ill-starred G-20 summit got it only half right. As this week’s judicial farce demonstrates, the people in charge of public security during that raucous weekend went off the rails. They acted as if potential dissent were a crime.

How else to explain the numbers? During the summit, police arrested more than 1,100 people. Of those, some 800 were jailed – in some cases for more than 36 hours – yet never charged.

Of the 304 who were charged, the government now acknowledges that nine were fingered mistakenly. Another 58 more had their charges withdrawn or stayed Monday during a mass court appearance. The reason? There never was enough evidence to convict them in the first place.

eine Prozesstagebuchseite eines Beobachters und Mitbetroffenen

Mittlerweile haben sich bei den Prozessen gegen Klimaaktivist_innen Schemata herausgebildet, die sich regelmässig wiederholen. Zu Anfang eines jeden Prozesstages: Streit um den Gerichtssaal, weil bisher alle diese Prozesse in Gerichtssäle gelegt wurden, die 10 Zuschauer_innenplätze oder weniger haben. Dann, mit ordentlicher Verspätung und unter Ausschluss von regelmässig mehr als der Hälfte der Besucher_innen geht die Verhandlung los. Alle anderthalb Stunden gibt es eine Pause, und um die Mittagszeit gehen alle Mittagessen. Es ist auch möglich, dass sich Angeklagte_r und Richter_in auf dem Klo begegnen, aber wenn die Richter_innen den Gerichtssaal betreten, muss es still sein, und alle müssen sich von ihren Plätzen erheben. Nach dem Verfahren ist ein beliebtes Gesprächsthema die Non-Verbale Kommunikation von Richter_innen und Staatsanwältin. Beteiligte zurückliegender Prozesse berichten, dass dies ein sichereres Indiz für den Ausgang des Verfahrens sei, als die Stichhaltigkeit der Beweise und Argumente.

And then there were 231.

Twenty-four hours after the fact, Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General confirmed the final head count after Monday’s mass court appearance by those charged in connection to the G20 summit protests.

In total, 304 people were on the docket at the Ontario Court of Justice facing charges ranging from mischief to obstructing a peace officer and possession of weapons.

By the time the dust had settled, 73 cases were either settled or dismissed.

Nine of the 73 were people listed in error. “For example, a person being named twice,” ministry spokesman Brenda Crawley wrote in an email.

By Allison Jones And Mary Gazze

TORONTO – A group of 303 people charged with G20-related offences was whittled down Monday as many of the accused that flooded a Toronto courthouse had their charges withdrawn.

A crush of accused and their family members descended on the west-end courthouse almost two months after a small but violent group of people dressed in black broke free of a peaceful summit protest, setting police cars ablaze and vandalizing banks.

The majority of people who appeared Monday were arrested June 26 at a protest at the Ontario legislature, several blocks from the chaotic scenes that unfolded just hours earlier in downtown Toronto, police said.

Some suspects accused of committing G20-related crimes had their charges dropped Monday as several hundred people packed into a north Toronto courthouse.

Monday’s scene was chaotic as the suspects, their families, supporters, lawyers and various other protest groups and demonstrators descended on the courthouse.

It was one of the largest mass court appearances the country has ever seen, with more than 300 suspects making appearances in three different courtrooms.

Some who appeared before a judge early in the day emerged dissatisfied with the process. Many were told to return on Oct. 14.

“Today’s hearing was completely ridiculous,” said Dominic Palladini of the G20 arrestees’ network, during a news conference outside the court. Speaking in French, Palladini said the hearing was a waste of time.

In Dänemark gehen die Prozesse rund um den Kopenhagener Klimagipfel 2009 weiter. Auf der Anklagebank sitzen Umweltaktivisten, aber auch der dänische Staat. VON REINHARD WOLFF

STOCKHOLM taz | Mehr als 2.000 DemonstrantInnen waren während der Proteste gegen den Weltklimagipfel im Dezember des vergangenen Jahres in Kopenhagen vorübergehend festgenommen worden. Gegen einige will die dänische Justiz nun wohl ein Exempel statuieren.

Am Dienstag wird der schon im März begonnene Prozess gegen die Australierin Natasha Verco und den US-Amerikaner Noah Weiss fortgesetzt. Aktiv beim BUND-Dachverband Friends of the Earth waren beide am 15. Dezember “vorbeugend” verhaftet und drei Wochen lang in Untersuchungshaft gehalten worden. Die Besonderheit der Anklage gegen sie: Die Staatsanwaltschaft wirft ihnen Anstiftung zu Gewalttaten vor, die nie stattgefunden haben.

TORONTO — The stage is set for a crush of people to descend upon a Toronto courthouse Monday as more than 300 people charged with offences related to the G20 summit are set to appear, along with their families, supporters and lawyers for what will be a marathon session of mass appearances.

As 303 people have appeared in court to face their various charges over the past three months, they have all had their return dates set for Monday at the same courthouse. It will be one of the largest mass court appearances Toronto has ever seen, according to Toronto Police G20 investigator Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux.

“If you’re out (of custody) you’ll be appearing. If you’re in you’re appearing physically, in custody or by video,” he said.

Ab Montag bzw. Dienstag gehen zwei Prozesse zu den Klimagipfel-Protesten von Dezember in Kopenhagen weiter. Zum Einen die Massenklage gegen den dänischen Staat wegen der Massengewahrsamnahmen, zum anderen ein Verfahren gegen zwei Personen wegen Organisations-/Verschwörungsdelikten.
Mehr Infos dazu auf dem unten angegebenen Blog der Berliner Cop15antirep-Soligruppe.
Hier jetzt die Übersetzung eines Artikels, der Anfang Juli in der dänischen Zeitung “Information” erschien (siehe: http://www.information.dk/238114) und von den ersten zwölf Prozesstagen des Verfahrens gegen den Staat berichtet.
Der Fall, welcher der Polizei endlich ihre Grenzen aufzeigen könnte

Montreal civil rights lawyer Julius Grey has called the treatment of G20 prisoners in Toronto “torture” and sent a warning letter to the Montreal Police Service with the intent to sue the force for collaborating in a “flagrant abuse of power.”

As those charged with crimes at the summit prepare to make another court appearance on August 23 in Toronto, Grey severely criticized the way the police operation was handled and how the prisoners, the vast majority of whom were let go without charge, were treated. About 100 Quebecers are among those charged.

He went so far as to compare the conditions the prisoners faced in detention to the U.S. military detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“To not let people go to the toilet, to strip search them constantly, to keep them without alerting their loved ones, that’s the definition of torture,” Grey said.