Saturday, February 13, 2010

Tough Guys sur les bicyclettes

There were some heavy-duty protests at the opening day of the Olympics yesterday, with masked protesters smashing windows, damaging cars and spray-painting things. If this were happening in Ontario the Mounties would be out on horseback, something I've seen in Toronto many times. (In fact, I noticed when living in Liberty Village in west Toronto last year that even the parking police are on horseback.)

But the Olympics are in Vancouver, and things are a little different there. To thwart the main protest, CTV reports, "bicycle police formed a line across one of the main streets in the downtown."

Bikes... hmmm. It's an interesting development in crowd control techniques, and we need to hear more about it. Is it a kinder, gentler approach to policing angry mobs? Or just the way Van cops get around?

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't want to balance a riot shield while on a bike.

Yappa said...

I suppose they could build the riot shield into the bike... naw, doesn't fit the image.