Reflections on the Prelude To the Toronto Riots

On May 18, 2010, self-dexcribed anarchists firebombed a Royal Bank of Canada branch in downtown Toronto.

In a YouTube video taken of the attack, the perpetrators cited RBC's sponsorship of the 2010 Olympics, homelessness, and the bank's financing of oil sands developments in Fort MacMurray.

The group also promised to be present at the G8 and G20 summits.

In other words, their May 18 attack was actually a prelude of what this particular group was planning at the G8 and G20 summits.

Examining a number of different postings of that video, one thing quickly becomes an apparent: those who sympathize with anarchist terrorists are nearly as much a part of the problem as are the terrorists themselves.

These videos managed to draw a number of sympathizers to defend the actions of those who perpetrated the bombing. Some of them are more lucid than others.

They tend to base their support of this attack on an economic worldview that the far left seems to share with anarchists:

They tend to be particularly candid on how they see actions such as the May 18 attack, or the riots currently tearing through Toronto. It isn't a joke. These people are deadly serious:

They defend these kinds of actions based on necessity. Unable to voice their agenda in a manner that would win the support of logical, rational Canadians, violence is the last resort of these individuals. They actually lionize this kind of intellectual sloth:

Moreover, they attempt to excuse themselves by pointing out that "no one got hurt". (Yet are rather resentful of the detail that a bank firebombing in Greece killed three people, including a pregnant woman.)

Moreover, they attempt to justify their violence by pointing out the violence that police use against them -- omitting the detail that the violence is in response to the violence used by anarchists themselves.

Moreover, they forecast further violence:

However bad the violence in downtown Toronto has been today, the RBC firebombing reminds us that it could have been much worse, especially if police hadn't arrested the perpetrators of that bombing before the summit.

When police arrested the three known perpetrators of the May 18 bombing, they were found to be in possession of hundreds of 7.62 mm rounds, as well as incendiary materials and explosives.

Whatever RBC bomb perps Roger Clement, Matthew Morgan-Brown and Claude Handge had in store for the G8 and G20 summits, it becomes clear that the May 18 bombing may have paled in comparison.

Not all anarchists are terrorists by any means. But international summits have demonsrated that terrorists walk among anarchist circles. Well-meaning anarchists would do well to identify such individuals and expel them from their movement.

But one thing they cannot do is justify the violence. Terrorism is terrorism, and it should always be dealt with appropriately.