There's no question that police acted unacceptably in the wake of the G20 riots in Toronto.
The weak response to the initial riot was followed by a strong-arm response that was in no way, shape or form acceptable. Moreover, provoking that response was the actual goal of the Black Bloc rioters themselves. In effect, police simply gave the rioters what they wanted: a reason for the public to distrust the police.
That being said, some self-lionizing crusaders have also taken the controversy as an opportunity to take their attention-seeking behaviour to a whole new level.
Take, for example, Toronto's Derek Soberal. In a video being passed around the Canadian blogosphere, Soberal is trying to pass himself off as a victim of police brutality -- but there's reason to doubt his story.
The video begins with Soberal being confronted by police during the G20 Summit, demanding to see his ID. The video does not show any event precipitating the demand. Soberal showboats while he refuses to produce identification for police.
Not wanting to be arbitarily singled out by police is one thing. But Soberal's showboating becomes thematic as the video continues, as he recounts a story about randomly approaching a police car. He announces to the officer inside that he's been appearing on television and radio, then asks him a question about police activities during the G20 Summit.
He then insists that the police officer in question assaults him while arbitrarily demanding to see his ID. He offers security camera footage as evidence of this. But there's a problem. At approximately the 5:23 mark of the video, the security camera footage that will allegedly show him being assaulted skips. The security footage has clearly been edited at the exact time of the alleged assault.
Why?
It's a question the creator of the video doesn't seem to want asked, let alone do they want to answer:
He shows himself making a show of the incident to anyone who will listen, including bystanders on the street.
All the video actually demonstrates is that Soberal ran from the police. It doesn't demonstrate that Soberal was assaulted in any way, shape or form. The security evidence is doctored to eliminate any evidence one way or the other, so all the viewer has is Soberal's word.
There's a simple word for what Soberal is doing in the video: it's called shit disturbing. He seems to go to some rather spectacular lengths, including running from the police, in order to accomplish this end.
It seems fair to ask why the security camera footage has been edited. It seems fair to ask if the creators of this video are hiding something, and it seems puzzling until one looks a little deeper into the creators of the video -- in particular Press For Truth, and Infowars, both groups involved in the 9/11 "truth" movement.
As anyone whose paid any passing amount of attention to the 9/11 "truth" movements comical "Building 7" claims knows, the primary tactics of these groups is to present the illusion of evidence. In the case of World Trade Centre Building 7, they use dark, blurry and grainy YouTube videos to attempt to refute the eyewitness testimony of Firefighters, Police and EMTs who were on the scene.
They claim that Building 7 was a controlled demolition, and that the damage to the building was not catastrophic. Firefighters, Police and EMTs who were on the scene testify to the existence of a massive hole in the building, directly below a penthouse on the building which eyewitness accounts hold to have fallen first.
The illusion of evidence seems to be at play with the Soberal video as well. Soberal says he has video evidence of the alleged assault. The video doesn't seem to ever actually provide it.
In order to shed tears for Derek Soberal, one would have to assume -- simply assume -- that he's telling the truth, even despite him changing his story. It would be easier to believe him if he weren't being demonstrably evasive; but evasive he's been.
