Protest against police brutality turns violent in Montreal

Police arresting a protester

Today a few hundreds of protester gathered at Place des Arts in Montreal to demonstrate against police brutality, following the tradition of the 15th of March. As they were gathering, the organizers asked for people to remain calm and avoid clashes that traditionally accompany anti-police brutality protest. They also asked for Jean-Loup Lapointe to be put under court for killing Fredy Villanueva.

Police charging...

As soon as they started to walk, though, some kids pulled up black scarfs to cover their faces and started chanting "Fuck the Police", and "Let's break everything". Soon enough indeed clashes broke out, and riot police answered with force making no difference between thugs, people passing by, or photographers for that sake. A few of us received some blows by the police. I saw an old lady being pushed on the ground.

The whole purpose of the demonstration went for nothing as clashes and arrest went on. Yet the worse is that thugs were doing all they could to start the fighting with police, who were doing what they could to prevent actual fighting. Once it had started, though, there was nothing stopping them, until all protesters had to disperse.

Pictures are available for sale on Demotix as usual.