The agent provocateur story is getting lots of notice in the blogosphere, and the CBC even has an interview with a retired police officer officer who specialized in crowd control no less, saying “…if they weren’t police, I think they might well have been working in the best interests of police.”
Even to the casual observer it’s apparent that when the Union President called them out on the carpet for what they were, their actions spoke louder than any no comment from the RCMP ever could. Observed in the blogosphere is the most telling action of what happened after being confronted – they took refuge with their fellow storm troopers rather than the other protesters. The provocateurs weren’t small men either, it would have looked more convincing if the storm troopers had pepper sprayed them a bit or at least a bit of rougher handling more in line with what is normal with a protester carrying a rock.
Then there’s the boot thing too, (CUPE is hosting a large image) in what could be seen as more than a coincidence the same make and model of Vibram sole is used on the boots of both the storm troopers and provocateurs. Both soles even worn out almost the same, and looking at the latest on the Vibram web site are very similar to this years model. Anyone that is old enough to remember the Black Panther Coloring Book agitprop and the FBI keeping tabs on the Merry Pranksters(?) antics, probably recalls the way to spot an undercover FBI agent was by their shiny black shoes. Coincidence perhaps, but combined with everything else perhaps not.
Coincidence…nope. They were cops. The SQ admitted it today.
Those shoes give them away every time!