Cops Stalk the High Schools

(Letter)

Dear Spartacist Canada,

I was reading your article concerning the aftermath of the reactionary G20 crackdown in Toronto this past June. I found the article particularly interesting considering I attended the protests, but I had put the matter behind me by September. But it so happened that conversation in my Gr. 12 English Lit class turned to control, and lo and behold someone brought up the G20 protests. I merely stated my own opinion—which happened to coincide with Spartacist Canada’s article—that no-one, including protestors using Black Bloc tactics—was deserving of the brutal and violent crackdown by Toronto Police. The protestors merely smashed a few windows of Capitalist businesses—not a crime in the eyes of the working class. Little did I know at that point that I would walk into class the next day to be confronted by the school cop, who had been brought in by my teacher to talk to the class (but really me) about the G20. I was immediately asked what I had said the previous class concerning this topic. I repeated myself, and went further to state that while I do not agree with the tactics, they serve no purpose to working class struggle, it may be understandable that their rage boils over to such an extent. I compared it to the shooting of a Nazi officer in occupied France during WWII. Immediately, a gasp let out through the classroom. The cop looked at me inquisitively, and asked: “So you’re calling me a Nazi?”. No, I was not. I was comparing him to a Nazi. There’s a difference, but [it] was not the time to argue semantics. The cop walked around the classroom, as my classmates visibly moved away from me (I don’t know what they thought was going to happen) and I calmly stared as the cop locked the doors. My teacher had vanished from sight. Then the cop tried to debate me. But he didn’t really do a very good job, he kept interrupting me, and playing on emotional triggers to gauge sympathy from the class. “Do you know how many babies have died in my arms? Do you know how many times a sixteen-year old kid has pulled a gun on me? Do you know once I responded to a call and found a woman and her mother raped and murdered inside their own home?” I didn’t really care, as it was irrelevant and an obvious attempt to upstage me. He also highlighted his charity work (yes work to improve the existing system rather than fixing it; great idea) and discussed his humble beginnings living on a res. This was after simple intimidation did not force me to back down. In the end, nothing really happened but I felt it important that Spartacist Canada know of this incident.

Sincerely, K

SC replies: K’s harrowing experience underlines the Marxist understanding that the police, along with the courts and army, are the violent and coercive core of the capitalist state. Despite our differences with the politics of the Black Bloc anarchists, we call to defend them against state repression and demand that the charges against all G20 protesters be dropped. We further raise the call for cops out of the high schools, where they harass and intimidate students, particularly blacks and other minorities.