[van-announce] Resist Olympic Police State! Talk featuring Kristian Williams: Thurs.

[Anti-Poverty Committee]

-please forward-

Resist Olympic Police State!
Thursday February 7th at 7pm
SFU Harbor center (515 W. Hastings)

Speakers Panel featuring Kristian Williams:

Kristian Williams is a Portland based activist and author of ‘American
Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination’ and ‘Our Enemies in Blue:
Police and Power in America’.

Kristian will speak to the counter insurgency war being fought in Iraq and
its correlation to the militarization of the police at home.

Other panelists include representatives from:

Stopwar.ca – Vancouver’s mass-based anti-war organization that has for
years mobilized the people to end the war and fight for social justice.

No2010 Coalition – Grass-roots anti-Olympics coalition organized to
confront the 2010 games with the demands: No Olympics on Stolen Native
Land!, No Social Cleansing! and, No Eco-Destruction! www.no2010.com

Organized by Anti-Poverty Committee

Resist Olympic Police State:

When discussing the Olympic Police State many will assume that activists
are being paranoid and that such preparations are made to prevent
terrorism not ‘legitimate protest’. Here it is important to note that the
first two targets for the Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams
(INSET) following September 11 2001, was the West Coast Warriors Society
and Animal Liberation activists.

Years later, the state has honed its devices and expanded its covert
operations. It has not publicly presented itself it its totality until now
- in the lead up to the 2010 Olympic Games.

The Integrated Security Unit (ISU) is the public face of the police state.
It was formed in 2003 to act as the all-seeing and all-knowing policing
apparatus. Bringing together all levels of government, police,
surveillance agencies and the armed forces, the ISU is arguably the most
sophisticated police state Canada has ever been subject to since the
earlier wars of colonial conquest.

According to their last year’s annual review, the ISU ‘has grown
substantially, adding personnel from the RCMP, VPD, West Van Police,
Department of Defense and VANOC’.

Leading the pack is the RCMP, which has total control and oversight ‘in
planning and managing policing and security operations’. Under their
control and listed as ‘Base Resources’ which need be ‘maximized’ are the:
      West Van Police
      West Van Bylaw Enforcement
      VPD
      VPD Bylaw Enforcement
      Richmond RCMP
      Richmond Bylaw Enforcement
      Whistler RCMP
      CSIS
      Canadian Armed Forces
      Any federal or provincial public servant: and,
      Any other federal, provincial or municipal agency.

All police, surveillance and military institutions are lining up like pigs
at a trough for a bonanza of free and new equipment and funding. By
complaining that the technology ‘in place at the time of its writing (the
Olympic bid book) is no longer state-of-the-art,’ all agencies can share
in the loot obtained.

New radios at $4.5 million (plus batteries), snowmobiles and ATVs, are but
a few of the toys. More serious though, is the Close Circuited
Surveillance that will be needed to keep a constant watch on the 150
kilometers that fall under the ‘Olympic theater of operations’ and the 102
(up from the original 21) Olympic venues and other ‘sensitive areas’.
Already warehouses are being bought up and command centers, operational
and logistical staging areas, helipads, command trailers, tents for
screening areas and observation Posts are being built for use before,
during and after the Games. Miles of electric fencing and ‘alternative
methods of intrusion detection and prevention’ along with support
materials and computers ‘for dispatching of security units’ are also being
purchased and distributed to different enforcement agencies.

The question is where does all this go after the Games? What happens to
the police state? As according to the deal made between Her Majesty the
Queen and the Province of BC ‘this agreement that the integration of
federal and provincial policing services into a single policing and
security operation’ will not end until December 31, 2011.

The Olympic Police State Mascots:

CSIS:
It has just been made public that the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS) has begun targeting anti-Olympic resistance groups.
Wherever covert information agencies are found, so too is mis-information,
provocateurs, infiltration and state-sponsored terrorism. This has been
the case in previous mega-events in Canada, and has already become the
norm here.

The bid book assured the IOC that ‘the country has established security
intelligence and law enforcement regimes which work closely with
international agencies to identify, assess, and combat activist violence
or terrorism.’ CSIS is the prize pet and will be unleashed and made
responsible ‘for providing threat assessments and security intelligence
reports’. As well they will lead a ‘joint intelligence group’ to ensure
‘all police and intelligence groups are working together’.

Canadian Armed Forces:
The armed forces have entered new ground in fighting a counter-insurgency
war in Afghanistan. With this new role has come an increase in experience
policing imperialism. From training prison guards to police officers, the
Canadian armed forces have advanced the militarization of policing and
that experience will be called upon in 2010.

As agreed, ‘the resources of the Canadian forces will be utilized to
augment the police and emergency services’. And in the case of eventual
policing shortages, the armed forces will fill the void not entirely
filled by rent-a-cops and retired police officers.

VPD
The Vancouver Police Department has been central in the social cleansing
preparations for the games. By enforcing the Civil City Initiative and
acting as the City’s eviction service, the police have become VANOC’s
thugs.

During the Games the VPD will operate under RCMP command primarily in the
Urban Domain as opposed to the designated Games Security Domain. To assist
in the facilitating of ‘public safety not directly related to the games
venues or sites, the VPD aggressively begged for an armored tank.

For info regarding the resistance to the Olympic Police State check out
www.no2010.com