Ottawa: Police Beat Unarmed #FreedomTrucker Protesters, Mounted Police Trample Disabled Woman
“Never in my life would I have believed anyone if they told me that our own P.M. would refuse dialogue and choose violence against peaceful protesters instead.”
We’ve been covering the horrific choices that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made in dealing with the peaceful #FreedomTrucker protests against dehumanizing government covid mandates and measures.
His embrace of fascism to counter a peaceful protest borders on the lunatic. From seizing bank accounts, even pets, to sending police in to act as his personal violent goon squads, Trudeau is a complete disgrace.
Reports of people being trampled by mounted police, vehicle windows being smashed by armed police, and police beating protesters in the streets are streaming out of Ottawa and shocking the free world.
The images and video coming out of Canada are horrifying.
This is disturbing. Is the woman with the walker trampled by Mounted Unit horses alive? Is she in surgery? Has @SIUOntario been notified? Do you have any concerns or comment @OttawaPolice @JustinTrudeau @fordnation @JimWatsonOttawa – Why? pic.twitter.com/X251vZiIaq
— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) February 18, 2022
Police continue to push back on protesters in Ottawa. It's getting incredibly tense. pic.twitter.com/qBBoDZJzsn
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 18, 2022
Police in Ottawa brutalize a protester, kneeing him until he hits the ground. pic.twitter.com/2cjia3nBEW
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 18, 2022
Police make an arrest as they continue to force freedom protestors out of the area.
Footage by @PuffinsPictures pic.twitter.com/DbGVbfQbH2
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 18, 2022
You know it’s bad when the New York Times accurately reported (at first) the violent thug response to (actually) peaceful protesters.
"Police officers advanced on demonstrators at gunpoint,smashing truck windows and arresting protesters…an aggressive escalation in the government’s effort to end the protests…" Honest reporting by @nytimes which has riled up sections of Canadian media. https://t.co/CynOpqGaDt
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) February 19, 2022
That link does not go to the article quoted (you know why), so I found the original via archive.
The New York Times reported (archive link):
Canadian police officers advanced on trucks sometimes at gunpoint, smashing truck windows and arresting protesters in front of the country’s Parliament building, an aggressive escalation in the government’s effort to finally end the protests that have roiled the nation’s capital for three weeks.
Officers in riot gear, brandishing batons and rifles, pushed to regain the area around Parliament, expanding an operation that began on Friday to remove parked trucks that have blocked the city’s downtown core.
In the heart of the encampment, the police pushed people back with batons, and toppled over a table displaying dubious information about vaccine injury. They advanced methodically truck by truck, shoving protesters back, some people getting pushed over by the police, as demonstrators shouted, “Shame on you!”
. . . . The protests had been by and large nonviolent, evoking the atmosphere of a carnival. But they ensnarled traffic across the capital, disrupted business and annoyed residents with incessant honking. Organizers inflated bouncy castles in the street, and people brought small children and dogs. D.J.s spun music from flatbed trucks-turned stages. At one point people soaked in a hot tub erected in front of the Parliament building.
. . . . “It’s horrific,” said Dagny Pawlak, a spokeswoman for the truckers, said in a text message on Saturday. “A dark moment in Canadian history.” She added: “Never in my life would I have believed anyone if they told me that our own P.M. would refuse dialogue and choose violence against peaceful protesters instead.”
. . . . On Friday, B.J. Dichter, a spokesman for the convoy, wrote on Twitter that it was time for protesters to leave, saying that the police had smashed the windows of one driver’s truck. But some of those who remained near the Parliament building said they had no plans to go home yet, even as law enforcement closed in.
“We can’t stop them,” said Mike Marsh, 48, nodding in the direction of the police. “All we can do is slow them down.”
I'm guessing you won't see this photo printed in any of Canada's newspapers tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/LJbTf1X1aO
— Daniel James Dulhunty (@dulhunty) February 19, 2022
Needless to say, people have thoughts.
This piece of trash celebrating an elderly woman being trampled by a horse. 🖕🖕🖕 https://t.co/4GPivdx7i9
— Rusty Weiss 🇺🇸 (@rustyweiss74) February 19, 2022
Martial law, no media allowed to cover it, debate on unnecessary Emergencies Act suspended, bank accounts seized and Justin is watching the Olympics #FreedomConvoyCanada2022 https://t.co/QBuiop1J0u
— Joe Warmington (@joe_warmington) February 18, 2022
Remember when the left made a big deal out of US border patrol holding their horses’s reins? pic.twitter.com/j4PGNgtTzN
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) February 19, 2022
And so now our horses will stomp old ladies into the ground…. https://t.co/YeAkfaRC8C
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 19, 2022
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Comments
Nazis of the North. Trudeau should receive the Ceucescu treatment in response.
I think a fitting punishment for Trudeau would be his placement under a horse. What is the Canadian version of impeachment of Trudeau?
He could be voted out in a vote of No Confidence. However, the debate over the Emergency Act decrees was suspended because of the police attacking the Freedom Truckers. No debate, no vote of confidence. The Maple Mussolini stays in office. The last thing the supposed Opposition party wants to do is to take power and be responsible. Kind of like our GOPe.
Subotai Bahadur
Australia, now Canada. Who’s next for extraordinary tyranny? Has this kind of iron fist stomped on allegedly free countries before?
Some years back a neurotic little fellow named Schicklgruber became the leader of Germany. It did not end well.
Well, Canada – you voted for Chairman Trudeau. Enjoy living under the Enabling Act.
Less than a third of Canadians voted for this, such is the insanity of a parliamentary system.
You have a superior system to offer?
I haven’t seen any. I mean, look across their Southern border, it’s impossible to introduce any new policies or perspectives there, it’s a two party state where the parties are often indistinguishable.
Yea, ours. It has faults, but it’s the best there is.
Ignoring our system and breaking the very laws it created is our problem.
Please stop with this line of reasoning. It is beyond self-defeating. Who are you to ride on your high horse and make such condescending remarks? This isn’t about people voting anymore and Canadians certainly didn’t vote for this. Try to be constructive.
Knock it off. The reason your state is such a hellhole is that too many voters never took responsibility for their actions, but kept voting for evil over and over again. Chairman Trudeau’s actions on the Wuflu were clearly vile and totalitarian long before this. Stop making excuses for evil behavior!
They don’t get to directly vote for the PM. They vote for a party and the one with the plurality of seats selects the PM.
Chairman Trudeau formed a coalition with other parties. If these parties really opposed his actions they would vote against him on this. Yet it is far from clear they will do so.
History clearly shows that “liberal” parties are totalitarian. Voters have no excuses for not knowing this by now. Canadian politics has long had a totalitarian streak with its sinister Human Rights commission. Maybe – just maybe – this is exactly what many Canadian voters want.
If you want to know which countries are crypto-fascist, the ones where the full-blown fascism is likely to erupt first, make a list of the countries that made it actually criminal to say bad things about the Holocaust. That is your first violation of the human right of free speech, that is the nascence of your government control of “disinformation,” followed by its control of “information.”
Right-think. It’s what dictators have for breakfast.
These sorts of indiscriminately heavy handed tactics by LEO undermine the public trust in their political masters and in LEO themselves. Many of us are no longer willing to grant LEO any benefit of the doubt precisely because of the egregious examples of LEO all to willing to use violence and excessive force against citizens. They and their apologists can hardly be shocked to discover that when given an opportunity to hold LEO accountable at trial that citizen juries are doing so.
Yep. I can remember when I was extremely pro-police. Now, I wonder what in the world I was thinking.
Being for or against “the police” does not accomplish anything. If you’ve been paying attention, “the police” are being defunded, demonized relentlessly (as you are doing) and as a result, early retirements and inability to recruit has devastated “the police”. Out here, after several the cancellation of several consecutive training classes for lack of recruits, the police academies are resorting to hiring the rejects and partnering them with experienced police who are not in the mood to train the new breed of unqualified cops and quitting/retiring as soon as they can.
Hopefully, that means the real cops who left are on our side. We can sure use them. In the meantime, let’s not piss of the cops we do have and end up breeding an anti-citizen attitude as a survival strategy among them.
We need to STOP MAKING ENEMIES!
“Hopefully, that means the real cops who left are on our side.”
Corollary: it leaves the cops who are not on our side to be “the cops.”
Meaning we “back the ex-cops,” not the cops.
You’re making his point.
Conservative rapport with “cop-cops” is getting worse, not better.
Case in point: the police chief of Ottawa.
The ethical officeholders resigned until eventually the shit floated to the top of the tank.
Phil,
Many of us, me anyway, have stopped being reflexively pro LEO. A neutral position of lets wait and see the evidence/body cam footage is a far cry from being anti LEO. We simply demand that LEO be held to a rigorous standard consummate with the powers granted to them to ensure that if they abuse those powers that they are held to account.
When you suggest that we should cleave to LE in the hope that will influence them to choose our side you miss the point. LEO shouldn’t be on a political side, they should carry out their duties in accordance with the Constitution and the statutes without fear or favor.
“When you suggest that we should cleave to LE in the hope that will influence them to choose our side”
Plus, history shows it hasn’t helped. That’s precisely what we (except for a small collection of noisy troublemakers) have been doing for over a century, and look how well that worked for us. We didn’t change, they changed.
They, as a group, deserve demonization as they consistently are the enforcers of evil. You can’t make an enemy of somebody who is already an enemy. You cannot find any national law enforcement group or city law enforcement group who is anything other than the hammer of their paymasters.
Not to be obvious or anything, but did you see the picture attached to this article? Are those cops on our side? What commo was saying was that cops that attack peaceful citizens bring down public opinion for all cops, which is actually true. I feel bad for the good cops that are out there; but how many are like those above, who rammed their horses into protestors and laughed about the injuries? It’s an honest question.
“It’s an honest question.”
About 5%. Maybe less.
Ottawa PD is not Police in the legitimate sense. They are simply enforcers for the criminal enterprise called the Canadian government. They serve the crime bosses, not the public. These “police” are themselves criminals and deserve no respect. They bring shame on real cops.
Name a law enforcement agency that is NOT there for use as control of the peasantry by the state.
She can’t. When you’ve been a staunch supporter of police for your whole life, it’s hard to realize that the “real” cops are going to do whatever they are ordered to do, be it to stand down as American businesses are looted and burned and as citizens are beaten right in front of them or confiscate legally-owned firearms in New Orleans.
I know that feeling, that sinking realization coupled with the desperate hope that what you are seeing is not real, can’t be real. I went through the same process with my understanding of the FBI. I kept clinging to the idea that the rot was only at the top . . . until it became too obvious even for me to keep fooling myself.
Where are Malloy and Reed when you need them?
What hurts my soul a little is that if this ever devolves to a shooting war within the cities, the cops are going to have to be considered be valid targets, because they have clearly made themselves so by the deliberate choices they have made.
Photo: Ottawa police chief.
Photo: “Blaster” half of Master Blaster (Mad Max).
Separated at birth?
If you look throughout history, from the Roman Empire to the Space Age, at the relationship between a populace and its police-equivalents, you will see not just a healthy mistrust, but a default mindset of “we are all criminals by name, so we will do as we need to whenever we can.” It’s only for the last century or so, and only in the US and our hegemonic running-puppydogs that the social myth of “Officer Friendly” arose, and the door has already shut on that historical aberration.
This is one of the core fallacies of progressivism: they believe human nature, in the mass, can be
improvedchanged to their liking. Their crown jewel, Communism, requires every single individual with no exceptions to renounce his natural monkey-brain preference for personal freedom and personal property, and their error is that they delude themselves that this is achievable.Meanwhile we practicals learn again and again that there are actually valid survival values behind the historic behaviors of humanity, even the more embarrassing ones — from distrust of authority and monogamy through tribalism, xenophobia, and even racism (which is nothing but xenophobia with an instantaneous detection curve)– and that perhaps we should spend more effort understanding whether all our forebears knew certain truths that we have forgotten or been intentionally bred out of (without those truths themselves changing in the least).
Justin Adolf Castro has found his Heydrich.
The ‘interim’ Ottawa police chief — his boss quit two days ago rather than do what he is doing — announced the following in a press conference not long ago today…
“If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges. Absolutely. This investigation will go on for months to come.”
The protesters have no reason to leave. Justin Castro and his Heydrich don’t really want them to leave. They want to make this Canada’s J6 ‘Insurrection’. Even though there has been zero violence by the entirely peaceful protesters.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the American trucker convoy planned for DC and Chairman Brandon’s State of the ‘Union’ address and Five Year Plan outline on March 1.
American leftwing totalitarian fascists, like Comrade Garland, must be drooling at the prospect of being able to ‘freeze’ the financial assets of Americans who oppose them — AKA ‘domestic terrorists’. Too bad they do not (yet) have that ‘tool’ as Comrade Freeland, as Castro Jr’s Himmler and Deputy PM, put it. With glee on her face and a sparkle in her eyes. Comrade Freeland looks made for a black pantsuit uniform with silver piping and a couple of silver S shaped parallel thunderbolts on the collar.
Question — If the EA is voted down can Canadians still be prosecuted for any of the new (not-a-law) ‘laws’ Canada’s dictator declared with a stroke of the pen when he invoked the EA? Asking for a friend.
.
I fully expect no less from our own police forces. “It can’t happen here” will happen here. January 6 was a warm-up.
Considering they will be confronted by DC police, and possibly Capital Police, I have to agree.
When they announced the convoy’s destination was DC I immediately questioned their judgement and if they really knew WTH they were doing.
DC is occupied territory. “Law enforcement” in DC is 100% on the side of the enemy. And the enemy LE there receives aid, comfort, and encouragement from RINOs like Senator Graham and politically terminal stage 4 TDS sufferer Cheney.
Yeah, I think it’s a huge mistake for any right-leaning or patriotic or freedom-loving, etc. protest to take place in DC. The J6 selfie-takers and trespassers are STILL locked up in appalling conditions, having been hunted down by the full force of the federal government, some raided just for being in DC on J6.
This isn’t 2010, and we can’t expect to make a difference by walking into the belly of the beast thinking we’re still in our America.
That said, obviously people can do what they want, but you wouldn’t catch me within five hundred miles of DC. Geesh, you can’t wear a MAGA hat there without being beaten to within an inch of your life. No thanks.
“This isn’t 2010”
Much worse. It sure will be fun to watch Facebook change community standards for “hate speech” following the midterm election.
Holding a demonstration against systemic federal rights abuse anywhere but DC is nothing but political masturbation. It’s like battling Naziism by storming Belize. Not only will it not help our cause, it will positively damage it, because our enemies will smell their victory in our cowardice.
It’s no accident that in most cases, if there is an easy way and a hard way to tackle something, the right way is never the easy way.
Are we “striking at the king” or are we not? If we are not, let’s invade Belize and feel good about ourselves. If we are, let’s do it the right way, and ensure we do not miss. If that means we have to accurately identify our opposition and their strength, then we’d better prepare to do that, with a view to overwhelming it the first time.
I 100% agree but would like to add just in case someone is influenced by a certain dimwitted reply declaring that fighting the political fight we have intelligently is “political masturbation”
What is the purpose of a demonstration?
Is it to change minds locally?
Is it to sway a politician on a pressing vote?
Is it to discourage legislation you disapprove of with a visible display of how you and like minded people feel?
Is it to demonstrate that your side feels the way it does so people who even on seeing it still disagree come away with a better opinion?
Is it to try and change minds nationally?
Well on all of those
Are there close states? Well vote totals say yes Wisconsin is a good example why not hold a genuine bring your kids family friendly protest there with police protection instead of police violence, with the ability to change minds and sway a very important election?
I will say what many might be thinking. Here goes:
Making DC the destination may be intended to do what will inevitably happen: the civil war about which many speak will start.
Hmmmm.
If they expect and are planning on a very aggressive response from the enemy I hope they’ve thought it through thoroughly and are well prepared. And well funded. And well lawyered up.
The civil war has already started and only one side is fighting. We are fighting a global enemy that is coordinating their narrative and tactics on a global scale. And they are getting increasingly frustrated as the elections approach. We really, really need to unite to change the narrative. If everyone expects that a sweeping Republican victory in November will change anything, pay attention.
McConnell came out last week taking sides with Pelosi’s Jan 6 committee (aka Cheney and Kinzinger) in declaring that the Jan 6 protests were in fact an insurrection (he didn’t say the Trump part). Soon after, he orchestrated the blocking of Mike Lee’s proposed addendum to the continuing government funding resolution that would have blocked federal money for states insisting on their vax and mask mandates.
McConnell was also asked what his plans were should the GOP retake the Senate. Surprise! He plans on returning to the traditional Senate spirit of bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle to work “together” for America.
We are going to be voting ourselves deeper into an even more entrenched Uniparty if McConnell succeeds in stopping Trump in his efforts to primary the squishes and seize the day for a meaningful November victory worth fighting for. I will NOT be voting at all if there is nothing but Uniparty candidates on my ballot. Let’s not be stupid one final time. It’s our last chance. If we even get to have an election in November.
Rightly or wrongly, I’d almost welcome a trial by arms to end this feud.
“And well lawyered up.”
If you enter into the endgame thinking that lawyers are going to make a difference either way, you are insufficiently committed.
There were no ambulance-chasers at Normandy.
“Rightly or wrongly…”
Rightly. Nothing wrong with looking forward to a good fight for freedom. Better sooner than later IMO.
What they don’t understand is that if they denounce every demonstration as an insurrection, it costs us nothing to skip the demonstration and go straight to a serious insurrection.
I do not think their current tactic leads to the result they think it does.
Welcome to the New World Order. Let’s stop calling it fascism. This is straight up tyranny.
Tin soldiers and Trudeau’s coming,
We’re finally on our own,
This winter I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ottowa.
I do hear the drumming… but strangely, the voice is not Neil Young’s.
Meanwhile in Calgary, the third largest city in Canada…
https://twitter.com/DerAchsenZeit/status/1495165441374707713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Justin Castro is going to need more stormtroopers.
This is great! I could watch this all day long.
I did not realize how the protests have spread and grown and to other cities in Canada until I saw that.
The movement seems a bit like Solidarność.
I wonder if the results will be the same?
I’d like to think they will be. But it took the Poles almost 10 years to prevail.
Consider this, one these protests spread and become more massive, the threat of being identified for persecution becomes meaningless. Are they really going to go after everybody?
Let’s hope this catches on here in the US. The Canadians are 100% grassroots and leaderless at the moment. But here in America, we will be having Trump holding his usual massive rallies which gives us a good leg up. We need to build those up and expand them everywhere at the grassroots.
We aren’t beaten yet. As Bongino keeps pointing out, we are now facing a desperate enemy that has lost its narrative. In their desperation, they are now more dangerous but they are truly in disarray. This is the time to rise and get in their face loudly and in great numbers. We need a day of national protest where everyone skips whatever they were going to do that day and head out to yell “Freedom!” All of us. Everywhere.
“But it took the Poles almost 10 years to prevail.”
If prevailing is truly a potential outcome, civil war isn’t inevitable after all.
But, as JFK observed, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” And “those” now include not just big government, but big tech, MSM, and higher education.
What’s stopping Canadian truckers from calling a general strike? I’m talking no trucks moving any goods, nationwide.
Do they have enough to make it work?
The arrested organizers are being muzzled as a condition of their release. They cannot speak in public.
Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes. But looking at what is still happening in Ottawa and what is happening in other Canadian cities, the truckers have lit a fire that is growing.
Justin Castro will have his hands full putting down hundreds of thousands of Canadians taking to the streets in protest on a regular basis. That is, if parliament consents to making him dictator for 30 days, or 60, or until he no longer thinks he needs their consent.
I think the Canadian government is muzzling the leaders because a general strike is what they fear. My perspective is that of an owner-operator, albeit an American one. Just a week ago many of my peers were still on the fence with this one. Many were even questioning the tactics of the protestors. While most are against vaccine mandates; many thought blocading the Ambassador bridge was going too far. However, Trudeau’s actions over the past few days have made then choose a side and it is not Trudeau’s.
Note that the truckers involved in these protests are independent truckers. Most major goods and shipping within Canada is done by large shipping companies with dozens or hundreds of trucks. They aren’t participating.
My understanding is that about 30% of the truckers in Canada are independents and the nature of the supply chain is such that if they were to refuse to work it would wreak havoc with the system, but you would not get the “three days from starvation” effect you would if all truck shipping stopped.
That said, it remains to be seen how many employees of major trucking companies might develop a sudden case of COVID if the independents were to calla strike.
caltrops were used against the enemies’ horse troops; they can be employed against truck tires with the same efficiency
Could one run a few trucks equipped with snowplows down to catch the devices they use on the highways?
A word of caution. Early reporting was inaccurate. The woman was knocked down, but not trampled.
Still, the image of mounted police riding against protestors looks awfully like a scene from Dr. Zhivago.
Watch the video. You can see the horse’s hooves hitting her, and the man standing right there said she was trampled. I’m going with my lying eyes.
We have video and police openly lied, and are banning all media from being present.
The video has credibility cops in this case don’t. We had this debate already many times, good cops love cameras because they will (as has happened countless times) protect good cops from slanderous claims.
That police news conference this afternoon was absolutely chilling. They talked about ‘monitoring for disinformation.’ They also said that they would be continuing the investigation for ‘months’ including reviewing CCTV footage looking for participants and will certainly be bringing many more ‘criminal charges’ and ‘financial sanctions.’
Mind you, there isn’t a shred of evidence that there was ANY destructive behavior during these protests; not a brick was thrown, no spray-painting, burning or looting. Instead, literally just truckers parked in the street.
It’s clear they’re using the J6 ‘investigation’ as their blueprint.
They also tweeted out the good news that the horse was uninjured. What a relief. /sarc
Castro Jr saw Brandon was still holding January sixth protesters and getting no blowback. A cop straight up murdered a veteran and mom and gets a medal. The media is dead silent about all of this. Troops in the streets behind barricades and US media is silent. Why would Castro Jr expect anything different? Now they are seizing bank accounts. How long before Brandon follows suit?
Cities burn and politicians literally genuflect to the mob. Families play with their children and they throw grenades and beat unarmed people under sniper cover. We’re at Tiananmen Square. How many years before this is memory-holed?
It’s a fundamental aspect of Canadian culture that we want to be just like the US, but different because we’re better than them. Even when American culture things (like BLM) make no sense up here, we’ll do them anyway.
What’s truly disturbing are all the cheers of approbation by the Twitter leftists. One is tempted to say these progs would sing a different tune if it were their beloved POC who were being maltreated by the police, but as we know if a POC acts “white” by embracing conservative causes and/or liberty, then they ain’t POC.
Twitter leftists are like leftists everywhere. They love violence against their enemies, and they will cheer death and destruction with great glee. They are evil, soulless people.
And these are the same people who repeatedly and purposefully provoke law enforcement HOPING for a response like this that they can then use to gain the sympathies and outrage of the LEO-loving right. They’ve done that since the ’60s and right up through the burn, loot, murder riots of 2020.
There was no provocation here. This was an appalling spectacle of police state force used on peaceful protesters. All the more unforgivable because it took place in Canada; remember Trudeau berating the Cuban government and police for using these same tactics on Cuban protesters just last year? Now he’s doing the same thing (well, so far, no one’s been “disappeared” or literally killed in the street, but how long before that happens?).
Twitter is a leftwing septic tank. I stopped reading replies to the posts I read years ago.
And I only read posts from a select group of authors. They are bookmarked — I do not login. They are basically on the front line in a hostile environment. Not unlike the protesters in Ottawa.
Most know their days on twitter are likely numbered. But they will exercise their right to free speech until banned.
Ooops.. Meant to be a reply to nordic_prince.
Of special note there isn’t a horse anywhere that will willingly trample ANYONE. Horses do not have good natural defenses and are very vulnerable, which is why they have invested in their speed and stamina over the course of their evolution.
The only way a horse tramples anyone is through the deliberate will of the person riding on it, or because something has forced it into such a panic it has no idea what it is doing.
There are riders on those horses……which tells me those riders would be labelled as criminals if they wore the flag of a South American or African country.
Let’s not put out pure gibberish.
Horses kick people all of the time.
The error in this scenario is sending them in in the first place. Reminds me of that scene when they burn the church in The Patriot.
I don’t think Danny is talking gibberish. Horses, as a rule, don’t just run around trampling people on their own. That this horse did is down to its rider and/or the chaotic situation its rider put it in.
That said, you are right. Those mounties should never have been there in the first place, and that fault lies with Ottawa and Canadian government . . . and their police minions willing to carry out the orders of tyrants.
Horses will lash out with their hooves if sufficiently startled (e.g., by a snake).
But in general, horses flee danger; donkeys confront it; and mules are unpredictable.
(Keeping a donkey in your horse-pen in mountain-lion country is a wise practice.)
“…and mules are unpredictable.”
Especially when you are about six years old, and don’t know Grandma has replace the old mule you used to ride with a new mule…
I used to date a horse trainer. There is a world of difference between “kick” and “trample”. Horses are extremely skittish about stepping on or into anything unusual because a horse with a wounded leg or foot is a dead horse. It’s base survival instinct and it takes training and a strong rider to overcome it.
Watch the video, daniel, there was no kick, only a trample.
Yes, that is my point. It takes training and a strong rider to get a horse to do what it did to those protestors, precisely because it isn’t natural for them to trample something/one that large.
Cavalry horses needed to literally be bred for war. To find the ones that would charge into the enemy without rearing back and that wouldn’t panic upon smelling blood. And get more of them.
Now that cavalry units are almost completely ceremonial in modern armies, breeding focus has shifted, and the “war horse” is gradually becoming a genetic relic.
Others have already corrected you by pointing out how different a kick vs being trampled is but to confront the scene in the patriot act it shouldn’t. Not just because the depiction of Bannister Tarleton isn’t accurate but because it was a war crime scene.
Canada isn’t at war this is just business as usual.
FWIW, this is kind a popular misconception. While horses, like a most herd animals, lean heavily into the flight aspect of the flight or fight reaction, they will fight if they perceive that’s the best alternative and trampling – particularly for smaller threats – is very much a part of their natural fighting instinct.
I’ve been around horses my entire life and I have seen a fair number of animals trampled…including a human or two. Some stallions in particular can be unbelievably aggressive.
The problem here, which is what I think is your larger point, is the horses never should have been put in this situation. It’s horribly inappropriate – for the animal and of course the people – to use mounted police to break up a peaceful demonstration. That’s not how civil society is supposed to work.
Great comment, thanks, TargaGTS. I have always been under the impression that horses will go out of their way to avoid trampling people, but I haven’t been around horses and don’t know from personal experience, so I value your insight.
I do think horses are good for many law enforcement roles, particularly at our Southern border which is vast and the conditions are not always conducive to most vehicles (i.e. no roads at all or sandy desert, etc.). I did love to see them in Boston Common when I lived in Mass, too, but I don’t think they were really “needed” there; it was more tradition, I think.
But running horses through a crowd of people who are just peacefully standing around is far far out of line and horrific. I keep thinking about that poor woman sitting on her mobility scooter and seeing the horses come straight at her, she couldn’t get out of the way because she clearly had problems walking (thus the scooter). So horrible.
Yes, Targa is 100% correct. My parents, along with a couple other family’s, owned and operated a riding school/stable for years, so I’ve been around a horse or three. I much prefer motorcycles myself 🙂
“But running horses through a crowd of people who are just peacefully standing around is far far out of line and horrific.”
Which is precisely why these thugs did what they did. They are just thugs with legal on their side. For now.
I happen to know a few mounted police, worked with them in the Rose Parade. The key to your statement is peaceful protest. Using horses is an intimidating crowd control tactic. The way the Canadian police were using them was to cut across between the police line and protestors and forcing the protestors back ten feet at a time whence the police would push the line forward. People do get hurt but except for that elderly woman getting trampled, several protestors were also hurt but that was from police hitting them or getting pushed over by the horses. The horses aren’t trying to hit anyone and they are crowded together so they don’t have much room to maneuver. Even that trampling was inadvertent. The horsed can’t see where they are stepping.
I am concerned that they used horses at all but I am more appalled at the guns being there. With snipers on the top of buildings and reports that they were not allowing protestors to leave. you could make an argument that they were intentionally trying to spark a riot. I watched a woman get maced in the face for merely shouting at the police. Not very professional. There was no threat. Shouting is what protests are about.
I was under impression that normal circumstances you will never see a horse trampling humans that you need to exert some extreme stress or pressure so the horse feels no choice, unless of course it is a well trained horse with a skilled enough rider.
I am not approaching it from direct experience with horses although I think from watching the video it is fair to say that things would have been a lot safer if the horses had no riders on them.
“I am not approaching it from direct experience…”
No kidding.
So why do cavalry horses need special training and specially trained riders if trampling people is normal behavior and why did Target who seems to have more experience than you say
“like a most herd animals, lean heavily into the flight aspect of the flight or fight reaction, they will fight if they perceive that’s the best alternative and trampling – particularly for smaller threats – is very much a part of their natural fighting instinct.”
In other words from my reading of the answer the normal answer of a horse is to run away, which is why I had a follow up question to see if I read that correctly.
But feel free to be as small as you want.
one way or the other, trudeau has revealed his genuine intentions for dealing with the peaceful dissent of our neighbors to the north–and kudos to the police chief for resigning rather than ordering armed/violent response against his countrymen–trudeau intends to crush any opposition(with violence if HE deems it necessary)–apparently he alone will decide what, if any, dissent will be allowed–a textbook example of a tyrant, of a fascist
we actually saw a similar facet of the same here in america during the summer of looting/rioting, when the perpetrators were there in plain sight and the police were ordered to stand down–the disregard for public safety, for the rule of law, for the personal/property rights of ordinary americans–mayhem with impunity, by design, with no adverse consequences
lord
Protests erupt in Toronto, no trucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NVveJX3LKM
The more these erupt, the more people show up, the weaker the government becomes.
Now truck convoy in Winnepeg calling to meet Trudeau.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcY3AHU7Lfo
This is not over.
It wouldn’t do for what they’re doing to be broadcast worldwide.
Commonwealth countries seem to all lack any concept of a First Amendment, all aspects. And of course the Second Amendment is forbidden because serfs should submit.
Subotai Bahadur