A right to shop? - not in Toronto

We've all seen the horrible images of the violence on the streets of Toronto during the G20 summit (funny, you don't see this kind of thing at the Tea Parties). Over 900 people arrested, though evidently the Toronto police weren't discriminatory, arresting media photographers as well. I'll never understand this kind of violence. What do these people think they are achieving with this?

Thankfully, not everybody falls in with the looters and the thugs.



However, that's not what this blog is about, or at least not totally.

No, it's about this video (thanks to the National Post for the full story):

Language warning - don't be blaring this on your speakers in front of your kids



Look, I can understand the guy's frustration. He made the long trek down to the Eaton Centre just to find it closed. Evidently, they closed because they didn't want any spillover from the unrest downtown to affect the stores in the mall. That's an understandable precaution, though admittedly I don't know how close the mall was to the action (the Post story says "a few blocks"). Still, you can't be too careful.

So this guy rants for a minute and a half about the Centre being closed, including asking "who gave you the right?" in regards to closing their doors. He rants about the public wanting to shop, and that it's a "public place" (ummmm, no it isn't, unless the Government owns it somehow, and even Canada hasn't reached that point yet).

This guy appears to be wandering the world, blissfully unaware of his surroundings (not to mention the difference between public and private). He has no idea of what's going on around him. If he does, he doesn't appear to care about anybody other than himself. Who cares that thugs and losers might run rampant through the Eaton Centre, destroying everything in their path? Damn it, he wants to shop! And it's his God-given right to shop!

It's people like this that make me wonder: whatever happened to the concept of an informed citizenry? Isn't it our civic duty to at least pay some attention to what is going on around us? How can you make a decision about anything if you don't understand what your choices are?

As an aside, human nature rears its ugly head again. If there's a camera around, somebody's going to mug for it.