Anatomy of a St-Jean-Baptiste riot

>> Police moved in to Mount Royal park to snuff out a bonfire. By the time they were done, a riot had broken out and the damage stretched for 13 city blocks. How did it happen?

by PHILIP PREVILLE

Around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, Plateau residents at the intersection of St-Dominique and Marie-Anne were awakened by the sound of the MUC police chopper hovering above their homes, and the glare of its floodlight shining into their homes. When they stepped outside, they were treated to the sight of a dozen police officers in riot gear. The cops had managed to corner nine riotous youths at the doorstep of the residence at 4315 St-Dominique. Media photographers and video cameramen had followed the floodlight to the scene, and had perched on the neighbours' exterior staircases to get a bird's-eye view.

After a brief scuffle and a lot of yelling (standard police procedure for establishing authority amid chaos), police re-established order. The nine were cuffed, searched and herded into the paddywagon one by one. All in all, the disruption to residents was kept to a minimum, considering the Plateau was awash in a riot.

So the police handled that particular micro-situation quite well. But in terms of the bigger picture, the MUC police force's tactics raise a number of questions. At 1:30 a.m., they arrived at the tam-tam space on Mount Royal park to snuff out a bonfire and break up an impromptu St-Jean-Baptiste party of 200 late-night revellers. By 5 a.m., shattered glass littered the Plateau all the way to St-Denis. In all, 40 businesses suffered damages and losses totalling into the thousands of dollars.

And yet, between the mountain park and St-Denis, there's ample opportunity to disperse a crowd. Isn't there? "The businesses here should make the MUC pay for damages," said Guy Falard, a thirtysomething night owl who attended the bonfire out of curiosity. "The police herded everyone into the commercial district."

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What's curious about this year's St-Jean riot on the Plateau is the way it started. During last year's St-Jean revelry, police were called in to deal with exactly the same situation: a bonfire at exactly the same spot on Mount Royal. Last year, riot police flushed the crowd off the mountain, then north on Parc. People scattered into Outremont, across Jeanne-Mance park, and north along Parc. The mountain, the park and the wide boulevard provide ample opportunity to break up a crowd. End of story.

This year, things unfolded differently. After partyers refused to let firefighters extinguish the fire, approximately 100 riot police arrived on the scene. "When the fire officials are obstructed from doing their work," said police spokesman Stéphane Banfi, "we have to exercise some control over the situation. A fire could easily spread across the mountain if we don't."

Perhaps. Common sense among experienced bonfire builders (who wasn't one in their youth?) suggests the situation is not necessarily quite so ominous. "I think they should let the fire run its course," said Jean-François, a partyer who escaped the police crackdown. "It wasn't in a densely wooded area. People will have some fun and then go home."

The riot squad climbed up the hill above the bonfire and moved down in formation. In the ensuing ruckus, bottles and rocks were thrown at the police, who responded with pepper spray; police say three people were sprayed, but observers at the scene count at least nine. The need to run from the cops becomes entrenched in everyone's mind.

The approaching line of cops forced the crowd on to Parc around 2:30 am. But when the crowd arrived on the pavement, lines of police officers blocked both ends of the street. With no other apparent choice, the crowd moved into Jeanne-Mance park.

Riot police then moved into an L-formation covering the south and west sides of Jeanne-Mance park. Bound by a fenced-in soccer field to the north, the crowd once again had no apparent choice: they headed east along Rachel.

When they hit St-Urbain, police were once again blocking the street at both ends. So further east we go, to St-Laurent.

When the partyers reached the Main at approximately 3 a.m., they all turned north. Accounts differ on the reasons for the collective left turn. Some eyewitnesses, including Falard, say police blockaded both the south side of St-Laurent and the east side of Rachel, forcing the crowd north. Others, including observers from the group Citizens Opposed to Police Brutality, say Rachel was not blockaded; however, they were at a loss to explain why no damage occurred on Rachel.

At this point, the property damage begins: on St-Laurent up to Mont-Royal, along Mont-Royal and Marie-Anne to St-Denis, then along St-Denis itself. Small "no parking" signs, placed along the Main for the parade earlier in the day, became fortuitous implements of destruction. At construction sites along Mont-Royal, piles of bricks became rounds of ammunition.

In all, the glass littered the streets for more than 13 blocks from the place where police first intervened. By the time it was over, more than 300 police officers roamed the area. And in the process, 200 partyers turned into a few dozen troublemakers, then became only 16 arrests.

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There must be something about the rhythmic sound of choppers that, when combined with the high-timbre crash of shattering glass, creates music to the ears. The police can't be blamed for failing to pick out the two dozen troublemakers in a crowd of 200. Nor did they force anyone to pick up bricks and throw them at windows. It's not hard to imagine someone, either consciously or unconsciously, living out a movie fantasy in all this: on the run from authority, chased by choppers, ducking into doorways to evade the floodlights, getting away with whatever you can when eyes are off you.

Even so, no one plans a riot. The 200 partyers on the mountain were not a riot waiting to happen. But they could be a riot waiting to happen, given the right conditions.

Police officers at the scene don't seem to even consider such issues. "I've got a minimum of three wounded police officers," said MUC Const. Lafrenière, who was providing information to media at the scene in the early morning hours. The wounds, it was later reported, turned out to be cuts and scratches. "I took a couple of shots in the ribs myself. Let me tell you, it's not fun." Lafrenière was as caught up in the police-youth rivalry as the kids themselves.

Neither Lafrenière nor the police public relations department could explain why the situation dragged on for so long, or why they failed to disperse the crowd at the start. From Lafrenière's perspective, the police don't start riots, they stop them, and that's what they did.

"A Level 1 situation escalated to a Level 3 situation," he said, as though riots rose like bread in the oven.