Anti-Gravenor protest

In his column about the recent police brutality demonstration [“The false leaders,” March 21] Kristian Gravenor exemplifies an almost unimaginable level of stupidity and conformity.

First, he dismisses the anti-police protest as trivial, since we no longer live during the old days (1979–85) when one cop killed 10–20 people. Second, he disregards a number of questionable circumstances (cops won’t release a video) surrounding the death of Michael Kibbe, with a sly joke about him dying from “a lack of physical contact with cops.” Third, he justifies police brutality, since he has no problem with cops beating up child molesters (it is not child molesters the police brutalize, but rather street youth and racial minorities). Fourth, he mocks the organizers by saying that “the COPB leaders allowed cops to put more youth on file.” I think this is called blaming the victim, since according to La Presse there were six windows broken, two cop cars and one wall spray painted. Yet 371 people were arrested, equaling approximately 40 people per incident. I guess us demonstrators are not as good at breaking stuff as we thought.
Lastly, Gravenor states that “anybody at the pointless protest who ends up with a criminal conviction will lose the right to work in many jobs and travel at will.” This shows his misunderstanding of the importance of protesting the increasing brutality (pepper spray at APEC, the fence at Windsor, tear gas, rubber bullets and a bigger fence in Quebec City) and power (c36, c35, c42) of the police force. It’s too bad I had to read Peter Hadekel in the Gazette to find someone who questions the second largest arrest in Montreal history.

—Yves Engler

I would like to publicly and formally congratulate Kristian Gravenor on making the transition from vaguely smug and kind of annoying to full-on, hardcore, virulently anti-social fascist. I’m assuming, according to your tirade against anti-police brutality groups, sex worker groups and housing groups, that you would happily allow the abuse of police authority to go unchecked.

You would applaud wildly as prostitutes were raped by police, harassed by local yuppies and had their heads bashed in by abusive johns. You would toast the abysmally low housing rates and extortionate Montreal rents from your nest above the rest of us, amongst those upon whom society, authority and good fortune have smiled.

Meanwhile, we unwashed, uneducated, `drug-addled masses will continue to fight for a more peaceful, tolerant, open-minded society for you to live in. Bravo, you jackass.

—Sholem Krishtalka

Pro-Gravenor

Holy crap, K. Gravenor! I read your March 21 column and was genuinely and pleasantly shocked to see that you were suggesting that marginalization is not in the best interests of the marginalized.
I can’t stand right-wingers most of the time for their bootstraps this, and their threat of destitution as motivation, that. But when they talk about the victim culture, I grudgingly shut my mouth in acknowledgement of the unhealthiness of it.

Anyway, it impressed the hell out of me that it came from you, who could never be confused for Barbara Amiel’s dildo.

—Rob van Hell

Moderate vegetarian

I am responding to Laurent Cauchon’s letter from March 28 in which he accuses PETA of hypocrisy and puts it down [“Anti-PETA”].

I am not a member of PETA but have a girlfriend who became totally vegetarian a few years ago and now has a much easier time maintaining her ideal weight (she also has worked as a model). In sharp contrast, her junk-food-eating brother who loves hamburgers is massively overweight and so are her mother and father.

What is so wrong with promoting vegetarianism for health and moral reasons? I criticize PETA when they try to ban milk consumption and go overboard in liberating all zoo animals, but face it: PETA does plenty of good too. And moderates like me need to say this.

People like Mr. Cauchon need to work in a slaughterhouse before they buy meat. He may not want to be vegetarian, but at the same time he needs to stop wearing blinders.

—Aldous Denton