im not sure what to say. i was in montreal almost every weekend last year and many weekdays working and i never ventured anywhere during the student marches...and those werent even riots.anyone who lives in that area wouldn't think twice about going across the street to one of the many restaurants, even if there were riots nearby
no one is going to figure that the cops would refuse to look at restaurant receipts or ignore the fact that your address is 85 Esplanade, right across the street
they think that worst case scenario, an officer uses his brain and arrests the correct person.
a person wearing pants smashed a window!
quick officer, arrest everyone in a 2 block radius wearing pants! charge them all with unlawful assembly! we'll sort it all out later
thats how the law works right?
even during the grand prix last summer i was basically herded onto a sidewalk and we were all the yuppy fans.
my stance is basically this: when shit turns violent even for a small subset of people, i understand cops going up a level of caution as well. they dont have the luxury to just assume everyone is peaceful...they have families too and dont feel like eating a brick. so where i see being overly cautious you see as being inflexible and overbearing.