Montreal’s annual protest against perceived police brutality went off without a hitch Tuesday night after a few hundred demonstrators, including some wearing masks and singing anti-police chants, marched downtown for about 90 minutes.
The march ended across the street from the old Forum with those still left congratulating themselves for an incident-free evening. Police said there were no arrests, no vandalism and no tickets issued.
One woman took a megaphone to say she was surprised they managed to get that far because everyone believed the police were going to shut the event down right away.
At one point, protesters headed west, against the traffic, on busy Ste-Catherine St.
Missing Attachment Missing Attachment Missing AttachmentSome previous editions of the March 15 event have turned nasty, featuring mass arrests and vandalized police cruisers.
Before the protesters began Tuesday’s stroll through city streets, they congregated in a park and took turns hitting a large effigy of a police officer bearing a pig’s head as it was strung from a tree branch.
Many of those present said they are often victims of profiling and that police follow them on the street and harass them because of what they look like.
Last year’s event led to one arrest, while nearly 100 tickets were given out and several police cars were vandalized.
On Tuesday, protesters yelled insults at police officers, and gathered in front of two police stations, but there was no violence. Some protesters tried in vain to break a window of a financial institution downtown, and others flipped over barriers and cones, but nothing worse than that.
