More signs of the summit popping up

First, the fence went up around the Metro Convention Centre. Then some lanes were partially closed for traffic at downtown streets. Now, Toronto police officers are swarming all over the downtown core.
 
There were officers at every intersection in the area around the Metro Convention Centre. Two officers were chatting with each other at Front and York Sts. while a lone cop was checking his BlackBerry at University and Wellington Sts. Just west of that, near the CBC building, three cops stood around a car parked on the street. At John and Wellington Sts., an officer was walking out of a Starbucks. A few metres west, two cops were quietly watching as a group of guests were unloading their bags from a cab right outside Soho hotel.
 
The G20 is eight days away but in many ways, it's already here.

- Raveena Aulakh

Comments

[cmttmp]

most of the cops "walking the fence" tonight were all watching the basketball game through the windows of the bars around the core...

we paid for this!!!!!!
wtf

[saf]

With so many cops on each corner it's making it harder for me to j-walk on my way to work.

[Cap]

Welcome to the 21st century. The sad thing is how easily people will become accustomed to all the fences and police. I have a lot of respect for the men and women officers on the street, but was it really necessary to have so many of them around now when the G20 doesn't start until next Friday night?

[Fiona]

The female officer at the intersection of York and Front last night was too engrossed in playing with her nails to realize she should have been directing traffic! Cars were jammmed several blocks up because southbound cars on York were blocked from going straight. The green light indicates a straight-on direction but the road was closed. Yet, this daydreaming cop did not realize she should have been directing us to Front. Consequently, cars turned everywhere. Some turned onto Front, others U-turned, some backed out. It was chaos. I really should have taken a video and posted it on youtube, since this was obviously worse than the sleepy TTC workers incident last year.

[Mike]

Right. Let's criticize the cops for this. After all, they were the ones who chose downtown Toronto as the site for the G20. Oh, and they're the ones that approved the $2 billion price tag. They're also the ones causing the traffic chaos. It's time to smarten up people. This is the direct and irrefutable result of conservative government arrogance.

[Bernadette]

Union Station is a designated restricted access area. The Yonge/Bloor subway station should be too. Rush hour patronage is very high and surveillance is inadequate. Terrorists are known to attack innocent bystanders. The TTC should be running shuttle buses from Sherbourne to Bay and from Rosedale to Wellesley.