Police in Victoria, British Columbia. These are two of the five at this intersection. All the men were armed and dangerous with two squad cars, one pick-up, and three barricades.
I stopped my bike and asked, “why are you here? There is no event, construction or other obvious reason?”
He replied, “We are keeping people out of the community who might disrupt and make noise – we are protecting the people from being disrupted.”
Stunned I said, “do you mean that you are keeping possible protesters from the legislature which is four blocks from here. You are preventing people from assembling to make a point to the politicians?”
“Well, they are noisy,” was is explanation.
I am ashamed to say that I uttered the ‘F-bomb.
Then I rode away before they thought to arrest me, which frighteningly seemed a genuine possibility.