Today was the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty big shut down Bay street protest. I have seen flyers for this for months. A little while back one of their protests at Queens Park turned into a little riot with cops chasing and beating up protestors. Since I work in the corporate gut of Canada, I expected to see what was up. I got off a few stops early so I could walk into it slowly to see what was happening. I got off the subway at Queen and Spadina and the first thing I saw was a wall of cops all in black with all sorts of riot gear. Hundreds of cops and a low flying helicopter. I couldn't hear any protestors. I started walking towards work and saw more little cop gatherings. I put my headphones back on my ears and sauntered easily down bay street. When I got to work there was another wall of cops and purple and orange paint on some of the building. Everyone had to go in through the front door. I waited a couple minutes and then I saw about 200 protestors mostly in their early twenties walk up from Front street. They had one big banner and were drumming and chanting "This is what Democracy looks like". It made me really sad. It made me sad that so few people were protesting and so many cops where prepared to beat up and arrest 200 or so people from walking down bay street. If these people hadn't put up flyers they would have had no trouble walking up bay. I now know the protestors have split into smaller groups to antognize the police but at the time it was such a pathetic sight. It made me sad that I 100%, no matter how much socialist leaning shit I blather on about, was on the side of the police. The police were there to make sure I could easily come to work and fix computers for a bank. It made me sad that this is who I am again.