Kirkendall residents sound off to police on response:

Senior officers talk about Locke Street vandalism spree at Kirkendall neighbourhood meeting

Kirkendall residents put questions to Hamilton police about their response to an organized masked mob that wreaked havoc on Locke Street South over the weekend and the likelihood of the force arresting any members of the group.

More than 40 people attended a Kirkendall Neighbourhood Association meeting at Stanley Avenue Baptist Church Tuesday night — just days after a group of 30 people clad in black took the neighbourhood by storm, throwing rocks through the windows of small businesses and high-end vehicles and lighting off fireworks and smoke bombs.

Neighbours challenged Police Chief Eric Girt, Insp. Paul Hamilton and Det. Sgt. Mike Cunliffe about the timeliness of the police response that night, the lack of force used and how police can prepare for a planned attack like this going forward.

No one was injured, but police pegged damage to local shops and cars at around $100,000.

Doreen Stermann, who is part of the Kirkendall Neighbourhood Association and lives a couple doors down from where the mayhem took place, spoke of the need for a single point of contact where residents can turn when an event like this is taking place.

She described the fear of hearing what she thought were gunshots, but when she turned to Twitter and Facebook, she could not find any official response.

“Living through it was very frightening, not knowing if I was safe in my own home.”

Hamilton police spokesperson Jackie Penman said the service’s media office does not have 24/7 coverage but noted they are looking for ways to be responsive in situations like this one.

The group who marched down Locke Street Saturday brandished a banner reading “We Are The Ungovernable” — the same message displayed on a sign at a locally rally against police brutality four years ago.

Who is responsible and what their motives are is not clear, but police said Tuesday they now have evidence linking Saturday’s destructive mob with the Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair that took place over the weekend.

One man at Tuesday’s meeting questioned whether the events were a “one-off vacation protest” or a group that is in Hamilton.

Cunliffe said police don’t yet know where the group is from, but officers have seized security video from Westdale Secondary School, which had been rented out for the event.

An anonymous poster on the website Anarchistnews.org claims to have taken part in the rampage, saying “all my worst bosses have been small business owners — the problem isn’t the size of the business, it’s that the relationship is exploitative.”

Some questioned how police could have stopped the mob of 30 from doing what they did.

Hamilton, who was the duty officer Saturday, previously described how a police command post was set up at Locke and Herkimer that night.

After a quick briefing, more than 30 officers from across the city started making their way behind the group before they dispersed.

“We went down the street with the full intention of engaging that crowd,” he said. “It was game on.”

Girt, who expressed condolences to the community on behalf of the police force, spoke about the feedback gathered from events like the 2010 G20 riots in Toronto and the danger of what can follow from police pulling their guns.

“You have broken windows, but you don’t have somebody dead,” he said about Saturday’s events. “To publicly execute someone for mischief, I don’t think the courts would stand behind us on this one.”

Another neighbour asked about the possible charges that could follow, wondering whether they would be escalated from mischief to assault given rocks were thrown through windows behind which people were sitting.

“That could raise the level to mischief endangering life,” Cunliffe noted.