A population will turn to violence the moment its police aren't on the job. An oft-cited Montreal episode provides irrefutable proof of this claim.
Or does it?
Intellectuals routinely refer to an incident in 1969 as evidence that all hell will break loose if we don't have cops overseeing affairs.
The events in Montreal on that day disprove the possibility of the ideal of peaceful cooperation coveted by anarchists.
Big name academics including the otherwise-excellent Stephen Pinker and Richard Dawkins are among countless thinkers who point to the 16-hour wildcat strike undertaken by Montreal's entire 3,700-officer constabulary on Oct 7 1969 as proof of our tendency to resort to crime if not discouraged by force.
Pinker bolsters his reference with anecdotal attestation, as he lived in Montreal as a 15-year-old at the time and recalls the fear felt among those around him.
But does the evidence support his conclusion?
**
Montreal police were upset by a stubborn resistance to pay parity with other squads. On 7 Oct. 1969 they abandoned their duties to attend a union rally at the now-demolished Paul Sauve Arena near Pie IX.
The Montreal police at that time only served the City of Montreal, not the entire island, as they do now. A few months later all Montreal-island police were united into a single force. So throughout the strike, police remained on duty in adjacent suburban municipalities as Westmount, St. Michel, Verdun and Outremont.
Citizens were asked not to report small crimes to police, and only call for help in the cases of such serious crimes as robbery, assault or rape.
Banks locked their cash away and kept only small amounts in their drawers, as became the custom later.
Police, who still operated ambulance service, saw their duties temporarily taken over by a private ambulance service.
During the brief duration of the strike, bank robbers held up a half dozen banks. Stores were looted and about about 17 other robberies took place. Burglaries quadrupled from 50 a day to 196 in a day.
One looter was spotted running down St. Catherine with two expensive stolen fur coats. "One for my wife, one for my girlfriend," he quipped.
Montreal's 512 banks had been robbed 100 times in the roughly-140 business days between Jan 1 and September 1, in 1969. So while the bank robberies represented a major spike, it wasn't unheard of to see many banks robbed in a single day.
In total, two died, one by a sort of friendly fire and another burglar was shot dead breaking into a house.One Washington newspaper reporter, writing about the crime, was astounded that the body count was so low.
Rape? None was reported during the police walkout.
Downtown businesses remained open as usual that night, as such places as movie theatres and restaurants continued unabated, even though the streets were quiet.
**
The Murray Hill affair led to one death.
It began after a 6 p.m. after a meeting of the Mouvement Liberation de Taxi on Garnier Street on the Plateau.
The cab drivers were unhappy that Charles Hershorn's Murray Hill Limousine had an exclusive contact to ferry people from Dorval Airport. The deal was enshrined in a franchise granted by the federal department of Transport and a 20-year contract with the provincial transport commission to transport customers between the airport and hotels such as the Chateau Champlain, Hotel Bonaventure Queen Elizabeth, Sheraton Mount-Royal and the Laurentian Hotel.
Charles Hershorn and his son Paul, who was running operations, claimed that their company had invested $5 million in equipment upgrades to fulfill the contract. But the rival drivers assumed the deal was corrupt.
The Mouvement de Liberation du Taxi had been harassing and vandalizing Murray Hill Limousines for at least a year and had bombed Hershorn's house in October 1968, leading a judge to order them to cease such activities.
The drivers took off in a convoy headed to the Griffintown facility of the Murray Hill Limousine Service at 1380 Barre, not far from Mountain and Notre Dame.
 |
| Dumas |
The group arrived at the Murray Hill garage at 8 pm. Premier Jean Jacques Bertrand called in the provincial police at 8:10 and eight officers arrived.
About 200 protesters were on hand, many chanting "Le Quebec aux Quebecois" when a group of them set fire to a bus and pushed it down a ramp into the building, which led to some nervous moments as a large supply of gasoline - 18,000 gallons - was stored in the basement and fire was a possibility.
Two private security guards fired a 12-guage shotgun from the roof. Shots reportedly rang back from a rooftop across the street. Crime reporter Claude Poirier phoned police to urge them to get more officers to the scene immediately. First the line was busy, then he was told that brass was in a meeting.
One shot, fired from the roof of the Murray Hill building, hit provincial police Corporal Robert Dumas, 32, and killed him.
Dumas, a father of four, was dressed in civilian clothes as an undercover agent. A half-dozen Murray Hill employees were later detained but their names were not made public and it was not established who fired the shot and nobody was charged.***
The second death occurred when Dr. Paul Fircks, 67, a German-trained psychologist, who spent the war in Germany, shot a man dead trying to break into his home at 4943 Ponsard in Snowdon. Fircks, a specialist expertise in crowd hysteria, shot dead burglar, Marcel Guinard, 38, trying to break into his home at 5 a.m. Fircks was cleared of any charges two months later.
"I followed instructions given by executive committee chairman of the city of Montreal Lucien Salnier, who advised citizens of Montreal to return to their homes and protect their goods," he told reporters.
**
Quebec's National Assembly ordered met swiftly and ordered the officers back to duty on threat of decertifying their union. At 12:57 a.m. police returned and by 4 a.m were back on the streets and arrested 104 looters downtown.
Newspapers dubbed it "the night of terror."
Media had an interest in amplifying the issue, of course, but so did all other sides.
Police gained from the perception that they were desperately needed. And Montreal also had an interest in exaggerating the gravity of the affair, as they sued the police union.
Years later, much more serious damage would be caused by riots and disorder which took place while the police were on duty. These include the October Crisis of 1970, hockey riots in 1986 and 1993, as well as some of the more damaging anti-police brutality marches.
**
Indeed the legacy of the strike should be seen not as proof that humans are wild animals, but rather remembered for the other changes it brought.
Police were given a fair wage of $8,750 per year, all Montreal islands squads were united in one force and moral and professionalism improved.
Ambulance systems were modernized and no longer the duty of police.
Banks took measures to reduce robberies.
The second death occurred when Dr. Paul Fircks, 67, a German-trained psychologist, who spent the war in Germany, shot a man dead trying to break into his home at 4943 Ponsard in Snowdon. Fircks, a specialist expertise in crowd hysteria, shot dead burglar, Marcel Guinard, 38, trying to break into his home at 5 a.m. Fircks was cleared of any charges two months later.
"I followed instructions given by executive committee chairman of the city of Montreal Lucien Salnier, who advised citizens of Montreal to return to their homes and protect their goods," he told reporters.
**
Quebec's National Assembly ordered met swiftly and ordered the officers back to duty on threat of decertifying their union. At 12:57 a.m. police returned and by 4 a.m were back on the streets and arrested 104 looters downtown.
Newspapers dubbed it "the night of terror."
Media had an interest in amplifying the issue, of course, but so did all other sides.
Police gained from the perception that they were desperately needed. And Montreal also had an interest in exaggerating the gravity of the affair, as they sued the police union.
Years later, much more serious damage would be caused by riots and disorder which took place while the police were on duty. These include the October Crisis of 1970, hockey riots in 1986 and 1993, as well as some of the more damaging anti-police brutality marches.
**
Indeed the legacy of the strike should be seen not as proof that humans are wild animals, but rather remembered for the other changes it brought.
Police were given a fair wage of $8,750 per year, all Montreal islands squads were united in one force and moral and professionalism improved.
Ambulance systems were modernized and no longer the duty of police.
Banks took measures to reduce robberies.