In the grand scheme of things what was it really??? property damage...not my property, not yours...a bunch of drunks not hurting anyone. Police need to way their options. In order for Police to declare it a riot, the group needs to know that a riot has been declared, and that can only be done upon approval of the Mayor. The proclamation must be read to the crowd! If Police would have stepped in would it have escalated even further? We all know the Fleming crowd disrespect authority! If Police stepped in Im sure civilians and Police would have been injured. The easiest outcome possibly was the result, let it play out, let them focus their stupidness on a burning vehicle. Justice will be done, and those involved held accountable.
Below is a small excerpt from our Criminal Code...you will see that the penalties for rioting is imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, but once the Riot Proclamation has been read it becomes an offence against the Queen and imprisonment is up to life!!
Riot
64. A riot is an unlawful assembly that has begun to disturb the peace tumultuously.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 65.
Punishment of rioter
65. Every one who takes part in a riot is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 66.
Reading proclamation
67. A person who is
(a) a justice, mayor or sheriff, or the lawful deputy of a mayor or sheriff,
(b) a warden or deputy warden of a prison, or
(c) the institutional head of a penitentiary, as those expressions are defined in subsection 2(1) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, or that person's deputy,
who receives notice that, at any place within the jurisdiction of the person, twelve or more persons are unlawfully and riotously assembled together shall go to that place and, after approaching as near as is safe, if the person is satisfied that a riot is in progress, shall command silence and thereupon make or cause to be made in a loud voice a proclamation in the following words or to the like effect:
Her Majesty the Queen charges and commands all persons being assembled immediately to disperse and peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business on the pain of being guilty of an offence for which, on conviction, they may be sentenced to imprisonment for life. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
This is the Riot Act. It's been on the books since George I wrote it in 1714, and it's still being used today.
R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 67; 1994, c. 44, s. 5.
Offences related to proclamation
68. Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life who
(a) opposes, hinders or assaults, wilfully and with force, a person who begins to make or is about to begin to make or is making the proclamation referred to in section 67 so that it is not made;
(b) does not peaceably disperse and depart from a place where the proclamation referred to in section 67 is made within thirty minutes after it is made; or
(c) does not depart from a place within thirty minutes when he has reasonable grounds to believe that the proclamation referred to in section 67 would have been made in that place if some person had not opposed, hindered or assaulted, wilfully and with force, a person who would have made it.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 69.