Despite repeated pleas and tears (I am no courageous protester, I discovered), the police refused to let me go – for seven hours. I could not help but be shocked at my situation and at this police strategy. It was also clear from a number of conversations with officers that many of the frontline did not approve of this strategy either. Several told me they sympathised and blamed their senior officers. This is no survey but they could clearly see that most of us on that side of the square, now in an orderly queue stretching from Westminster Abbey to parliament and waiting to leave, were not causing disorder. []

Nevertheless, people joining an orderly queue can hardly be described as "disorderly". And after standing for over an hour in that queue only to be told they were not to be released a startling number of people did go over to the other side of the square, possibly to join in the vandalism of the Treasury. If so, then the decision not to release people, who were peacefully trying to leave, inflamed the situation, which is the key criticism of this strategy.[]

There remains, however, another key protagonist in protest: the media. On getting home last night I was stunned to see journalists had not told the whole story of the protest that I witnessed. Instead, the focus on the attack on the royals and the Treasury, shocking though they are, have allowed for sensationalist coverage and tough talk. This seems to have left little room for debate about the appropriateness of these tactics, particularly against children.

Read more: "Being kettled was a shocking experience" - Guardian

Toronto police want to keep 52 of the 77 surveillance cameras they temporarily purchased for the G20 summit, more than tripling the force’s stock of CCTV equipment.

They would buy them back at half price from the federal government, which is footing the bill for G20 security.

The police also plan to buy back 400 of 5,200 sets of tactical safety gear, including helmets, gas masks and eye shields, as well as the three sound-cannon LRADs police acquired leading up to the summit.

These temporary mega events are commonly exploited to purchase expensive and controversial military weaponry and surveillance equipment that may otherwise not be permitted by the public and local budgets. It is understandable that these groups would be reluctant to return these devices and or dismantle new surveillance networks.

Stephen Graham discusses this in Cities Under Siege, the key book of military urbanism.

The Ontario Ombudsman report has also been released, condemning the the summit's mass civil rights violations. It is available here.

A rather unusual late-2009 ad from Cisco promoting their urban surveillance technologies. Features the Canadian actress Ellen Page in an attempt to humanize and make "ordinary" the military-urban complex.