Most of the protest rallies were proceeding nicely until a group of professional (assholes) hooligans suddenly adopted black bloc tactics and started to run in a rampage. That music store in your video is, as Baraka_guru inferred, a Queen St landmark. It's across the street from the Horseshoe Tavern, a small intimate club where the Rolling Stones occasionally hold their trademark impromtu gigs.
I think you can see the scorch marks on the pavement under the store's sign from where the police car was set on fire by these goons the day before:
G20 ? Toronto 2010
The manager of Steve's Music on Queen West says he "absolutely" will apply for compensation from the federal government for damage to the store on Saturday.
Four big plate glass windows cracked and smashed from the heat of a police car set on fire right outside of the store just east of Spadina. The sign on the 33-year-old Queen West landmark is charred and some of the plastic letters are melted.
Gerry Markman says it'll cost $2,577 to replace the shattered glass.
"At the begining, it was all peaceful stuff," says sales floor manager Nigel Roopnarine, who was in the store with customers. Around 4 p.m. Saturday, a group showed up carrying a black flag with red lettering and the mood changed, he recalls. Saturday manager Kevin Parker bolted the door, even though people from the street were trying to get in.
A shirtless man in dreadlocks tried to climb the Steve's sign and nearly fell. Inside, they watched people in black throw "mini bowling balls" at police, then the car was set on fire. "It was very scary," says Roopnarine.
Steve's staff snuck the customers out to the back alley. Employees eventually got out when they managed to get to their cars in the back and drive down Peter St.
Ninety per cent of the protesters were peaceful, Roopnarine said. About Sunday night's four-hour standoff between police and people in the intersection of Queen and Spadina, he says, "It's upsetting what happened on Saturday, but I can see police wouldn't know who's who."
