That Time The Police Went On Strike And a City Descended Into Chaos

 Article by Nicholas Oetken in "Urban Survival Site":

Have you ever heard of the Murray-Hill Riot? Few people have. The event is also referred to as the Montreal Night of Terror. It took place in late 1969 in Montreal, Quebec when the police went on strike because they wanted to be paid as well as the police in Toronto.

While the police were on strike, taxi drivers gathered to protest the Murray-Hill monopoly on the local Dorval International Airport. The provincial police attempted to stop the taxi drivers, but they were stopped by the striking Montreal police. A melee resulted, and from there, things spiraled out of control. 

This riot is why Steven Pinker, the popular science author, gave up on the philosophy of anarchism. In his book, The Blank Slate, he describes what happened:
 
“As a young teenager in proudly peaceable Canada during the romantic 1960s, I was a true believer in Bakunin’s anarchism. I laughed off my parents’ argument that if the government ever laid down its arms all hell would break loose.

“Our competing predictions were put to the test at 8:00 A.M. on October 17, 1969, when the Montreal police went on strike. By 11:20 A.M. the first bank was robbed. By noon most downtown stores had closed because of looting.

Within a few more hours, taxi drivers burned down the garage of a limousine service that competed with them for airport customers, a rooftop sniper killed a provincial police officer, rioters broke into several hotels and restaurants, and a doctor slew a burglar in his suburban home.

“By the end of the day, six banks had been robbed, a hundred shops had been looted, twelve fires had been set, forty carloads of storefront glass had been broken, and three million dollars in property damage had been inflicted, before city authorities had to call in the army and, of course, the Mounties to restore order.”

So why are we talking about this? It’s because the Murray-Hill riot is an excellent example of what can happen without government to run things.

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