The police moved in on the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa Friday morning, arresting about 100 people and towing more than 20 vehicles. They came with police obscuring their names on their uniforms and the tow truck drivers obscuring the logos on their trucks, while also wearing green masks covering their faces. The police were doubtless hoping they would clear out the protest before the weekend, when many more people tend to show up.

There were multiple videos of police beating the protesters, as we reported, not the other way around. Police on horseback also ran their horses right into a crowd of people faster than they should have, knocking a man and an older woman on a disability scooter to the ground. The police claim that a bicycle was thrown at the horse, but no such thing happened before they ran over the people, according to the videos. So, that was a feeble thing to put out there as some kind of excuse.

But even with all that, the effort to clear the protesters failed. Even with the hundreds of police present, there are still a lot of people there, and more have shown up since. So Saturday, they are still trying to move out hundreds of people.

Police are grilling people on why they are in the area because you apparently no longer have a right to be in downtown Ottawa without police permission. Not too fascist there. But if their point was to prevent protesters, it doesn’t appear to have worked.

There are approximately 100 police checkpoints surrounding the secured area downtown. Police will simply ask for your reason for travelling within the area.#ottnews pic.twitter.com/UvRfOfvxqD

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 19, 2022

This Sikh gentleman said that he will hold the line until the end!https://t.co/VfgKKYKzKr pic.twitter.com/2zXaKJA2GH

— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) February 19, 2022

You’re doing a great job of protecting “public safety” against these violent protestors pic.twitter.com/KsfLmBvqCd

— Joshua Blevins (@joshua_blevins) February 19, 2022

Hundreds of police were out Saturday, trying to push protesters out of the streets. Many were armed with long clubs (batons) that they were not shy about using on protesters.

In one encounter, they attacked Rebel News reporter Alexa Lavoie, who was wearing her credentials around her neck and holding a mic. An officer hit her three times with a club, and another officer shot her with something (possibly tear gas). You can hear it being shot at about 0:22, and you can hear her cry out. The other officer then hits her with a club three times. Police also appear to drop at least one gun on the ground.

WATCH: Rebel reporter @ThevoiceAlexa was hit three times with a club and sprayed with tear gas by the Ottawa police. pic.twitter.com/BVP24uKjPw

— K2🍁🚛 (@kiansimone44) February 19, 2022

1. I just spoke with Alexa Lavoie, our brave reporter who was just assaulted by Trudeau's police. She tells me a cop hit her three times with a club and then shot a tear gas canister at her leg from point-blank range.

Trudeau has instructed his police to attack journalists. pic.twitter.com/cCzOavctrz

— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) February 19, 2022

This is a complete cluster funk. Why are they beating a reporter and shooting a canister point-blank at people? Did her being a journalist with Rebel News enter into the question?

As it happens, the reporter was the same person who had previously put Justin Trudeau on the spot during a press conference. This great video below shows just what kind of a person Trudeau is in response to a great question.

Question put forward to Trudeau by Alexa Lavoie, Rebel News:

"This is my question. Lots of Canadians don't want another booster. Would you remove their privileges for the vaccination passport?"

Trudeau does not serve Canadians. He serves the pharmaceutical industry. pic.twitter.com/aPNIPRwGXo

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) January 13, 2022

Police denied that they used any tear gas yesterday or today. Of course, people use that term generically, meaning some kind of irritant while police are denying the specific, actual tear gas.

Police did not used gas on protesters yesterday. They have not used gas on protesters today.

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 19, 2022

But as we noted people including True North journalist Andrew Lawton was pepper-sprayed or maced yesterday.

They tried to blame the protesters, claiming that they were throwing gas. Once again, there are no videos that support this.

Protesters continue to launch gas at police. Police response will be with public and officer safety in mind.

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 19, 2022

But, the video clearly showed the police shooting something at the people. The protesters kicked it back on the ground; that’s the only thing they did there.

Protesters in Ottawa have been pushed back to Peace Tower now. Police shot some canister in the crowd and protesters kick it back. Hearing it was either tear gas or pepper spray. Can’t confirm but officers aren’t wearing gas masks and the effect has been mild. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/IS48e0BzrW

— Rachel Emmanuel (@Emmanuel_Rach) February 19, 2022

The police were finally forced to admit they were using a “chemical irritant.” They obviously were shooting something at people, which was described as a canister.

Protesters continue to be aggressive and assaultive on officers. They are refusing to comply with the orders to move. You will have seen officers use a chemical irritant in an effort to stop the assaultive behavior and for officer safety.

— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) February 19, 2022

Another interesting thing I noticed, suddenly there’s a spurt of people on Twitter praising the police for acting, yet the accounts all have every evidence of being “bots”: low or no followers, numbers after their generic names, etc. Did someone hire a bot farm to make the police and Justin Trudeau look better here? A better tactic would be not to run over disabled old ladies, or beat female reporters with batons and shoot them with canisters in the leg.

Just a thought.