Comments

1
Thanks for the update.
2
How to deal with a sticky anarchist situation: http://vimeo.com/11286656
3
These black shirts are, at least, counter-revolutionaries. I think they're really goons who were hired specifically to make trouble.
4
@3"I think they're really goons who were hired specifically to make trouble."

Agent provocateur or hired goons, an excuse thats been used so often that its lose all meaning.

If I were a billionaire, why would I pay anyone to make Occupy Wall Street look bad when they pull stunts like this for free. Maybe if they came close to affecting the bottom line would I spend money, but hired goons that get arrested, squeal the minute they're arrested.
5
$250M per year to pay for SPD - our highest discretionary budget item at 28% of the budget. are we getting our money's worth?
6
“I was just surprised at how the whole minute—it lasted about a minute—how quickly they got it done and moved away," Chittim said. "And when I was pushing one guy away, I could feel he had body armor on—and how quickly they blended back into the crowd."

Body armor? This doesn't smell right. Someone assure me I'm being paranoid here...
7
A group of thugs wearing the same uniform and armed with the same weapons, wearing body armor, well trained on how to cause maximum damange in a minimum amount of time, and able to quickly disable a commercial grade video camera.

Yeah, these sound like amateurs to me.
8
Sure some reporters were roughed up but that is not the moral equivalent of mass murder so it doesn't make sense to call this violence. Its just vandalizing some reporters.
9
What's a few Unconstitutional Repressions of Freedom of the Press and all our Constitutional Liberties while not actually stopping lawbreakers during a riot between friends?
10
Why is it so hard to believe that black bloc members could make or get body armor, and train/plan demonstration tactics?
They have ben spray painting and putting up flyers for this for at least a month. Of course they are coming to it with a plan.

The only thing is, if they want to limit free press, then in my opinion they they are actually much worse that the cops they want to fight and the system they want to change.
Really your all just a bunch of pansy ass thugs, hiding behind a juvenile ideology.
11
How come none of these guys were arrested? How were they able to disappear so quickly? Why would they threaten media members? If you're not at least a little dubious of SPD's story, then you're not thinking very hard.
12
@11, Weren't a few of them arrested? I seem to recall a couple got nabbed.
13
@11 Because they blended into a protest march. It's not terribly hard to do such a thing. Its the same strategy many criminals use to avoid getting caught from muggers to purse snatchers. I guess SPD could have rounded up everyone there, searched bags, and figured out who was responsible, but then they would be getting shit, and more rightly so, for violating the rights of innocent people.

They'd threaten media members for the same reason they scared the shit out of people shopping or working, because they are self righteous assholes. Might as well ask why Shell kills Nigerians. Same mindset.

It would make even less sense for the mythical agent provocateur to attempt to prevent the media from covering it as well, isn't the supposed aim of such tactics to make the protesters look bad and it seems that requires some media coverage.
14
@11 for the Follow The Broken Glass win.
17
@11 "How come none of these guys were arrested?"

Black clothing, not black skin. We are talking about the SPD, remember?

As far as being hired goons, the organizational skills required are similar to those required for a guild quest in a MMOG. That is to say, quite common.
18
Dear Anarchists: Go live in the woods.

No love, Society
19
Still, you gotta admit, they've managed to keep a consistent message since the WTO riots. And that message is, "we don't want to pay for our new Nikes."
20
I suspect, as usual, this all goes back to a lack of proper research by the "anarchists" ahead of time.

I'm sure they read the article about the cops wanting to videotape protests and assumed that that would be a reality at this riot, so they developed tactics --like the one-handed-camera-off-the-shouder-flip -- to combat it.

Of course, then they failed to follow up on the reports and learn that the SPD hadn't been approved to film protesters in general yet!

Then they went from bad to worse by assuming, in their anti-authoritarian paranoia, that anyone with a professional video camera must be a secret SPD plant, out to get `em on tape, and attacked the very media they were there to ape in front of!

Genius!!!
21
@11

TL;DR:

Go to your internets and do some research on "deblocing" technique. The neo-smashists are generous enough to post this stuff for anyone interested to see.

Slightly longer:

They get a group of at least 50 people together wearing black bloc costume, they run to a place where the police aren't observing, 6-10 of the smashists smash some stuff within 20 seconds (while others do lookout, or have other roles, like any street gang) and then everyone shuffles around madly and the entire 50+ group takes off their comedy-ninja costumes at the same time, so even if you do get clear video (hah) you're playing three-card-monte in trying to figure out which of the neo-smashists did the actual smashing.

But it's entirely peaceful protest, of course. This is totally not violence.
22
Black bloc'ers attack media people because the police do things like, oh I dunno... issue subpoenas for their footage in the hopes of using it as evidence to identify and prosecute them.

What is worse:
1. smashing windows of corporations that use slave labor/banks that take advantage of poor, hopeful homeowners
2. someone having to spend months or years in jail for smashing said windows

Come the fuck on.

And stop with the conspiracy theory bullshit--is it that difficult to imagine that some people are this angry and that the police are this inept?

Please wait...

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