The fact that we can tick off the names of stores damaged within a tweet with room to spare tells us how major this was and gives us the liberty of a finely focused helping hand for the few impacted.

Everyone's outrage is coming from the same place as the excitement that made a bunch of anarchists do whatever and a bunch of reporters scream "IT'S LIKE A WAR ZONE" and we'll have forgotten about this in under a month.

BUT WASN'T IT EXCITING?!!?!?!!?

They apparently hit Sun Liquor, too. Idiots.

"Smash capitalism". Got it, loud and clear.

But a male owned business just reinforces the patriarchical society, and they serve meat! And I don't need to tell you what those big, bouncy balls represent!

In before Brendan Kiley tells us why this was justified.

It's self-defense against the breakfast industrial complex.

One person did that. Not "guys" or "they" or "those people" or "anarchists".

Meanwhile, multiple cops attacked people, including by using bikes as weapons. Former Stranger writer Erica C. Barnett got a pepper spray canister shot in the eye.

Fuck Walgreens. Not to condone any other instance of violence that happened tonight, but seriously. Fuck that soulless piece of shit warehouse of garbage.

@8

Brendan would never claim it was justified.

But boy, will we ever hear a lot about how everyone has overreacted wildly to a little bit of inconsequential broken glass that just happened to fall to the ground in the vicinity of people who coincidentally adhere to certain completely innocuous political philosophies.

One person did that. Not "guys" or "they" or "those people" or "anarchists".
Meanwhile, multiple cops attacked people...

I just love how you're oblivious to the way your own argument dismantles itself right under your fingers.

God I just fucking hate everyone today.

@10 has a point. Not every anarchist is a vandal, and not every vandal is an anarchist. And not every anarchist is particularly bright...

It's just like anything else. There are better elements and worse elements in every group. Counterprotesters and counter-anarchists have caused their share mayhem. However, it's anarchists that get blamed for it because most people think that's all they do. This is why I think it's necessary for anarchists to present themselves to society at large as something other than window smashers.

But stuff like this doesn't help, for sure. No one wants their neighborhood to get torched, as it's happened in Detroit, L.A., and East St. Louis. Somehow, I think that much of the rioting could be avoided if protesters were allowed their constitutional right of peaceful assembly, instead of framing this as a cops-vs-anarchist inevitable confrontation even before it happens. Plan and schedule a big "official" protest at Westkake or the Federal Building or something, with a stage and speakers and ads in the paper, and people will show up, shout themselves hoarse, and go home. But if you try to repress it, if all the parties come together expecting a confrontation (maybe even wanting it), then that's exactly what they'll get.

@15

Come now, "mob" is the language of hierarchical oppression. The plural you should use when discussing multiple heroic revolutionaries who are "prepared to be militant" is, if I'm not mistaken, "affinity group."

But of course there weren't any affinity groups anywhere near the smashed windows, just autonomous individuals acting entirely autonomously.

Anarchists are both pussies and idiots.

The mansions are at Hunts Point and other places like that.

Not in Seattle, dimwits ...

13: One person smashed the Bill's window. Multiple cops attacked multiple people. That's not some inconsistent argument, that's what happened.

Here's a video Dominic posted on Twitter with a small snippet of police aggression, including against a reporter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOSJjX-U…

@18 Hey, genius, anarchy isn't about burning big houses. It's about decentralization of power. It's not an arson competition.

@16

You seem to be missing the part where "plan and schedule a big official protest" includes "apply for a permit from the City," which of course is something that no self-respecting anarchist would ever do. It's one of those curious bits of contemporary anarchist doctrine that's become so ingrained that it has perversely become a de facto Law, assembly-punishable by assembly-excommunication from True Anarchism.

Also, if an affinity group wants to present itself as something "other than window smashers," then it needs to have some practical means of excluding people who "reserve the right" to "a diversity of tactics" (i.e. smash windows). And for better or (mostly) worse, "a practical means of excluding people" for any reason whatsoever is fundamentally inimical to contemporary anarchism.

@19: You don't get it? Don't you feel even a twinge of cognitive dissonance?

Let me see if I can explain. Multiple anarchists did multiple acts that damaged property. Multiple cops did multiple acts that hurt people. You are angry that all the anarchists are being labelled for the actions of a few. [Can you fill in the last sentence?]

@19

Yeah, I didn't expect you to see it. It's still charming, though.

Sekrit Hints (DO NOT PEEK NO CHEATING!):

What is a "Walgreens?"
What is a "Liquor Store?"
What does "prepared to be militant" mean?
What is "throwing pipes?"
What is an "affinity group?"
What is "a human being", and does your answer change if it's got a badge pinned to it?

22- This Slog post and my comment were about the person who smashed the Bill's window.

It's almost as though the SPD was intentionally targetting media, and spraying reporters on purpose, cause they're pixxed about the new deal with City Council.

@24

....aaaaaand also about the entire corpus of non-differentiated cops who... well, drew any duty anywhere near downtown Seattle on May 1st.

Or are you now withdrawing the comparison you made earlier?

@21 You didn't have riots for all those weeks Occupy was camped out at Westlake, and this was in the face of significant animosity towards the movement. I'd wager that a lot of the same people took part in both Occupy and the May Day protest that turned into a riot, but the results were different. Why?

Because Occupy didn't have the anticipation of violence and its protesters were given the space and time to make their points. Create the ambience of illegality, of impending chaos, and people will live up to the expectation. Folks coming to Occupy did so with the idea that they would sit in the park, hold signs, and argue a lot. People coming to the May Day protest did so for the possible opportunity of trying out or witnessing a riot. The riot cops with the big bikes and vans showed up, the chanting Black Bloc showed up, people started throwing water bottles, the cops whipped out the chemical warfare, and here we are, baby! It's happening, like we were told it would. In the end, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That's why I'm saying that we have to change the expectations. You can designate a group as the enemy and repress their protest by force, but you'll still end up with a mess, as happened tonight. I think it's more efficient to welcome them into the conversation and let them have their say. They'll stick around and be loud for a while and go home. But if you start thinking of anarchy as something evil that has to be cut back at every cost, instead of channeled, then you end up with this.

@24: Yes, and you made the choice to describe that person as an individual. And you made the choice to describe it as an isolated incident that had nothing to do with the activities of the other anarchists. It was all *your* phrasing. It was a very compelling argument; at least until you started describing the actions of Group B in exactly the opposite way. Apparently sometimes actions are the fault of a group and sometimes those actions are just the fault of some rogue individuals who make up that group.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are probably stoned or drunk, which would explain why you couldn't see the inanity that you wrote. Heck, maybe you even had a cat the walked on the keyboard and posted some stupid shit. I don't know. But either way, when you get sober or catch that damn cat, you might want to reflect on why you (or your cat) were so keen to distance one group from evil acts by blaming it on rogue members while at the same time demanding that the other group be blamed as a whole.

@27

Possibly, yes.

It's also possible that anarchists (and particularly ones "prepared to be militant") were not a johnny-come-lately adjunct to Occupy, but rather a core founding group, and a very big reason that the unwieldy General Assembly mode of organization was adopted, and that any explicit demands-list for the movement was rejected.

Nobody wore ninja costumes at the General Assemblies of Occupy. They didn't have to; one doesn't need to be "prepared to be militant" to shoot down a GA resolution that would ban black-bloc tactics at Direct Actions.

And those resolutions were definitely and decisively shot down. Who stood to benefit from that? (Apart from the dozens upon dozens of undercover Government agents infiltrated into every GA throughout the country and the world, of course) .

I don't think we're really in disagreement here; or rather, our disagreement isn't about what tactics would be more effective for anarchists, but rather whether or not certain strategies are even remotely ideologically feasible in contemporary anarchism.

These are not anarchists. They are vandals. Or cops, which is redundant since they are legal vandals.

I can't believe robotslave was trolling until almost 1am.

He's his own worst enemy. He admits to undercover cops in the GA, but doesn't allow that they may be the ones that broke windows.

It's nice to have police-friendly commenters, but COME ON.

We never get our panties in such a twist when it's drunks breaking shit. I guess if the protesters were happy and intoxicating while breaking stuff, nobody would give a rat's ass.

@robot whatever

You're boring me to tears. Move on.already!

@delirian: You're just a useless douchebag. Your dick must be feeling exceptionally small today.

What's with all the sympathy for Bills???

Soulless money-grubbing Corporations have been sending me Bills for Decades now, and every time I get one of these goddam Bills I feels Oppressed, I does!

Down with Bills! ARRGGGHHHH!!!

And "Bohemian Rhapsody"? Overrated.