Comments

1
Man. This post just reeks of desperation.
2
Fuck whoever hired this guy
3
A white dude giving the middle figure, what apropos symbol for the shit show that is may day in seattle
4
Also fuck all protests that happen at westlake park
5
After we're done fucking everyone what do you suggest we do? That's lots of fucking. I think I might get worn out. You should preface this post by first recommending a large ingestion of viagra. (Also, lots of condoms - remember, safe sex is good sex.)
6
Hahaha
and most of all
Fuck you Ansel
Fuck you for being so naive to think a bunch of black-clad, whiney art school rejects would contribute anything other than blast ball targets to the proceedings.

El Comite has generated goodwill and social capital -- and moreso through contrast to the faux rage of white misfits -- which it can cash-in on policies favorable to its cause.

In a world that rewards constructive engagement and cooperation, you and Mudede have become poster children for journalistic futility.
7
Can we also fuck the many morons - including dozens of Slog commenters - who love to talk about "revolution" when it means voting by mail for a harmless old man who can't possibly win the Presidency, but get desperately uncomfortable at the slightest hint of genuine violence in the streets. You can debate the effectiveness of the whole May Day spectacle, but you can't advocate for revolution while holding on to the status quo for dear life!
8
@7: Only a moron would be comfortable with genuine violence in the streets.
9
Ansel, are you suddenly desperate for the sort of "wow, this guy is an idiot" attention that Muedede gets?
10
@ 5 > After we're done fucking everyone what do you suggest we do?

Duh, it's May Day. We dance around the Maypole, the girls get naked and jump over the fire, we feast until dark, then everyone has sex.
11
#10 - That's every weekend, shouldn't we do something special for May Day?
12
@10 -- "Hooray, hooray, it's the First of May
Outdoor humping starts today!!!"
13
And fuck all the Stranger writers who write how evil capitalism is, without knowing what capitalism is, or even nominating an alternative.
14
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
15
One of the most inspired slog posts ever.
16
How exactly does one discredit Anarchism? It's right up there with Conservatism in the Hall of Fame of stupid political ideologies. It discredits itself.
17
This childish rant seems more appropriate for Tumblr or LiveJournal. Doesn't the Stranger still believe itself to be - or at least aspire to be - a newspaper?
18
Dudes flipping off a camera is worse than duck lips.
20
"Discredit Anarchism"? A low bar, no?
21
Fuck you and your Instagram snitching, Ansel. Yeah, you took the pic down, but everybody had already seen in. Maybe that kind of shit is why you don't know where the really interesting stuff is happening, what is being built, or what's going on the rest of the year. Or maybe it's not malice, it's pure stupidity. Maybe that's why you don't know the difference between the May 1st Action Coalition and El Comite. Is there one? Well, that's also an interesting question with interesting answers. But you're not asking the interesting questions and you're an amoral self absorbed opportunistic hack that no one in their right mind would give interesting answers to. Might want to fix THAT before you go whining about a bunch of shit you don't actually understand.
23
So, how do you and Charles share a room/office when you're obviously both the smartest ones there?
24
Reggie Watts -- If You're F*cking, You're F*cking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vftIGU8-…
25
ALL THESE FLAVORS AND YOU CHOOSE TO BE SALTY
26
That's a whole lotta fuckin'!!!!
27
Fuck the comment section of slog. Worthless pit of circle jerking.
28
this exquisite schadenfreude almost, ALMOST, makes up for the fucking joke Seattle is the butt of.
30
Ansel, what is getting fuck, is your chance of any sort of career in Journalism.. I suggest you move to New York, writing for the People's World. Do you want to be an activist or a journalist? If you want to be a political activist, you should quit the alternative weekly world of journalism, and either head to New York, or go to another country with a language you are fluent in.

What you posted is sloppy, grounds for termination, and shows your anger and frustration. If you want to be a journalist, you need to put some objective distant with the subject you are writing about..

Good Luck..
31
grounds for termination, please. they already had their good reporters quit on them
32
I'm just throwing this out there (as an organizer): the movement takes a lot of work and resources. It is unrealistic to think that a campaign can constantly be upping the ante all the time. Some unfortunate realities: 1. Immigration is a federal issue. While progressives have definitely gotten a lot of awesome wins on a local/state level around the issue, the real policy change is going to happen on a federal level, which means progressives have to throw down around the [congressional] elections. Guarantee many of the organizations involved in this march are doing that - and you only have so much staff and financial capacity. Also, it takes so much planning, organizing, and just overall work to plan any and all sort of actions, especially civil disobedience actions (you need to not only find people willing to be arrested, but find money to pay for their legal fees, bail, etc., because as an organizer, you have a responsibility to make sure your members are taken care of when the put themselves out there like that.....and that money doesn't fall from the sky). Again, out of any communities in which there is organizing going on, undocumented folks face the most risk - and it isn't easy to find many who are willing to put themselves out there (understandably!). If someone who is undocumented is arrested (unlike a white male journalist) - their lives could be straight up ruined. Also, just because you find someone who is willing to get arrested - you have to ask yourself if it is strategic...will it move the campaign forward? And, that brings me back to my first point: right now, the main fights left are on the federal level, and that means we need a straight up new congress. So, again, many organizations are going to be spending resources on changing who is in power (and that work is not necessarily covered by the media - you all won't know about all the canvassing and organizing that goes into turning out people to vote). Also, I mean, as someone who has organized many actions, the main reason we do actions is to put pressure on our targets - and some of that pressure comes from media attention. Instead of complaining about Black Bloc, don't cover them - or spend more time talking about immigrant rights. If you care about immigration justice, provide space for someone to share their story about being undocumented or what it is like being in a detention center. It is so god damn hard to get the media to care about anything that is not already in the news - you have the power to change that. Do an in-depth story about the life of a family being torn apart by the broken immigration system. Or, do you not have time to do that because you have to do the work of 5 people? If that is the case, then you should empathize with an organizer who is working at any community group - we have to manage several campaigns, respond to political moments, and get involved in elections. It is a heck of a lot of work....and there are only so many hours in the day.
33
@32,

Ugh. Was hoping to read something from someone with a differing perspective than the previous 31 commenters. I'm at least nominally sympathetic toward the cause, but would like to see something readable. Paragraphs, spacing... Makes a world of difference. I'll likely read your comment at work tomorrow once I've got my contacts in. Yeesh.
34
Take heart Ansel, your coverage has informed thousands and even this article you have again nailed some amazing points. Again, genius. You always seem to be one step ahead of other reporters and journalists and you have alot of insight that is incredible rare.
Think your coverage of Shell Oil didn't have an impact? It did. You and Syndey Brownstone and The Stranger deserve the highest journalism award for creating awareness and support that upcoming generations will look back and say you saved the Arctic.
May Day? Even though it is nothing compared to the 1999 WTO protest (and yes that had International impact) the Immigration March and protests do have an impact.
36
Ansel, WTF. There were many brave people on that march who were publicly identifying themselves as undocumented. That is courage. How dare YOU, secure in your citizenship, denigrate their bravery? Talk about white privilege. What the hell is going on with you?
37
@32 Did you just attend a workshop on how to organize? No one gives a shit when you bore your audience with your bureaucratic strategizing.
38
This whole post is just adorable.

But sorry undocumented immigrants and those fighting for their rights, your peaceful march was simply not exciting enough for l'il Ansel. Maybe start some random violence next time and Ansel's lily-white privileged ass will approve of you.
39
This is disgusting. Nothing more than media looking for attention, blaming everyone, ignoring facts and trying to sell advertising. There's absolutely no substance, no solutions, no intelligent dialog. I'm appalled a legitimate (at least I thought you were) paper would allow this past an editor. This explains why our nation's papers are filing for bankruptcy, we just can't trust them anymore.
40
Fuck you for being a chicken-shit, ans-hole. Be the first to break through those police barriers and lead the march where you want it to go. Let me know how that works out for you.
42
Well, at least I hope feel a little better Ansel after your profane, childish, venting.
43
Fuck you Ansel, for throwing your fellow journalists under the bus - although, increasingly, I'm beginning to share the opinion other SLOGGERS that the "journalism" you practice doesn't hold a candle to what real reporters do. Speaking of REAL reporters, there were three of them who were injured during this year's melee between cops and anarchists, and the projectiles came from both sides, so it certainly sounds like having a bit of extra protection - particularly given the current trend in news departments to send reporters into the field by themselves without the addition of a photographer - was completely warranted. Last year alone 72 journalists were killed around the world while covering stories, including two in the United States. In this country television reporters in particular are coming under increasing attack just for doing their jobs: in the Bay Area, TV news crews are regularly robbed at gunpoint - sometimes even while on-the-air.

Reporting the news, regardless of what one thinks of the content, has always had its hazards. Journalists report the story, and sometimes that requires them to stand in harms way, because a GOOD journalist understands the story isn't just about people fleeing, but more importantly, it's about what they're fleeing from. But increasingly journalists are being specifically targeted BECAUSE they're journalists, because they tend to stand when others run. So maybe next time you're sitting comfortably in your safe perch high above the fray and you feel the urge to berate those down on the street in the middle of the mayhem "pretending they're in a warzone (sic)" you'll perhaps pause for a moment to appreciate the fact that quite often they ARE in a fucking war-zone, including those times when they're being pummeled with rocks, sticks, bottles, Molotov Cocktails, and police-issued blast balls right under your morally-indignant, upturned nose.
45
At this point I don't even read the print Stranger, the Slog commenters (some of them, anyway), are the best thing about this rag.
46
The really sad part is that Ansel, Charles Mudede, and Christopher Frizzelle are all probably high-fiving each other over this post.
48
@43, Comte wrote, "Speaking of REAL reporters, there were three of them who were injured during this year's melee between cops and anarchists, and the projectiles came from both sides, so it certainly sounds like having a bit of extra protection - particularly given the current trend in news departments to send reporters into the field by themselves without the addition of a photographer - was completely warranted."

Unfortunately, even the "real reporters" are coming at SPD with kid gloves on this topic. I was at the mayor's and SPD's PR stunt outside of the Harborview emergency room Sunday night. Reporters let O'Toole go on and on about bad protesters and five injured police officers, repeatedly feeding her softballs, and asking a few good questions of the accompanying FBI agent about their mysterious involvement. There was not one word about injuries caused by police to demonstrators or to reporters until I asked how many people were injured as a result of police officers' use of crowd-control munitions. O'Toole had no idea, and Murray just stood there, eyes glazed as always, saying nothing. A couple other people--not reporters--followed up about police violence, so O'Toole and Murray ended the conference early and walked away with time to spare. Nobody followed them to ask additional questions or to get a shot of them scurrying away, avoiding discussion of their staff's violent behavior.

Even among the reporters who were there whom I respect, reports I was able to find yesterday included about O'Toole's complete disregard for injuries that her staff caused by lobbing dozens of stun grenades into crowds only vague statements about the count of non-officer injuries being unknown. As far as I can tell, nobody reported that O'Toole and Murray ducked and ran when asked about it. I've yet to see a report calling out the police for disregarding OPA's recommendation to cut back on use of explosives for crowd control.
49
There were many hundreds of heavily-armed, heavily-armored, and highly-trained professionals on the street, seemingly outnumbering demonstrators--the vast majority of whom were unarmed and unarmored--by three-to-one. This was not an emergency situation in which officers needed to take drastic action to get things under control. They had the entire demonstration surrounded the entire time, herding people like cattle. Those officers who tossed explosives into crowds--which as they know, causes mayhem and confusion--were way out of line. Fuck those violent assholes. Fuck Wilske for arming them. Fuck O'Toole for allowing this to happen again. Fuck Murray for playing along with the police department's plan to again escalate and then neutralize the voicing of unpopular opinion. And fuck City Council for pretending year after year to care about inappropriate use of force by police but rarely, if ever, following up on unanswered questions or on suggestions for improvement.
51
@48:

Understandable to some degree. Journalists rely very much on maintaining cordial relations with Law Enforcement in order to continue to receive access to crime scenes or breaking police activity, so the "kid gloves treatment" is probably an inevitable result of not pushing too hard in order to not jeopardize that relationship.
52
@51: Agreed. It's an unfortunate situation, and the public are the losers. Cross the mayor or the chief, and 1) they'll shut you out, and 2) a less aggressive reporter will step right in to play nice with the mayor and chief. As a result, those two are hardly ever publicly called on their bullshit.

That the Chief O'Toole and Mayor Thin-skin can walk away from the press when somebody shows up and asks a question about something those two don't want in the news and face no negative repercussions for doing so means we're going to hear what they want us to hear and little else.
53
Our elected representatives, our executive, and most of our press are afraid to cross our police. That is a dangerous situation.
54
@49

> This was not an emergency situation

OK, if you say so.

But then at what point would a premeditated, organized attempt to destroy property and foment riot constitute an emergency situation, in your opinion?
55
@54:

Given the massive show of force by SPD, it seems clear they certainly considered that point to have been reached. Whether one agrees their assessment was justified, is I suppose, debatable.
56
@54, Robotslave asked, "at what point would a premeditated, organized attempt to destroy property and foment riot constitute an emergency situation, in your opinion?"

I think it might be such an emergency if, say, they showed up to ensure demonstrators' and other people's safety and found themselves outnumbered and unable, without resorting to tossing mini-bombs at people, to control a crowd who were attempting to destroy property and foment riot.

@55: That might have been the case before they showed up. Once everyone was in place on the streets, it was pretty damned obvious--to me, at least--that the police were in control of the situation.
57
@56:

Yes, but as is often the case, SPD seems to follow in the tradition of late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Dailey's admonition that, "the police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder."
58
I dont get all the Ansel hate. This peice is better then Eli's asthe whole may day is just fucked. Good post!
59
These people whine far too much too much to be considered anarchists. Boo hoo, the mean old police wouldn't let me throw rocks and that hurt my feelings.

They better hope that true anarchy never comes to pass because with their apparent lack of skills and self-preservation instincts, they will be the first ones eaten.
60
@56

Well, that's certainly revealing.

Phil M. doesn't believe anything would constitute an emergency that police would need to respond to effectively until after police are unable to respond to it effectively.

You've always had this glaring problem with your theory of policing, Phil, and it's surprising that you still cling to it after it's been pointed out to you so many times.

The rest of the world around you is quite glad that the police are making ongoing efforts to investigate and prevent premeditated crime.

You, on the other hand, continue to believe that no police officer should lift a finger until after the charred bodies have been pulled out of the chain store, positively identified, and determined conclusively to belong to real human beings and not government plants or operatives.
61
@55

There were definitely more police officers involved than were needed.

But then, I don't remember any attempt by the people who initiated the Action to let the citizens of the city know how many people would be participating in their event.

The police, it seems, guessed there would be anywhere from 3 to 300 people involved in the action, and to be safe prepared a response to the high end of that estimate.

A proportionate response would be preferable, of course, but until the planners and/or initiators of our annual May Day ritual start announcing the number of participants beforehand, we're quite unlikely to see nice, mathematically pleasing ratios of peacekeepers to riot-fomenters.

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