Berkeley protest (San Francisco, Oakland: living in, law, store)

[victimofGM]

Saw photos and videos of the protest in Berkeley. I thought they were suppose to be all peace & love in Berkeley. Is this a local protest or is it pretty much all UC Berkeley students? Has some of the more violent protestors been from Oakland or other areas?

[04kL4nD]

Apparently, looters and thugs take advantage of situations created by soft cops and large swarms of protestors. See: Oakland, San Francisco, etc

[pch1013]

The same people who shriek that anyone who's not marching is complicit in police brutality, also blithely ignore the fact that everyone who DOES march is complicit in vandalism and looting.

They can't have it both ways, but of course that won't stop them from trying.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by pch1013

The same people who shriek that anyone who's not marching is complicit in police brutality, also blithely ignore the fact that everyone who DOES march is complicit in vandalism and looting.

They can't have it both ways, but of course that won't stop them from trying.

Everyone who marches is only complicit in marching. O4kl4nd's right; opportunists latch onto big crowd protests, to take advantage of the relative anonymity provided. The same thing happened in Seattle years ago, during a big meeting on globalization or NAFTA or the WTO or something. The downtown area was wrecked afterwards, and protesters were blamed, but it was later revealed that it was outsiders who joined the protest to wreak havoc.

[pch1013]

I wonder what would happen if a peaceful protester were to confront one of the "anarchist" kiddies, then get hit over the head with a baseball bat.

Would they ask a cop for help?

[04kL4nD]

You are conflating peaceful protestors, violent protestors, and opportunistic thugs. All three are share some superficial similarities, but they are not entirely the same thing.

Here's another way of looking at it: people who hang out at bars and behave responsibly, drunks who frequent the bar and get out of hand, and people who deliberately go to bars to start fights. Not all people who go to bars are bad, but the "bar crowd" gets a reputation for being seedy, based on the unsavory actions of the latter two.

[pch1013]

Yes, I know. But this makes it all the more puzzling why the peaceful ones don't make more of an effort to keep the violent ones away.

Or, for that matter, the people with "revcom.us" signs, who -- unwittingly or otherwise -- are basically espousing a Maoist dictatorship.

[04kL4nD]

Well, part of being peaceful means you're kind of a *****. Are you really expecting the peaceful ones to put up much of a fight?

[pch1013]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Here's another way of looking at it: people who hang out at bars and behave responsibly, drunks who frequent the bar and get out of hand, and people who deliberately go to bars to start fights. Not all people who go to bars are bad, but the "bar crowd" gets a reputation for being seedy, based on the unsavory actions of the latter two.

Just as all cops -- without exception, according to the protesters -- are racist and violent and evil.

Yet I don't think very many of them would enjoy living in a society where there was no law enforcement whatsoever.

[pch1013]

Oops, maybe I spoke too soon.

Demonstrators step in to prevent looting during protest in Berkeley | abc7news.com

In a fascinating twist, some white thugs attacked a black customer of a hardware store that they were in the process of looting.