I was stuck at my office in the middle of the chaos last week, and there was another march tonight (although I missed it, thanks to being home sick). A thousand well-behaved people gathered, and then about two dozen masked anarchist wanna-bes ran around smashing more store windows tonight. Idiots.
Oakland gets very bad media coverage in America, and has a reputation as a huge ghetto, which is totally untrue. But this sort of thing doesn't help.
I have no use for the so-called 'anarchists', who in general seem to thrive on doing no more than as much damage to property as possible, regardless of what damage they may do to whatever protest they hijack.
And "so-called" really is the operative word. I suspect these people are really just thrill-seekers. Because "smashing the state" does not equal, in any way, shape, or form, breaking windows and terrorizing the proprietors of small, minority-owned restaurants, florists, nail shops, etc.
I can't blame it all on the faux-anarchists, though -- there's a self-styled Maoist group going around doing some of the destruction, too. One of their members was stupid enough to allow herself to be interviewed *by name* on TV, going on about how she hadn't had so much fun in ages, and the shopkeepers ought to just be glad they're still alive.
Well, from what I've heard, it's getting pretty crazy down there. But it doesn't seem to be accomplishing anything. The officer is still pleading the 5th, so they don't even know the whole story. Meanwhile, it's completely disturbing the peace.*sigh* See, this is why protests don't work. They always end up hurting the wrong people.
This is indeed a wet mess, and I'm just boggled by it. I know that I don't have all the details, but on the surface it seems patently obvious, and the Transit Authority's attempts to obfuscate make them look ridiculous.
I'm always the person who can't imagine that they'll get acquitted, that the evidence is too compelling to be ignored. But I'm often the person who is wrong, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and my mouth shut for you all down there.
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NYT article.
I was stuck at my office in the middle of the chaos last week, and there was another march tonight (although I missed it, thanks to being home sick). A thousand well-behaved people gathered, and then about two dozen masked anarchist wanna-bes ran around smashing more store windows tonight. Idiots.
Oakland gets very bad media coverage in America, and has a reputation as a huge ghetto, which is totally untrue. But this sort of thing doesn't help.
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I can't blame it all on the faux-anarchists, though -- there's a self-styled Maoist group going around doing some of the destruction, too. One of their members was stupid enough to allow herself to be interviewed *by name* on TV, going on about how she hadn't had so much fun in ages, and the shopkeepers ought to just be glad they're still alive.
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I can tell you one thing, though: if this guy gets acquitted, things will get VERY ugly.
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