Let's smash things for peace!

[gridlore]

So, we had a big march in SF today, somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 showing up to hear a rally at Justin Herman Plaza, march up Market to the Civic Center, and hear another rally.

This scored exactly 3 minutes on the news.

A group of about 700 broke off and marched to Union Square, where they began vandalizing stores, setting fires, and throwing rocks at the police. Tear gas was used, as well as the SFPD's mounted unit. This was at 5 minutes and counting when I switched off the set in disgust.

To a man, these idiots appeared to be young. Early twenties, late teens. All these wannabe Che's were screaming at the riot cops, making the entire peace movement look like scary revolutionaries.

Great job guys! Being being total idiots, you complete destroyed the efforts of a few hundred thousand people!

Comments

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Enh. That element is always going to be there, in any protest. They were there in the 60s marches, and so on back through the history of labor organizing, etc... heck, what do you call the Boston Tea Party?

If you want to blame someone, blame the media (and the politicians, et al) who focus on the riot rather than the protest, because that makes juicier copy. Imagine a news-spot along the lines of "Other than a few opportunistic acts of vandalism by younger members of the group, the protest was concluded without incident." Hard to conceive of, isn't it?