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

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

I was very pleased by how friendly and peaceful the Sydney march was (not least because we had my ten-year-old stepson with us). The organisers reminded people early on that "the police and marshals are here for your safety," and that's how it stayed.

In the end the police asked for the march to be rerouted, and turned away fifty thousand latecomers, but both of those were for genuine safety reasons. The streets were already full, there just wasn't room to take more people or to follow the original route.