Let's smash things for peace!
Feb. 16th, 2003 05:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreSo, 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!
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!
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I have been meaning to post this for days...
Date: 20 Feb 2003 09:43 (UTC)TimB came up with a pretty cogent argument against it, which gelled what I've
felt in my gut for a while: They feel that they have to resort to these tactics
to get attention; but then it devolves into a situation of, "*MY* violence is
okay, but yours is not." (which, of course, is bullsheeeeet).
This are why "protestors" gets mismapped to, and treated as, "rioters" by so
many of the public at large.
OTOH, they really only represented (at most) half of one percent of the people
at the march.
Have also recently discussed Fred Phelps (after reading about him in *THIS* journal,
FWIW) with a co-worker, who talks about how, at the Pride Parade, the Phelps-minions
(there being 8 or so of them) get oodles of press, whereas the couple-hundred-to-a-
thousand religious Queer Supporters *in* the parade get a second or two, *if* they're
lucky. :-P~
Z
P.S.: See also, potentially, http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=feyandstrange&itemid=97089 (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=feyandstrange&itemid=97089)