Life During Wartime

[gridlore]

Today, I am ashamed to be a San Franciscan.

With the kick-off of the last night/this morning, protestors had promised to disrupt the streets of the "war economy." Since there are no defense contractors in SF, this meant the usual big bag capitalists. So, starting about 0600 they began blocking streets. They're still at it.

At last count, over 700 people had been arrested. The are promising to keep doing this day after day.

For what end? Do they really think George Bush is going to say "Oh my, traffic in San Francisco? Call off the war!" What is going to happen (and has already happened in a small way) is that tempers are going to flare, someone will throw a punch, or a rock, and we will have a riot on our hands.

These people aren't out there for peace, they are out for a confrontation. All they are doing is pissing off thousands of people. They are making the peace movement look, once again, like an out of control group that has no respect.

And the splinters! I saw many signs demanding freedom for Mumia. This is man, who in front of witnesses, killed a police officer. He's been tried, and convicted for his crime. How can you demand peace on one hand, and demand a killer be set free on the other? Seven cops are in the hospital. One protestor is, and he was hit by a bottle thrown by another protestor. The morons even attacked the news cameras covering the protests!

The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

In what is a remarkably more saner corner of the world, the US/UK invasion has gotten an early jump. While I was skeptical at first about "embedded" journalists, the tactic has paid off with excellent shots of service members just doing their jobs. So far, there has been very light resistance.

Good luck guys, and get home safe.

Comments

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Truly. These people are not in the least irritating those who are conducting or responsible for this war. They are in fact irritating people who might otherwise have agreed with them but who now have a grudge against the peace movement. For that, the people in San Francisco aren't known to be great supporters of wars in theory... but anyone still in town at this point isn't really part of the war effort. They're just people, trying to go about their private lives and earn some money, most of them in jobs that are altogether stressful enough without adding protestors for a cause that isn't even related to downtown commerce.

I hadn't heard about the Mumia supporters down there, but it's utterly pathetic. Mumia's a cop killer and deserves what he's got.

Same shit, different city

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

The Usual Suspects are doing likewise here in "Little Beirut" (that's Portland, OR to y'all). They snarled commuter traffic in downtown this evening at rush hour, and have also managed to block parts of and thus shut down the light rail, I-5 and I-84. And to no good purpose except to stroke their own egos.

It was pleasing to see one local reporter on the scene remark that the average age of the crowd seemed to be about 20, and that they were chanting "Bush kills for oil!". Then she said, and I quote, "Aside from that soundbite I don't think they could explain much more." Heh. (And she was cute too.)

Re: Same shit, different city

[eleri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Portland was pretty packed last night. Although it looked like, except for a few pockets of annoying people, that things were relatively calm. I just wish the morons would quit ruining it for the rest of the actually *peaceful* protestors.

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

They're doing the same in Chicago, and one of the roads blocked is one of the two major roads I use to get home. I've got a bag of clothes to take with me if I can't get home.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Behold frustration given form, but no direction.

(Okay, so a significant portion is just Angry Young People looking for an excuse, but...)

[aetra.livejournal.com]

This would be a good thing for those folks to read (if they can read):

This Isn't About You (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j031703.html)

[soldiergrrrl.livejournal.com]

Folx were doing the same thing here in LA, but they were blocking a major emergency vehicle corridor to UCLA Medical Center. Argh. Great, let's make it harder for folx to get to work and to the hospital. That's peacful.

[cleverthylacine]

*standing ovation*

[femakita.livejournal.com]

I protest and oppose the war- although I also feel that now that we're in, let's get done and bring the maximum number of Americans (and British) home safely as possible.

Effective protest was never supposed to be about violence nor about making an asshole of oneself. I think these people need to dust off their copies of Civil Disobedience- that is, of course, assuming that they can read.