Mostly, it appears that a spontanous protest mob of about 100 moved through Bloomfield toward Shadyside causing most of the damage. They focused on banks, a BMW dealership and also some large fast food chains, like KFC. It’s all bullshit - the multinational corporations won’t feel the sting of a broken front window, but some men and women from around here employed by these places will have to spend time and effort cleaning up their shit.
There was something that occurred around the Cathedral of Learning last night, but I don’t know if any damage was caused. The police response was pretty massive.
It’s hard to see a strong message on the part of the protesters, and it seems almost like it’s become the fairly mindless thing to do whenever there’s a meeting like this. I’m not sure anyone anymore is really sympathetic to their issue, whatever it might really be.
Damage (to property and persons) usually ends up being done either by the core group or by the police in reaction to the actions of the first group or both. Sadly, the victims tend to be either the other attendees (who were caught in the middle) or innocent bystanders.
Politics are largely irrelevant for the culprits, no matter what they say - they’re just selfish bastards.
Actually, those photos you see of protesters and cops were staged. Really, Chuck Norris took them down one by one.
Okay, so a protest turned violent, they threw sticks and some trashcans and the cops shot ‘sandbag’ bullets. The usual with G20. Also the usual with G20 protests? Tons of Canadians, Europeans, anarchists, etc. attendance who wouldn’t be pleased to be lumped together with what Americans consider left wing.
To be honest, if I had to walk through a protest I would probably feel safer, physically, with a Tea Party protest. Assuming they didn’t know my political views. But then I don’t like huge crowds.
Not defending the window-breakers, but I’m still more upset about hundreds of thousands (best guess; our government deliberately avoided keeping any sort of count) of Iraqi civilians dead as a result of our invasion. Ditto all the people tortured by the Bush Administration, some to death. Or people dying or losing their life’s savings because we’re the only advanced nation that doesn’t have universal health care.
You seem to get upset about broken windows, or the cost of a John Edwards haircut. I find your values to be lacking a certain something.
Yep. I’m pretty anti-big-corporation myself, but the people most affected by these protests are the poor folks who live and work in Pittsburgh. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be protests, but the protesters should do their best to annoy the people in power, not the people who are just trying to get by.
I think this is a fair comparison. There are Democratic Congressmen that speak at anarchist rallies. When anarchists speak up at Town Meetings the Democrats praise them as “good Americans”. CNN and MSNBC hyped the anarchist rallies and then invited some of the speakers to speak on air. Annie the Anarchist has become a darling of the left and is paid to appear at Democratic rallies.
Someone very close to me is in jail at the moment as a result of yesterday’s protests.
To the extent that this person’s actions were “political” in nature, this person was protesting a Barack Obama decision. Does that make that person a right wing lunatic? I’d really like a response.
There was. I saw some boarded-up broken windows when I went out to lunch.
They didn’t just target large corporations, either. Pamela’s Diner, which is a small local restaurant chain, had broken windows too.
I don’t consider any protest that causes property damage to be “peaceful” or “nonviolent”.
Those things are problems, and something should be done about them. But how exactly does breaking windows help on any of those issues in a way that protest tactics that don’t cause property damage don’t?
No - just that I wouldn’t describe these demonstrations as entirely peaceful, myself. But that’s a far cry from getting upset.
As of right now I’m apprehensive - the demonstrations massing up in Oakland near the University of Pittsburgh look like they might turn ugly. And I care about that for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I am a Pitt alum.
I don’t want to see students get hurt, and I don’t want to see my school or the city around it broken apart. I’m just silly that way.
Why, agg assault, of course. I haven’t heard the full story. I expect it’s the typical kind of scenario – failure to comply with an order, resisting, etc.
