love the overheads. really nice!

All my love to those brave ones facing police intimidation and repression in SF.

In solidarity,

a friend from the UK

This is what the news is today. The paper reports that they just discovered tha the Church of Scientology prepared the school district's health curriculum, and he police are arresting techno dancers so they won't interrupt the status quo.

I assume that this is what our administration is referring to when they speak of spreading "freedom and democracy". I don't believe freedom of speech means say what you can as fast as you can before a jack-booted thug shoves his baton down your throat. We shouldn't have to exercise our "free speech" rights at high speeds from a moving vehicle with no tags.

Sorry your protest was a bust, but then again, this is what happens when a protest movement is taken over by the Direct Action thugs. You no longer have any credibility with ordinary people because all they see in your movement now is vandalism and pointless confrontation. You may need to rethink your tactics in the future - if you have one.

Direct action thugs? The only people with weapons were police-there was absolutely no violence from within the crowd. The reason why we don't have any credibility is because the corporate media distorts the news. We didn't shut down the street-the police did. They never gave us a chance to disperse, and if it wasn't for them, the whole thing would have been over in an hour or two instead of making downtown SF look like a police state(which it is) until 11pm.

someone was rude enough to post oversize pics.

You got arrested because you're protesting in the middle of the street! DUH! Don't ramble on about that freedom of speech crap. You have freedom of speech. Say what ever you want to make your point. Don't block traffic in a major city.

Fucking awesome! If you look closely, two police who make up the outer boundary have red lightsabres! How do SFPD get to have Lightsabres?

Those arent lightsabres, but rather "Less than lethal rifles". They had tear gas out as well.

I know people did but if anyhoo could please send me pictures of the Police's attempt to arrest one girl and a few dozen of them attacking us (not arresting us) from the sidewalk into the 6th street intersection, for legal reasons, that would be great

Liam, it was all over the local TV news last night. They showed clear footage of people throwing bottles at the cops. There was one woman who spit in a cop's face. These people are thugs. They are not "protesting", they are engaged in needless confrontation with the cops that achieves nothing. These tactics will never work. People see this stuff and they just tune out any point you were trying to make.

sfres - you don't have a clue as to what you are talking about. If you had been in the streets with us yesterday, you would have seen just what a police state looks like, and exactly how much "free speech" is allowed in your precious "land of the free". what you apparently saw on the news was obviously selective reporting, with extreme and undeniable bias. stop believing everything you are fed by the media, and start living your own life and forming your own opinions based on experience and direct communication with others.

I was attacked on the sidewalk as well, and would love to know if there are pictures or video. All i remember is watching them rush from one side, turning around and seeing them behind me rushing. I put my hands up to show innocence (about 90% of the people were, the other 10% were running) but we were still being hit from both sides with batons. There is really no way the police can justify that, they were attacking food not bombs, because a few people tried to give the people on the inside food. I tripped over the FNB cart twice yesterday due to police. And only escaped arrest because friends of mine (anyone out in RTS is a friend in my eyes) helped me up so i could get away before i was charged with "tripping".

I also saw an officer hit a man 3 times in the throat with the end of his baton while the man had his hands up asking "what do you want me to do??"

Laz, don't lecture me, you twit. I am quite capable of making my own judgements and I am spoon fed nothing from the media. I have attended several of these protests, and I have seen them deteriorate into violent, confrontational street riots. THAT IS NOT A PROTEST. I have been active in movements since 1967 and you have NO business telling me how to understand events. What I am telling YOU is that you have no clue how to reach the public. THEY are the ones who vote, and their votes translate into policy. Your pointless tirades and tired slogans are shit. For shit's sake grow up. The Left is sliding into complete irrelevance in this country because of these stupid types of actions. Consider this a warning from the generation before you who KNEW how to move public opinion - the only opinion that matters.

sfres:
>I have attended several of these protests


Several?

Really, several?

WOW! You are clearly a serious and dedicated activist from whom we ignorant children have much to learn. Please, if you would, rain your precious drops of wisdom down upon us so that we, too, might come to know the Truth.

In other words, Go Fuck Yourself.

I guess you know what you should do next time then...

If the Pigs do nothing but attack people and charge them with crimes they didnt commit (like tripping) then maybe you should justify the pigs charges. Next time do trip them. They wont know who did it nor will they be able to push it through in court. Next time dont stand there and allow them to hit you. Give way in the middle and surround them on the edges. Cops arent allowed to let protestors get behind them. Who knows who might grab their gun... They'll have to retreat. If they are being tripped and fall to the groud they will also have to retreat (but they will probably do a baton charge first to get their fallen.)

All of you should fight your charges. These charges pretty much never stick due to false chaarges, bungling pigs and lack of evidence. Ive been wanting to compile a database on the number of cases of false or dropped charges stemming from protests. The cops always gotta arrest a certain amount, based on the size of the protest, to justify their presence/cost. And all the public hears about is the arrests. They never hear that 95% of the shit never even makes it to court. The state plans on people pleading guilty to charges. If everyone just pleads not-guilty they cant handle the load much less prosecute even if they do try to take it to court.

Im not advocating fighting with the cops. However when it became appearent that they were going to arrest everyone there you guys shoulda made a mass break for it and charged back into the park.

Keep Safe
In solidarity

The responses to my remarks shows you to be utterly clueless. I am not an activist. I went to observe to try to understand why these events are becoming smaller and more violent. I explained what I thought about it. Evidently you were unable to understand what I said, so I will say it again. Violent, pointless confrontation, and vandalism do nothing to further your cause. Previous great protest movements, such as the movement against the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, ACT-UP, and all the rest were effective because they were, by their actions, able to change the minds of the middle class. That, and only that, lead to changes in government policy in these areas. Your current tactics fail completely. You have alienated the middle class. They percieve you as destructive, violent jerks. You causes do not resonate because they can't see beyond your tactics. Actually, I couldn't care less what you think. You and your Direct Action types are so blinded by your own self-rightousness that you have become you own worst enemy.

"Consider this a warning from the generation before you who KNEW how to move public opinion - the only opinion that matters."

So why are we in the mess we're in now??

the middle class is our enemy too. make no amends about this fact.

"Previous great protest movements, such as the movement against the Vietnam war"

You mean the movement that didn't actually DO anything? Yeah, great protest movement... If you liked drugs. (I don't.)

Thanks to all the heroic people who know that we just have to say NO. No to corporate control of our food supply and our police force. The precautionary principle must rule for the safety of my kids future. I suspect that those who are critical just don't have the guts or brains to make a stand for themselves. We don't need them, as it will only take a few dedicated individuals to make change for the better, just as in all past revolutions. Power to the people, off the corporations and their lousy jobs!

You make a rather ahistorical argument sfres. Many of the movements you mention were, at times, quite confrontational. Remember Stonewall? Remember the police riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention? (Of course, as usual, it was the police that carried out the violence.)

In any case, a few items thrown for a few seconds, hardly approaches the level of pointless violence and intimidation carried out by the police. Come on, this was a group of people dressed as mutants dancing in the streets. There was no reason for the mass arrest except to put a chill on future protests and actions.

Lastly, how is it that vandalizing objects (a tactic I don't really agree with) has become a crime worse than terrorizing protesters? Have objects and property become more important than people? It seems as though our very humanness has been swallowed up by the middle-class values that you say we should appease.

The news coverage said protestors were thowing food and bottles at the cops. There needs to be a correction, it was not being thrown at the cops it was being thrown into the arrest circle because after several hours of detention you kind of get hungry and we ran out of water. From my understanding of talking with the person who bought the food and what I saw inside the circle, the bread was broken into small peices and the plastic water bottles were the smallest they could get. Meenwhile the police were eating hershy bars, rice crispy treats, danishes and drinking Kirkland bottled drinks. I am sure the list of junk food goes on but I gave up keeping track, they had a steady supply though. The police trash pile was well over a foot tall and spanned well over 3 feet around.

I talked to one of the swat team members carrying one of those six cylinder machine gun looking things after the break away march was not tear gas he said his was loaded with rubber/ plastic bullets but it could be loaded with a whole bunch of different things like lead shot bags. It would have been stupid in every way for them to have nondiscriminant chemical weapons out there because of so many bystanders and it was windy.

This is a good thing to see in the sense that it shows the liberal protests of the past are about as effective as cattle trying to flee when they are already up the loading chute. I think it is time to either rethink tactics, or this is what we have to look forward to. ;)

You americans have too many cops. You should stop paying their salaries! They are party poopers and they stink.

"Consider this a warning from the generation before you who KNEW how to move public opinion - the only opinion that matters."

Yes, the generation that when they had the chance, they messed it up with drugs, and then gave it all up for the Home Shopping Network. Some generation.

In solidarity from Vancouver, Canada!

Keep up the fight and be safe!!

amigxs
desde peru mucha fuerza
por favor informarme sobre tristan como esta. se que lo detuvieron
gracias-