After a morning long game of cat and mouse, someone apparently gave them the green light, resulting in a few minutes of shockingly brutal, random violence. San Francisco Police were continually one step behind small bands of direct action crews locking down to buildings occupied by war profiteers, stopping traffic, opening fire hydrants, stenciling messages, occupying freeway exits to name a few. Shortly after 11 am, the intersection market and Sansome had been occupied by people doing a “die in” occupation and speakers were using a sound system on the sidewalk. The roving bike block decided to support the action by circling the already occupied intersection. As that action was winding down, police asked that people clear the intersection, which obviously was not going to happen until all of the “die in” participants lying prone on the street were booked, one by one. At this point, some of the cyclists responded by saying that it was not actually illegal to have one’s cycle in the street. A few minutes later, a sudden, orchestrated orgy of violence interrupted that was shocking in its intensity. Without escalating to shoving or pushing protestors, armor clad riot cops sprang into action, striking anyone at arms reach with batons with the kind of full roundhouse blows intended to injure, not subdue victims. For a moment, this received the attention of a crowd of Market Street regulars in business suits and makeup, but even these folk stampeded away from the intersection as the police quickly reached the sidewalk and started beating on people there.


For folks who missed this moment, there might be some deliberation about the onus being on activists to appease the police sufficiently. As for me, I will never forget two smiling cops singing “God Bless America” while stroking their batons moments before the attack began.