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Indybay Feature

Attack on KFC

by . . .
attack of KFC, mission st.
Caught between our fleeting mortal lives and the fleeting "freedoms" allowed to us by the state, we have felt strong sorrow and disgust at the state of the world and our society. Last night, we decided to make tangible our despair.

Last night, we attacked the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Mission St. We think it's new, we're not entirely sure, but either way the sight of it bores us to death. Two stones cracked two windows and we melted back into the shadows. Property will never be worth more than the lives of living things. Solidarity with our poultry brethren; we may not be the same species, but we breath the same poison air.

We acknowledge that attacks like this do little to actually harm the infrastructure of capital or animal abuse. They are a great way, though, to become familiar with night action. We encourage all who feel a brooding discontent to find ways of expressing it. We cannot wait for a revolutionary situation; we must create that situation. This is just the beginning. We have begun.

War on capital!

yours in long-term low-intensity conflict,
yours for escalation,
autonomous rebels for social collapse
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Comments (Hide Comments)
PETA has a website dedicated to the above-ground fight against KFC cruelty
by ~Bradley (bradley [at] riseup.net)
chicken-run_3-7-09.jpg
by ~Bradley
kfc_3-7-09.jpg
by ~Bradley
colonel-sanders_3-7-09.jpg
by Nani Balestrini
This is an extremely juvenile version of the state-sanctioned violence in Italy in the 1970s where, to create a climate of fear and terror, the state launched a "strategy of tension" of public violence to justify militaristic police crackdowns on the left.

Or for a more pedestrian analysis, the plate glass industry did this to drum up business during a slow period of economic crisis.

Regardless, this isn't radical, nor is it even political. It's the act of impotent cowards. Which is a pretty accurate description of a cop.
by Mike Rotkin
Its about time my former students started taking things more seriously and initiating anti-capitalist revolution a safe distance away from the businesses that really matter--the ones on Pacific. Other intellectuals as highly esteemed as myself like Ward Churchill care about chickens and shit, while I on the other hand could care less, unless the chicken is on my plate... but seriously who gives a fuck about KFC? The fucking police station is virtually down the street has a shit load of windows, and the pigs inside are taking such a big chunk of the city's budget they dont need to eat processed chicken mutants, so dont be surprised if this shit doesnt get brought up in the next city council meeting.
what you did was fantastic, so keep it up and send one through Perg's window while youre at it cause no one likes when snitches get let off easy.
by (a)
awww it sounds like someone is scared of a little property destruction. so cute.
by .
did someone break the Pergolesi window? one way of avoiding the issue of snitches is to not even allow people or parties who aren't part of the scheme of things to even have evidence which they could be pressured to talk about. At the least, this might apply to actions conducted at large protest rallies or in broad daylight.

by .
angry greeks attack station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frfu2xXP91g
by teletype
here is the one where someone got too close to the manager's personal space bubble.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/10/03/17724961.php
by crudo
"This is an extremely juvenile version of the state-sanctioned violence in Italy in the 1970s where, to create a climate of fear and terror, the state launched a "strategy of tension" of public violence to justify militaristic police crackdowns on the left." -

The strategy of tension occurred after an immense period of militant class struggle in Italy that I don't think is that comparable to the situation in the US right now. While it's clear that the govt. will engage in various tactics that will discredit the movement, I don't think that breaking the windows of corporate stores and releasing communiques is something that they would do.

"Or for a more pedestrian analysis, the plate glass industry did this to drum up business during a slow period of economic crisis." -

If they were into doing that, why would they release communiques that would possibly end them up in prison for years.

"Regardless, this isn't radical, nor is it even political. It's the act of impotent cowards. Which is a pretty accurate description of a cop." -

How is this not radical? Sabotage and action against the bosses and property has always been one of the easiest thing that the exploited can do to fight back.

How is this the act of cowards when those who carried this out could face years in jail for their actions?

I think those that level slander without proof and even without any meaningful critique have more in common with the likes of informants and police than those that take action against capital and exploitation.
by I don't get it
Don't you realize that they are about the only thing keeping the vast majority of people from stomping you petty vandals into life support? I know it is a bummer that you get weed tickets sometimes but do you really not appreciate the benefits of having police officers? I understand that you see yourselves as horribly oppressed right now but it would be much worse without police and the government because statistically very few people agree with your world view.
by miles
Let's be clear. The Strategy of Tension in Italy (which actually began in 1968) involved the use of neo-fascists and parts of the state security services to instigate beatings, shootings and assassinations, and bombings of civilian targets (the two most horrific being those at the Piazza Fontana and later the Bologna railway station) meant to maximize civilian casualties. All of those actions were officially and immediately blamed on "the Left," as a way of preparing the possibility of a right-wing/military coup. Comparing the breaking of a couple of windows at a KFC to that is the height of political irresponsibility. You should be 1. ashamed of yourself for instigating such hysteria; 2. publicly ridiculed and shunned.
by ////
the guy says police protect people.hes speaking hypothetically.cause police ALREADY have stomped into near life support and even DEATH those who are trying to protect THEMSELVES from racial assaults by the very citizens you claiom the police are protecting people from! america is a hypothetical nation.pre emptive strikes against life to ''prevent'' terror thjis and that bla blaa
by hmmm
So do you guys think that the police cause more harm than good? Have you never been helped by any police?
by bob
Vandalism like this hurts the franchise but not the chain/ corporation. If anything some poor family man/woman will be fired because it takes money to fix the windows and an hourly position may have to be cut in order to do so. Violence often does more harm than good. There are more intelligent ways to make your voice heard.
by SoCal Gal
You think yourself as this great, underground revolutionary? Ha! You're too chickenshit to even post your identity. Sorry, but this does nothing against the Big Evil Corporation and does everything to demonstrate you are nothing but a petty, little vandal.

Oh, and before you get this brilliant idea, tagging something is NOT on the same par as writing "The Communist Manifesto."

What a loser.
by miles
You're seriously equating a broken window with "violence"?! WTF dude?! Anyone who holds property to be sacrosanct that breaking a window would be described with the same term as an action that causes harm to sentient beings is a buffoon, plain and simple. Glass is not sentient. A job is not sentient. People and non-human animals are sentient; any action that causes harm or suffering to a sentient being is properly called violence.

The cops are violent most of the time they interact with people, and they are supposed to be. It is the nature of their social role as bullies for the status quo. They enforce the relations of property as they exist under the regime of capitalism at the same time they enforce the normative social relations of respect for authority and hierarchy.

Try to restrain yourself from labeling anything you don't happen to like as "violence." It makes you look stupid.
by here's why
"You're seriously equating a broken window with "violence"?! WTF dude?! Anyone who holds property to be sacrosanct that breaking a window would be described with the same term as an action that causes harm to sentient beings is a buffoon, plain and simple."--Miles.

You clearly do not know what the definition of violence is as determined by the vast majority of people. Violence does not have to involve causing physical injury to a living being.

"The cops are violent most of the time they interact with people, and they are supposed to be."--Miles.

So by using your implied definition of violence from before, you are saying that most of the time that police interact with people they hurt them? You seem to be unstable in your definitions.

by broodingly discontented
Well now how many more chickens must die to pay for those broken windows?

Narcissistic nihilistic vandalism masquerading as political commentary doesn't cut it. The "communique" as much as admits that this action was done for no reason. Not sure why this story is even here. Most of the comments are as pointless as the event.
by silly
that is just a ridiculous argument

no extra chickens will die. it just comes out of that one store's profits. no staff will be laid off, unless that location was already on the verge of going under.

basically, KFC will go on with abusing and killing 800,000,000 million chickens a year. this single action is merely a small chink in their armor, and by itself doesn't make anything much better, but it certainly doesn't make anything worse
by Somebody call the Whaaaambulance!!
Someone calling themselves "Nani" seems to believe that the breaking of a KFC window was all planned out by some highly devious FBI dudes (or dudettes) to increase social tension and swiftly implement martial law. Sounds like somebody watches too much TV and doesn't get out much!!

As a confessed TV watcher myself, i must admit it sounds like a great plot for the SciFi channel movie, where covert FBI agents travel around the U.S. smashing windows of KFC, McDonalds, Burger King and other fast food franchises while television stations (all owned by ClearChannel!) simultaneously show commercials for these same fast food franchises with subliminal millisecond scenes of evil animal rights activists taking McNuggets out of the mouths of children.

These subliminal messages on TV combined with the covert FBI agents smashing windows of fast food franchises set the public into a panic, and they demand more police protection for innocent children who wish to continue stuffing themselves with McNuggets without any interference from animal rights terrorists..

Then just before the last actual commercial break, one of the subliminal scenes from the movie briefly reveals the identity of the window smashing animal rights activists, none other than a covert agent wearing an Osama Bin Laden Halloween mask underneath his terrorist ski mask (wow, talk about having a hot head!).

This revelation sends the public into a double panic as they now have 9/11 flashbacks and they instantly demand martial law and curfews here in the U.S. to catch the animal rights window smashers who are really Osama Bin Laden in disguise, though we find out in the end that they are all well paid and slighty bored rogue FBI agents who wanted to try out an experiment as to how quickly they could begin a process that would implement martial law..

Or in reality the window smasher(s) really are animal rights activists who are doing what they can to be significant pests to the corporate fast food franchises that do indeed torture and abuse animals as part of their everyday business plans, in addition claiming their hormone laced caged products are somehow healthy for the children and other consumers who ingest them..

So to sum up, bravo to the animal rights activists who pulled this KFC window redecoration off and will hopefully remain silent about it to live free to fight another day, and we'll all pledge that if these window smashing events do lead to martial law as some claim, we'll fight the tanks in the streets also!!

NOTE - Though i usually do not like mocking other people's ideas with statements like "somebody call the WHAAAAmbulance!", it just makes me sick that after every action where no major casualites occur, some goofball posts a comment claiming that this "must be a state action" and no self respecting activist would ever stoop so low as to break the window of a fast food establishment..

To those who make false claims and slander about window smashers being covert agents;

Please quit all the bellyaching everytime something like this happens! If smashing windows is not your style, then just don't do it yourself! However, slandering the activist(s) who did this as "state sanctioned" is just plain silly, and only distracts from the action and discussions of how this could be more effective if duplicated many times elsewhere. Of course that could eventually lead to martial law, though would that not simply encourage greater acts of defiance agaisnt the state??
you really think your pathetic attempts to "change the world" are going to make a dent at all? The only thing you are doing is feeding the fire of the police state/ prison industrial complex. inciting violence calls for violent retaliation. By publishing this you are showing social narcissm and sociopathy like that of a terrorist who does it only for the publicity.

In fact, I seriously dount you are enlightened/educated and would bet that either you are violent insitgator funded by the state or else you are brainless robot acting as an instigator without even realizing it. Just another brainwashed yuppy thinking that they are slumming it and taking part in some revoltuion that exists only in your head. why don't you move and act to effect positive change in people's lives. A rock can't move a fucking mountain.

When you act out in senseless violent ways, you open the door for other peaceful activists to get prosecuted in your name. Why don't you publish your names...that way other innocents are charged with your vandalism.

The revolution has already passed you by if you think you can achieve anything by giving people a reason to believe all the lies about "violent activists"

wake up...the revolution is already here and wont be won with rocks.

stage a sit-in protest and visibility event and really rock the boat, rather than acting like a dirty rat, slinking in the shadows like a bunch of cowards.

This is the behaviour of people who run from the police, throw bottles and cuss out their ignorant asses instead of standing there, peacefully, prepared to take the hit for all the people who have struggled before you.

Lead by example...not by cowardly violence.






by skeptical
"Please quit all the bellyaching everytime something like this happens! If smashing windows is not your style, then just don't do it yourself! However, slandering the activist(s) who did this as "state sanctioned" is just plain silly, and only distracts from the action and discussions of how this could be more effective if duplicated many times elsewhere. Of course that could eventually lead to martial law, though would that not simply encourage greater acts of defiance agaisnt the state??"

-Great post, even though I am totally on the opposite side as you! While I certainly think the possibility of "false flag" attacks is worth raising, those who just call it "COINTELPRO" are offering ZERO evidence. That's right: ZERO. There are people within the radical environmental/animal rights networks that think like you do and see nothing wrong with it. Thank you for at least being honest about this! I will save your post the next time somebody tries to play the "COINTELPRO" card without evidence. If these attacks were truly offending the "Scene" in Santa Cruz, don't you think there would be more people calling them out on these forums? Instead it's one or two saying "you'll discredit the whole movement" (true) and they are generally drowned out by those who support the actions.
by miles
Golly I'm sorry I didn't make my position clearer, using short words for every semi-literate commentator. Here's a slightly more detailed (provisional) definition of what is recklessly labeled "violence."

Any threat or manifestation of emotional or physical duress and/or harm to a sentient being.

I recognize that without provisional definitions of "threat" or "duress" such a provisional definition of violence remains problematic. Deal with it. Violence still has nothing to do with unruly behavior toward property, so piss off bourgeois moralists.
by Read #3 Closely, miles
1 a: exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse (as in warfare effecting illegal entry into a house) b: an instance of violent treatment or procedure

2: injury by or as if by distortion, infringement, or profanation : outrage

3 a: intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force b: vehement feeling or expression : fervor ; also : an instance of such action or feeling c: a clashing or jarring quality : discordance

4: undue alteration (as of wording or sense in editing a text)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violence
by miles
Three cheers for definitional fundamentalism! Huzzah! Did bourgeois moralists write that definition? Uh, yes. The context of definitions, characteristics, and usages are historical, and history (as our old pal Karl used to say) is the history of class struggles. Currently the dominant usage of words and their definitions are ordained by those who rule. The definition of violence among my comrades, allies, and those complicit in the tendency toward revolution does not include unruly events that make smug bourgeois moralists uncomfortable. So, once again, piss off.
by Oh really...
I like how you take a cowardly criminal act...and make it sound like the backcover to a cheap 10 cent paperback book.

Down with capitalism? War on capital? You realize that with you causing damage, you only made it so that more money flows through the economy. KFC has to pay a contractor to come in and fix the place. Depending on the amount of damage to the building, the contractor may have to get a permit from the city for the construction, which gives the city more money. The contracter has to buy supplies from other businesses and pay taxes which goes to the city, county and state. That money of course gets filtered to the police department and other departments within the city and state. The police departments then offer overtime to the officers for extra patrol where there is potential for more crimes. The officers get more money...and spend more money...thus perpetuating capitalism even more. The city and state just became that much richer because you wanted to break something and make a point. Everyone profits....

In the end...I just want to say...thank you for helping the economy.
by miles
By your logic (such as it is) we should do nothing to disrupt the normal functioning of capitalism because any damage we do to that normal functioning will inevitably result in the further functioning of capitalism. Brilliant. We'd better just sit at home, watch TV, and shut the fuck up. We can brood and fret on our own since getting together with our friends and allies will only further the entrenchment of the economy through us buying (and drinking) beer or coffee or some other commodity that requires taxation, transportation, and resale. Smashing windows may or may not be judged as petulant, juvenile, or irrelevant to the ultimate destruction of capitalism, but condemning it because repairing the damage extends the life of capitalism is as innovative as it is stupid.
by though KFC does daily!!
To the person who wrote this line before explaining the entire economic process that follows;

"KFC has to pay a contractor to come in and fix the place."

That is the main idea! Regardless of whatever economic business transactions follow afterwards, the bottom line is that money is leaving KFC and going elsewhere..

Sure, the window repair person may sit down for a bucket of KFC fried chicken afterwards to admire the view out of their new finished window job, though the amount of the window replacement will dwarf the bucket of chicken that they purchase..

Though the greater protest may be against capitalism, the specific window redecoration action was directed against animal cruelty as practiced by KFC. Last time i checked, window repair businesses do not normally tightly cage and debeak chickens while injecting them with hormones and antibiotics as part of their daily business practices. Maybe if enough window makers come into KFC to replace redecorated windows, they may learn something about why people are protesting KFC's treatment of animals and change their eating habits themselves!!

Other than some harsh finishing chemicals and sand mining, window making isn't the worst form of business for the ecosystem either, so we can all help out the economy keeping the window makers in business a little longer by practicing other window redecoration jobs on McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Wendy's, etc...

In addition, by keeping the action small scale and below the insurance deductable, the money for window replacement will come directly from the KFC franchise of KFC corporate offices and not some random insurance company that may distribute the expenses onto others by raising rates across the board..

Have long been suspecting that some of the larger fires set in housing developments and other locations are actually insurance scams orchestrated by the owners who lack the financial means to remain in business. It may be easier for the failing owners to stage an arson and blame it on "ecoterrorism"..

With smaller scale actions like simple window redecoration, this would not be the case as it is a low enough amount to be below the insurance deductable..
by Sack up or stop
It's sadly funny to me how tuff everyone is in their demands, their "actions", their protests..until the crap hits the fan. Then its instant denial.

-The cops did it; they planted a decoy to make us look bad.

-UC did it; they inserted a spy.

-The insurance companies must have done it.

The basic premise, in other words, appears to be that people want to think that they stand on a higher moral plane because they support (animal rights, labor unions, clean air, insert your cause here).

Keep it real folks. Either accept that there are some morons amongst your movements, or accept that some of your well-intended before the fact but chastised by your supporters after the fact actions were not well received, and move on.

But to repeatedly try to suggest that anything done that gets negative response here at Indy MUST have been a cop ploy or a decoy or someone trying to make you look bad...is just making you look bad.
by normally a liberal
You guys are nuts. Anytime I hear anybody doing anything violent to any person or any item owned by a person in order to defend animals, it makes me sick. You accomplish nothing, and only make a lot of people angy.

The only way of making the kind of changes you want to make is to be on the inside of the problem. But that would mean having to work, instead of throw rocks at windows of businesses owned by people who provide jobs, taxes, and - yes - food - to our community.

I enjoy KFC chicken. I don't think chickens have souls. But you do hurt the souls of the people whose property you damage. We have enough people issues to deal with in our country these days (war, economic meltdown, teacher layoffs, lack of healthcare) - if you have so much time on your hands, why not use it for something productive to help the millions of suffering PEOPLE. Maybe you can't connect to other humans, so you feel the need to find soul mates in chickens?

by Sam
Breaking windows in some store is the stupidest and most childish thing I think you can do to express discontent. I have done that stuff before when I was mad, WHEN I WAS 10. There are other alleyways you can take to either voice your disapproval, or actually do something about it, that don't involve destroying some store window that some poor shlub probably just had to sweep up.
by Dwight
Like all who embrace violence and domination as appropriate tools, a person who hides in the dark, throws stones and runs away only perpetuates the myth that "I" can become the arbiter of TRUTH. In solving human problems, all must rejoice in the solution. Power over others, terror, imposition of will, enforcement, punishment; these all arise from a mind unexamined.

It is tempting to pick up the club. Resit. Only reason leads to peace.
by it is called guerilla warfare
Regardless of the naysayers, my support remains steadfast for the windows redecorating brigade, and have no concern whatsoever for the broken glass on the ground..

Redecorating windows is indeed a form of work, so is escaping and keeping quiet about it afterwards. Guerrilla warfare and sabotage is a long standing tradition amongst smaller forces fighting a larger and more powerful enemy..

Like the Taliban living in mountain caves fighting U.S. occupation forces in Afghanistan, they are aware of being smaller and less powerful than the fighter jets roaring overhead dropping bombs on their rocky roofs. Who then is the greater coward, the Taliban resistance running on the ground to their caves or the heavily armed air force pilots who only press one button to unleash powerful bombs on unsuspecting villagers who "may be" Taliban supporters??

Who is the greater coward, the human who supports the corporation that enslaves and tortures innocent birds, or the window redecorating activist who makes their statement with a simple rock and then runs and hides from police armed with guns??

Maybe before my time on Earth is up, i'll do my part and visit the home of the KFC CEO and give him a free pass to "chicken heaven" where he can pay for his crimes against nature with an eternity spent in overcrowded cages with beakless chickens and flying feces..
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