Video of San Francisco Police beating and arresting Demonstrators 10/6/2012

Thanks for sharing this Jacob. I hope you don't mind but I passed it along as well with the proper credits.
Folks need to understand that they live in a police state and perhaps this will open a few eyes and add to the conversation that's taking place in USA and the world at large.

To the protesters...

I feel your pain and thank you for your sacrifice. You know when they start clubbing citizens you've gotten under their skin and that your cause is just.

I knew this was going to happen because I knew this was a poorly organized event and that's why I chose not to show up. I won't show up to anything unless there is a well concerted effort that assures me that the mobilization will be massive. If the people don't have faith in them selves to orchestrate a mass presence and believe in taking on the cops in small numbers, I WILL NOT SHOW UP! Not trying to massacred let alone get captured and go back to jail. At least if we're organized we would have a few thousand with the power to fight back. Why are you going to throw shit at the cops when you are such a small group of people? STUUUUUPID! What is up with these random call outs for anti-capitalist action on indybay and facebook. It takes a lot more work to bring people out in large numbers that are a force to be reckoned with. Idiots!

I feel sorry for the people who came out and decided to go out with a bang knowing full well the risk. Now you have have battery on an officer charges pc 69 and a whole bunch of other shit. When are anarchists going to get organized? There is such thing as horizontal power you know? You can have an organization with out leaders or leader. Why not adopt a new model for once and stop with the calls outs for anti-cap actions. sigh

People who wimp out have the right to duck and cover, however when the cowards snipe from behind at the People Who had the courage to Show Up....That's sniveling Backstabbing Egocentric Piggish behavior.

You know what and who you are (Undercover cops doing counterintelpro, BADLY)!

Well, supposed "Anarchist", as soon as you mobilize millions for an anti-capitalist mass movement let us know. Meanwhile the rest of us will do what we can with what we got.

There's nothing revolutionary about sitting safely in your armchair and insulting comrades as they're being battered by the cops. I guess you never heard of solidarity?

I'm showing a lot of solidarity by correcting stupid mistakes as I see them because I'm tired of seeing people repeat them. More like tough love to be accurate. My problem isn't with "St. Paul Principles". It's with the failure to have each others backs, delivery of tactics, disorganization, sloppiness, poor communication, impatience all of which contribute to ever low turnout in the bay that is a recipe for mass arrest of those just eager to lash out at the system. All of this was preventable but nobody wants to think like a group and strategize street tactics.

Rather than rushing into things why don't anarchists try to build affinity groups that meet regularly and grow in physical strength and numbers? What is the point of going into battle when you're not ready for anything but an asswhoopen? We had plenty of time to get ready since Seattle WTO. What's taking everybody so long to build something? We could have had a big fucking organization of cells like the anarchists in Athens by now. I've been watching anarchists since the 1999 and they haven't really done much of anything and non of them want to listen to me. I keep getting the same feedback about how organization takes authority which is a bunch of crap because no one is in charge of the Greek molotov cocktail resistance. How much more time does it take for people to get their act together?

We could have been prepared if we had prepared well in advance years ago for future protests rather than just throwing out random call outs hoping that the world will join in. Christ! You won't learn or win for that matter as long as you refuse to adopt a strategy for insurrectionist tactics in the Bay Area. That doesn't mean go out and have a shoot out with AK-47's and AR-15's with cops. It means take a step back, BREATH, and try to play out scenarios before they happen and adopt and develop some clever anti-cop tactics.

Your unit out there wasn't very effective or responsive to abuse and I'm glad they didn't put up a real fight because they were in no position but to surrender. They were outnumbered by the men in blue who had batons and you guys had nothing and were ill prepared for conflict. What did you guys have but 100 people? Terrible planning. And I hope you don't go thinking a revival of the occupy movement will turn things around. That was just as much a failure because it never meant to address class contradictions in society and how to deal with them in a movement that disagrees on tactics.

It is no mystery why so many failed to cease the moment to beat back the cops in every occupation. Americans don't have the mindset for conflict with the state. It's not in their DNA and that is a weakness that serves not just the 1% but every capitalist in the chain of command as well as police and military. What shows real planning and success is when you notice all people in black moving together as a unit with out hesitation and moving fast not lagging behind or standing to the side in confusion. A revolutionary movement is no stranger to conflict.

That is the real problem we are facing here. You guys are WAAAAAAAY behind in getting used to conflict and using it as a tool the same way rioters do in other parts of the world. You don't move like a mob. You move like sheep in a grace field. I don't enjoy telling the truth with out sugar coating. That would be lying to you. Where were your shields and protective body armor? Where was the team work? You're all out there wearing normal civilian clothes. You don't look like you've went through a briefing. You guys may as well not have showed up.

I won't go into the "battle of the bulge" with you guys ever again until I see some improvement in organized street tactics that make me feel safe and protected by a solid bloc mass. BLACK BLOC MASS! I know plenty of anarchists stayed home because this seemed sketchy as fuck. The number of people on facebook was 150 or so people and there was only a few days left until the event. NOT SHOWING UP TO THAT and I'm sure a lot of those who came to NOV.2 anti-cap stayed home for the same reasons I lay out! I'm just kind enough to tell give you the reasons. IN FULL DETAIL.

Unless there is was a well established movement to beat back American security forces like there is in Greece you're gona keep getting your asses handed to you, rightfully so and I don't feel sorry for you. Look at how people organize their direct actions around the world and look at you. What's wrong with this picture? You don't see the same sloppiness else where. That is not the work of a miracle but someone out there is probably as fed up as I am said enough is enough and critiqued every sloppy action. In time people got tired of the criticism and started to change their ways and work together with out getting in each others way. Coordinated affinity cells is the way its done.


Communication skills are essential. Look at your Greek comrades. Why do you think they can take on the cops with out having to use rocket launchers and shit?

I'd be surprised if anybody listened to what I say and started correcting these errors that have become pretty frequent.

Listening to (obeying) some anonymous dickhead online??

The US is not Greece. It's much, much larger and far more diverse and heterogeneous on multiple levels.

You know what needs to be done? Then get out there and organize it yourself. You got some brilliant plan? Get out there and implement it. If it's truly so great and effective, you should have little problem attracting folks to it. Show us what you have done lately, in the real world, not just armchair quarterbacking online.

Otherwise, it's only so much blah, blah, blah from you, and puzzling why you expect anyone to read your lengthy "critiques". Not helpful in the least, Mr. Know-It-All.

A Solidarity with Tristan Anderson and Palestine demonstration was called for 4pm today in front of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco on Montgomery Street. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied at the consulate and then marched to the intersection of 5th and Market. After rallying at the intersection for a little while, demonstrators marched back to the Israeli Consulate. Within minutes of arriving back at the consulate just before 7pm, demonstrators were more or less milling around and chanting when one officer began to assault demonstrators who were standing near some barricades and newspaper stands. Within seconds, up to a dozen cops rushed in swinging their billy clubs wildly at anyone they could hit in the crowd -- swinging overhead, swinging to their sides, just swinging at everyone in front of them.

I don't care how diverse America is. It is not a valid excuse for why anarchists don't have a web of cells that thrive off their own existence and growth and live for revolution and work to achieve that goal and never stop until it is achieved. If the goal here isn't to build momentum to set the stage for overthrow, then it must be another agenda to set the stage for more reform or maybe you're just here to have fun because you have nothing better to do but throw a brick through a window.

I don't know what is motivating some of you to come out but it would help if people at least tried to articulate why they participate in direct action. No one ever says anything about uprising. It's almost as if they just want a riot so they can break windows and then disappear. Kind of like a hobby with no motive. I seems like people are not really envisioning anything but just letting off some steam.

maybe anarchist IS armchair QB'ing, but s/he is right.

the points that were brought up can't really be refuted.

there is no motive. it does seem like people are doing this to kill time in their lives, not really to challenge anything.

there are no strong anarchist cells in the bay area (yet) to pull off this kind of street action. there were about 150 people there (as anarchist said, without protection, just some fun tools in a backpack) and a chunk of them weren't even from the bay area. so what does that tell you?

the march only lasted for 10 minutes and not one thing was accomplished. it seemed like everyone was surprised that the cops came out swinging. this shit has been happening for the past year, with little skirmishes of 100 protestors against trained, armed cops, then people are like WTF when they lose within minutes. no strategy whatsoever. just walking around in the black costume and throwing paint.

i disagree with one thing: i do feel bad for the people who were arrested and beaten.

Why are people blaming themselves. This is no time to feel sorry for ourselves (it never is). "anarchists are being ineffective," "we need a better movement" and so on, and so forth. This is critical analysis? Talking endlessly about what anarchists "need" to do, or how anarchists are fucking up "the movement" ?

At last report 26 comrades were beaten, arrested and charged each with two felonies. Bail $ are high some over 50 k . Of course every struggle has it's risks , many have lost their freedom and/or even their lives over the decades .
But our lives and freedom should be risked only after careful evaluation re the potentail benefits of such an action .
And so what was the goal of this demo ? To protest the fact that some backward elements still glorify a Italian imperialist adventurer (instead of the Native peoples of this continent ) ?
Actually there have been some real victories in challenging that distorted historical narrative . A few cities even were compelled to call it '' Indigenous Peoples Day '' instead .
So what done or could even possibly have been accomplished Saturday that was worth some valuable activists being beat, clubbed , jailed and possibly tens of thousands of our very limited funds spent ? I really want to know.

What did people hope to accomplish? I think the aim was pretty clear: solidarity in resistance to Columbus day, and the continuation of neocolonialism.

So to show that solidarity, the plan was to vandalize and destroy the shops and property of the hard working middle-class merchants?

...and you seriously wonder why you have so little support from the masses?

I agree with some of the above. Here are some positive observations, which I can add:

--first, the police said they found flares and paint in a couple backpacks. It is good that a separate march was called, and that the people with the paint, or aggressive folks did not attend an anti-Columbus event that called for family attendance, or called for nonvandalism. There has been a lot of tension between groups calling mass liberal or radical but strictly nonviolent events, and people who feel that it is worthwhile to escalate tactics. So it is good to separate such things in space.
It will be even better if the 95% of the arrested who did not throw the rock at a window file a lawsuit for false arrest. You can clearly see in the video that the police decided to detain everyone in the block, regardless that most hadn't done anything and were just watching. I was angered by seeing photos and names posted on sfgate, and hope you file suit. The police do the mass arrests because they want to bring a protest to a fast halt. I personally was falsely detained during an antiwar protest, and everyone discussed filing something, but is challenging to organize. Luckily this detention w/o charges didn't come up when I recently got a government security clearance, as part of my tactic of getting a job where I can hopefully help reform from the inside. The other thing I would try next time is to reflect more on Sun Tzu - allow the police to overreact to a perfectly legal protest, and don't let anyone get into a risky situation

--Second, I noticed that essentially zero from the insurrectionary crowd traveled to Tampa for the RNC, or Charlotte for the DNC, both of which were somewhat tactical nightmares. This reflected some great group cohesion and communication. Even the TV networks gave up on electoral politics, showing fewer hours of the speeches on primetime. I had expected at least a few cliques from around the country to travel out of curiosity. Instead, there were only a few arrests of local townies for drunken behavior or wading in the creek. The media were totally surprised at the change of pattern. The police force of thousands had done their normal ritual of releasing warnings that they had intelligence that anarchists would be throwing bags of urine or would set dangerous devices, but within a day or two it was clear that they have no intelligence

Yes, I guess I should admit the truth: Friends and myself traveled, via BART, from the East bay in order to participate in a dastardly "plan" to go after the poor struggling cafe's, restaurants, department stores etc. in San Francisco. But alas are evil intentions to disturb the "the hard working middle class merchants" were foiled by the police attacking, and arresting everyone (if you watch the video, in front of the business called Staples). Every which way you looked, people had there cell phone cameras aimed toward the Blue angels as they roared overhead, surely this was our chance to further rupture their support for the cause. When are these young hooligans going to get it?

Hooligans are indeed everywhere about, waiting to foil organizing an effective "movement". Lashing out at the neo colonial landscape solves nothing. Get used to it kids! You got some real growing up to do, and need to stop inhibiting are ability to convert people to the cause. Isn't it obvious to you deviants out there that apathy, ignorance, misinformation, stupidity, and repression can be resolved by acting appropriately. Also, never mind the fact that those arrested were not even engaged in any vandalism, or confrontation with the cops, but they asked for it anyway for having idiotically been in the presence of such a possibility arising because of you. Cops on TV say that their actions were justified due to someone throwing paint bombs at them. One can watch the video, and obviously see there was absolutely no provocation for the attack, but we need to let that go, and blame the victims for not correctly protesting the way I, I mean we see fit.