Photos: Reclaim The Streets, J8

our tax dollars hard at work...

Am I mistaken, or is the way the cops act during protests here (pick any one) illegal? Because it's always caught so well on film so a lawsuit shouldn't be a problem. But if it's legal, why do us activists go along with it with such complacency?

The city's approach is to overwhelm us, so we should focus on bringing larger numbers out (reach out to people outside the regular activist groups) and overwhelm the police. Then we'll have a real impact. (easy for me to say, right)

Matt, you're a very good photographer (and self editor) and I love your copy!

What's with all the people wearing masks? Are the not proud of the junk you guys support? I just don't understand. Oh, and one more thing, what is with all the funky looking people? Not looking like regular American's here, looking more like rejects. You know the type, the ones that go into a Job interview with piercing's all over and want the employer to "accept me for who I am". I'm willing to bet you people here support gay marriages in America. Oh, but it's ok to break that law right?

Thank you, Allen, I put a lot of time into it.


Brian, your preconceived notions are distorting your physical perceptions. If you look at the photos again, you might notice that the group of folks most often wearing masks is the SFPD.

As for the "funky looking people," I gotta say that it really doesn't get much better than to be surrounded by so many unique and beautiful folks; they are working tirelessly to make this world a safer and more just place to live.

What is really ugly is seeing mobs of heavily-armed, fungible copbots obediantly stomping on liberty.

You know what that all reminds me of? On the nysubway, one of the spotter people on the 5th car who looks out to see if they're clamping the door on anyway showed us a picture he had off the internet of this couple who really liked bears. They kept going to Alaska and doing films on the grizzlies eating salmon and they believed they could essentially speak with them, and they would go up and pet the bears. Then, at the end, they had a video camera running as a bear became angry and killed and basically ate one of them - he had his meat taken off to the leg bone.

in one picture a male officer is holding a teargas launcher.
The other picture of the female officer is a fnh-303(see website) http://www.fnhusa.com/contents/ll_303.htm

I asked one of the swat team members that was holding one of the six chamber guns. He said they can fire almost anything ie. shot bags/bean bag, rubber bullets. I am not sure if that thing can fire chemical weapons. I am sure they would not have used chemical weapons because it was too windy and there were too many bystanders, they probally wouldn't have even had them out. Cross our fingers there has been no recent history with SFPD using tear gas on relativly peacful protestors. Side note: the bag on all of the cops leg is a gas mask bag, which I belive is standard riot gear for most police.

I don't think that I was able to capture the girl in the above pics actually kissing the cop that was holding her while her picture was taken for processing(she was in handcuffs, and the cop was holding on to her arm or something - to make sure that she didn't get free and run, handcuffed through all the police that were surrounding her to freedom).

She is pictured in the 3 and 4 pics above, and the "Smoke" pic. I don't know what she was smoking in the earlier picture, but it seems like there must have been some crack in that cigarette. Otherwise, what the hell was she doing kissing a PIG that was arresting her over some bullshit, after SF PIGs beat people up and illegally arrested over 100 people(including her).

I witnessed the kissing of the cop and subsequent flirting throughout the arrest process while standing just outside the police line on the sidewalk. Many of us who say it happen were amazed by how disgusting it was to see after what had just happened and what was happening when she kissed the SF PIG officer.

What is all this talk about tear gas. The cops in SF have not used tear gas in crowd control since the Vietnam protests in the 70's. Oakland uses it like they did on the Super Bowl fiasco. When and where have any of you actually seen tear gas used during crowd control by SFPD.

Who knows why the woman kissed the cop. Maybe she was showing she was there for the cause and and she has love for everyone even the cops. Who are we to assume anything?You seem to be so hateful of police that it is impairing your judgement. I would like to see the actual photo's of her kissing the cop, if they even exist.

I was sitting next to that girl for most of the night and she wasn't smoking crack..so what if she kissed the cop. They're not ALL bad. You musn't forget that they are people just like us, but maube not as enlightened. No one is "pure evil."