5 ms·

pretty much you can peacefully assemble as long as noone causes trouble, the second someone starts shit, you lose your right. i.e. this whole thing started bec

by vaksel 17y ago

pretty much you can peacefully assemble as long as noone causes trouble, the second someone starts shit, you lose your right. i.e. this whole thing started because a couple of anarchists lit a garbage can on fire and rolled it towards the cops. At that point the cops pretty much got open season to do whatever they could to everyone around. So a peaceful protest of thousands of people can get disbanded because of a few assholes. Which would make it obvious that getting a few provocateurs is the best way to disband any protest you don't agree with.

idm 17y ago
The "agent provocateurs" got a whole thread on the slashdot link - it's a tactic that has been used more and more frequently, it seems. I was one of the bloggers who identified the agents in the Quebec SPP protest (look up "put the rock down man") - in that case, the ONLY violent actors were undercover police officers. It ended up being pretty funny, in a gut wrenching sort of way, with the protesters actually pacifying the police. ...but in the CMU TV video, there were no "anarchists." There were no burning trash cans. That was a different part of town, on a different night.
- vaksel 17y ago
  yeah that's what I meant, the rolling trash can happened across town, and the cops used that as an excuse to crack down everywhere else
  - idm 17y ago
    Well - and I'm not implying that you necessarily subscribe to that justification, but - I don't buy it. There are already laws that grant the authority to shut down a town if it erupts into riots. I can't cite those laws, but I bet the LA riots or Hurricane Katrina would be cases where they were used.
    - rms 17y ago
      In this specific case, the action in Oakland, on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, on Thursday and then repeated almost exactly on Friday night, unfolded because Schenley Plaza officially closes at 11PM. I have never heard of this before and the Plaza certainly sees use after 11PM on a weekend night. The protestors/students/bystanders were forced away from Schenley Plaza at 11PM, pushed deeper on campus. This led to an actual assault on the dorms of the University of Pittsburgh. See this note about a poor, brave student arrested for trying to keep her comrades safe from the police. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=847898 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=847898
    - vaksel 17y ago
      yeah but those are full out riots. Here we have a few people acting out and the police using that as a justification to crack down on peaceful bystanders.

by vaksel 17y ago

idm 17y ago

The "agent provocateurs" got a whole thread on the slashdot link - it's a tactic that has been used more and more frequently, it seems. I was one of the bloggers who identified the agents in the Quebec SPP protest (look up "put the rock down man") - in that case, the ONLY violent actors were undercover police officers. It ended up being pretty funny, in a gut wrenching sort of way, with the protesters actually pacifying the police. ...but in the CMU TV video, there were no "anarchists." There were no burning trash cans. That was a different part of town, on a different night.

vaksel 17y ago
yeah that's what I meant, the rolling trash can happened across town, and the cops used that as an excuse to crack down everywhere else
- idm 17y ago
  Well - and I'm not implying that you necessarily subscribe to that justification, but - I don't buy it. There are already laws that grant the authority to shut down a town if it erupts into riots. I can't cite those laws, but I bet the LA riots or Hurricane Katrina would be cases where they were used.
  - rms 17y ago
    In this specific case, the action in Oakland, on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, on Thursday and then repeated almost exactly on Friday night, unfolded because Schenley Plaza officially closes at 11PM. I have never heard of this before and the Plaza certainly sees use after 11PM on a weekend night. The protestors/students/bystanders were forced away from Schenley Plaza at 11PM, pushed deeper on campus. This led to an actual assault on the dorms of the University of Pittsburgh. See this note about a poor, brave student arrested for trying to keep her comrades safe from the police. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=847898 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=847898
  - vaksel 17y ago
    yeah but those are full out riots. Here we have a few people acting out and the police using that as a justification to crack down on peaceful bystanders.