A group of protesters vandalized dozens of businesses, cars and any property they came across as they marched through the Mission on Monday night. One person was arrested, according to Sgt. Daryl Fong, but no details about the arrest have yet been made available.
The mile-long trek of vandalism began at 18th and Dolores streets, where a group of more than 100 protesters met as part of an early May Day march. The protesters walked east on 18th Street, turned left on Valencia Street, right on Duboce Avenue, and made a right on Mission Street before being confronted by riot police at 14th and Mission, according to Justin Beck, an independent journalist who followed the protesters.
Police dispersed the crowd in the area of 12th and Folsom streets, Fong said.
In a statement released early Tuesday morning, Occupy San Francisco said the vandals were not associated with the movement, but the statement was taken down shortly after.
Scott Anansi Rossi, who was at the scene last night, wrote in a blog post that the riots were not planned.
“I believe we were hijacked and it was an utter cluster—. It started out as sort of a ‘pep rally’ type thing at Dolores Park, but maybe 20 minutes after we got there, it turned into a march,” Rossi wrote on his blog.
The vandalism began almost immediately after the group took off from Dolores Park at around 9 p.m. The protesters paint-bombed Tartine Bakery on 18th and Guerrero streets. When they reached Farina, one protester grabbed a chair and attempted to break a window but was not successful, said police officer D. Daza. Several of the protesters, dressed in black clothing and with their faces covered, threw sacks filled with paint at the restaurant’s windows, drew anarchist symbols on them and spraypainted “Yuppies out!”
Police confronted the protesters in front of the restaurant and a small group of them dispersed, but the main crew continued along Valencia Street. They paint-bombed and broke some of the windows at Mission Police Station, according to Daza. By then a group of about 50 had moved to other restaurants north of Valencia Street.
Armed with crowbars, bats and other metal objects, some of the protesters smashed the windows of businesses along a five-block stretch of Valencia Street, from 18th Street to Duboce Avenue.
The bar manager at Locanda, Gabriel Lowe, said he heard three loud bangs, and when he looked out of the window he saw a protester throwing paint sacks at the storefront. Several witnesses said they saw a protester trying to break the restaurant’s windows with its valet parking sign. The ordeal lasted about five minutes, Lowe said.
A diminished group of protesters continued smashing car windshields and side mirrors and slashing tires as they marched along Valencia Street. They appeared to be targeting luxury cars such as BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes, but they also vandalized a 1990s Toyota Sienna minivan.
Steven Lopez was having dinner with friends at his Glen Park home when he received a phone call from his alarm company informing him that someone had broken some of the windows at his ArtZone 461 Gallery on Valencia Street.
“We are a small art gallery, we are not elitist,” Lopez said, puzzled as to why his gallery was targeted.
Heather Brodie, a student employed at Locanda, said the vandals smashed the windshield and windows of her parked car.
“They are hurting people [who are] like them,” she said, referring to herself as a working-class citizen.
Some businesses, such as Four Barrel coffee company, were spared greater damage thanks to good Samaritans who tried to stop the protesters.
According to Four Barrel’s owner, Jeremy Tooker, a handyman was fixing the shop’s door as a protester approached. The man was hit by a crowbar but was able to prevent protesters from smashing the business’s windows. The man is OK, Tooker said.
As protesters reached 14th and Valencia, they vandalized Ronny Ghosh’s Infinity SUV. A neighbor captured the incident on video and gave Ghosh a copy.
“They have no respect for property or law and order,” Ghosh said after showing a reporter the video, in which people are seen smashing his car’s windows and slashing its tires.
As protesters neared Duboce Avenue and Mission Street, a police car T-boned another car, according to Beck.
An officer told victims standing by the cars that police had received 500 calls reporting damage that included smashed windows and slashed tires.
Windows smashed at Therapy. Photo by Hadley Robinson
Damaged window at Bar Tartine. Photo by Hadley Robinson
Farina restaurant on 18th Street was one of the first businesses to be attacked.
Damage at Art Zone on Valencia Street between 15th and 16th streets.
Live Fit, the clothing stores Weston Wear and Therapy, and restaurants Tartine Bakery, Bar Tartine, Locanda and Farina were all targeted. Weston Wear’s three floor-to-ceiling windows were smashed.
Paintballs were launched at businesses, leaving large splotches of paint on their facades.
The protesters threw yellow paint on Locanda.
Weston Wear
All the windows of a car parked in front of Locanda had been smashed. A glass door was broken at Art Zone, a business on Valencia between 15th and 16th streets, as were car windows. On Valencia near Market Street, car tires were slashed and anarchist symbols were painted on windows.
A car parked near Locanda was damaged.
A police officer attempts to clean paint off the front doors of Mission Police Station.
Police moving down Valencia.
Anarchist symbols were painted on car windows.
People on 14th and Valencia flagged down a police officer. She told them police had received more than 500 calls reporting vandalism, and that about 50 police officers were walking down the street.
An employee at Locanda cleans up yellow paint.
Outside 299 Valencia Street. Some protesters climbed the fence, broke at least two of the windows and wrote graffiti on the pillar.
A man tows Heather Brodie's car.
Bar Tartine was among the restaurants hit by vandals.
Employees at a window company worked through the night to board up some of the vandalized storefronts on Valencia Street.
We will update this story as we get more information.
Anarchists. Hope they all do a stint in jail.
The anarchists were back at the Occupy camp months ago, feeding the homeless on scrap food. These are agents provocateur, which the lack of police presence also suggests (god knows they’ve been out in force at every other protest).
I would feel much better with you saying that the police were inefficient rather than blaming lawless behavior on them as well. I don’t think the police are organized enough to pull something like this off. How about just holding the few bad apples of a legimate non violent call for change responsible?
The police ARE organized enough to do something like this. It’s possible there were provocateurs in the crowd. It’s also possible it was protestors or people joining the protest just to do damage. Most likely, it was all 3.
Loooooooooooooooooney!!!!!!
Police organised violence. All to discredit MayDay turnout. The US is the one of the few countries in the World that has renamed ‘International Workers Day’ to ‘Law Day’. Its censorship and propaganda against working people.
Really? You think this police organized violence? Seriously? It is delusional statements like THAT which discredit a movement. To lump a bunch of working people (in this case cops) in as having some conspiratorial hive mind is counterproductive, and lazy. They care about as much about discrediting the movement as they do about having to take all those vandalism reports. Its about as productive as police lumping the protesters together as lazy, self entitled, and violent. Neither position is true, and both are harmful
you,re just another communist get real….the police should take care of business luck and load. If the OWS people was peaceful they would stop the ones doing the damage wouldn,t you think
Samantha Appleseed, the way you think the world works is not in fact how the world works. Everyday the voices in your brain telling you about the bad police men out to get the working poor are lying to you.
Yea the police planned it. What a tool.
Paranoid, delusional — either you’re a troll or need to get back on your med’s
@Samantha: It is unfortunate that you are too ignorant and cowardly to confront the violence and totalitarian in the political movement you support.
Blaming the violence on provacateurs is juat a way of aiding and abetting the anarchists (who in fact are totalitarinas). Or maybe this what you are trying to do?
Occupy has had their masks removed – we can now see them for what they are – they are the 1%. Wall St only gave them an excuse to act like this.
Another Loooooooooooooon!
. . . OR . . . we can think critically, regarding the date; and the fact that this happened on the evening of a nation-wide (world-wide) GENERAL STRIKE.
You don’t believe SFPD can “organize the resources” to slash a few tires & break a few windows? . . . REALLY?!!
LOL I believe SFPD is QUITE capable of said activities.
. . .
you are an idiot. What we can critically conclude is that a bunch of unstable, likely homeless stinky kids with a chip on their shoulder, took an arbitrary date linked to violent protest and used it as an excuse to smash the cars that mommy used to drive.
Yea I’m sure SFPD knows a bunch of stinking tagger punks they can call. With critical thinkers like this as citizens, no wonder the US is falling apart.
How about calling the police what they are-NEGLIGENT!
I am an Anarchist. We do both. We do our best to aleviate the symptoms of statist capitalism while simultaneously punishing those who fight to keep things the way they are. Take anarchists for what they are, don’t pretend that when we’re polite we’re anarchists and when we smash a rich person’s vehicle, we’re police officers in disguise. It undermines our ideas and offends us more than saying we deserve a stint in jail. Hell, most of us probably do… but I’ll still fight on next to my comrades, despite this fact.
Anarchist? Communist? Figure it out before you open your mouth..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchocommunism
or better http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism
read a book or two, they’re like TV but on pages.
An I,m the type of person that will end your communist life
You’re not an anarchist, you’re a criminal. And if you think that smashing shit is somehow going to increase your credibility and/or draw members to your cause, you’re also mentally ill.
Um, first off, ive worked in yuppified neighborhoods like the one that was attacked, and i was THRILLED to read about this. Service jobs at small businesses tend to suck just as bad as anywhere else, and this little nighttime raid just brings a smile to my face, honestly.
As for the anarchist/criminal distinction, why not be both? After all, i think we all know who makes the laws….Anarchists’ goal is for a stateless and classless society, to my understanding – it would seem pretty naive to suggest that would happen without breaking laws……
Simon- These actions undermine the efforts to create a stateless, classless society, which is what the 99% of Occupy is focused on. I actually know many of the people who work at the targeted joints and they are most certainly not thrilled. You don’t know the first thing about anarchism. This is mere nihilism.
Hey Durr, if anarchy was the rule, I’d murder you and rape your women, because I’m stronger than you, smarter than you, much better armed than you, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing you could do about it. Think about what it is, exactly, that you are advocating.
Here’s a thought, try building something up, instead of tearing down what others have created, for a change. The only people punished by that idiocy in the mission are people who understand the meaning of hard work.
What exactly are you hoping to accomplish??
You’re not gaining any support from the people who get tied up in the silly blocking of streets.
Why are they attacking small businesses? Attacking police stations? Why?
Anyone with a brain can see that smashing a rich person’s car is a childish act fueled by envy. All you criminals are blaming those who are successful for your own poor decisions and failures.
If you vandalize private or public property then I can understand you being cuffed and taken to jail and even maced if you don’t cooperate.
Of course only the weak-minded follow these idiots.
What exactly do you propose to replace capitalism with?
You do realize that in the history of civilization no matter how had anyone tried there has always been the rich and the poor. It’s human nature and that will never change.
@Durruti39: You don’t have any ideas. You and your comrades are just totalitarian thugs. You are dedicated to nothing other than imposing your will on others. You use violence because you know that people are smart enough not to allow people like you to have power. You have shown that you have no respect for your fellow citizens or their views. You are nothing but narcisist who are too stupid to figure out how to solve problems so you instead create them.
We are not fooled.
but you smashed the windows of a waitress. how do you explain that action? she’s of the working class you are supposedly defending!
Make the differentiation between statism and capitalism. The latter is freedom of trade between consenting individuals, the former is what you should be addressing.
Because of you, Durr, a 99%er had to lose a shift or take off work (which they needed to buy food and living expenses.) They feel helpless and violated by you. They have to take care of the shitstorm you caused (costing them further outlay of time and cash which they don’t have, and missed work.) If they even have credit, must now use so you have effectively benefited the institutions you wish to target, and sunk a good person deeper in debt, or possibly cost them their rent money. Maybe their kids won’t eat today. I’m seething with rage at your selfishness, ignorance, apathy and disgusting righteousness at the cost of others’ survival. Shame and karma upon you.
The mission and Oakland Real Bastions of capitalism aren’t they. You are a coward with a mask. I bet you are not even registered to vote and if you do vote, you follow your dad’s party line. I pay my workers well and you do Not deserve to destroy my property to make a point.
$10 says Durruti39 has never actually studied Durruti. Durruti was against forced collectivisation.
What we’re seeing here is self-indulgent nihilism, a kind of macho posturing. It prioritizes the rush of personal physical empowerment over the work of real collective change, which requires collaboration and often compromise with fellow workers.
To: Anarchy boy: All ‘ISMS’ are bullshit. You are hurting inside and want to belong to something ANTI and cool.
I was there too, but I grew up and realized that all people are greedy, even your anarchist ‘comrades’. They’ll sell you out in a second to better themselves, given the chance. When you have to feed an offspring, all bets are off. The system can only be altered from the inside – right now you are helping fortify the banker’s castles, pawn.
@roamingradical on twitter (self-described pro-occupy 20 year old) sure seems to be pretty pro-violence:
https://twitter.com/#!/roamingradical/status/197225009817718784
https://twitter.com/#!/roamingradical/status/197228019956453376
…people like him are why I’m saying: it’s not always provocateurs–sometimes people are just awful.
My favorite part: he’s posting from an iPhone. Where the hell does he think the people who work at Apple live? Or eat? If he’s on an iPhone that he bought, he’s supporting the people whose stuff he’s advocating be smashed up.
(and further hilarity: dude smokes cigarettes! who does he think runs the tobacco companies?!)
furthermore, who do you think made that iphone? someone getting treated like crap in china, that’s who.
ahh, to be 20 and dumb again.
Imagine that early to a protest. If only they were the type to go to Work early. way to get my vote. go occupy an outhouse
Freakin’ Nihilists man…I mean, say what you will about the tenets of capitalism, at least it’s an ethos…
an ethos that deserves to be paintbombed and destroyed. Muahahahah
And after you have destroyed it,then what?
What will you replace the system with? Free stores, where people can come in a take what they need and what they want? WHO is going to provide all this “free” stuff? It sure as shootin’ won’t be you or your ilk.
how about we go break things where you live?
May a police beanbag or tear gas canister find your head in the near future.
Really? Then who will you work for? How will you eat? Go smoka joint somewhere.
They were Nazis, Walter?
No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There’s nothing to be afraid of.
The funny thing is that many people who come to the Mission from outside of it and patronize restaurants like Locanda are drawn to the neighborhood by this sort of “danger” and “excitement.”
If the goal of the protest was to target rich people and scare them out of the Mission, then I think it may achieve just the opposite.
Well said, Old Mission Neighbor. If these thugs want to “xxxxxxx”-(which I am actually not advocating in any way), go to the Marina. Go to Pacific Heights. Don’t trash your own neighborhood. Jesus!
Yeah, 18th and Guerroro is real “dangerous.” Have you been there recently?
Whether it’s dangerous or not is not the point. The Mission has that edginess that boogie types from the rest of San Francisco fetishize and love to indulge in.
Whether the neighborhood is actually dangerous or not is not important; people come here to get their rocks off for being edgy.
People come to the Mission because it has a broad offering of restaurants, bars, shopping, arts and music. People do not come to the Mission because it is “edgy,” whatever that means.
they make all protesters look bad. hopefully they’ll get the shit beat out of them in prison then they will have something to complain about
THE POLICE MADE . . . NO ARRESTS.
The uniformed SFPD whom ALLOWED this vandalism to occur; and the NON-uniformed provocateurs, however . . . YES, those guilty police officers (along w/ their superiors) belong in prison.
Vandalize Bank of America or Wells Fargo? I’m all for that and I’ll help smash a window or two. But run rampage in a neighborhood like the Mission where most people support Occupy? It disappoints and angers me.
It’s agents provocateur. Any time Occupy shows up anywhere the cops are there, ready to bust heads… except, coincidentally, the night a bunch of hooded thugs show up to bust windows?
Good comment. I agree with you completely. That neighborhood is all one-shop shops, not big corporate chains, and family-run business. Not “family” in the fraudulent sense in which Johnson&Johnson uses it, either.
I’m furious at these a**holes. They did this at the WTO protests in Seattle and ruined the credibility of all protestors. Then the mainstream media labeled ALL the protestors as “troublemakers” and “anarchists”
oops, my comment is in agreement with Michael Anderson-Anderade’s.
The media would have done that anyway, as the (other) protesters were blockading streets, effectively stopping the WTO. and in fact the media had already begun spinning a pro WTO and cop, anti protesters narrative before the bloc smashed up the corporate stores on that street. So your point is just dead wrong.
If only those Gaurdian Angels were there, they could have stopped this! We need Batman!!
Mission Cops can’t even defend their own castle!
Typo: Keystone-Kops*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8jphxpi1ro&feature=youtube_gdata_player
They were too busy giving cyclists citations to defend their own castle and local businesses.
http://occupysf.org/2012/04/30/property-damage-in-the-mission/
Mission Local: Would you please repost the picture of the Mission Police Station that accompanied the first version of this article? Thanks.
The DA needs to cut a deal with the Marina Louboutin Skullcrusher, only she and her ninja skills can save us and the Mission!
This idea of “agent provacateur” is bullshit.
Some of us work very hard to run a business in this neighborhood, and we employ people and pay taxes and want to see this area do well. Maybe I missed the memo about how smashing up my front window is furthering the cause for a better tomorrow.
You’re right. This is an accelerating battle between conservative Good, and leftist Evil. The war against bolshevism is still going on. I wish we could just exterminate the Marxists once and for all.
Don’t go doing the things your dog is psychically suggesting you to, Leon.
hmm…could this be a set up to subvert labor and political organizing? or some trust fund out-of-towners who want to trash the city?
No this is not a set up. Get a clue. These “anarchists” have mad it clear that they have no respect for the rest of us. Why look for a conspiracy, when the anarachist openly state they are trying to destroy our society?
It seems like some on the far left are a bit delusional about who their fellow travellers are.
Something in this whole situation seems fishy. No other “protest” has as of yet turned violent like what happened tonight, and yet no one was arrested. Where did these people come from? Why would they do that? Why was no one arrested when other, peaceful occupy protests led to hundreds of arrests? Something seems fishy.
I CONCUR.
More than ‘smelling fishy’ . . . it WREAKS of police misconduct/gov’t conspiracy ‘at worst’ & police/gov’t incompetence ‘at best’.
Perhaps that fishy smell is coming from a working-class person’s seafood cart that was smashed by those that love property so much so as to define others by it (“1%”), yet hate it so much that they show no respect for it.
I love how protesters that hate rich people and end up smashing things on the OWS parade/strike day is just a coincidence, but the police failing to break up a mob –> inside job.
well look at your cite SF its a liberal heaven , the OWS is their kind of people
There’s nothing “fishy” about this – “anarchists” have fucked up shit in the Mission for years. Anyone remember when they shoved that burning mattress under the police car?
What’s “fishy” is the desperate rationalizations taking place on this board to help folks make themselves feel better about their “cause.”
If the police were in on it, and wanted to hurt the movement, why wouldn’t they have targeted more working class people? These d-bags still stuck to mostly expensive vehicles which, sadly, some people see as less bad.
But here I am, defending against a ridiculous claim. I know this behavior doesn’t represent the majority of the OWS crowd, but this resentment starts somewhere.
It’s too bad that the circles “C” means copyright, because that’s what these morons want: “chaos”, not “anarchy, which involves self-governance and individual productive cooperation.
Just because the actions of 60 anarchists don’t make sense to you, dosen’t mean that law enforcement is complicit in supporting these actions. I am not asking to personally take resposability for smashing my stores windows, only to hold your” comrades” accountable for their variance from non-violent protest. Agent provacateur is an underwear line not a window smasher.
Agent provocateur night in the Mission, and the oldest trick in the book: do something that your enemy will get blamed for. Where were the cops that have accompanied EVERY SINGLE march in the past?
Also, their anarchist “A” just looks like a circled “A”, and the horizontal bar doesn’t go all way across the circle. I don’t remember any of the the graffiti at 888 Turk looking like that. Fake.
I’m an Anarchist. I am proud of this. Stop pretending that violence by anarchists is always a police officer. It happens, but I am proud of instances like this when done by my comrades and I. Cops aren’t always at a march. I was at Occupy Wall Street for the first two weeks… Catching police by surprise and getting 30-40 minutes without them knowing something is going on is relatively easy. Anarchists aren’t pacifists. They help ease the pain of todays system through volunteer work, yes, but they also firmly believe in direct action, and do NOT see property destruction as violence.
Thanks for your input officer
You’re not an anarchist, you’re a juvenile. An anarchist substitutes private cooperation and self-governance in place of the state. It’s morons like you that will ensure no-one trusts others enough to make a go without the state.
Yup.
well i will give you that..Academy of Art dropouts should at least be able to get their Anarchy(tm) A’s correct.
conspiracy theories described with a French etymology are still conspiracy theories. can we get some critical thinking skills up in here? wow.
You want agent provocateurs? Tune into Alex Jones at 9AM (12noon EST) He’ll have alot to say about this event because he’s the biggest AP of them all with a microphone and on the payroll of RT.
Im a white 3rd generation Mission district SF native. I had to earn my respect as a young punk rocker growing up on the tough Mission streets of the 70′s and 80′s. I never thought the day would come that I would miss when you could not walk down 24th st after dark because it was too dangerous. I just wish all of you pretentious art fag yuppies would go back to where you came from,. You are destroying the once vibrant culture of my beloved Neighborhood. PS…Just don’t come to West Oakland!
sounds like you’re pretty bummed about not being able to afford living in the neighborhood anymore
wow, did you really just use the word “fag”?
I am happy this is happening. I wish I could be there with them. I feel no pity for a rich person whose sports car is smashed into pieces. Riots don’t make protesters look bad. Media makes protesters look bad, peaceful or not. Protesting the status quo is inherently against the interests of any power structures in place… including media, the right hand of power. If you’re trying to get on the good side of the media, your best bet is not protesting. If you’re trying to change things, getting violent can be quite effective. Anarchists aren’t the problem. Militant Pacifists are. Those who hold more hatred for fellow protesters who do not adopt pacifism than they do police who crack innocent skulls.
Do you feel pity for the handyman assaulted with a crowbar? Or Is that a necessary evil?
The media story above makes the protest look bad because it was pretty bad.
Not to mention that Mission Local is far from mainstream media.
you live in the Midwest, don’t you?
This whole thing stinks, and I think outside opportunists are to blame for this. We can debate the inside involvement of police all night, but these are not OccupySF tactics, and nothing about this adds up.
It is you locals who are to blame for tolerating …..
FunFact: If Occupy is as ‘leaderless’ as everyone claims, the General Assembly has accepted and indeed embraced something they call ‘Diversity of Tactics’ and sent an open invitation to the public…
…what right does -ANYONE- who wasn’t involved directly with the vandalism have, to claim it wasn’t an occupy action? Anything done under the banner of Occupy, is an Occupy action until Occupy gets some concrete leadership and starts to take action to control it’s people.
Sorry if this is your wake-up call…but if someone decides to bomb the local hospital in the name of Occupy, it becomes an Occupy movement.
The drawback of a ‘movement’ with no leaders. Deal with it, anarchist idiots.
Doesn’t matter. No leader = no officiality = no one can say it -wasn’t- an occupy action.
And to most of the world, refusal to stop this sort of activity, or even make an effort…is tantamount to support.
There are so many gaping holes in your logic, it’s astounding. Using your inept reasoning, one could argue that everyone in a concert crowd is responsible for the actions of one idiot who starts a fight. Seriously, you can’t jump from “no leader” to “no officiality.” And you can’t make the next jump either; in fact, you’ve boxed yourself out of it.
Seriously, people? Were upset about some “political” grafitti (versus everyday “artistic” graffiti) and some smashed windows? Jesus. Grow the fuck up. Go gentrify a kinder, gentler neighborhood. No business owner can claim to do a worker or a community a favor by employing them to sell over-priced shit to priviledged shit wipes. I HOPE that the individual who complained about their business getting shit on will be closed tomorrow for international WORKERS day, or they can cry all the way to their insurance company without my giving two fucks.
Typical Marxist. I wish Pinochet had exterminated all of you. He was really too liberal.
Get a job and a clue I could give less than two f##ks about you either. How about you go to Cuba? They have all the vegatables you can grow. And if you want to be patriotic- and you give give TWO FUCKS about this country, get a job, get registered and boot out all crrupt elected officials instead of making employees take the day off so you can have your “playground” back. You really make me sick.
“No business owner can claim to do a worker or a community a favor by employing them to sell over-priced shit to priviledged shit wipes.”
It’s not a FAVOR. It’s mutually beneficial. Apparently your faux solidarity with workers belies contempt for the work they do. You seem to want to protect the workers from the work in which they likely take pride. In contrast, most Mission business owners know that hiring a handyman — or a waitress, or a cook, or whomever — isn’t a favor or exploitation. It’s an agreement that what the worker does is valuable, to the business owner and to the patrons of the business. That’s all.
People who work in SF cant afford to live there. Only 1/3 of sfpd live in SF. If you own property or have rent control your probably not moving out soon and your neighbor will pay around 200%+ more than you. Many of the youth that grew up in the mission and surrounding areas must leave sf or stay at there parents house if there lucky. Don’t get mad when people get upset – sympathize. A generation of the mission and SF will be forced to move out of SF or overpay to share a room in a flat. Just because you hand someone a shit sandwich doesn’t mean they have to eat it. PS there is light at the end of the tunnel “Great Boomer Die-Off should hit full stride in approximately 2015″ -The Onion yay only a couple more years and gen Y can start to get some space back from greedy boomers!!…….
Sympathize? I am able to live in SF because I am successful and made many sacrifices along the way to get where I am today. All they will get from me is a shit sandwich and if they dont eat it, then they go hungry. Hopefully, they will die off and SF will be all the better since the ones living here will be those that earned it.
“Hopefully, they will die off” And when these people do SF will be better? Tom you are part of the problem!
Hey, I’ve worked hard and sacrificed, too, so that I can eat at Farina and Locanda, and I sure hope that when I get back to my (no shit) Prius, nobody’s broken in the back window.
But there are plenty of people out there who work hard and sacrifice and do what they’re “supposed to” and don’t have much to show for it. And I’m sure that, like me, you know plenty of people who’ve worked less and sacrificed less than you, but have enjoyed (or been handed) far more.
That’s what Occupy is about. I don’t want to see things destroyed, but I can understand where the anger is coming from. I’d sure like to make success in the US a lot more about hard work and sacrifice, and a lot less about how much money your parents had (check the stats, it’s pretty clear that this is going on).
Shutt UUp, moron! My God are you an Idiot!
When I was a child in the early 90′s Southpark (soma) was a slum(my uncle lived there the house next door was abandoned). The mission was a very ruff place to live. The TL is also going through the same problem as the Mission, high crime and tech companies moving in. The difference is the mission is a place where more familys were raised. The TL has a large Asian community that is experiencing the same problem. High rents and no where to go. Work hard pay taxes but nothing good in life comes easy Taking over an neighborhood is included. Look in the South you have floods hurricanes etc. You move into a high crime area you have people that may not take your shit. Hey Marin is a good place to move maybe Sausalito, Palo Alto for some of you posting on here there is less crime/violence. Oh I forgot SF is Palo Alto’s new city. Oh the 49rs are moving to Palo Alto (Santa Crapera). Any one who is under say 45 and works hard and didn’t have hand outs(trust fund parent funded college) none of this applies 2u. ps the one thing about baby boomers is there older and the human body cant live forever.(dont tell them though they don’t know it yet)..
Seriously? Sympathize with bitter people who are unsuccessful and hate everyone because of it? And because they can’t make it on their own will just destroy anything of worth of those who have made it? Too bad San Francisco is so gun averse. Some of these bitter clingers would be far less willing to vent their frustration.
its not envy – we don t want their position of power and control for ourselves. its anger and hatred at the exploitation that provides that power and control.
and yes, i sympathize with that anger, cus i feel it too, every time i work a shitty catering job (my work…) and some rich asshole stares right through me like im not there, arrogantly snapping their fingers for another drink. Fuck these people, and the systems of governance and economic exploitation that they rode in on. It sucks if a workers’ car got messed up during this demo, but i think its pretty clear where the anger was directed, and i think its great.
As the owner of one the targeted businesses I disagree (suprise) You have no clue of what the working conditions of my employees are and to attempt to harm my business what impact could that possibly have on my employees? You think I am going to run away and give you the store? I have never snapped my fingers once, but your conmrades have taken thousands of dollars away from my Employees because we profit share.
so basically it’s fine to fuck up other people’s shit, because your life sucks and you have a shitty job ?
Enjoy it, it’s all you have to look forward to for the rest of your life if you’re really that stupid – unless you end up in prison or dead because someone fights back.
I can guarantee you that none of the vandalists are SF locals.
it’s pretty obvious they don’t live in the Mission, since even they aren’t stupid enough to smash up their own neighborhood.
Funny, my city doesn’t attract this kind of scum.
Your city must suck though, because why else would you be on a local news site talking about ours?
Its too bad that the Occupy message of “All you working people give me your money so I can sit on my ass” gets confused with Blac Bloc’s message of “All you working people, give me your money so I can break all your stuff”.
I’m part of Occupy and support the 99%, but I work 50 hours a week. Huh, think of that. You love these vandals, don’t you.
COPS, Shoot to kill!
This is Never the Answer! Nor is the Answer to vandalized, people who do lose the message they are trying to tell.
“We area small art gallery, we are not elistist,”
Fool. Anyone who is seen as slightly successful is considered an elitist by these folks.
Some of you seem befuddled as to why the left wing occupiers would attack the seemingly like minded liberals and their establishments. It is because the occupiers have always been cowards. Why didn’t they rampage in an African American neighborhood and burn down black barbershops? Because they know they would have been knocked to the ground and the back of their head bashed in on the pavement. Liberals always pick on the easier prey.
First, these weren’t occupiers, these were Black Boc anarchists using the movement as cover. Second, you can’t in one breath say that the “liberals” were the victims and then say the “liberals” are the ones looking for easy prey. Third, you’re an idiot, which explains why you can’t see through the Koch brothers’ propaganda.
Just like what the thug TM did to Mr. Zimmerman.
I find it very odd that police, who are all paramilitaries now and well funded with latest techno weapons, arrested no one. If this is true, it really says something. I do believe a significant portion of the so called black bloc are infiltrators from first hand experience.
The reason is that SF is run by a bunch of “progressives” who “support” the occupy movement — well at least until their Prius window gets broken by said movement. But these progressives are too “supportive” (read milquetoast) to complain when they are the targets of violence and will just lay down and take it, and they will put the police on notice for doing their job… so the police just watch.
Every business owner in San Fran should have a 12 gauge.
What does San Francisco need back? This guy:
“I know what you’re thinking, did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kind of lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and could take your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well do ya Punk?”
I’m an Anarchist, as are millions of other hardworking, peaceful, non-vandals around the world. Smashing windows and paintbombing only makes you an asshole. You’re getting no other point across and making Anarchy look bad! Boo!
Not a single latino voice in all this discussion? That says something right there doesn’t it?
LOL at being able to tell whether someone has a “latino voice” from an internet comment.
Typical communists. A hundred years, nothing changes. Fuck the Occupiers, if they were sincere about injustice, they would occupy the Federal Reserve Board and demand a real end to its subsidization of Wall Street at the expense of small time bank savers. But – nothing. Just an excuse to wreck people’s property and businesses. I hope the cops bash your fucking skulls in. Actually, I really hope there are nationwide riots which spin out of control, and normal people have to take the law into our own hands. Then we can eliminate several million dirtbags in one short time period.
What are you even talking about? You are so violent you want nationwide riots and murder? I’m as upset about hardworking people having their belongings wrecked just as much as anyone else, but your idea of action is frightening, and incredibly dangerous. Leon, I am seriously afraid of you!
Leon is very confused. He has innate communist sympathies (e.g., eliminating the bourgious Federal Reserve that is the lynchpin of our capitalist system) but he has fallen prey to Fox News propaganda that tells him its all the fault of the Unions and immigrants.
The guy talking in Spanish soulds like Cheech and Chong!
“Several of the protesters, described as wearing all black and covering their faces…”
The true sign of a coward. Sounds a lot like how radical muslims dress. Oops…did I say that?
A lot more can be accomplished through peaceful efforts than violence and destruction. Think Gandhi. Think Martin Luther King.
Neither of the movements symbolized by those two men would have been what they were without large numbers of people either threatening to be violent, or who already were. Ghandi was a convenient foil to armed peasant movements as well as a pakistani independence movement, which he betrayed in his own version of colonialism. King’s methods, while inspiring to some, accomplished little in terms of economic liberation, hence the direction of economic re organization that groups like the panthers and Robert F. Williams’ NAACP group went in. King’s tactics were quickly seen as outdated and irrelevant to a large number of contexts and objectives….
did you cut and paste that from Wikipedia ?
On the contrary the panthers’ gun posturing is what gave the state a pretext for cracking down on them. It made them utterly ineffective as a long term movement. But if your primary objective is mere macho posturing, then they might seem appealing to name-check. The civil rights movement was spawned not by king or any of those you mentioned, but by SNCC. Selfless, sustained *nonviolent* action. It’s not about pacifism, it’s just the only strategy that works against a powerful state. You really need to brush up on your civil rights history.
A bunch of elitist white punks chanting “Yuppies Out!” in what was once a Latino District. Brilliant.
…yep. my thoughts, exactly. : shaking head :
Finally. One of the few intelligent posts on here. Feels like most are either Fox News reactionaries or angry little children who are too lazy to initiate real political change (starting with their own consumption habits).
What s elitist about a riot ? Did you interview the masked individuals, do a survey?
And the fact that the Mission has been gentrified is ALL THE MORE REASON to scrawl yuppies out on the wall. duh…
You sure care a lot about our neighborhood for someone who doesn’t live here and has no fucking clue about the reality of the Mission, don’t you ?
just wondering, did you happen to post this morsel of yours on the internet with a portable device? iphone? android? and you call me a yuppie. I will leave Valencia on my back with my boots on and no amount of childish graffiti is going to dissuade me. I have worked on Valencia street since 1994, making a business and a life for my immigrant wife and I, you really just need to have some priorities- if you are not willing to work as hard as it takes to be here- well there are vacancies in Oakland. I am proud of what Valencia street has become. And for those of you who want to whine about the good old days, the irish were booted out of quite a few years back as i recall, I don’t think they are the ones busting windows though. Raising hell is fun- until you Join society- then you realize it’s you paying for the hell raising.
“God bless them [OWS] for their spontaneity. It’s young, it’s spontaneous, it’s focused and it’s going to be effective.” — Nancy Pelosi
How do you like her now?
Very much. I mean, because she’s talking about the actual movement, not angry little anarchists that pretent to be a part of it. But I’m sure you’re far too dumb to tell the difference, so nevermind.
What is this ‘movement’ but a bunch of losers. They are the ‘movement’.
As an apparent apologist for the elites, of which Pelosi is a card-carrying member, you calling me “dumb” isn’t a real novel tactic. Can’t you do better? Seriously?
Well, we can just let you continue to demonstrate your ignorance and grade school level understanding of politics and sociology instead, how does that work for you ?
My first post ever on this site was met with name-calling, ostensibly because of disagreement with my point of view. My second post, also met with a put-down. Rather than confront the issues, call those with whom you disagree names — call them stupid, or dumb. Pure Alynsky tactics. You’ll never win me to your point of view with such tactics and only strengthen my resolve to defeat you and your ilk. If you are so filled with reason and empathy, try exercising some of it with strangers — you might do better.
Why would anyone care about winning someone as worthless as you over to their point of view ?
Ever heard the phrase “We’ll try being nicer when you try being smarter.”
You’re the clown who brought up Pelosi on a neighborhood blog in comments on a story about a place you clearly don’t know the first thing about – so you deserve all the abuse you’re getting, and more.
As a USF alum, I am appalled at the presumptive, arrogant tone and the name calling. Shame on you.
Oh, you’re mad about not being able to get a job to pay off your student loans – it’s all clear now.
Total losers.
I find it funny that the ‘anarchist, communist’ types on these threads use their $2000 Apples to post comments trying to justify their youthful, ignorant behavior and beliefs. You, are the 1%….or maybe even the 0.01% – the rest of us work, volunteer in our community, raise our families, PAY TAXES, etc.
Line these hoodlums up against a wall and shoot every one of them.. bet you wouldn’t see this BS again in this country…
An acquaintance at Cal in the 80s was a self-styled anarchist. Anytime there was a protest, he and a few others like him would charge out dressed in all black. This was during the anti-apartheid movement. Later he’d tremble with glee to tell people how they’d set a police car on fire. What a bunch of ……
They’re all just mad because their trust funds are drying up, and the prospect of working for a living doesn’t sit well with them.
I am watching this all from Canada and am amazed by the violence in most of the exchanges. I don’t know how you can sort out these important issues this way. It makes me sad and this country is heading in the same direction.
Canada has a higher violent crime rate than the U.S. Most likely due to your ignorant gun laws.
don’t let those pesky facts get in the way of your made up statistics.
Can we at least stop calling them protestors when they start this crap? This isn’t protesting, this is rioting. These are rioters and they should be treated like the rioters in LA, the rioters in Detroit, the rioters and looters in NOLA after Katrina. These are not protestors.
What a bunch of fools wrecking their own neighborhood. I support the Occupy movement but these spineless ass-holes should be caught and reimburse these local businesses and private individuals. They totally jumped the shark with this crap. Are they stupid enough to really think this helps the cause?
the fools that thrashed the neighborhood were not from the neighborhood, most likely Berkeley-esque YSL (Young Spartacus League)idiots….
I’m calling for all Mission homeboys to put a beatdown on these punks next time
What are we doing to help these local business get back on their feet?
1. I agree with the earlier comment that missionlocal.org and others should stop referring this as a “protest” and to the participants as “protesters” in this instance. It feels much more like organized violence primarily for the sake of violence.
2. We often read that the masked vandals represent a small % of each march and that it’s this small group that is giving all the true protesters a bad name. If this is the case I simply do not understand why all the other marchers do not disassociate from the vandals. A) REFUSE to march with people wearing masks B) if vandalism starts then call them out on it, try to make them stop or simply break away immediately so that they can’t hide in your ranks. (I’ve walked away from two protest marches when the masked folks carrying their “flags” tied to thick wooden board showed up – it was clear they were there for something I didn’t support.) Instead, these violent marches continue and then after the fact the organizers simply say it was a rogue contingent that was responsible for all the vandalism. It’s such a spineless way to try to disassociate themselves from a situation that they completely helped enable.
Even if, as Scott mentions on his blog, the main vandals were plants then they still can’t get too far if every valid protestor stays in Dolores Park and doesn’t follow them. It’s easier to identify and stop 10 vandals then it is to stop 10 vandals who are loosely surrounded by 90 other people (because that actually ends up looking like a mob of 100 vandals and is much more intimidating and difficult to stop). If the initial organizers of this event (and other similar events) truly believe that these vandals are diluting and distorting your cause’s message then STOP enabling it.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
and wow, are these people incompetent.
Where I am, Boston, is almost a mirror image of what’s happening in S.F. regarding demographics, changes, ‘anarchists’, etc. I’d call them punks, but that’s an insult to punks. Most are well off ‘kids’ from upper middle class families.
Nice work Rigo
Thanks for linking to Scott Anansi Rossi’s blog post–I was struck by this paragraph from him:
Isn’t it funny too, that for the last 6 months of sustained protests, we couldn’t fart sideways without riot police raising their truncheons against us anywhere in the Bay Area, yet these cops weren’t around tonight when the convergence in Dolores Park turned into a march. the 2 squad cars and van that were following us did so at a snail’s pace while the boojie restaurants on 18th street got vandalized. Some more police units on Valencia just let the protest pass, despite it’s obviously destructive intent, and the cops were driving past laughing as their cars were pelted with paint. The laughter is really what betrays something seriously wrong about tonight’s march. For six months, we’re beaten, harassed and arrested at the slightest provocation, park and public lodging rules enforced to the very last dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’, but tonight, they let a pack of vandals run riot down Valencia street.
agent provacateurs?
Hey Rob….stop Bloguppying and get back to work! You know who you are. BC