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.
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.
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.
We will update this story as we get more information.
I dont know the other day police murdered a 65 year old black man in his own home. For me damaging store fronts and police stations is not violence. The only thing that makes it a jerk move is that because of social relationships workers will more than likely have to clean it up. But as far as damaging capital and property in a capitalist system goes… well I recognize the difference between the employed class and the employing class and shop store owners still exploit peoples labour. furthemore anyone who would shoot people over property should be lynched. And I have done a lot of club and bar security and a lot of owners and managers where i come from are either connected with organized crime,sketchie as shit, complete slimeballs, or all of the above. I hate the narrative of the petit bourgeoisie, we get to hear it when ever we are organizing a small shop or restaurant or bar. Yes you are a small capitalist but a capitalist non the less expropriation not exploitation.
I just want to say that this is indicative of our country as a whole. Police treat poor people the same way the rioters treated those small businesses. US soldiers treat Afghan citizens the same way. Look at the examples that we are given in this most violent nation in the world. It is something we can stop but not by throwing people in jail or smashing windows. By communication and a little selflessness though, we may have hope.
Am an Occupy supporter and do not see this as a Black Bloc tactic (which may may be used to divert police attention from peaceful protestors being harmed), but plain and simple vandalism by a rowdy group of kids.
One questions comes to mind though, is how effective the police were at beating down some peaceful protestors earlier, and so ineffective at rounding up a few angry ones at night.
Do you think it possible they wanted this message to get out to cover up the abusive stuff the police were doing earlier that day? I think so, maybe.
Often the “crimes” committed by non-violent protestors are actually “agent provocateurs”, or undercover police hired to discredit the movement. A majority of #OWS are committed to non-violence for our goals of political and social justice and fairness.
To the so called “protesters or “demonstrators To me you are just plain COWARDS! Is this the solution you offer? Thoughtless violence and terror ? Your actions were against small independant businesses? One of them “Therapy” I worked at when they first started out–it is a family business that is an example of what can be achieved with hard work , creativity and sacrifice. “Therapy” is an example of what is right with the system. The owners are generous smart business people.They take care of their employees, care about the communities that they opearate in and give back in ways the people who broke their windows can’t imagine. Why don’t you grow up and propose some REAL solutions, not a temper tantrum attack directed at people you know nothing about.
Ok if it was supposed to be a peaceful protest but when it turned violent the peaceful protesters decide to stay. What you can’t think for yourselfs? Maybe this wasn’t the message you guys wanted to share but it’s too bad you continued with them. Your message was not heard.
These are protesters, they’re THUGS!
You can’t control who comes to a public protest. There are often micro groups with their own agenda trying to negatively influence the crowd.
I am a crocodile. See my tears? You want sympathy but you choose to operate your “business” within an economic system that systematically practices both real and abstract violence against gigantic swaths of your fellow humanity. And while they are kicked to the curb, in your full view, you prefer to run your business for “profit.” Hmm…..
However small or measured your benefit within a system of human relations that demands routine injury to the majority of persons as well as the natural world, then, my small business bourgeois buddies, you are complicit. Sorry if this gives you a rash or hemorrhoids, but this is not 1980 and y’all can no longer get on your sanctimonious high horses and claim injury in defense of a life annihilating economic system.
The only question now is whether you are going to practice your ritualized denial of reality or open your minds to something transcendent and more positive? I hoped this kind of thing might be a wakeup call, but I won’t hold my breath. When the cost of doing business becomes too high, that business will stop. Period. My guess is that despite these complaints, y’all got plenty of legally required insurance. Heaven forbid your profits decline and you have to move down to Hunter’s Point among those to whom you consider yourselves superior. Well, well, well… You buys ya tickets, you take ya chances.
Elvis,
What econoiomic system do you propose that we adopt?
Do you eat garbage out of people’s dumpsters ? Rely on free handouts for food ? Sleep in the streets ?
If not, (and I find it highly unlikely this is true given you are commenting on a website) you are participating in the very system to claim to reject – how do you reconcile this obvious hypocrisy ? Oh, you don’t, because you can’t, you just go on spouting juvenile nonsense because you know you can’t possibly make it in the real world with the rest of us.
Hi Elvis,
Do you know what Valencia Street looked like 20 years ago? Being generalizing is never a good idea, I’m an immigrant, I consider the event as a result of stereotype, there’s not different between hate crime, racism, sexism and what you’re preaching. Isn’t this what made America great that almost everyone has a fair shot? Everyone makes sacrifice for their financial security, it could be someone’s grandpa who worked hard in a grocery store and made some good financial choices, it could be someone who married into wealth by chance, it could be someone who had no background and just happened to have a engineer degree 15 years and MADE IT in silicon valley. They could be your neighbors who lived down the street, parents of your high school classmates, the girl/boy who sat next to you in a Cafe this morning. Want to know them before you have any opinions on them? Come on down on Valencia street, meet with the local small business owners and workers, listen to their stories, face to face with the ones that you’re hurting and blaming, maybe then you can make a sounded decision according to the facts and not assumption. Want to change the system? Do something meaningful, We donated $45,000 for non profit last year, what have you done to help others last year? Helping under privileged students writing their essays? Working in a homeless shelter lately? Lending a helping hand to your neighbors who’s unemployed? Let’s all do something that’s meaningful and helpful to others. Violent is NEVER the answer. Drop the cell phone, get off the computer, have a open mind might lead to a better society. Changes come from within, do something kind to someone today if you want to better this country we call America.
Why is it the American Dream of so many immigrants to get rich? Who cares about how much bling you have? That does not make you a nice, happy contented or intelligent person. You are not questioning the necessity of anything you buy and that is why the human race is in a gigantic eco-disaster. Our landfills are filled to the brim with the crap we produce and discard. Our McMansions eat up habitats. We’re killing the planet and you are still going on about your right to make money as what makes America great. How depressing…
Why do you hate hard working immigrants so much?
Remind me where you’re from or where your great grandparents were from. Unless you’re native American, I thought we all came from other parts of the world. Let’s all face it, fear and anger don’t create any changes. Hope you will find peace within somehow.
Well said Jing!
Elvis, what a load of drivel. Go back to smoking a bong and reading books well beyond your reach in search of words you can pawn off to sound intelligent. If ever there was an example of someone who clearly has no idea how the world works and more importantly how you go about trying to improve things that would be you my friend….the level of stupidity is astounding. Jing makes a very valid point – what has Elvis, that catalyst for change done to help the 99%…my guess – written a load of drivel on his apple laptop that he can post on the internet to sound intelligent and feel better about himself…Protesting in this manner is not going to solve anything – helping each other may have a shot – What do you think smashing windows and vandalizing property is going to do – make the banks close down? Idiot – they just got more business in the form of loans to fix these properties..way to go.. Lets see how you feel when your possessions are smashed up since it is plainly evident there is no method or reason to this – its straight vandalism. If you are the message of change in this country, then god help us all.
http://scottrossi.tumblr.com/post/22184158717/notes-from-an-occupation-17-dolores-park-ruckus
I’m the owner of one of the business that got vandalized last night and my husband and I have been on Valencia St for over 18 years. I’m not angry at any individuals who had damaged our store fronts, but I’m just wondering if they would take the same action if they knew what they were hurting. Am I the 1% they are going against? Am I the one who should feel guilty about what my husband and I have accomplished through hard work in the past 18 years? What makes our mom and pop business a target for last night? Would the protesters feel differently if I told them that we didn’t spend any weekend together as a family with our daughter in the first 5 years of her life so we could work and provide her better opportunities later on in life? Would the protesters make the same decision as they did if they got a chance to meet us? Yes, we do own our business, our starting hourly rate is 35% above SF minimum wage with health benefit, college reimbursement and 5% company match 401K, should we feel shame to own a business that treats its staff fairly and with respect? No, we’re proud to have a business that grows with happy staff. Should we get punished for working hard, paying our share of taxes and being responsible?
I’m sorry for what happened. I hope you can see that this is a symptom of what is wrong with our country. How poor people are treated here and how our military acts abroad. If you stand against the way our government and the “1%” treat people, you’re a friend of mine!
We really do support you. I so admire you. You have so much to be proud of….thank you for speaking out
Why would anyone do this? It makes no sense. Occupy wall st has nothing to do with the mission.
This is true here as it was during the 20th anniversary People’s Park riots…
The people who do most of the damage are retards from the suburbs looking for cheap thrills.
i dont understand how targeting small businesses and working people’s possessions in a neighborhood that fosters such a ‘be local’ mentality supports a cause that targets big corporations and banks. sometimes i think people just get pissed and lose the actual focus of the group, and sadly, these kinds of acts push people away from the original intention of their message. i’m not saying they are part of the occupy movement, but sadly it is being lumped in with that.
Is it legal to shoot someone vandalizing your property? Do you have to ask them to stop first? What are the laws in California and SF regarding use of force when police do not and will not respond (sfist reported that a handful of police were apologizing as being unable to respond to such a large group of violent thugs)?
No one is going to destroy property I worked hard for if I’m there to defend it.
I love money!!!! I deserve more and more and can care less about the unfair system of capitalism as long as I get the spoils myself! ME ME ME!!!
Too bad you can’t take that money with you when you die. You worked so HARD; life is so unfair!
so what do you use to pay for your food and shelter ? leaves and twigs ? Give me a break !
ask the Koreans from the Rodney king riots they didnt loose a store to looters because they were in body Armour with semi and in a few rare cases automatic weapons.seeing armed citizens on their businesses roofs put a pretty good stop to their stores getting hit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCiC6qTtjs i see black and white stores looted but when they get to the koreans watch the mob go down a different block
Great video. What devolves people to such lawlessness? Why do they think they can get away with it?
because, in the Mission, they apparently can.
That’s because immigrants are not naive enough to buy into the lame American propaganda that “It’s just property!” It’s just property to people who are so decadent as to assume that life is easy. When you land here with nothing in your pockets, you’re not about to let your livelihood or life’s work get burnt down by infantile nutjobs.
You can add my business to the list of the vandalized. I watched as the sign to my dog daycare facility was paint-bombed. I am the mom and pop in the neighborhood. I am not the corporate “hotel” down the street. I have to paint over tags on a regular basis. I need a new sign now that I can’t afford. Or I’ll keep it to remind me what an effed up society I iive in or until the city gives me a warning and fine for something they did nothing to prevent.
Seriously you had to pay a fine?! How f’d up is that?! This city sucks! I won’t stand for that!
Web comments are the worst idea ever.
Can we please stop calling this a protest? This was not a protest – it was a gang of cowards in black clothing hitting people with crow bars, vandalizing Senior Housing, Artist owned gallery space, several local small businesses, cars of students, and people who were *at work*.
I am disgusted that the real ‘protestors’ did not immediately call the Police and have this gang of thugs stopped.
I hope there were many arrests and that they all flip on each others. I want these fucs in jail.
We break windows not people… though apparently liberals have trouble telling the difference.
I reject all simplistic classifications of my political views, but I have no problem telling the difference between you and a moron : ZERO.
Live on the Valencia corridor. Where the restaurant scene thrives, every surface is covered with art, and the coffee houses, delis and bike shops are world famous but still locally owned. Grab a bite from a food truck, get an artisan haircut, and peruse racks of raw denim or brunch in a parklet. Enjoy the sunny days and the bustling nightlife.
I am so disappointed to see all of this. True, the vandals in the Mission last night may not have been part of the Occupy movement, or from the area at all. Much like the protest that turned violent in Oakland last year, some people have used the peaceful protest medium for their ridiculous “anarchist” agenda.
Good work you ignorant assholes, you have taken all the validity out of a movement that was struggling to find its footing and make some real progress.
I am ashamed to live in a City and neighborhood with people who behave violently and selfishly. San Francisco and the Mission have so many creative and caring people. We are all degraded by people whose only response to change they don’t like is to harm others and destroy their property. Let us find ways to make positive change.
I’m ashamed to live in a city and neighborhood that is becoming a disneyfied version of its former self, to come from and have grown up in a neighborhood that is already a disneyfied version of itself.
This city is fast becoming a gated (city) community, as are many cities in this country, now that it is desirable for those with money to live in an urban environment as opposed to the suburbs. Will all the people who clean toilets eventually have to commute across “bridges and through tunnels”? (not that the tunnels apply in this case)
/////// Unfortunately the people who really should be rioting aren’t. ///////
Poor Ronny Ghosh, I feel really bad for him, how many people has he displaced with his Infinity SUV? And as for Heather Brodie, her car looks pretty damn nice to me. The wages of the wait staff at a restaurant like Laconda aren’t my idea of working class regardless of whether you are a student or not (unless perhaps the middle [far from lower middle] class is the new working class).
Below is the mention of a business paying 35% over San Francisco minimum wage. I understand that it is very difficult to survive as a business, although it is probably much easier on Valencia than in most places in this country. Would a single parent be able to survive in this city, paying market rate rent, making $2200 a month?
What’s so great about having a fancy trendy restaurant/store every few feet? What’s so great about google and facebook and macintosh and zinga and twitter and cisco etc., etc.? Should we thank them for gradually eliminating all social/class diversity from our community? for gradually eliminating all character and individuality? Will there be any difference between the Mission and Soho? between the Mission and Noe Valley and Bernal Heights, and any other wealthy neighborhood in any city where people have come in from outside and driven up prices and made the neighborhood “better”? At one time each neighborhood in this city had its own culture and traditions.
I don’t see how the new Mission (cleaner, brighter, whiter…. tablecloths) has a “be local” mentality. Just because people stopped an American Apparel store from opening on Valencia doesn’t mean a whole lot. I would be willing to bet that more than a simple majority of the businesses that have opened in the neighborhood in the last ten to twenty years were started by people from outside the community. Valencia was lost long ago, and so goes 24th Street. Like I said,
/////// unfortunately the people who should be rioting aren’t. ///////
The irony of your tag line when you’re sitting at home posting comments on the web is delicious.
Feel free to leave the neighborhood – nobody will miss you, since you bring nothing to it.
Except I want to live here, can afford to, and I’m not leaving, sucka.
believe me, nobody’ll miss you either.
Robert,
We have no evidence yet that these vandals are from the Mission or even from San Francisco.
I’d bet the answer is no to one or both of those.
Just like SF cops they dont live here.
I am voting for bridge/tunnel trust-fund babies with their parents credit cards. No one who has ever worked a day in their life would do this to another’s work/business.
Pathetic bags of chemicals posing as humans.
Im voting agent provocateurs with a handful of stupid kids following their lead. Only one arrest (for a moving violation) with all those cops following them?! Even the business owners said it looked like the SFPD was “escorting” the vandals.
http://scottrossi.tumblr.com/post/22184158717/notes-from-an-occupation-17-dolores-park-ruckus
One of the reasons Ed Savage above is worried “he’s screwed” is because Nancy Pelosi and the President of the United States have tacitly and actively supported these people. Both are members of the 1%, ‘specially Pelosi, but people in the Fruitcake State of California keep electing her to office, so that she can turn around and support the criminals who are wrecking real people’s lives, trashing their businesses, destroying their property. But Nancy loves them: “God bless them for their spontaneity,” Pelosi told reporters. “It’s young, it’s spontaneous, it’s focused and it’s going to be effective.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65368.html#ixzz1teGTKdxB
You are the definition of a moron.
Why are these people who don’t live in California so obsessed with our home ?
Because Nancy Pelosi and the President reach out and touch us all, everywhere in the country.
Then go discuss them on a national politics blog, and leave our neighborhood news site to the people who live here.
Violence is not the answer;especially those smashing windows. Really anarchist are also elitst. Your chinese made ipohnes that cost hundreds, yeah really fighting the man. You are the man. I am from the mission born and raised, I work really hard too like everyone else trying to survive in this city. My parents raised me by protesting injustices in a non violent way articulating injustices to the community with information you can read and see in the real world. Unite the community, not spreading hate causing harm to others and their property.
A bunch of spoiled whiners who are not getting what they want, when they want. Pay off your school loans. You want to make a difference, there are so many non profits organization battling it out as we speak. Get over yourselves this is the real world sweet pea, stop pretending and be big boys and girls.
The single most boring and conservative group of people in SF are the ones who were born here….yawn
That’s the best you got, this is what happens when parents give trophies to their spoiled bratty undeserving children. I have to get back to making soical change, you should to something too.
Quote form story: “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.”
And who would have been arrested if the bar manager had had a shotgun and had shot one of the jerks? He would have ended up getting arrested, and they didn’t arrest any of the “protesters” why? They all should have been rounded up and put in jail.
Why should I, a low-abiding, tax paying, honest citizen have to put up with this kind of childish behavior? Why should my car be attacked? Why should business that are providing an honest service to the public be attacked.
Face it, fellow citizens, we are screwed!
Because your expensive Mercedes was built at the expense of wage slaves out of precious earth resources, the depletion of which is exponentially killing the earth?
Because you continue to buy into a cruel and unjust system? Law-abiding, hah…. window smashers don’t think highly of law-abiding citizens.
The government thanks you for supporting the genocide with your taxes…
Anon, you are truly ignorant. Whoever made that Mercedes (who may well have been a German citizen)most likely went home to his or her spouse and children happily, believing he or she did a good day’s work at assembling a fine piece of machinery which would serve someone well. In much of Europe, Mercedes trucks and buses are very common and do not have the “yuppie” image their cars have here.
Are you saying that the farmer who works in his fields to harvest the food you eat and poop, the tobacco farmer in North Carolina who harvests the crop for the cigarettes you Occupiers love, the Starbucks employee who waits on you folks in the morning—-all these people are slaves???..and you are somehow better because you sit on your rear and criticize the rest of us and destroy others’ honest efforts? What you TRULY are is a self-deluded fool!
So how exactly have you opted out of this system ? You grow and hunt and gather all your food yourself I guess ? And never have taken a dime from the government for any reason ? You don’t ride in a car or take public transport as well, I guess. You made your own bicycle from scratch from metal you mined from the ground yourself, right ?
I agree. Where is the law and order in this city?
Really? Shooting someone with a shotgun is justified if someone violates your property rights? I hope that’s hyperbole because that’s the kind of thing that will bite you in the rear. Avenues of redress have been curtailed, blocked, and denied to your neighbors. It’s not right that anyone feels victimized, we have to identify underlying state that leads to this level of desperation. But do not turn on your neighbor just cuz your property got damaged! Instead take a moment in recognition of your good fortune that you have property when many others do not.
Desperation my @ss! These are spoiled little commie BUMS!
Melinda,
Do you approve of bullying to get noticed? Don’t you think those bullied would be offended? How about calling a minority a pejorative name while remaining 2 inches from his face?
The reaction will be violence at some point. Why do you think these “protestors” would indiscriminately destroy private property? It IS there objective to incite a vilent repsonse. Don’t you get it?
I wasn’t involved in the random vandalism, nor did I even know about it beforehand. I would have objected. I do believe in striving for fairness in our communities, absolutely.
The system of law has deteriorated, we are agreed.
Respond to the non-violent tactics, support demands from people who use tactics of which you approve. Whatever. I just hope you aren’t really thinking that this petty vandalism is significant harm, that it’s the kind of thing you expect other non-violent protestors to risk their lives further to prevent.
Non-violent protest is life-threatening. Our opponents do not see our peaceful tactics and give us a pass. Everyone is harmed when the targets are random.
What you keep doing is rounding up culprits and incarcerating ’em. Or shooting random people because you are scared. But the more
you ignore the root of the unrest, the source of the revolt, the reason more people are ignoring law and police, the worse it will get.
Melinda, you seem to speak as if you represent the sentient conscience of a collective population. The problem with that is the herd mentality of these movements, although initially well-intentioned when it was organized, had ulterior motives which erupted in anarchy in non-isolated incidents. They are ALL connected and in a modern society, this is unacceptable. This is a minority speaking on behalf of the population? If someone works hard, opens up a business and makes a reasonable living while employing folks who are grateful for jobs, does it make it right to vandalize and threaten their livelihood because you feel wronged by these hard-working folks?
Misguided, misinformed and, ultimately looking at things through the lens of a minority. It’s why Occupy-whatever isn’t really changing anything and is just a vehicle for anarchy and chaos.
The root of the unrest is that you have a bunch of spoiled brats that drink pabst all day and then put on masks and go out and bust up people’s property because they can. It is an utter joke to say that “Our opponents do not see our peaceful tactics and give us a pass.” Maybe in Syria, or Egypt. But here in San Francisco even those who protest violently like that Anarchists get a pass.
Who are you addressing when you say “you keep incarcerating culprits or shooting random people”? These victims have nothing to do with that. And a thousand bucks of damage is, in fact, significant to a small restaurant or art gallery. You are as confused and misdirected in your blame as the vandals.
Melinda,
Your comment is well-intentioned and admirable, but you must realize that those perpetrating this violence and destruction do not have social justice in mind. This is anarchy, and the only response is law and order. You really need to get in touch with reality, as opposed to ideology, and think twice about statements such as “…we have to identify underlying state that leads to this level of desperation.” You statement an associated attitude breeds impunity and excuses inexcusable actions. These criminals assualted a handyman with a crowbar and did hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in damage to some who could not afford it. Truly desperate good people do not indiscriminately hurt others. Criminal, malevolent anarchists do.
In my opinion One shotgun would have stopped the whole crowd in their tracks. They are cowards, you would only have to chamber a round to watch them sh*t themselves and go off runnning.
Hey Rob….stop Bloguppying and get back to work! You know who you are. BC
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?
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.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
and wow, are these people incompetent.
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.
What are we doing to help these local business get back on their feet?
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
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.
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.
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.
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 ……
Line these hoodlums up against a wall and shoot every one of them.. bet you wouldn’t see this BS again in this country…
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.
Total losers.
“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.
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?
Oh, you’re mad about not being able to get a job to pay off your student loans – it’s all clear now.
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.
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.
What is this ‘movement’ but a bunch of losers. They are the ‘movement’.
A bunch of elitist white punks chanting “Yuppies Out!” in what was once a Latino District. Brilliant.
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…
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.
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 ?
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).
…yep. my thoughts, exactly. : shaking head :
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….
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.
did you cut and paste that from Wikipedia ?
“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?
The guy talking in Spanish soulds like Cheech and Chong!
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.
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.
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!
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 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.
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.
Just like what the thug TM did to Mr. Zimmerman.
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.
“We area small art gallery, we are not elistist,”
Fool. Anyone who is seen as slightly successful is considered an elitist by these folks.
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.
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.
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!!…….
I can guarantee you that none of the vandalists are SF locals.
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?
it’s pretty obvious they don’t live in the Mission, since even they aren’t stupid enough to smash up their own neighborhood.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)..
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!
“Hopefully, they will die off” And when these people do SF will be better? Tom you are part of the problem!
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.
“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.
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.
Typical Marxist. I wish Pinochet had exterminated all of you. He was really too liberal.
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.
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.
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 …..
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.
you live in the Midwest, don’t you?
Not to mention that Mission Local is far from mainstream media.
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.
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!
wow, did you really just use the word “fag”?
sounds like you’re pretty bummed about not being able to afford living in the neighborhood anymore
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for your input officer
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.
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.
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.
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.”
well look at your cite SF its a liberal heaven , the OWS is their kind of people
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.
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.
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.
The DA needs to cut a deal with the Marina Louboutin Skullcrusher, only she and her ninja skills can save us and the Mission!
Mission Local: Would you please repost the picture of the Mission Police Station that accompanied the first version of this article? Thanks.
http://occupysf.org/2012/04/30/property-damage-in-the-mission/
Mission Cops can’t even defend their own castle!
They were too busy giving cyclists citations to defend their own castle and local businesses.
Typo: Keystone-Kops*
If only those Gaurdian Angels were there, they could have stopped this! We need Batman!!
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.
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”
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.
oops, my comment is in agreement with Michael Anderson-Anderade’s.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
Freakin’ Nihilists man…I mean, say what you will about the tenets of capitalism, at least it’s an ethos…
They were Nazis, Walter?
No, Donny, these men are nihilists. There’s nothing to be afraid of.
an ethos that deserves to be paintbombed and destroyed. Muahahahah
Really? Then who will you work for? How will you eat? Go smoka joint somewhere.
May a police beanbag or tear gas canister find your head in the near future.
how about we go break things where you live?
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.
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
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).
@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.
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.
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.
$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.
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.
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.
Make the differentiation between statism and capitalism. The latter is freedom of trade between consenting individuals, the former is what you should be addressing.
but you smashed the windows of a waitress. how do you explain that action? she’s of the working class you are supposedly defending!
@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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……
An I,m the type of person that will end your communist life
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.
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?
How about calling the police what they are-NEGLIGENT!
. . . 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.
. . .
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.
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.
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.
Another Loooooooooooooon!
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.
@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?
Paranoid, delusional — either you’re a troll or need to get back on your med’s
Yea the police planned it. What a tool.
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.
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
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
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!!!!!!