Via bellatrys, here's Ichlysdale telling of what went down at a recent canadian political rally:
In stories that I hope are going to spread around the blogosphere, and break in the media rather more extensively than they already have, and start a real debate on the use of this kind of tactics, this one is wonderful.
Within activist circles, people have been pretty much certain since Quebec City at least that at least a substantial number of the truly violent protesters who "mar" demonstrations are in fact undercover police provocateurs, based on a number of factors -- the fact that nobody ever knows who they are, that often people who have been seen instigating violent acts never have charges pressed against them, and that nebulous feel that can never quite be substantiated.
But at Montebello, they screwed up. Showing up at a peaceful union protest line with rocks, some of these goons were confronted by Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union, who insisted that this was a peaceful protest and they should leave. When they kept trying to push through to attack the cops, some actual anarchists showed up, saying that they recognized these people, and that they were police agents, at which point Coles started to question them, asking them to take off their masks for photos. Their reactions throughout this, all captured on video, are - to put it mildly - not what I would expect from any of the Black Bloc types I know. Finally, after chatting for a bit with the riot cops, they "charge" the police lines, and are promptly arrested -- but, as the CP stories linked at the top point out, no charges are laid against any of them.
But where it becomes truly, hilariously fishy is in the wonderful photos that my colleague Sebastien managed to take of them being arrested by the police, some of which have already started floating around the Internet. It's actually a little less clear in the version I've seen online than in the originals, but still visible -- the "protesters" being arrested are wearing (all three of them) exactly the same issue boots that the "police" arresting them are wearing; they've simply throwing some duct tape on them to make them look "anarchist chic." Particularly noticeable are the yellow triangles of the ANSI certification on all of the boots.
The video is crazy, with teh legitimate protesters forming a barrier between the overt police to stop tehm giving the riot police an excuse to go all LAPD in an attempt to discredit the protest.
Yes I call bullshit on most protests that have led to really stupid violence on the part of the protesters actually being the fault of legitimate protesters, especially when it's the fucking LAPD. But if I'm going to bitch about I'd start with the deep seated unconstitutionality of those "freedom of speech zones" and similar neuterings of the 1st amendment that got passed through with the APRICOT act (or whatever they called the act that most of the current dem front runners voted for back right after 9/11, when "cowardice" was redefined as "bold decisiveness in the face of WHAAAARRR!", and the dems were defined as blameless for enabling everything the repugs* have done to our sweet virginal country**) and work my way towards having Dick Cheney tried for tyranny and to then have his mutilated corpse hung from the town square as a lesson to all future generation that some things are fucking morally repugnant on the most absolute level***.
For starters.
* Not that I'm constantly drunk on rageahol about that, hell no.
** Let's face it, america is a seriously fuck-broked RealDoll that's been ganged bang by the dick cheneys of the republican party and the joe lieberman's of the democratic party until its plastgina has inverted.
And why am I the only one who seems to be seriously willing to give due blame to both the overtly evil side of the duopoly as well as the overtly evil, but prone to pretending that they're not, side of the duopoly? I call shenanigans.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't "changing the system from the inside" actually involve some amount of changing the system from the inside?
Buit then what do I expect, everytime a 30 year old blogger says something mind boggingly stupid, they're defended by their blogging pals as being young and foolish, thus leading me to surmise that to be a successful blogger you have to suffer from a strange medical condition that involves a seriously delayed menarche combined with an empty skull cavity.
I call this Kosimandius disease, it shall be the twentieth**** century's version of gout, a disease symbolic of the bloated imaturity of hegemonic conversants.
*** Why is Dick Cheney not swinging from a meat hook in a town square already ffs? fuck crashing the gates, give me a tyrant on a meathook and I'm happy.
**** I know what century it is, that was intentional.
No comments:
Post a Comment