The short answer: First, I wasn't in SF so anything I say is PURE speculation, based on attending and being a peacekeper at lots and lots of rallies in lots and lots of places.
I agree with whoever thought that if WWP folk were pointing out breakaways to cops, the news would PROBABLY be all over the net in minutes, But at WTO, for instance, some incidents got written up so differently in different sources that I would say CHECK THE INFO before you draw any conclusions.
In point of fact, LOTS of things can happen at big rallies. For example most big rallies have Peacekeepers, people with the rally who are distinguished by special armbands, t-shirts, vests, caps .... Peacekeepers themselves are very seldom an organized unified bloc. Usually these folk have gone through non-violence training with an eye to keeping the peace, keeping things moving, keeping people with special circumstances out of more danger than they choose to be in, containing confrontations that might develop, keeping an eye on people who might have trouble completing a whole march, keeping an eye on the cops, dealing with unanticipated problems. Often these peacekeepers know the route that has been agreed on and they may (or may not) feel some obligation to stay on the agreed route. Or they might be away that some segment of those attending is planning activity that they themselves want no part of.
I cannot think of many circumstances where I would point deviations out to the cops, but I have been peacekeepers with nonWWP folks, for example nice church lady types who are not sure about marching next to commies and people with purple hair and black leather. In short there are peacekeeps who might be more inclined to point problems out to cops. For myself, I can certainly think of problems I would try to steer rally participants away from.
Of course, the cops also have eyes and theoretically at least should also have been briefed on the route and key concerns. So they would hardly need peacekeepers or other rally participants pointing out breakaways. But sometimes for big rallies police agencies share resources across multiple jurisdictions so the cops policing the rallies cannot be assumed to know the local geography perfectly either. If I were at a rally or a peacekeeper, and a cop were that lost or confused say about the route, as long as s/he weren't beating up rally participants, I would try to help them out.
And of course there may in fact be cop agents loose in the crowd doing God knows what.
The rest of this is reminiscence, disclaimer and background. Feel free to ignore it and go back to name-calling if you want.
DoreneC
Email me offlist if you want to flame me for making bad assumptions, either that this is old news or that is totally new. Or better yet just bear with me! On the east coast, you can drive 12 hours and travel through a dozen states. If each state sends, say 30 buses to DC.... But in WY, if you drive 12 hours, you can still be in WY or Maybe in MT or CO. My father only went to a city larger than Denver once in his entire life, and I think he was pretty blown away by his one trip to NY That doesn't mean people in WY can't protest the war, just that it will look a LOT different! Some background:
--I have gone to plenty of large rallies in many places organized by the usual leftist peacenik (sometimes unionist, sometimes religious) laundry list coalitions. In a number of cases the organizing coalition has evaporated almost before the event it organized is over. Sometimes that is petty arguments. Sometimes it's different workstyles or colliding egos. Sometimes it's deep philosophical disagreements about theology, political strategy, goals. Sometimes it's just burnout from all the work needed to put on big events while trying to get all the participants to at least maintain diplomatic relations.
A big reason for stress from working together is that usually when a mass event is planned, really diverse coalitions have to agree EARLY on to disagree about MANY topics. Sometimes they agree to DARN little such as maybe a nicely vague statement of purpose for the rally and some HOPEFULLY common understanding of a definition of nonviolence to be in effect for the duration of the event.
Given all this stress and the fact that coalitions involve people like WWP as well as other people who can also be decidedly prickly to work with, to me it's more astounding that large events happen at all than that conflicts break out all over the place at your average mass event, say a peace rally.
--Really large events are a HUGE logistical challenge. Think 500,000, 50,000 or even sometimes 5000 people outside for some period of time. People need refreshment. People need to pee. People show up with kids or physical problems or emotional traumas or without key things like weather appropatie gear and so they need extra support. People need places to park buses, sometimes LOTS of buses. Then they need reasonable guidance about how to get from the buses to the rally and back to their buses.
For one very famous march in DC, all I did was stand around some parking lot, help park buses, and point people in the general direction of the march. That part was easy enough. It was actually more pleasant to have some shade than to go to the rally. Even though I was nominally local at the time, it was comical in one respect: I avoid driving and was useless as far as road directions.
If you are planning a large event, the cops WILL show up. A really large event will have to get a permit and there will certainly have to be people able and willing to TALK TO COPS, something some people who attend rallies disdain to do. If you plan a small event the cops WILL show up too. In a small place you might even know better who they are, but not necessarily. Or in a college town, the peppy young reporter who seems to be working for the campus paper may have some other agenda. You don't necessarily know, so it's important to have a clear analysis and to keep analyzing commitments and situations.
--If I suggest there were real "worker rights" issues for the cops policing WTO in Seattle, are you all going to think I am some kind of provocateur???
Dc