> you can see on Indymedia how unpopular this unplanned action and criminal
> activity masked as radical politics is
> http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/04/18697383.php
> http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php
In the first link, the writer says:
> The setting on fire of the barricades was totally unnecessary, and may
> make it necessary for the city to call for the camp to be cleared; the
> breaking of windows and vandalizing of businesses which supported the
> strike was utterly stupid and counterproductive; and watching black
> bloc-ers run from the cops and not protect the camp their actions had
> endangered, an action which ultimately left behind many mentally ill
> people, sick people, street kids, and homeless folks to defend
> themselves against the police onslaught was disturbing and disgusting
> in ways I can't even articulate because I am still so angry at the
> empty bravado and cowardice that I saw.
>
> I want people to march on the police. I want them to engage in
> significant and strategic property destruction, I want them to march
> on the police station, I want them to show the riot cops that they are
> not afraid, but I do not want them to do these things at the expense
> of the truly marginalized. That is what I saw happen last night, and
> it has made me incandescent with rage.
>
> I want to win. I want our building occupations to last. I do not want
> them to be cleared within hours because a bunch of wild, fucked-up,
> selfish and wantonly destructive people, not all of whom identify as
> anarchist or black bloc, need to burn a bunch of shit to get an
> adrenaline rush by fighting with the cops.
>
> Some of our own, including a fellow medic and friend, are in jail
> today because of their actions, and while I blame the arrests squarely
> on the cops, I want the black bloc to acknowledge that they created
> the conditions for that sort of thing to happen.
>
> I want better tactics, and I want accountability to the communities
> that may be impacted by our behavior, and I saw none of that last night.
>
> I saw black bloc kids running from the camp while it was under police
> assault, and as someone who spent about two hours negotiating and
> assisting in the care of an ostensibly homeless man from the camp, hit
> by a rubber bullet in the camp, while black bloc kids ran away to
> their safe homes and made comments like "at least we crushed the
> place" and "we'll just take it back," I want those kids to be held
> accountable to the damage that they did, damage made possible by their
> class and race privilege.
>
> This letter was born out of anger and disgust at what I saw, but it
> also comes from a place of wanting to engage on these issues. I think
> that there is a place for these sorts of tactics in our movement, but
> they must not be guided by grandiose notions of anarchist glory, mob
> rule, and unfocused rage.
So what should be done? Have there been any practical ideas about how to put a stop to this kind of thing?
SA