"Who said protests have to be peaceful?"
-Chris Cuomo

The acts of Jan 6 were a little predictable given the police and public responses to riots the last 6 months. People tried to burn down the federal courthouse in Portland, and the worst they got was teargas. Same with burning the church just blocks away from the capitol. No bullets fired at any point. I don't think there was any expectation of getting shot by anyone going in unarmed, the cops seemed satisfied to resist with a shoving match in many cases, even those carrying full-auto assault rifles were remarkably restrained. I think they recovered 5 guns total by people inside?

It looks like there were enough cops to hold the crowd back if they concentrated at the doors, they made a mistake trying to have a large perimeter, which is why we have videos of them taking barriers down because they were just gone around and useless, not because cops were letting them in. There were about 50 full on riot cops with shields who seemed to hold the rear of the building just fine.

Sorry comrade, all true, on video. It's you who is repeating lies and pure bull shit, and complete contradiction of what dozens of news groups including Fox reported from the scene...even contradicting the Whitehouse itself. I expect nothing less from delusional, sycophantic, morons who prefer to believe convicted racists and repeatedly convicted con men like Trump over literally hundreds of videos and thousands of eye witnesses, including clergy, Australian and other non American reporters, and the words of Trump/Barr themselves who publicly admitted it.
What, are you saying Trump is lying, he didn't decide on a whim, without asking the church leadership and against the suggestions of his SS, to go take pictures, he really did know the protesters were there and pushed some violent law and order on them and really wasn't an unbelievably ignorant buffoon who didn't notice the protests on his front door all week like he claimed yesterday, and didn't have Barr direct the violent removal of protesters by force, without warning, and well before curfew...for picture time? They said it, not CNN.

No other president has ever been so self centered as to direct the SS to attack peaceful citizens with grenades, rubber bullets, irritant smoke (so you don't dishonestly claim no teargas because you disagree with the long time accepted definition of the words, but irritant smoke is teargas), clubs, boots, hooves, pepper balls, and shields so he could use a church he just attacked as a photo prop. Never.
They even attacked the priests from the church he used for his 2 minute photo op as they were tending to injured protesters on the church porch, removing them violently by force, taking moronic photos with the church and bible as props not sacred sights and texts, political propaganda photos and campaign commercial videos that have been denounced by most religious leaders before running back home surrounded by hundreds of guards like the tantrum throwing scared little baby he is.
But I'm certain you will say he's the most conciliatory, thoughtful, empathetic, leader who has brought the country together like never before and made it incredibly prosperous, any contradiction therefore must be fake news, not reality any non cult member can see with their own eyes. Jim Jones had followers like you. Go have some Kool Aid, why dontcha.

Funny, if he's pushing law and order against rioters and looters, why is he directing attacks against peaceful protesters (they now claim the protesters were throwing rocks, but oddly have no footage of it)...more importantly, why isn't he going after the boogaloos, a right wing, pro Trump, anti liberal, pro civil war, pro collapse of society group who has been seen at every riot even though they're 100% against BLM since they're also a white power group...caught in Vegas preparing to bomb crowds after their plan to start riots fell through.

Can you name instances of Antifa being caught doing the same? I'll answer for you since I know you'll just go silent, no you can't.

Again, dummy, they weren't rioting or looting a thing, purely peaceful protests at the Whitehouse until Barr ordered their removal by force. Thousands of cameras, not one showing riots or looting, only showing the SS stormtroopers tossing grenades into crowds and shooting rubber and pepper bullets point blank in the face.
Completely wrong....comrade. No other president in our country has ever been so disrespectfully divisive as to insist the streets belong to him and then take them by force during nation wide, actually world wide protests over police violence, actually telling police to become more violent. None.

That right wing article is just repeating Trump's lies, he was the one who stated there was no teargas or anything. How do you get through to people who believe what Trump says and nothing else?

Wouldn't surprise me if it was some idiotic distinction between OC, CS and UncleSam's CrowdBeGone™

But it's just political show for the masses. Look here, we do something about our shitty police! That's the sad part.
That won't stop cops from showing up with SWAT teams at your house because you didn't pay parking tickets.
The problem isn't being run over with a tank or getting shot to pieces by .50 cal machine guns. Any sensible law enforcement officer working in the US should just know that this is ridiculous overkill. They're not fighting Terminators or Transformers, they're fighting fleshy, squishy humans.
And here's the real problem. They shoot people with handguns and kneel on their throats. They spray you with mace or beat you with sticks. They use somewhat low tech weaponry to cross the lines.
The only field where that military equipment could become a real problem is in mass-protest situations. Just look at the occupy protests. However, teargas, riotgear and batons are still the very effective go-to-solution.

Now that's MY kind of protest! Much more rhythmic than guns, batons and teargas. I adore Canada =o)

>> ^Payback:

>> ^mxxcon:
Why is police just standing there "taking it"? Why are they not shooting teargas and rubber bullets and use sonic weapons?
Getting hosed with cold water and when covered in chemical fire suppressant is as close to "police assault" as it gets.
If these were regular citizens that street would've been covered in blood.

Actually, it's not taking place in the States, so I can understand your confusion.
I guess you haven't seen the recent protests in Belgium, Romania and other European countries.

>> ^mxxcon:

Why is police just standing there "taking it"? Why are they not shooting teargas and rubber bullets and use sonic weapons?
Getting hosed with cold water and when covered in chemical fire suppressant is as close to "police assault" as it gets.
If these were regular citizens that street would've been covered in blood.


Actually, it's not taking place in the States, so I can understand your confusion.

Why is police just standing there "taking it"? Why are they not shooting teargas and rubber bullets and use sonic weapons?
Getting hosed with cold water and when covered in chemical fire suppressant is as close to "police assault" as it gets.
If these were regular citizens that street would've been covered in blood.

>> ^marinara:

First of all, I was privileged to be out there with a lot of brave and beautiful people. I'd like to give my own account of what happened on Saturday, because the mainstream coverage I've seen has been universally laughable, not that that's any surprise.
Folks were mostly gathered up in Oscar Grant Plaza by about noon, and the march started around 1 or 1:30. There were probably between one and two thousand marchers. There was a sound truck playing music, and the mood was festive and happy. Parents brought their children along, and the whole thing felt a bit like a roving dance party in the streets. There was also a bus following along which the police detained about halfway through the first part of the march on some minor infraction like people weren't all wearing their seat belts or something.
When the demonstrators reached the first target building, it was already heavily surrounded by riot cops, and people didn't even try to get near it. I don't think anyone was actually expecting the "secret" target to stay secret, given the open nature of the movement and the heavy infiltration. By this point police had begun targeted arrests against certain individuals which were evidently on their list of organizers or repeat "troublemakers". Nonetheless, the marchers were being quite peaceful and were prepared to just continue the march around the city. The police weren't having that though, and they fired a number of smoke grenades into the crowd, which caused a bit of a panic since many people initially thought it was teargas. Minor injuries were incurred amongst the marchers.
A number of older demonstrators as well as people with children decided that this was a good time to call it a day and headed away from the main police line and crowd. Police then rushed in and attempted to arrest some of the parents for endangering their children. I'm not sure exactly how this turned out, but I was told that a number of parents were able to get away with their children.
Police began to close on the demonstrators who decided to continue the march through the city. Soon after police began to deploy actual tear gas along with beanbag rounds and paint balls apparently intended to mark people for later arrest. Police claim that people were throwing things at them after this. I didn't witness demonstrators throwing anything, but it is possible. I don't find it to be a constructive activity, but I also can't blame people for being angry after a peaceful march was attacked. Medics responded to high numbers of chemical contamination and blunt force trauma cases.
As the march continued, police started to use a new tactic which recklessly endangered lives and led to many injuries. They would form up in a line behind the marchers and then on some signal charge towards the back of the march with their batons at the ready. Although attempts were made among the demonstrators to keep everyone calm, inevitably many people started running as a natural reaction to seeing a line of angry club-wielding police charging at them. Lots of people got knocked down in the press of bodies. People helped up whoever they could, but I have no idea how many people were injured during this or how badly. The police continued to use this tactic all the way back to Oscar Grant Plaza, charging forward for a block before stopping for a minute or two and then charging again. This charging tactic served absolutely no crowd control purpose, as they were pushing people in the direction the march was already going, and they could have just marched behind the demonstrators keeping pace, since nobody wanted to get within arm's reach of them anyways.
Anyways, people regrouped at OGP to rest, wash up, seek medical attention, and eat. After some time, a decision was made to march around downtown Oakland again. The march was somewhat smaller this time, but probably still around 1,000 people. Oaklanders don't give into police intimidation easily. The march eventually became a bit of a cat-and-mouse game as lines of police tried to surround the marchers and "kettle" them in for mass arrests. At one point fairly early on the police nearly succeeded, but a temporary chain link fence was pulled down allowing most or all of the marchers an escape route. Later on, a group of ~50-100 demonstrators did get blocked in on a section of Broadway without any side streets. Police then rushed in, jabbing, pushing, and beating people with batons until they were forced back into a corner near a YMCA building. Some people may have escaped through the YMCA building, and police used this to claim that the protesters were trying to take over the building, although I'm fairly certain this was never the plan since the YMCA was open and operational, not abandoned. Once the group of demonstrators was blocked in and completely surrounded, police announced that this was an unlawful assembly and ordered them to disperse. A few people tried to leave with their hands raised and were promptly thrown on the ground, beaten, and arrested. The police undoubtedly thought that they were quite clever with the Catch-22 situation they had constructed, but I doubt any of the subsequent arrest charges are going to stick as a result. Getting the charges to stick was probably not the point though.
The demonstrators were pinned into the corner like this for probably 40-60 minutes before enough police buses and vans showed up for mass arrests to begin. As the time approached, the police suddenly singled out on of the demonstrators and yanked him out of the crowd, threw him down and cuffed him. It is likely this was one of the people on their special list. A small bag of powder (possibly meth) was planted on him as he was dragged away. Given the fact that everyone knew they were going to be arrested for the past half hour or so, it is utterly illogical that this person wouldn't have ditched the drugs if they really were his. He was overheard to say that they weren't his, that he didn't do drugs, and was willing to take a drug test right then and there to prove it.
Police later arrested a large number of demonstrators near OGP using similar tactics. Apparently some demonstrators got into City Hall, although I'm not sure if any arrests were made in the building. Some people were taken to jail in Oakland, others to Santa Rita (a much nastier place) in Dublin. Some were cited and released the next day, others are still in police custody.
Given my impending court appearance, I don't want to discuss the exact involvement I may or may not have had in any of the above. I think, however, this provides a much more accurate picture of what went down than has been presented in the mainstream media, and I thank you for taking the time to hear the other side.


**I need to give attribution, this blog was posted on reddit by a so called street medic attached to occupy oakland

First of all, I was privileged to be out there with a lot of brave and beautiful people. I'd like to give my own account of what happened on Saturday, because the mainstream coverage I've seen has been universally laughable, not that that's any surprise.

Folks were mostly gathered up in Oscar Grant Plaza by about noon, and the march started around 1 or 1:30. There were probably between one and two thousand marchers. There was a sound truck playing music, and the mood was festive and happy. Parents brought their children along, and the whole thing felt a bit like a roving dance party in the streets. There was also a bus following along which the police detained about halfway through the first part of the march on some minor infraction like people weren't all wearing their seat belts or something.

When the demonstrators reached the first target building, it was already heavily surrounded by riot cops, and people didn't even try to get near it. I don't think anyone was actually expecting the "secret" target to stay secret, given the open nature of the movement and the heavy infiltration. By this point police had begun targeted arrests against certain individuals which were evidently on their list of organizers or repeat "troublemakers". Nonetheless, the marchers were being quite peaceful and were prepared to just continue the march around the city. The police weren't having that though, and they fired a number of smoke grenades into the crowd, which caused a bit of a panic since many people initially thought it was teargas. Minor injuries were incurred amongst the marchers.

A number of older demonstrators as well as people with children decided that this was a good time to call it a day and headed away from the main police line and crowd. Police then rushed in and attempted to arrest some of the parents for endangering their children. I'm not sure exactly how this turned out, but I was told that a number of parents were able to get away with their children.

Police began to close on the demonstrators who decided to continue the march through the city. Soon after police began to deploy actual tear gas along with beanbag rounds and paint balls apparently intended to mark people for later arrest. Police claim that people were throwing things at them after this. I didn't witness demonstrators throwing anything, but it is possible. I don't find it to be a constructive activity, but I also can't blame people for being angry after a peaceful march was attacked. Medics responded to high numbers of chemical contamination and blunt force trauma cases.

As the march continued, police started to use a new tactic which recklessly endangered lives and led to many injuries. They would form up in a line behind the marchers and then on some signal charge towards the back of the march with their batons at the ready. Although attempts were made among the demonstrators to keep everyone calm, inevitably many people started running as a natural reaction to seeing a line of angry club-wielding police charging at them. Lots of people got knocked down in the press of bodies. People helped up whoever they could, but I have no idea how many people were injured during this or how badly. The police continued to use this tactic all the way back to Oscar Grant Plaza, charging forward for a block before stopping for a minute or two and then charging again. This charging tactic served absolutely no crowd control purpose, as they were pushing people in the direction the march was already going, and they could have just marched behind the demonstrators keeping pace, since nobody wanted to get within arm's reach of them anyways.

Anyways, people regrouped at OGP to rest, wash up, seek medical attention, and eat. After some time, a decision was made to march around downtown Oakland again. The march was somewhat smaller this time, but probably still around 1,000 people. Oaklanders don't give into police intimidation easily. The march eventually became a bit of a cat-and-mouse game as lines of police tried to surround the marchers and "kettle" them in for mass arrests. At one point fairly early on the police nearly succeeded, but a temporary chain link fence was pulled down allowing most or all of the marchers an escape route. Later on, a group of ~50-100 demonstrators did get blocked in on a section of Broadway without any side streets. Police then rushed in, jabbing, pushing, and beating people with batons until they were forced back into a corner near a YMCA building. Some people may have escaped through the YMCA building, and police used this to claim that the protesters were trying to take over the building, although I'm fairly certain this was never the plan since the YMCA was open and operational, not abandoned. Once the group of demonstrators was blocked in and completely surrounded, police announced that this was an unlawful assembly and ordered them to disperse. A few people tried to leave with their hands raised and were promptly thrown on the ground, beaten, and arrested. The police undoubtedly thought that they were quite clever with the Catch-22 situation they had constructed, but I doubt any of the subsequent arrest charges are going to stick as a result. Getting the charges to stick was probably not the point though.

The demonstrators were pinned into the corner like this for probably 40-60 minutes before enough police buses and vans showed up for mass arrests to begin. As the time approached, the police suddenly singled out on of the demonstrators and yanked him out of the crowd, threw him down and cuffed him. It is likely this was one of the people on their special list. A small bag of powder (possibly meth) was planted on him as he was dragged away. Given the fact that everyone knew they were going to be arrested for the past half hour or so, it is utterly illogical that this person wouldn't have ditched the drugs if they really were his. He was overheard to say that they weren't his, that he didn't do drugs, and was willing to take a drug test right then and there to prove it.

Police later arrested a large number of demonstrators near OGP using similar tactics. Apparently some demonstrators got into City Hall, although I'm not sure if any arrests were made in the building. Some people were taken to jail in Oakland, others to Santa Rita (a much nastier place) in Dublin. Some were cited and released the next day, others are still in police custody.

Given my impending court appearance, I don't want to discuss the exact involvement I may or may not have had in any of the above. I think, however, this provides a much more accurate picture of what went down than has been presented in the mainstream media, and I thank you for taking the time to hear the other sid

Re: Lots of things
Re: masks
Citizens have a right to anonymity and freedom of travel. They have no compulsion to identify themselves. The police are supposed to identify themselves. So to those who talk about the masked protesters you should realize that they will be harassed and arrasted if identified on any footage shot by news cameras (not just what is shown to viewers, all footage shot) while the police hide their identities in an illegal fashion.

Re: anarchists "started it"
The police have to be held accountable for their own actions as all individuals should. Whatever 20 people out of an entire city of people do, they cannot control what the police do to other innocent people. Futhermore I don't see why the police would want to make themselves seem so weak so as to suggest they were being controlled by just a few people and that is why they were attacking innocent citizens.

Re: the stairs
The police should get in trouble for attacking people at their private residence. No warrants issued as far as I know.

Re: "Unlawful Assembly"
They kept saying that on their PA system. I thought the constitution specifically prohibits making assembly illegal! That should be the law most easily identifiable as unconstitutional.

Re: Torture
The use of teargas, rubber bullets, painfully loud sound, etc. should be illegal as they are forms of torture. Causing pain in order to get someone to do as you want is torture.

Re: Nonviolence
This can only work if people protest whenever and wherever they want. Nonviolent protest has to be disruptive in some way in order to provoke a response that is one-sided. I freaking love Ghandhi and the non-violence movements. They are great example as to why we don't need armed military or police anymore. A mass of peaceful and nice people always beats raw brutality.

Re: revolution
All these kind of oppressive actions make me very sad for my child who may have to endure a full-on revolt. I don't know why the fat cats who control the government want to die at the hands of the coming revolution but they sure don't seem to be holding back any provocation. I myself get sad when I have to kill a fly but I am sure most are not so gentle. As the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows and as it becomes more and more clear that the rich control the government I don't see how people can react any other way. It is just a matter of time. Unless you can take the money out of government and heal millions of wounds already inflicted by one side.

-Karl

Yeah, here in america the police would be fighting with the feds over who gets to fire the first teargas/rubber bullets/taser.

>> ^Psychologic:
The most striking part of this video is the audio. There's no yelling and no violence... just people walking down the street peacefully.
The government can't label them extremists or mobs so they can't justify aggressive action against them. Last night Anderson Cooper said it appears that there are police protecting the demonstrators from the republican guard. This really is an amazing situation on many levels.

Yes, summer breezes and the wafting of teargas. Very nice.

In reply to this comment by critttter:
Lovely summertime theme, BTW. Fight the power.

Hi, I appreciate seeing the police in a positive, 90%-of-the-force-really-is-like-this, light.

It's nice, but I gotta ask how much of a fucked up unit he would have to be to tazer, teargas, or pepperspray a group of people having a peaceful, organized, and obviously non-violent protest. I mean really people, they were barely even chanting, they were standing behind the barricades, they actually MOVED OUT OF THE WAY when he mentioned the sidewalk, and ABOVE ALL ELSE they were LISTENING to him. Not one "don't tase me, bro" idiot in the bunch.

Bringing out the taser is beyond asshole, it would be professional suicide.

See farhad, the members you're thinking of are the *most* likely to become chartered.

Hmm, "Chartered Sifter" - a "CS". First it's a term for teargas, now it's a term for a SiftLover.

I am getting ready to jump on the Charter bandwagon/train, but first I really really really have to binge on some "Sid Meier's Railroads!" (which I just bought...).

All aboard!

That Netflix ad is irritating as death though - stupid blinking light! Another incentive to go ahead and get chartered...

[psst - dag, James: talk to www.zip.ca about having their ad appear for Canadian users - otherwise it's wasted screen real estate]

Also - I concur on making the "your comments" reserved, so others can't use the default "personal" colour to reduce confusion.

And I'm with swampgirl on clamouring for a "yearly fee" charter membership option.