Tear Gas, Windows Broken, Clashes With Police As Anarchists Hijack Peaceful March Through Berkeley

[Newsjock]

Source: CBS San Francisco

Full original headline, too long for DU's title field:
Tear Gas, Windows Broken, Clashes With Police As Anarchists Hijack Peaceful Protest March Through Berkeley

Tear gas and smoke bombs scattered protesters during a march that started peacefully in Berkeley, Saturday night.

The skirmish with police began near Addison near Shattuck at about 6:30 p.m. as police and masked protesters faced off. the protesters broke windows along University Ave. near Martin Luther King Blvd., smashed bottles and spray painted graffiti. Others took hammers and smashed ATM machines, and overturned garbage dumpsters.

... Saturday night, several hundred demonstrators began marching around 5 p.m., at UC Berkeley. Originally, the marchers planned to go all the way to Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, but by 7 p.m., the demonstration still hadn’t left Berkeley.

Once the violence broke out, the group splintered, and non-violent marchers retreated. Observing the damage, one protester told KCBS’s Mark Seelig, “this is not what I signed up for.”


Read more: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/12/06/tear-gas-thrown-windows-broken-clashes-with-police-as-protesters-march-through-berkeley

[diabeticman]

1. My wife just wondered if they are REAL anarchists or police plants/undercovers trying to stir

something.

[okaawhatever]

2. Probably real anarchists. There were quite a few during Occupy too. nt

[bemildred]

11. Could be both.

Best not leave it to chance. And opportunistic vandals too.

[reACTIONary]

16. "real" anarchists...

... the agent provocateurs don't actually go out and do shit. They file reports.

I wouldn't call them real anarchists, though. My impression has been that they are confused kids who, if faced with actual hard ship under an authoritarian government or a real revolutionary situation would fizzle out pretty quickly.

[Brother Buzz]

3. I'm my days, we called them hijackers thugs

but I've recently been informed I can't use that word anymore.

"Times have been better"

[starroute]

4. Try pumks -- that seems to fit

[Brother Buzz]

5. What a pumk?

I'd use punk, but I've been told it's become a pejorative term for a prison homosexual these days.

[bemildred]

12. Being pumked is like being pwned, I think. nt

Last edited Sun Dec 7, 2014, 05:12 PM - Edit history (1)

[olddad56]

25. short for pumpkin. I guess

[Odin2005]

6. I'm smelling BS about this story.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Yup. Provocateurs. It's a very old tactic, too. n/t

[reACTIONary]

17. The provocatueurs don't do shit...

...they file reports.

The "black block" faction is quite real and quite genuine - but stupid.

[reddread]

20. never saw military/police issue boots on a masked trouble maker?

you aint looked.

[reACTIONary]

23. Doc Martins? I have a pair...

... and my mother, bless her soul, wears army boots.

Honestly, you've never talked to or been involved with "black block" activists? You don't think they are actually real? It's easy to get in touch with them, find out what their views and to even meet up with them. I have a few acquaintances that went in that direction. They ain't cops. And one of them ended up in jail.

You don't have to take my word for it, you can check it out yourself.

[reddread]

26. seen them plenty of times

intermingled with undercover cops.

[Judi Lynn]

21. If that were the case, people would have called them "report filers" long ago. Consider the NAME. nt

[reACTIONary]

24. Yes, let's consider the name...

"Agent Provocateur is a British lingerie retailer founded in 1994 by Joseph Corré and Serena Rees. The company has 30 stores in 13 countries. In 2007, 3i, the private equity firm, purchased 80% of the company for £60 million."

So there you have it. The truth.

Seriously: All of the more recently documented, credible reports that I am aware describe two types of under cover activity. First agents who infiltrate public meetings of activist groups, insinuate themselves with the members and leadership and file reports on what they learn. Second, undercover agents who respond to a tip about someone or some group and set up a "sting" operation to entrap them in a terrorist attempt.

So, do you have any documented, credible cases that are more fitting of the "agent provocateur" label - or is that just RumInt?

[reddread]

28. yeah

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Undercover-cops-outed-attacked-at-Oakland-5951011.php

[reACTIONary]

30. Thanks for the article...

... I read it and the other articles referenced in other posts about the incidents where undercover police were exposed during protests.

From the article: "...the agency and other police departments have had plainclothes officers dressed in protester attire walking in these marches since the first demonstration Nov. 24, and he said they will continue to employ this tactic..."

This is essentially the response given by the Canadian authorities also, to incidents that were linked to in other posts in this thread.

In other words, these are not "agent provocateurs", they are undercover surveillance, intelligence gathering in support of crowd control. This is far more "active" than the "report filers" that I was describing, but it essentially falls into the same category and represents a legitimate police function.

As far as there actually being violent hoodlums and vandals amongst these protestors,in support of whatever "anarchists" or other ideology they identify with, it isn't very hard to find confirmation. Just to prove this point, I did a very cursory web search and very easily found one such advocate of violence, a fellow named Gord Hill who goes by the name of Zig Zag on line and has been publishing advice and encouragement for "black bloc" protest tactics for some number of years on several web sites. His latest post (on Warrior Publications) is advice to help protect the identity of the minority of protestors in Ferguson who employed the violent and destructive tactics he advocates. His "about" page gives his eMail address, and I'm sure that, as long as it does not involve any actually incriminating self-confessions, he would be happy to explain his motivations for advocating violence, vandalism and disruption as protest tactics.

In other words, the black bloc is real and the vandalism is real. And, as you pointed out, the undercover police presence is real - and justified.

[Cha]

8. "..protests started out peaceful, but ended with several arrests after vandals and self-described..

anarchists began defacing property in downtown Oakland."

Damn them.

[Alkene]

9. Agents provocateurs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_provocateur

[McKim]

10. How the Anarchists spoiled a Peace Demo in my Town

When a long established peace coalition was planning a big demo, these strange kids calling themselves the Black Block showed up. All the did was argue, complain and disrupt. People were way too nice and gave them too much space. In the end a compromise was reached. But they wasted so much of the coalitions tme that there was little tme for publicity and etc. Bingo! They never showed up at the demo. Their real goal was to disrupt. As it is said in the bible: "By their fruits you will know them." I think they were FBI. So watch out.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. "Anarchists" = cops. Same as it's always been. They're not fooling anybody, except the idiot media,

which is handsomely paid to be "fooled."

[DiverDave]

14. Cops p'oed that things are

peaceful I'll bet a double sawski that they were cops.

[albino65]

15. Anarchist is a provocative term

Makes it seem OK when the police mow down the protesters.

[reACTIONary]

18. It's what the the "black block" faction...

... calls themselves. They are real, genuine, honest-to-god anarchists who actually do the things described in this news article. No kidding. Not making it up.

[canuckledragger]

19. You're trying to hard.

And aren't really to be taken serious at all.

Agent provocateurs however, are a documented fact, which the Canadian conservative government has used in the past.

The conservatives in my government however, aren't very competent at covering their tracks. They were identified as such by wearing the same boots as the police.

http://www.thestar.com/news/2007/08/21/police_accused_of_using_provocateurs_at_summit.html

http://www.straight.com/blogra/did-police-stand-down-during-g20-black-bloc-action-toronto

http://torontog20exposed.blogspot.ca/2010/07/suspected-agent-provocatuer.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/quebec-police-admit-they-went-undercover-at-montebello-protest-1.656171

Police-issued boots identified fake protesters

Protest organizers on Wednesday played the video for the media at a news conference in Ottawa. One of the organizers, union leader Dave Coles, explained that one reason protesters knew the men's true identities was because they were wearing the same boots as other police officers.

Coles said on Wednesday that the only thing he didn't know was whether the men were Quebec police, RCMP or hired security officers.

"[Our union]believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and provoke incidents," said Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

[reACTIONary]

22. I always try hard...

...what's wrong with that?

We too have undercover officers that infiltrate protests, for crowd control and public safety. One report (I think on DU) I remember recently claimed an undercover officer infiltrated a crowded protest to check out a report of a suspicious backpack. She (IIRC) was able to determine that there wasn't a threat. There wasn't an interruption to the protest.

This was a smart strategy. They were able to investigate the threat without sending in uniformed officers, which could have panicked the crowd, or shutting down the whole protest based on just a report. And if there had been a threat, the officer could have saved quite a few lives.

Thanks for links, I'll check them out. And I'll keep trying hard.

[DeSwiss]

27. Anarchists my ass!

What,? did the ''a-n-a-r-c-h-i-s-t-s'' have on their name tags???

[CENTER][/CENTER]

Did they have their a-n-a-r-c-h-i-s-t'' organization caps on??? Gawd these stupid mofo's can't come up with a LIE any better than this???

Oh, it's CBS. That explains everything.

Police and other assorted thuggery is who is was and will be next time because they're dumb fucks and they don't know how to think for themselves so they go by what's in the playbook.

We want peace -- it is THESE ASSHOLES who want war. Well, fuck you!

Didn't catch any ''a-n-a-r-c-h-i-s-t-s'', did they? Hmmmm, they must have dropped their ''a-n-a-r-c-h-i-s-t'' business cards and that's how you knew they were ''a-n-a-r-c-h-i-s-t-s'', right???

We know it's YOU, you dumb assholes!!!!

What a bunch of LOSERS!

K&R


FUCK THE POLICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bigworld]

29. They ain't anarchists, they're nihilists <nt>