This picture
 

Say cheese for the camera???

"Good work, Shaggy! Now let's see who the Protestorgeist REALLY is..."

Oh wait, this isn't Picture Captions :(

What the hell is that thing on her right arm?

HAHAHA!

I like that one!

You would.

Rioting is illegal and will be punished. I like that one too.

It's idiots like you who put the hoses on Dr. King, too.

rioting is illegal, but protesting isnt. unless that is a rioter, i hate that picture.

Agreed. If she was participating in a peaceful assembly and was unjustly assaulted by the police, that is unacceptable. But, somehow, I just know she deserved it, most likely a typical San Francisco loser, who thought it would be bright to throw a rock at a cop or something.

"FENCE OFF SAN FRANCISCO AND HOLLYWOOD"
Glenn Beck

Her arms are lock boxed, she wasn't throwin' nothin'.

Mostly Peaceful
 

I don't know how many of you actually saw this "demonstration"

It was all that was on the local news last night. I swear it got more air time than the war they were protesting.....

The demonstrators were trying to get onto the bay bridge so they could sit and stop traffic. During rush hour. This is a major problem in SF. Protestors do this all the f'n time and it really pisses me off. This is not a good way to make your point. This is a good way to piss people off.

The SF police did a wonderful job in keeping the people off the bridge and maintaining some sort of control over an extremely disorganized and unruly (sp) mob. The protestors for the most part were peaceful (though annoying blocking traffic in busy intersections) and the arrests were in no way unusual. (at least from what has been in the news)

My favorite scene from yesterday......an SF officer being hit with thrown items and and a piece of what appeared to be PVC pipe. He simply pushed the people away from himself. No extreme violence. No brutality. And no arrests.

I have to give a big thumbs up to the completely outnumbered officers who did an excellent job yesterday.

hitting officers with things is certainly deserving of arrest...

SF
 

SF officers are so used to this, they save arrests for the ones who are really causing problems or the ones who actually harm an officer or another person.

Riots have broken out because of arrests being made. Sometimes it is better to let the smaller things go to avoid the bigger problem. (Feel free to read into that whatever you like)

Do I have to point of the irony of "peace protesters" becoming violent and striking police officers? ... Oh, you caught that? Nevermind then ... nothing to see here. :)

From having some experience at these protests, as well as being someone who prefers non-violence over anything like what happened yesterday in San Fran, I have some knowledge on these events.

The old saying of "it only takes a few rotten apples, etc" holds very true. Most cops are cool, and some agree with you and have dialogue with you. Others are just pissed that they have to work on their day off. Both sides go to these thjings with a disposition towards the other, which is unfortunate.

SF
 

Well said Kev.

I can see where something like that can unintentionally happen. A policemen who has to face jerks, for the most part on most days and maybe already has an attitude. Throw in a retro-hippy "I hate pigs!" type guy et voila! :/

It's more than that. You get anarchist "types" (must watch my wording, my anarchist friends have tantrums) who in fact instigate trouble, but if it's one asshole, cops will act out towards the whole crowd. The peaceful protestor who went to the demo leaves there thinking all cups suck, they have attitude at the next protest, etc....and the cycle continues.

[conspiracy]It was actually quite common in 1960s and 70s movements for the government to insert operatives into Leftist movements, ya know, divide and conquer...? I've heard stories of 2 people starting to throw rocks at a protest, everybody getting arrested, but then 2 people ironically never getting booked or charged or even processed. I wouldn't put it past the government, since the waves of demonstrations we're seeing now are only comparable to those of back then, IMO.[/conspiracy]

There was a picture in the newspaper here yesterday of firefighters cutting those PVC-ed SF protesters apart with circular saws. :lol

EDIT:


The original picture was much bigger. :(