The group of people who went around the neighborhood tonight smashing up local business storefronts were not involved with the Occupy movement, according to a source who is heavily active in the movement. He concedes that there easily could be overlap in terms of people who also go to Occupy rallies, or support the cause, but that this is not action that is generally acceptable with the vastly peaceful protesters.
The source points out that wording in this post, where the above image was found, implies Black Bloc tactics, frowned upon by many Occupy protesters, and does not specifically call itself Occupy. Though it appears on a site that seems to be affiliated with Occupy Oakland.
Let’s hope that the damage done tonight ends tonight and tomorrow’s peaceful actions will strengthen, rather than overshadow, the strike’s important messages.
Oh good. I was worried the occupy movement’s pristine reputation would be tarnished. This is just another group doing what they want to fuck with the city and piss everyone off. Thanks for clearing that up.
What bunch of dicks. And what the fuck does the Fremch shit on the rainbow poster have to do with anything? I know, go to someone else’s neighborhood, dress up with a mask, make a fucking poster, and fuck up people’s cars and businesses… Um how the fuck does that bring anyone justice. Fucking posers.
The French stuff are sayings from uprisings there in france back in the day from students… Except you know… They didn’t fuck up local businesses and the such.
Man, when I was 20 I was so into May ’68. Then I realized I had my own society to obsess about. That was cool.
And how we can do things that aren’t trapped in some fantastical Lala land where people break things but where we thing of ways to make the world better that are productive? Yea. I did that… Now I am top of my class.
Actually, it’s my neighborhood they came to, not just some mysterious “someone else’s neighborhood”. This neighborhood certainly does not belong to the rich white assholes who live here now. I was born and raised in the Mission and I fully endorse these people smashing all the places that have had a major hand in the gentrification of this neighborhood and the subsequent displacing and silencing of its working poor.
Google: the strike starts early dolores
There were loads of people calling themselves “Occupy” promoting this event.
It was also promoted as an Occupy event by the Bay Guardian.
This “agents provocateurs” canard has been around for decades. If it hasn’t been a lie every single time then it’s close.
Every Occupy event nationwide has involved violence, crime, and destruction from the beginning.
So cut the crap already, will ya?
Tom,
Agreed that in the SF / Oakland case Occupy has embraced diversity of tactics.
But in other cities, even if there is violence, the main occupy groups have in some cases at least explicitly called for non-violence which I see as a significant difference.
As you point out though, here, this is hard to separate from Occupy, particularly given the diversity of tactics approach.
Time will tell if diversity of tactics is the winning strategy.
The event announced above was certainly an Occupy event, and the vandals I would suspect were inspired by whatever went down at that party. But that doesn’t mean that the action in Delores was advocating the vandalism.
That’s like saying: my friends had a picnic and later after the picnic some drunkards left the picnic and raped someone. Therefore, the picnic is bad.
People told Martin Luther King to stop organizing, stop marching, and he replied that we march because if we don’t, people will riot. Now, I suspect the vandals that did this were just angsty rebellious teens, but there is an important reason why Occupy may be associated with “violence, crime and destruction”—because it is a call to all the people who are so angry they want to riot. And the movement is an attempt to channel that frustration into something productive.
Either you are against organizing for change outside of the corrupt system, or you have some delusional want for a revolutionary movement that doesn’t attract angry vandals. Which is, Tom?
i’m a medic with OSF and i’ll admit i promoted the event because, upon seeing this picture, i was fooled into thinking it was going to be a pep rally queer friendly hugfest. i did not know that people with cameras would get threats of death and physical violence. i’m a street medic and i was threatened with physical violence for trying to break up a fight from an extremely athletic, clean cut jock type guy in brand new black clothes. i certainly did not realize it was going to be ‘smashy smashy’, and that is why i disengaged from the march and spent an hour and a half helping clean up and keep people from getting hurt and cut on broken glass.
tea baggers have their assault rifle toting racist idiots, occupiers have their window smashing fools and liberals have their people that prize windows over people’s lives and homes. you live, you learn.
They’re just black bloc thugs. Anarchists, basically. Look it up, their type shows up at just about every protest and fucks it up for the good guys. The black bloc has been around a much longer time than Occupy.
They’re just a bunch of chickenshits that hide behind other movements and use the guise of ‘anarchism’ to fuck with defenseless people and businesses because they don’t have the spine to go after real targets.
Confluence of black bloc, anarchism, and wanton violence: points off
Accusation that vandals who strike small businesses are chickenshit and should go after real targets: extra credit
Ross: well said.
Stop calling Occupy a movement. That implies it is going somewhere. Honestly, if Occupussies did shit like this to wall street or buildings owned by major corporations or banks something might happen.
Go to town.
They don’t get to claim these people aren’t part of the occupy movement. The occupy movement explicitly has no leaders, no official membership. Decisions can only be made via consensus — and there was no consensus to not commit acts of vandalism or expel these people. The source has no right to say they aren’t part of it, and the people who did this have every right to say they are.
I’ll hold the occupy movement as accountable for these people’s actions as they hold BART PD for Oscar Grant’s death — Mehserle violated BART’s policy, and the majority of their officers are also ‘peaceful’.
Stop wearing masks. Everyone has a constitutional right to peaceably assemble. If you need to wear a mask, you’re either embarrassed for your association, or exceeding your rights and hurting PEOPLE.
There’s a reason many people call themselves “99 percenters” instead of “occupy”. I’ll be standing with them, peacefully working towards economic fairness and equality.
Occupy had no defined mission, no leadership, no direction. It’s hypocritical to have such inclusiveness and formlessness be your strongest characteristic (and biggest weakness) only to disown parts of your movement you suddenly don’t recognize.
These people are as occupy as anyone else.
The cowards took the post down, but the internet is forever:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jTJHnvfhB0cJ:strikemay1st.com/the-strike-starts-early/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
It was also posted on occupyoakland.org. suprise, suprise, page not found:
http://occupyoakland.org/ai1ec_event/the-strike-starts-early-dolores-park-sf/?instance_id=203731
this is the page you are looking for http://blogs-images.forbes.com/joshbarro/files/2012/05/strike-starts-early-screenshot.jpg
+ pretty clear evidence to me.
I don’t see the part where they tell people to smash storefronts. Are we looking at the same page?
Eric…you are a jackass.
Stop pointing out dumb shit. The organized this as a “Ruckus Street Party”
People got Ruckus, and now they want to change their tune.
Do you do anything except troll blogs and defend idiots?
Here is a permanent copy not controlled by Google:
http://mattroche.bo.lt/Dolores_Park_May_Day_Strike
Use http://bo.lt if you find pages that you fear might go away. I used it for SOPA stuff and I hope I can grab a politician’s campaign page pre-scandal!
“It is time to reclaim our playground.” Hahaha!
I know right, it’s my playground now!
not if you’re from the marina.
It is no longer enough for Occupy peoples to claim they had nothing to do with it. They need to send out their own people to stand in opposition to this BS. These people are attracted to the Occupy and Occupy needs to make deliberate actions that oppose these they claim is not them.
To the fucks that did this crap- most of the businesses you hit were rad local ppl that actually give a shit abt Thier hoods, create jobs for locals, give back to the hood in some way. Shit like this can put a small guy out of business. If someone did that shit to my business- I’d be fucked. It’s a bad economy and local
Biz owners struggle- often as much as these assholes think they do themselves. While you smash windows- were working to create jobs. Paying staff before they pay themselves- can’t say that’s everyone but out of the few biz owners I know that got hit- they’ve all been or are in that spot. Infuriating. Go shop these businesses that got wrecked this weekend and let biz owners know you’re there to give em some love n business and not waste thought on the dicks that did this.
Fuck the vanilla transplant assclowns.
I saw a shit-ton of Occupy masks in that mob while I stood outside of Zeitgeist tonight.
They proceeded to trash a bunch of motorcycles & slash car tires up & down the block.
These fucks will undoubtedly be haning out in the “douche corrals” outside Four Barrel tomorrow morning (which sucks but they also trashed) sipping on their lattes talking about their daring exploits the night before.
Fuck off. Target a bank, or government instituition – not plantar boxes or small businesses. Grow a pair of balls. A brain helps too. Smoking OG Kush in “Brolores Park” all day stunts your hipster brain.
It’s funny to me how they trash a travel agency on 14th, yet not vandalize a $60 Reagan haircut “barbershop” on 18th.
Clueless PUSSIES…
Couldn’t agree more, a bunch of pussies vandalizing small business owners. These people are all a bunch of losers!
im relieved to find that everyone here is also seeing through this bullshit response from occupy, that this is not a part of their “plan”. as someone already stated, they made a choice through their general assembly consensus model to neither condone nor discourage violence and “blac block” tactics. so… sorry guys, you can’t distance yourself from this kind of stuff when it happens. you made this monster come to life, now you have to do something to stop it. fucking with and alienating the very people you’re trying to get on your side has got to be the most moronic move ever! seriously, why not riot downtown where the banks are? and please, for god’s sake, stop messing with oakland – there’s no money there. anyone can tell you that. do some research. read a newspaper. google “bank headquarters”. dumb assholes.
“Stop messing with Oakland”? WTF are you talking about? Occupy has been fantastic for Oakland. There was vandalism of one bank, which, hey, that’s their target. And when dicks set fire to barricades there, other Occupy protesters tried to stop them and chanted that they’re “not with us.”
The biggest complaint I hear is that Occupy protesters should work in their own cities, and here you are saying that if Oakland citizens are unhappy, they should go protest elsewhere?
Occupy Oakland is MUCH bigger than the few who choose to vandalize things—there thousands and thousands at the shut down of the port of Oakland, for example.
I don’t deny that the actions these vandals took were moronic, but revolution is a messy thing. Maybe in your infinite wisdom you can teach us all how to enact change in the world while remaining peaceful and forcing all the angry shits who come to your meeting to do the same.
I wish the left was half as organized as the Tea Party wackos. They do the basic grass roots blocking and tackling and actually get shit done, taking over school boards, city councils, electing congressmen etc.
I feel sorry for whoever owns Weston Wear. Last year, an arsonist clears them out of that space, this year some dumb assholes smash their windows. They must feel cursed.
Weston Wear is a sizeable chain. I don’t think they’re all too upset
This really is sad. The same progressive “seasoned activists” who failed to gain traction fighting gentrification are saddling Occupy with the taint of that failure.
Instead of changing their approach, they are just raging now, taking advantage of the energy raised by tens of millions being put through the economic meat grinder that support Occupy.
Occupy is about confronting bankster and warmonger dominance over politics, economics and our lives, not a generalized receptacle for every failed leftist cause.
When activists take advantage of Occupy’s political support to graft on their favorite narrow cause, they insult the tens of millions of the 99% who have been crushed by the 1%.
Occupy is in no position to control its own actions, much less those of opportunists from both the nonprofit/labor sectors as well as those who favor property destruction as a tactic absent strategy.
We’ve all got to make property destruction socially unacceptable so long as it does not enjoy popular support by the 99%. Maybe some day it will. Today it does not.
If Occupy had some stated goals, it could claim that vandalism like this is not among them.
This is the beginning of the end of the Occupy movement. Most people do not support trashing small independent businesses for no reason.
I don’t see an Occupy statement denouncing violence, just some half-hearted crap about how “this wasn’t us, even if it might have been some of us.”
Occupy Wall Street made sense. Occupy Oakland does not. And trashing the Mission does not.
Wah, wah, wah. Cry for a bunch of broken windows. Y’all are hilarious.
If one of y’all complainers spent this much energy shouting down state or corporate violence I’d be surprised.
And to the person who thinks that participants in this action will be at 4barrel tomorrow, ha ha ha.
And to all the folks who think that Occupy is an organization, that can be accountable to others who act in the name of Occupy, an even bigger ha ha ha. You clearly haven’t left the house in a while, I mean like come to a rally, or GA, or foreclosure defense, or study group, or witnessed police violence against non-violent pacifists who really didn’t yell, throw anything, run, or riot.
Check out the violence implicated in the computers we’re communicating with. That’s some fucked up inconsiderate cruel and unnecessary shit by some short-sighted fuckwads who don’t give a shit about anything.
“And to all the folks who think that Occupy is an organization, that can be accountable to others who act in the name of Occupy, an even bigger ha ha ha.”
Well yeah, Occupy is whatever anyone wants it to mean at any particular moment. If good shit happens, Yes, We’re Occupy! If bad shit happens, Nope, Wasn’t Us!
Regardless, the same sad fucks who call themselves Occupy decided it was a good idea to rally in the Mission. Why? WTF is in the Mission that requires Occupy’s attention? I remember seeing them parade past Dolores Park last year… and pretty much everyone around me said the same thing: “What the hell is there to protest around here? There’s no bank on Dolores and 18th.” Why not go to FiDi? Hell, we do have a couple McDonalds, a Burger King, etc., but instead they trash local restaurants and an art gallery? Fuck them.
There’s a lot to protest in the Mission actually, like the yuppie takeover of the WHOLE GODDAMN NEIGHBORHOOD, forcing all the working class out. Those “local restaurants and an art gallery” would be better off on Union Street, but they come to our “urban and gritty” neighborhood because all you trust fund hipsters think it’s trendy to go slumming, but don’t want to deal with the realities of neighborhoods like mine so you kick out all the poor people.
Could you please call us “sheeple”? It’s so cute when you do that.
To any of those douches that participated in the event of violating people’s property and local businesses, I hope you are reading this right now: I’ll just enjoying knowing that you and your likeminded ilk will never ammount to anything
DECOLONIZE THE MISSION.
These small businesses are just gentrifying forces that have assisted in the displacement of real Mission residents and provided a home for yuppie, white computer programmers and “artists”. I don’t feel sorry for one second that Valencia St. was confronted with the anger that capitalism creates. Poor organic, local, coffee shop and what will we do now that the local art gallery has a broken window?
Whatever: When I started doing business on Valencia street, it was 1994, and I was surrounded by used furniture stores, heroin dealers, and vacancies. Just because you can not afford the things these businesses provide doesn’t mean they are elitist, it just means you need a better job. In fact Therapy is taking applications today, stop by and find out about the benefits I provide my employees before you decide I am a jerk who deserves to have his employees terrorized, and his property destroyed.