Mission Mission

Many veterans are out in the streets this afternoon protesting the 2010 arrest and detainment of Bradley Manning, the Army soldier who gave WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The leak brought to light many details and events that embarrassed the military, such as efforts to drastically lower the public civilian death count.

You can learn more about Manning and the case at bradleymanning.org, or get the gist of it at Manning’s Wikipedia page.

This is my fully edited account of the early morning efforts of the March 19 San Francisco Day of Direct Action. In it, you’ll find decked-out riot police, a brass band, more twirlers, demonstrating in front inflatable water slide of Chevron, a cable car, more Frank Chu, the Transamerica Pyramid, dancing in the streets, yelling in the streets, posters, signage, bloody hands, people in pink, motorcycles on sidewalks, blockaded intersections, and more — all set to the tune of “Big Ideas” by LCD Soundsystem.

Link to yesterday’s coverage.

Link to response at Curbed SF in which they’re debating the hipster question.

Link to Bay Area Direct Action.

All will be compiled into a better longer movie later this evening.

Here is the color guard twirling their flags in unison, marching in choreographed step with the big beats provided by the bouncy castle for sale brass band:

Next up is a short short shot of Frank Chu leading the snake march past a cable car on California Street:

Finally, War Mongers’ Diner perform “We Can Stop It”, to the tune of Jimmy Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want”:

Link to Bay Area Direct Action.
Link to War Mongers’ Diner.

Update: Here’s a cop with a big orange shotgun: