Eric Garner protests turn violent in Berkeley, California; smashed windows and two cops injured - Polidicks

[quote](CNN) -- Protests turned violent in northern California early Sunday when some masked demonstrators smashed windows while others pelted officers with rocks and bottles, authorities said. Police said about 200 people were on Berkeley streets for another day of protests over a grand jury decision not to indict New York City Officer Daniel Pantaleo for Eric Garner's death on July 17. But as some broke windows at businesses in the city, other protesters implored them to stop the violence. Police in riot gear lined the streets while others hovered nearby on motorbikes. They warned crowds to disperse, but some vandalized various businesses, including a Trader Joe's and a Wells Fargo Bank, police said. Authorities used teargas to break up the crowds, said Jennifer Coats, a spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department. "A small portion of protesters have been violent. They started throwing rocks and other projectiles at our officers," Coats said. Two officers suffered minor injuries as a result, including one who was treated for a dislocated shoulder.[/quote] [url]http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/07/justice/protests-grand-jury-chokehold/index.html?hpt=hp_t2[/url]

Eric Garner's death was bullshit, and there should be protests over the lack of indictment, but [I]destroying shit and attacking cops is not the fucking way to make your voice heard.[/I] Like jesus christ, you'd think the protesters would understand that by now.

Non-violent protests are the only way to enact real social change. No matter how unjust an event might be, being violent in retaliation is not going to make anyone want to take your side.

[QUOTE=Starlight 456;46662375]Eric Garner's death was bullshit, and there should be protests over the lack of indictment, but [I]destroying shit and attacking cops is not the fucking way to make your voice heard.[/I] Like jesus christ, you'd think the protesters would understand that by now.[/QUOTE] Well, I'm reading about these protests and not the dozens of others specifically. I'm not saying that violence is the answer, but I'm hearing these guys voices in particular right now. [editline]7th December 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=valkery;46662382]Non-violent protests are the only way to enact real social change. No matter how unjust an event might be, being violent in retaliation is not going to make anyone want to take your side.[/QUOTE] Actually, historically speaking, labor historians have found that the labor movement in the US made the most gains when it was the most militant and violent. When you compare the labor movement to the black freedom movement, both are kind of failing right now, decades down the line, but at least one saw swift and more tangible gains while the other never really got all that it wanted.

Watch as people (and probably some media) try to twist this to act like all of the protesters are violent thugs, just like they did with Ferguson. I'm getting sick to death of the word 'thug', by this point it's almost only ever used by racists to refer to black people.

[QUOTE=Jamsponge;46662590]Watch as people (and probably some media) try to twist this to act like all of the protesters are violent thugs, just like they did with Ferguson. I'm getting sick to death of the word 'thug', by this point it's almost only ever used by racists to refer to black people.[/QUOTE] People who destroy shit and loot shit ARE thugs. Hell, that's almost the meaning of THUG. People who riot after some bullshit happens that doesn't involve them in any way, shape, or form by destroying shit and hurting/killing people are mindless thugs to begin with who have a pent up anger.

[QUOTE=valkery;46662382]Non-violent protests are the only way to enact real social change. No matter how unjust an event might be, being violent in retaliation is not going to make anyone want to take your side.[/QUOTE] Not really. Violence has repeatedly proven itself an effective tool for forcing social and political change throughout human history. Violence has almost single-handedly written human history through war, political repression, ethnic cleansing, etc. Look back at the not too distant 20th century for a modern recollection. It's just that there are times when it's justified and times where it isn't, acts of violence which have justified tactics and legitimate targets and others which do not. This is not one of those times where it's justified, breaking and smashing innocent people's shit.

And here we go again.

i'd have a grain of sympathy, against my better judgement i guess, if the buildings being damaged were the usual monuments to gentrification that are slowly ruining thousands of peoples' lives rn but you just cant tell from the articles

[QUOTE=NoobieWafer223;46662649]People who destroy shit and loot shit ARE thugs. Hell, that's almost the meaning of THUG. People who riot after some bullshit happens that doesn't involve them in any way, shape, or form by destroying shit and hurting/killing people are mindless thugs to begin with who have a pent up anger.[/QUOTE] Actually "thugs" were most commonly defined as people hired to start trouble, usually by the power-that-be, to crush the "rebellious" strikers, rioters, demonstrators, or protesters. Speaking historically. Now it's somewhat differently. All the same, the term is used in the media to refer exclusively to black people in the Ferguson protests. No one called the anarchists rioting in Pittsburgh in '08 thugs. No one called the pumpkin rioters thugs, or used the same language they referred to black rioters with, and this was called out. And beyond that, throwing around "thug" completely makes a multi-dimensional group of people with multi-dimensional claims of harm single-dimensional by making "protesters" into "criminal".

[QUOTE=The golden;46663227]I don't understand how just words are going to change anything when the people in power do not give a single FUCK about your words or anything you say. That's why these things happen in the first place - the populace is not being listened to.[/QUOTE] It's not just words. It's where you go and protest and cause such a scene that the people in power can't avoid the issue any more. And then you keep the pressure up until the things you are protesting against are fixed in whatever capacity the authorities can fix it. Although, as SeedEater and Govna have correctly pointed out, it's been a historically ineffective, or minimally effective at best. In a better world, we would see something like the Egyptian uprising where the protesters got the change they wanted, and didn't have to resort to violence until the police became militaristic against them. And even then the majority of the violence was in self-defense and standing up for their rights as citizens. A best world would be both sides seeing eye-to-eye and quickly and efficiently enacting policy changes that are in the best interests of every demographic. That's never going to happen though.

I associate the word thug with the intent to intimidate with the threat of violence, not simply the ability to be violent.

It was really sudden, me and my friend were in a store less than a block away and as we left cops started to pile up. It was pretty sureal. We left shortly afterwards so luckily we weren't tear gassed.

[QUOTE=Starlight 456;46662375]Eric Garner's death was bullshit, and there should be protests over the lack of indictment, but [I]destroying shit and attacking cops is not the fucking way to make your voice heard.[/I] Like jesus christ, you'd think the protesters would understand that by now.[/QUOTE] one of the officers has permanent disfigurement because of the injuries

[QUOTE=Aredbomb;46663379]I associate the word thug with the intent to intimidate with the threat of violence, not simply the ability to be violent.[/QUOTE] At this point "thug" has evolved into a coded racial slur, and I'd go as far to say that it's becoming the 21st version of the n-word.

I was there with a friend for a little while between 815-940ish taking pictures and such. In the beginning it seemed really controlled with not a lot of mischief going on. Those that tried to throw trash cans and break other stuff into the street were generally looked down upon by the crowd marching down the street and were often told to gtfo. The cops had mobile deployment vehicles which sortve looked like a bat mobile SWAT van hybrid. These trailed the protestors as they went through the main streets, even the BART station enterance by University Ave was closed. The police were generally calm and ok with people marching down some of the main streets in Berkeley, mostly by the UC campus. We didn't see anyone get arrested while we were there but we did see some people get pushed back by the police as they got too close to them which was understandable. It was odd because once the group of protestors passed down a street, everybody would go back to their business, eating at restaurants, working at the music store. Hell I even saw a guy trying to get protestors to go into Nation's Burgers to grab a bite to eat. All in all it was pretty interesting to see the protest first hand. When the protestors marched through the street where I parked my car which was around 830ish on University Ave, there was about 100-1500 of them marching through the street. None of them even touched my car, let alone any of the other ones parked by and just continued with their marching and chanting. The highlight that I will remember from that night was when there was a Fraternity guy, who was dressed in a dress shirt, backwards visor and khaki shorts with boat shoes. he tried to grab a garbage can and throw it into the middle of the street for whatever reason. As he tried to do this, a whole bunch of people were yelling at him to stop and that they don't want him to ruin their image. Sure everybody was joining in the chants of fuck the police and hands up don't shoot but no one who truly wanted to be apart of the protest was doing any vandalizing and such, only those who were there for the hell of it were doing stupid shit.