Don't eat meat, ride a bike...that's how you can brake global warming, the head of the United Nation's Nobel Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change said...

Things getting a little hot at 5th and Water Street.

Gee - where'd I hear of that crap happening before?

talking to Mr. Mapp of Danger Room when we saw a OPD officer on a bike apprehend someone in the Diamond Lot by the Indian restaurant. A customer came round the corner and said he was just at the bank (BoA), heard glass break and people start flooding out of the bank and yelling "get down!". The May Day march had just come by and we guessed that someone had broken a window. The streets were filled with police cars and officers really quickly. As I pulled away, I saw the paddy wagon on 5th in front of the bank and a bunch of May Day marchers grouped near by.  Two windows had rock sized holes through them. 

It must have been scary for people in the bank not knowing what had just come through the window.  And, as it is a bank, does that mean there could be federal charges?  Anyone know?

May Day is about Workers, not poseurs. Demeaning the struggles of working people by taunting the cops and breaking bank windows is bullshit. Get the Hell out of my neighborhood and go trash your own if that's what May Day means to you Punk Asses.

Hard Core! Anarchy in the USA! Dude, standin' up to The Man will sooo get ya laid tonight. Anti-Reagan and stuff man YEA!

What the Hell we're they thinking!?! Oh right, THEY WERE NOT THINKING! Oh this makes me so pissed. I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach any rationalizations for the actions of a Mob.

I support direct action. I support civil disobedience. I support the Port Resistance. I loath corporate amerika. I've worked for ACORN, Greenpeace, SANE/Freeze, and more than a few election campaigns. I've been active in politics longer than a 25 year old had been alive.

In that time I've learned pissing off the local cops does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to promote peace and justice. It sends potential allies running for the doors. It leaves excellent left wing activism like Camp Quoxite (sp?) vulnerable. Shit like this makes you, (I started to write the Progressive community but a Mob is in no way Progressive) look like the nihilistic, spoiled fools you are.

Damn right I'm angry. Rightfully so.

I'm going to say this much and then bow out.  I've lived in town for a year and there have been three riots or mini riots.  OTOH, I was expecting something like this from fringe elements this sort of crowd attracts.  

Wow:

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) made good on its threat to stage a virtual strike on May Day, effectively shutting down all U.S. and Canadian West Coast ports. The one-day “work-stoppage,” said ILWU officials, is to protest the war in Iraq and comes at a time when the union is in the middle of contract talks with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).

For shippers, however, the event may signal that more trouble lies ahead. “Longshore workers are standing-down on the job and standing up for America,” said ILWU president Bob McEllrath. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”…read on

There’s also a march planned.

On May Day 2008, longshore workers and other trade unionists will join together in a march starting at 10:30 AM at Mason St. & Beach St. and will rally at the Justin Herman Plaza. They will also join with the immigrant rights marchers. At 6:00 PM there will be a potluck at ILWU Local 34 which is located at 2nd St and Embarcadero next to the AT&T ball park.

The Olympian:

Bjornstad said two plainclothes narcotics detectives were inside Bank of America when a rock came through the window. Both went outside, and while one was apprehending someone he thought had broken a window and calling for help on his cell phone, another protester grabbed the phone and took off.

That cell phone - like a radio - is your lifeline.

You dish out punishment that is vicious and quick when people try to cut off your lifeline.

Councilman Joe Hyer said he was consid ering a resolution presented by protesters asking for Olympia to be designated a safe haven for illegal immigrants and asylum for war resisters. But not anymore.

"I changed my mind," he said. "You don't get to break windows of downtown businesses" and cause more overtime for police, he said.

Hyer also questioned why crowd members who were not violent defended the actions of those who were.

I was responding to "You dish out punishment that is vicious and quick." Law enforcement is not supposed to punish people (and certainly not in a vicious way). Punishment is the job of our criminal justice system (if you actually agree with every paragraph in that silly constitution of ours).

LIG

Why did the local "activists" let "black-hats" march with them?

I'd really like to hear from someone on the local activist bandwagon speak-up about the rock-throwing & marking of the halls in the Capital?

Why is this kind of behavior OK?

The Olympian:

"Fearing for his safety and believing he would need both hands to defend himself, (the detective) let go of the female subject and dropped his cell phone. At gunpoint, the throng backed away."

I've mentioned it following both the November protesting and Evergreen Dead Prez concert and saw someone bring it up - again - following this event.

If these types of actions continue, there's going to be an instance where a police officer is going to get backed into a corner to the point where they feel it is necessary to use a firearm.

I don't think a lot of these kids realize what they are doing is not an exercise confined to a lecture. They're taking part in activities which - quite literally - can carry grave consequences.

And then when it does happen, they're going to be looking around and wondering to themselves, What happened?