I can't imagine it would be too much fun.

And that's what I was saying but I was at work and couldn't build a coherent comment in the time I had.

Agreeing with Rick.

There would have been a different response, but it would also depend on what the crowd does. If this breaking window and assaulting police officers crap continued we would see a mini version of the LA riots. If it was a peaceful march, streets were not blocked, and blockades not made then the response would differ. Heck had that happened here, all that pepper spray would not have been expended.

Peaceful protests must be peaceful, and I will maintain as I always have that does not include blocking traffic. Violent protests result in violent response, peaceful protests result in peaceful response.

A protest is simply asking (not always politely or quietly) for someone in power to do, or to not do something. Direct action is blocking their ability to do it, through one's own actions. Let's keep in mind that these two tactics go hand in hand and are not always separate - but they are fundamentally different.

I'm not the exception to the rule in PMR, though most of those arrested are probably people who can afford it in terms of time, loss of income, and status (read: young people in college here). That should not surprise anyone.

By the way, it's actually a lot more spoiled to carp from the sidelines - rather than put one's ass on the line for one's beliefs.

Americans applauded the courage of a Chinese student has he stood in front of tanks in Tianamen Square.

Fast forward 18 years and bring the democracy fight to our homeland, and the tide changes quickly.

I think this is part of the problem. Do the people protesting really put themselves in the same category as Tiananmen Square?

I have no doubt they view themselves as such, but can anyone with a straight face say they really think they're risking as much? Even arrest can't compare to what's happening in rural China today.

Seattle Times:

Yahoo caved [to Chinese government pressure] quicker than you can say Vichy France, and [journalist Shi Tao] is doing 10 years in a Chinese slammer for one click of his subversive mouse.

In addition, human-rights abuses are both systematic and endemic in China. From Catholics and Muslims to the Falun Gong, from pro-democracy voices and investigative journalists to the Free Tibet movement, the penalty for being caught for banned religious or political expression is arrest, beatings and sometimes death.

Now, there's another point to this article (U.S. companies are assisting the Chinese government) that should probably be discussed. But if you're protesting U.S. corporate involvement in China, the Port of Olympia isn't the place where any change is going to happen. It's not even a good starting point and a battle that I doubt will be won in the street.

I'm getting away from myself, though. My point is that people in real "police states" are risking a lot more than pepper spray (which some here have described as "torture.")

So please, don't set yourselves up as martyrs to an oppressive government waiting to come drag you away in the middle of the night. Any Vietnamese expatriate can tell you we're a long way from that. I worked with one such individual down at the City of Olympia Parks & Recreation Department while I was a seasonal. He gave a pretty vivid description of the "knock knock" that came to many people's homes and what it meant.

So that's why you "fast forward" 18 years and the "democracy fight" in the United States is viewed in a completely different light than the actual battle citizens in numerous other countries must face.

I think the "democracy fight" in the United States is less about an overall loss of a democratic system and more about the shortcomings that face every generation.