In Berkeley they called the livestreamer you're talking about out at gunpoint then threw his camera on the ground when he asked for their badge number and ID. Before the livestream went dark, he was heard yelling "They're beating me up, help me, help me" and now no one knows what happened to him or his PTSD Dog.

Very scary stuff.

I saw a lot of tweets about reduced media coverage. At first I thought it was just vanity complaints from people who were in it for the selfies, and the media had just moved on because bridge take-overs had gotten old.

But then I noticed Berkeleyside coverage stopped abruptly at 9:30, almost mid-sentence. That's just weird. I think it's plausible someone did say: "They will stop if the media isn't paying attention to them." Sort of like when parents ignore a child who is throwing a tantrum.

Perhaps that order even came from the White House, since the question about Berkeley was put to the Press Secretary. Withholding media coverage is preferable to sending in the National Guard.

But in this day and age the kids can make their own media. Propaganda can bubble up from below.

I think it's awesome that the assumptions of central control can be broken that way. If the cops think they can put the rabbit back in the hat by confiscating people's phones, they are very much mistaken. People will see what they do and cry "Police State!" - colossal backfire.

Okay, if that's Berkeley PD, stop it.

If the Police wanted to collect evidence on the guys breaking windows, they would encourage observers. obviously they don't want those pictures.

they don't want people to document anything. That leaves a paper trail, with no one to document anything the police then have free reign to do as they please.

I simply do not trust ANY officer any more. I don't care who they are.

during exercises of extreme violence for which he holds absolute responsibility.
abominable partisan lapse of perception.
he is a violent monster.

He said they gave them riot training that included watching video of riots after hockey games in Canada. Also that they taught them specifically to swing at cameras and smart phones early in any melee.

When I left, I jokingly told him "see you after the hockey game..."

The Berkeley Community should have had a chance to discuss their concerns about police tactics, and everyone should have had an opportunity for a group hug afterward because the Berkeley PD isn't so bad.

While we shouldn't tolerate police abuses of power, we wouldn't have rights without being able to call on the police to help defend them.

Constantly provoking the polices in hoping to create photo ops is uncool.

I'm sure it must be very stressful to think your every little mistake might be caught on camera. I wouldn't want to be in that position.

The City Council Meeting was where those concerns could have been mutually expressed.

In the meantime, though, the police can't just disperse the press - even the "people's press" through brute force. That's just the nature of this situation, and the police themselves set it up that way on Saturday. Now they should deal with the consequences by just doing their jobs in an upright, honest, and community-friendly manner. Just keep doing your job.

Read this article for a political rationale of looting that the police have to deal with:

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/in-defense-of-looting/

The sad thing is the poverty aspect of that article sort of has a point in Oakland. There you can only get welfare for 3 months out of the year if you are able to work, whether you have a job or not - and that welfare is a $366/month loan (where rents are far higher and skyrocketing because of gentrification), and people are expected to pay back that loan on their minimum wage sporadic jobs when they are already in a toxic stress vortex of debt, appointments, and possibly court dates. I've been to an Oakland Supervisor's Committee meeting on General Assistance welfare, and the only "reform" they talked about is for small programs that help around 16 people, when caseworkers handle caseloads of 900!!! Of course people are falling through the cracks by the hundreds, if not the thousands - and this system does extend out to Berkeley, which is in the same county. This layer of poverty has been covered up by the press in recent years as they have preferred to focus on positive job growth and statistics. So if looting can bring attention back to certain realities, here, I can see why a few windows are being smashed - especially if they are focusing on chains that hire people for minimum wage and keep people working under full time hours so they can't earn benefits.

But, ultimately, we still need the police. We still want a society where there is someone to call when roving bands of vicious criminals are out to rape and pillage. We don't want civilization to be reduced to a smoking heap of rubble.

That's why we should have held the Berkeley City Council meeting - to find a way to bring the Berkeley Police back INTO the community.