Anarchist tackles cop, frees demonstrator at RNC 2008

Run time: 00:44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXPQ0DybZ40   Posted on YouTube: September 03, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 05, 2008 By DU Member: Downtown Hound Views on DU: 2390

 
All I can say to this is...wow. I've been to many anti-war demonstrations, been arrested, and seen these black block folks around at a number of them. But I've never seen anything quite like this. I think people are really starting to get fed up, to the point where they're willing to take serious risks to fight back.

So what do you think? Are these folks heroes or punks? Personally, after all the massive misconduct of the police at these demonstrations and many others, I say they're heroes.

We have the numbers in these actions. THIS is the way we did it in the 60s! FINALLY, people are so fed up that they are taking it back!

The Revolution Will NOT be Televised!

street battles. Think 1934 - Longshore, Teamsters, Auto-lite...

The ruling class must feel threatened before they concede to the will of the people. Voting is a great ceremony, but real, substantive change only comes when it appears that the unwashed masses are about to break out the guillotines.

That cop was alone, it was probably 1 of the least protected cops I've seen. That guy just gave this police dept a reason to ask for more of your tax money and next time they will show up in full riot gear.

The way to fight back is peaceful mass protest and video cameras, the way eyewitness video does it. Violent people are a gift to authoritarian governments. It justifies crackdown and more police state measures. That's why americans are brainwashed with the idea of guns=freedom. As long as guns are out there police can use them to justify being over militarized and brutal.

If you on the other hand are being peaceful and clearly non violent but get brutalized and the video goes viral that can evoke sympathy on the part of some cops and can seriously undermine troop cohesion for police and military who's doctrine depends on being the good guys. Not to mention the payout a jury will award the victims once they sue the city. Not to mention these cops will be in serious legal trouble once Bush's justice dept is cleaned up years from now.

Remember, your job as a demonstrator is not to beat up cops, but to convince enough of them that you are the victim and make them join our side. at least that's ho it works in real life.

What you saw in the 60s was very different: cops are different and the crowd is different. a lot of people back then just didn't want to go to Nam.

Most cops are so far gone in terms of brainwashing that there's little hope of ever convincing them that we are the victims here. A lot of cops are ex-military, and many of them come from military families. Although there are a few liberal cops, most of them are very conservative. They hate anti-war protesters with every blood fiber in their being. They view themselves as our victims because they feel we are pissing on their service. Good luck trying to convince them otherwise. I know, I've tried it.

this is a great way to fight back.

Are you saying if you saw some cop run up to somebody, tackle them, and then drag them away by their hair you'd just stand there and do nothing???
Sorry... not all of us are such fucking cowards.

Political change isn't going to come about by people mobbing the cops... but it's not going to come about by accepting their brutalization either.
There's a difference between non violent direct action and allowing yourself/your group to be victimized.

"your job as a demonstrator is not to beat up cops, but to convince enough of them that you are the victim and make them join our side. at least that's ho it works in real life."

That's how you think it works in real life?

In all my 45 years, I've never seen any group of cops take the side of the anti-establishment protestors

...never...

It looks like that poor little jackbooted nazi used up all his pepper spray and had to run away. :(

You're gonna need back up. :rofl:

:bounce:

n/t

maybe they are are, that is why they are using excessive force on peaceful demonstrators.

Throughout the world and throughout history, many a coup or dictatorship has been thwarted when the rank-and-file enforcers realize that they have more in common with the rebels than with the ruling elite. When the cops and the military finally decide to defend their brothers and sisters instead of their overlords, that often does the trick.

Thank you for being out here. Thank you for working for the cause of justice. I am sleepy, and another day of waking up at 5:45 am awakes, and a day of labor fater that. Stay Safe!

Peace!

I don't think so, they are getting orders from higher officials, they think we are the criminals.

...during the last Republican convention. Saw people get arrested, but no one standing up to the cops.

there's only so much a human mind can tolerate before instinct takes over.


so who's the punks. oh you mean the cops. nevermind :P I see all this sh** going on and it reminds me of the stuff in Ireland. Fortunately no one's been killed that we know of yet.

So when the RNC leaves... how well are the people going to act in the twin cities around cops for months after this I wonder.

They are imported there from surrounding areas. Which means they are more likely to come from rural conservative areas, and are likely to have a very high rate of ex-military in their ranks. I've even heard that the Marines were in St. Paul during this convention, although I haven't been able to confirm that. One way or another, it's a police state for sure.

Now is the time everybody, this is our generation's war. Sometimes, a generation is called upon to take great risk in defense of freedom, and now, it happens to be us. We have to be willing to sacrifice much in the coming years, but if we are united, disciplined, determined, and strong, we can prevail. This video proves that. We can shut them down, and drive them back into the darkness where they belong. The fight has just begun.

...looked like the streets of wartime Beruit, or something.

their country, you will be seeing more confrontations. It is up to us.

The cops have gone beyond the rights given by our social contract.

Maybe next time, you fucking porker. Maybe next time.

"When peaceful revolution is made impossible, violent revolution is made inevitable"

-John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Violence breeds violence. The bad guys are violent. We want justice.

Your thirst for violence is alarming, but not surprising, given the role models you're supplied with.

The next time, the cops will say look at this video. See we need more firepower, 12 gauge shotguns with bean bags probably. That will be really nice for the innocent people who get caught up with the idiots.

David

and we should never offer resistance.. as it will just "make it worse" next time?

Of course they'll use it as an excuse to ask for more firepower, or to train new thugs "this is what protesters do so be ready".
So what? If that wasn't the reason there'd be another.

As for "innocent" people getting caught up with the "idiots" ... are you saying that protesters are "idiots"?
That would be a pretty fucked up attitude on your part.

Your logic is fallacious!

Of course, the problem is that I do.

You don't care about principle. You just want to be on the winning team of the same game.

Probably just with a taser or maybe one of those paint ball guns they had on future weapons.

David

the single smart thing that cop did was NOT to draw and fire anything
He knew he was alone and outnumbered in an angry crowd so he ran.

If he had fired something I'm guessing most people would have scattered but the chance of him getting shot back or getting mobbed would have gone through the roof.
It's really amazing how fast a lone cop can completely lose control of an angry crowd by pushing too far.

This is how people get dead.

These situations are extremely stressful for everyone involved, it's not hard for things to escalate. I have been on medical scenes with much less going on and wondered if my crew was going to make it out alive.

David

They came in and ratched up the tension and created bad feeling and interfered with guys who knew what they were doing in their community. Letting the Feds direct this was a big mistake.

Pressure makes pearls. :)

Pressure makes diamonds, irritation makes pearls.

-Hoot

i was typing that and i knew it sounded wrong

but i just couldnt figure out why

damn you late night posting!

"Let him go! Let him go!" One brave anarchist actually did something. In this case it would seem that the "docile" way would not have won after all.

And he's inviting an escalation of violence, which they always have more of than we do.

Sorry, but after years of protesting peacefully and committing non-violent civil disobedience, I can honestly say that the government really doesn't give a shit if you protest peacefully. At some point, we have to scare them. I don't think things will ever really change until they fear the people, not laugh at them.

I've got news for you. Half of the guys volunteer for this duty so they get to beat the crap out of you guys, the other half hate being there and are under extreme stress and high likely to overreact.

David

You can cower in fear, or you can stand up for what's right, no matter what the cost. I think I'll take the latter.

I'm personally not a big fan of the anarchist, a lot of white supremacist subscribe to the movement. I don't think assaulting police officers is a good way to achieve your goal. Nothing to cower about just a horrible strategy.

David

As a strategy, I still prefer non-violent civil disobedience. But even that often arouses gross overreactions and excessive force. Supposedly the guy in this video was being arrested because he had a camera and was filming when he wasn't supposed to. I admire anybody that stands up to fascist tactics like that.

"a lot of white supremacist subscribe to the movement"?

You've got ZERO fucking clue about anarchists and you just made that very very clear.
:rofl:

or fight back.

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to interrupt the "bad cop". You know damn well it's got to take place. No, I personally don't think it should, but there you go...

That's why you do the Black Bloc thing in the first place: no working description, and you can unarrest people wrongfully detained by the police. It's like the Thomas Crown Affair, where everyone where's the Magritte outfit.

Four to six demonstrators could have tackled the cop, thrown flexicuffs on his hands and wrists, and then whisked him off to a safe storage location.

A perfect peacful solution: The harrassing cop is taken out of the picture for the duration of the show, nobody is hurt, and the demonstrators are freed up to deal with the next cop.

middle of the demonstrators alone. That asshole was so high on adrenaline he thought he was gonna make his reputation as Mr. Badass Cop of Minneapolis.

It's too bad shit like that happens. Next time people could get killed. Innocent people, not anarchists.

Rest assured that this incident will mean that the cops come out in force from now on.

The cops have been coming out in force for years now.

to meet with Nancy's guy, I had a physical reaction to all the weapons, the armor -- it was like we were an occupied city. DHS cars and uniforms all over the place.

And it had nothing to do with us. We were just 12 or so middle aged people in normal dress, not even pinked out or anything. We were just going for a planned meeting quietly, no bells or whistles.

I used to translate in that building every day. I don't recognize this place any more.

I understand and respect your position sfexpat2000. Really I do. But I truly believe we're at a point in the life of our nation where we're really going to have to step up if we want to take our country back. If Obama wins, then maybe it won't come to that. But if McCain wins, then it's really going to get crazy here. There is no way he's not going to take us to war with Iran, and we can kiss our economy goodbye when that happens. We're at a point where we're going to have to risk a lot, our health, our livelihoods, our freedom, even our lives, if we want to have any semblance of a democracy left. We won't just be able to go to protests and have a good time dancing and marching in the streets, and we won't just be able to trespass or block an entrance and spend a night or a few days in jail. Take a look at this video to see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6L8J3L-2Kw

The leaders of this country are downright Nazis. Such people don't care about your differing opinion if it poses no threat to them. That being said, I do think that non-violent civil disobedience has lots of potential if it's done large scale and long term. So I don't really advocate breaking shit or mindless rioting. But in my experience, the black block and other such groups don't do as much of that as the media likes to say. I keep hearing all this talk about protesters breaking windows, throwing feces at the police and so forth, yet, there is no video of anything like that happening on youtube anywhere. The cops have their own cameras, why not release some footage of that to counter the criticism?

I've done "breakaway" marches on three occasions. Mostly what tends to happen is that people march peacefully where they're not supposed to go, and that brings out the police in full riot gear, ready to do battle. From there, it tends to escalate. As we've seen in St. Paul, they're playing by a whole new set of rules now, and it's scary. At some point, they're going to have to learn that if they increase their oppression, we will increase our resistance.

the RNC Welcoming Committee -- they were helping to coordinate for a lot of different groups. That's why they went after I Witness Video -- they were there to witness, not to protest, let alone riot.

They're coming after our networks. We can't let them do that.

The peaceful resistance must grow by leaps and bounds. The tough part is that most of the practitioners are getting their info strictly through the Web because the MSM is so reich-wing. I know lots of people who are pissed and outraged by the war, the Bush Crime Family and McAnus but they don't go to DU or other sites because they are watching the Tube, so they are pretty ignorant of things like the kind of fascist response to demonstrations that the DHS and police have had. It's a case of educating people one at a time.

The most effective event to bring all of this into focus would be a peaceful general strike. Totally peaceful. Just don't show up for work unless you're in an essential/emergency/medical job FOR ONE DAY. Talk about crystallizing the feeling of the people into action. That would be the ultimate. Unfortunately, the MSM would never even HINT at that kind of thing, much less help get the word out.

I'm with Downtown Hound on things easing up a bit IF Obama is elected. But I'll still be on wait-and-see status. I'm not convinced that the Democratic leadership has the people's best interest at heart. To me, they've shown the exact opposite. How much Obama will want to buck them or try to buck them remains to be seen.

Sfexpat, we just need to keep building the networks. They will be infiltrated and harrassed for sure but there's power in numbers.

I just want to eliminate the violent demonstrations. That type of thing is the excuse Bush is looking for to order martial law.

or who egg others on to misbehave. So, until there is a trial, I withhold judgment.

Most of the people who organized the RNC Welcoming Committee seem like dedicated pacifists. Amy Goodman has had them on her show over the last week. I've yet to hear any of them say "Kill pigs!" or anything remotely violent. Maybe there were people like that there. I haven't seen or heard that myself.

This is an art form that these fascist assholes have been practicing for a LONG time. They've honed it to perfection in every Third World nation that tries (or tried) to throw off the U.S. yoke of imperial oppression. I'm sure they have their own psychologists/psychiatrists who can determine what a plant can do and say without raising suspicion in the group he/she is infiltrating.

I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to infiltrate most liberal-type anti-war or anti-imperial groups because the folks who make them up are not trained to recognize and deal with planted agents. Besides that, they want to feel a kinship with their fellow group members so they are willing to overlook or ignore signs that a person might not be on the up-and-up.

it's a sad state of affairs, but these fuckers are very sophisticated in their methodology and they have the money to "buy" individuals and to support infiltrators financially.

And, of course, how many groups like RNC Welcoming Committee have the financial resources or expertise to root out plants? Very very few, is my guess.

I don't really know how to combat this stuff except to try to be legit and above-board with the group's activities, then sue the shit out of the fascists when they overstep.

happened?

Judging by everything we're seeing on DU and YouTube you're right about them coming out in force everywhere else in Minneapolis.

Maybe the anarchist was a folkhero.

eat asphalt

I'd sure fucking want somebody to do that for me.

That's all I can say, without knowing more about the situation.

When flvegan tackles him, he's going to know what a baseball feels like after a bat hits it.

I'm the one that'd do something slightly crazy like that.