What’s The Point?
There is a major discussion going on at Corrente on the Black Bloc and Occupy Oakland, and Badtux thinks that the evidence seems point toward the Bloc being a COINTELPRO organization.
It has been shown that at the Canadian G20 summit many of those who seemed to be associated with the Black Bloc were definitely police officers as they were wearing the department issued boots. This may also explain why even relatively effective police departments don’t gather up the Black Bloc before trouble happens. It isn’t as if they are worried about civil rights.
My objection to the tactics of the Black Bloc is that they aren’t effective. If the goal is to change behaviors, then notes pasted to large plate glass windows saying ‘Nice windows. It would be a shame if something happened to them. Have you considered moving your money out of large banks into locally owned smaller banks, and not voting to put morons in office? Just a thought…”
The only message sent by random destruction is that the person doing it is a jerk. Further, the trespass and other bogus charges used by the police are violations, like traffic tickets, not crimes. Destruction of property is a crime with an identifiable victim, which prosecutors and judges are unlikely to overlook. There is no right to trash other people stuff in the Constitution.
Remember: A rising tide lifts all boats … but only the 1% can afford boats, so it’s sink or swim for the 99%.
Update: I forgot to include Sara Robinson’s advice from an old hippie about dealing with troublemakers when you are attempting to change attitudes and be inclusive.
5 comments
The argument given by the black bloc is that they *want* to get the cops wading in with truncheons making arrests, in order to show “the violence inherent in the system”. The problem with that notion is that most people are quite happy with the violence inherent in the system, as long as that state-sanctioned violence is aimed at nasty people like, say, stupid kids wearing black who throw bricks through their expensive plate glass windows.
I’ve read the anarchist tracts. I’ve listened to the black bloc types try to explain why their tactics are useful. None of it makes any sense at all. It’s like a cobbled up philosophy thrown together to attract alienated kids who want to feel powerful, sort of a cult now that I think about it, a cult that’s amazingly similar to Ayn Rand’s cult of perfect freedom without responsibility. And as with the Rand cult, it has absolutely nothing to do with leftists or left-wing causes, and black bloc in the midst of a protest should be treated the same as teabaggers in the midst of a protest — i.e., as a hostile force with a philosophy and goals completely incompatible with our own.
Yeah, right – like the white shirts in NYC or the OPD need to be ‘encouraged’ to wade into a crowd and arrest people. That’s their standard operating procedure … it’s what they do reflexively.
I am definitely not a pacifist which is why I avoid demonstrations that are aiming for non-violence. If attacked, I will always respond. and that is not what the majority want in the Occupy movement.
The Black Bloc aren’t really providing a reason for their actions, they are just looking for an excuse.
Sort of like the Ayn Rand fanatics, now that I think about it. I mean, who *really* believes that a bad science fiction writer’s philosophy is an appropriate way of organizing society? The people who adopt Rand as their guide to life aren’t looking for a philosophy that makes any sense, they’re looking for an excuse to behave in the anti-social way they already wanted to behave.
– Badtux the Coin-has-two-sides Penguin
Exactly, they want someone to tell them that it’s perfectly reasonable to be a sociopath and bust things up for the hell of it, as long as you can say it was a ‘political statement’. In Florida that kind of political statement qualifies you get shot by a homeowner. [I suspect they hand you a laminated card when you get your carry permit in Florida so you know the correct things to say to the cops when you shoot someone, i.e. “I was in fear of my life which is why I shot him.” It goes over better, than “I was tired of his dog crapping on my lawn.”]
And it’s perfectly fine to rip off old widow ladies and pension funds with a ginned up “electricity shortage” and fraudulent mortgage-backed securities that you know will fail but you’re selling them as AAA Treasury-grade securities, as long as you wave your copy of Ayn Rand around and say “it’s just capitalism, nobody *forced* them to buy electricity / buy securities!” One smashes windows, the other smashes economies, both adopt bogus philosophies to justify their smashing.
– Badtux the Disgusted Penguin