“it’s not a riot, it’s a protest”, she said
so, yeah: all the windows in my car, parked RIGHT NEXT TO THIS ONE ON FIRE, were smashed.
in case you missed it, on new year’s day, a BART policeman shot an unarmed man in the back.
and obviously, people are pissed. there were protests all over today, and this one got way out of hand. the earlier part of the protest included a candlelight vigil and very peaceful. i know that, and that was the right thing to do. it’s just really unfortunate that what it spiraled into was completely counterproductive and violent.
i wasn’t there to participate in the protest. my friend and i had parked downtown to have dinner before we went dancing, and just got caught in the middle of it, like 3 times over the course of several hours between our dinner and dancing (but i twittered what i saw in real time!—>). we initially moved from one restaurant location @ 8th street/Broadway to another one @ 13th/Franklin to avoid the protest, which i thought was fairly peaceful looking, but it eventually followed us uptown and got more violent, and when we left the 2nd restaurant i couldn’t get to my car because it was being blocked by riot police. we just figured….what can we do? and went dancing. it was actually really nice to have this safe-feeling dance space to walk into after being surrounded by so much negativity and anger, and we danced hard. if armageddon or somesuch ever really does happen, can someone please just throw a party?
during the invocation, the speaker told everyone there was a riot going on outside and to be really aware and partner up when leaving, and some valiant defender of active democracy interrupted with”it’s not a riot, it’s a protest”. had she been outside? THAT WAS A RIOT. it was hard for me to keep quiet.
anyway, i figured it would all be gone by the time we were done, as this thing had been going on for HOURS already, but when we left the ballroom @ 19th/Broadway there was a huge crowd of police and protesters and ambulances right outside, and when we got back to my car it had been smashed. i guess i’m an idiot for not realizing it was going to get that out of hand and move all over and not getting the fuck out of downtown, but when we parked at the 2nd restaurant, there was no sign of the protest in that area, and it had seemed like it was dispersing. WRONG. it’s still going on now, i’m sure, after midnight. actually, i was invited to join the protest with some friends, and i was like “NO FUCKING WAY”, so i guess part of me did know it would get out of hand. more than anything i didn’t realize it was going to last so long and cover so much of the city.
i have a lot of thoughts in my head about this right now – about what options we have to stand up for justice besides rioting in the streets, about what to do with our anger, about violence begetting violence – but i need to go to bed so i can get up and deal with my car before i go to work tomorrow.
or maybe i need a day off.
5 Responses to ““it’s not a riot, it’s a protest”, she said”
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a real shame about your windows, that sucks. it’s a shame that when people get riled up and upset, they end up forgetting who they are angry at and just bust up everything.
Stay safe!
Sorry about your car.
Yeah, sorry about your car and the crazy riots. After participating in the SF shutdowns when the U.S. invaded Iraq (the second time), I generally feel that these “protests” tend to be an impotent venting of rage: unavoidable, perhaps, but also ineffectual.
On the other hand, I still bristle a bit when the destruction of property is called “violence.” There’s a big difference between murder or violence against a person’s well-being and the breaking of an inanimate object. I kind of wish we had different words for the two.
In this case, the news reports I’ve read have no reports of injuries. A lot of stuff was broken and burned, but no one (thankfully) was hurt. So, it definitely sounds like a “riot.” Maybe we could say that it was “destructive” as opposed to “violent.”
I was curious what I would see emerging from the 12th Street BART stop this morning for work. Nothing crazy on my street (13th). I guess all the commotion was on 14th. Still, I hear there’s another gathering scheduled for this afternoon or evening. If true, I think I’ll be leaving work a little early today. Wouldn’t want to wait too long and find out that my BART stop was shut down…
Sorry about your car. I read so many comments from protestors in the Chron that just seemed misguided. When questioned about busting up and demolishing black-owned businesses in the streets of Oakland, the protestors simply seemed angry, and not purposeful.
I’m worried that now that this cop has resigned and won’t have to face investigation, that it could spark new riots. There’s no accountability and that might piss people off even more. I know that when I read about his resignation and avoidance of the investigation, I got pretty pissed.
you might want to check out this documentary REVOLUTION ’67 which looks at the riots in Newark in the 60s that was a disturbingly similar situation. In that particular incident, it was also police brutality that ignited the wrath of frustrated citezens. The film tries to shed light on the influences that let to the 500 examples of urban rebellions/unrest/disturbances in U.S. cities during that decade. It is worth watching to parallel what has changed, what hasn’t and what has gotten worse in the forty years since.
here’s a link to the film’s page:
http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0203