On some other forums I've interacted with lefties whose averred opinion is that these are good people doing honorable things. When presented with boundless evidence of misbehavior (and much worse) they invariably rationalize it away with a personal attack, "You're just trying to make them look bad" and present U-toob vids of peaceful protests.
The false dichotomy is that they present evidence of the bad parts of a good thing and I present the bad side of a bad thing. It isn't a proposition of "equal but opposite" attitudes.
On some other forums I've seen attitudes right out of the starting gate that intimated wanting to do violence against the OWS agitators. I've voiced my opposition to that, too. I believe the OWS agitators to be misguided in purpose, myopic in message, and misleading in intentions who blurred the line between civil assembly and protest and civil disobedience and anarchy. They were a nuisance from the start, but a nuisance that highlighted the silliness and pointlessness of the left so I was of a mind to let them be (with tight supervision of course).
My assertion all along is that a significant portion of the organizing effort behind OWS wants violent confrontation. They've worked to stage the scene in ways that appear peaceful but contain all of the elements for confrontation and conflict. At some phase of this melodrama they wanted to LIHOP (let it happen on purpose) the more violent characters into fights with the cops in the hopes of full-scale riots.
So why not cut to the chase with the water cannons and billy-clubs? Because the more violence-prone OWS groups are gathered in cities ruled by leftists such as bloomy and that blithering idiot Quan. Look at the mixed messages they've put out. They naively want to see the best in these agitators but they also (more importantly) need to maintain order. They are so conflicted that they're spinning in tight little circles. The cops see this and are exasperated. The agitators see this and are elated. They've mucked it up and now there's no getting back to good.
I'm watching the same sequence occurring right here in the Emerald City. The moron mayor has reversed himself so many times that there is a vote of no-confidence in the works by the cops. Much of this could have been avoided if only the mayors had set the expectations. "You may gather and protest as long as you do so legally and civilly" Implicit within that should be the clear threat, "Break the rules and we'll break your heads".
In the absence of such uncommon common sense we need(ed) to wait until things got violent and then put it down. I believe that we are now at that point. It may be too late to stroll out and deliver the aforementioned expectations, but unless the law asserts itself (and asserts itself now) they are guaranteeing violent confrontation.
Fortunately I do not have to cross paths with any of these degenerates (unlike the WTO riots where I found myself at ground-zero). I wish the best for anyone who must put up with these idiots....
