cops protected protestors today

From what I saw, police were restrained -- to my amazement -- and actually ended by guarding us protesters against the "pro-USA" violent thugs who had gathered across the street from the final area of the demonstration, when many of the exhausted protesters who had been there since 5:30 AM had left (or been arrested).

My gratitude goes to the police, who handled things with a certain amount of reason today.

No one was shot with wooden dowels, "rubber" bullets, concussion grenades, pepper spray or any of that cruel and unusual punishment.

Those thugs across the street (who varied their chant by switching over to "SUV! SUV! SUV!" every one in awhile) tried to set off a violent incident at one point when they bellowed through their megaphone "Here we come!" and stomped across and started shoving and yelling in people's faces.

One of their high-class signs said "In Bush I Trust" -- just to show you the level of mentality on display.

San Ramon is no bastion of intellectual development, and is a very wealthy, privileged area -- exactly why the headquarters of Chevron-Toxico is located there in that center of smug self-satisfaction. We did in fact get some support from several locals who stood with us for a portion of the time -- one mother with two small children brought us bags of organic fruit and desserts and kept thanking us for demonstrating.

Nevertheless, the amount of pro-war feedback was marked (I wonder if Clear Channel had anything at all to do with this). You would not see this level of fanatical frothing by the population of Richmond, where most people are aware of at least the local death-dealing effects of Chevron. However, Richmond police have shown themselves capable of going violently out of control -- guess they stay more in practice by regularly working over the poor ethnic minorities who live there.

No vandalism or violence was perpetrated today, and San Ramon gets kudos for the police's overall behavior -- but the neighborhood is really scary.