July 8 G8 protest photos

Okay - camera has a slow reflex time and it was dark, and I don't own an olympus brand etc.

Here, there were about 30-40 people on the street, and at least half started running down the sidewalk when the patrol officer drove quickly down the center, clearly intentioning he was about to grab someone. I have to still review and talk to others to figure out who he was specifically chasing, but my interpretation was that it was the man who had pushed that blue newsrack out.

Here is one arrest. I had to go down and cross to get to that side of the street. There were several onlookers asking them to let the person go. Perhaps this is the person who pushed the newsbox?

A couple minutes after the officer was hurt and after the aid cars had arrived, officers were forcibly clearing the center of 23rd street. This woman D was crying out from halfway down the block to others already on Mission street that they were twisting her arm behind her back, so I gave my camera to another person to film what was happening. I believe she was just a straggler or was behind everyone else, but had not participated in violence or damage at this scene.

(turn up brightness on computer monitor

Police were here and had the block cordoned off, taking measurements and arranging things for over an hour. The crowd pretty much dispersed at this point with minimal police observation at 16th after this. I have no report about the walk to Bryant street by some.

This is the skechers store. Two hours later, someone had greatly increased the size of that hole and pulled out the window.

Well, this has to be a depressing place for people to stand in line. I know it is for me. Still, despite the common understanding of more than 50% of the group for what is an appropriate symbolic target of protest, I believe we could improve in this area substantially. Namely, don't bring regular residents into this, or worse, get them on the opposite political side from you. Also I think there was a minority who truly hadn't thought this through, who are giving credit for their actions to the entire movement. It is a difficult question of one individual protesters here could step forward to stop or correct others who are behaving in a way they can't accept. What if one of the undercover police decided to act unethically and to actually do damage to a small business, or have a conflict with an onlooker - wouldn't that be easy?

Paint didn't touch their window, but the upper panel was broken and someone wrote a cartoonish @ symbol on a wall. A protester assisted cleaning the paint.

what's the difference between pg and e and a bank? people have to wait in line at both. it's kind of hard to judge how people will feel when they look at the windows tommorow, but i guess we know you're not going to be happy standing in line. do you not think there is some merit in blighting the the companay responsible for dumping carcinogens into hunter's point? i would say there is.

especially when you point that out, PG&E would be a company that causes early deaths through asthma, as well as siphoning off a large percentage of the working class budget in order to pay Enron and other malevolent companies run by a few unaccountable individuals, apparently able to supercede the law and even the California state legislature that couldn't prevent us from going billions into debt during the electricity price fixing crisis a couple years ago. So I suppose PG&E and the bank would be some medium level examples of bad companies that happen to be in the Mission. If you were to scan through the listings on the stock exchange, however, and learn about many of the companies listed, there are even worse companies situated in skyscrapers downtown, with security guards by the elevators.
In the larger system, the third world is kept poor by the system of 'investors' being able to quickly move money around the world - where they can keep wages low and force 85% + of the population in whole countries such as Indonesia, Mexico and central america, China to work 70 hour weeks at underpaid, dangerous jobs. This does kill people. These transnational companies in banking, manufacturing, agriculture, energy and so forth, rank as worse than the shoestore. The international system administered through the G8 and WTO and IMF that we have set up makes it so that the companies are only doing what is logical, and it is only if they go against the rules laid down by the system (that they should always act to maximize profit in any way possible, and that there should be minimal governmental restrictions on their actions) via irrational selfless charity, that we would get a capitalist system that is compatible with humanist goals - where poor people could get ahead via hard work and join the middle class. It is not an accident that despite having lots of international trade for decades, that the third world poor are largely getting poorer. It is only the top 10% in china and India who are now able to buy consumer goods and compete in the technology industry.
We always talk about victims of war and dictators under fascism, communism, and authoritarianism, however, these impoverished victims of the system of post-colonialist 'imperialism' (which means countries with economies run by transnational companies, and controlled by the International Monetary Fund debt, and 1st world installed rulers) should be grouped together as just as significant as chinese victims of Mao Tse Tung.

Luckily, only a couple people were under significant misunderstanding and demonstrated bad interactions with people in restaurants, or picked our especially bad graffiti targets.

Alright folks, next time i expect to see an actual smoking copcar..
preferably in a more bourgeois neighborhood.. sunnyvale or what have you.

No portestor unless he actually works there and is geting paid to do so,should assit any multi-naitonal company in cleaning up their messes, not unless their President and Board of Directors comes down and helps as well, and then helps to clean up the communities they messed up.

Sunnyvale is a middle class and werking class neighborhood. The rich don''t live there. The reason people were talking about Sunnyvale is because several military contractors have factories or offices there. The biggest one being the largest "defense" contractor in the Bay Area, and one of the largest in the US, Lockheed Martin. I think Lockheed Martin would be a wondeful target for people to go against in whatever way their consceinces tell them. (No answers from anybody who doesn't consider defense contractors worthy of being confronted will be respected.)

I could have ciritques to say about the weird and (not so weird) comments of the orginal poster, but the most important one is, 'why did you describe someone who allegedly perfomed an act that the cops would consider illegal?', whether you support or not. That's stupider than anything anybody did on that night.

'why did you describe someone who allegedly perfomed an act that the cops would consider illegal?

Where? I don't see a description, and in fact I failed to see anyone do anything above the level of newsbox tipping. That's why I went around asking several people and trying to talk to people about this on Saturday, although now I've moved on completely. What I observed and photographed firsthand would actually exonerate first that Dorrit lady, and probably Cody as well, because I just see them standing at a distance and making no motions to run towards an officer. It is an impulse to start spreading rumors right after an exciting event. One example would be these news reports that keep repeating an initial rumor that the object under the police car was a mattress. I didn't see a smoke bomb, and this was definitely a styrofoam chunk with much less flame potential, but now it seems like a fact because it was repeated by many news source. This new development that he was hit by a hammer, or even the unsubstantiated fact that the assaulter was even a protester, could be equally false, or just idle speculation that was propagated. I do feel very bad about what happened to him, and don't approve that anyone hit him, because many people have died from simple head injuries such as being hit by a baseball or falling and hitting a curb. This will screw up the climate for future protests in the city.

This is supporting information about what I just referred to. They are angry because they only were able to grab the last bystanders standing with bicycles at the scene, and the felon got away and we didn't have enough videographers either to cover all angles to get innocent protesters free, or for the police to identify

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_192191616.html


(CBS 5) The San Francisco mayor's office is offering a $10,000 reward for information that helps catch and convict the person who hit a police officer in the head during a protest Friday.

Officer Peter Shields was released from the hospital Monday to recover at home from a head wound. Investigators believe he was attacked by anarchists who were protesting the G8 summit in Scotland.

Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, says that officers were put in danger because the protestors were allowed to get the upper hand.

"Our members are livid, as you might suspect, and our members are growing a little weary of having sand kicked in their face," Delagnes said.

Delagnes said officers were told to follow the group of approximately 100 people who were protesting the G8 summit in Scotland by taking to the streets of the Mission District.

"You don't need probable cause at that point to disperse the crowd. There was no permit," Delganes said.

Investigators say the group then split off into groups of 15 to 20 people and began to vandalize businesses, and believe it was people from one of those splinter groups who attacked Shields. Delagnes says there's a difference between allowing lawful groups of people to exercise their First Amendment rights and giving unlawful groups the opportunity to wreak havoc.

"The people of San Francisco have to understand that there are a lot of groups out there that take advantage of the situation, and this is one of them," he said.

Three people have been arrested so far in connection with the assault on Shields. But investigators do not believe they have caught the person who actually hit Shields on the head, so that is why they issued the $10,000 reward.

(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

I hope that one day you do not need a cop. One day when you have kids. I hope that they aren't robbed or attacked. I hope that if they are, the witnesses help catch them, instead of attempting to vilify the officers who respond.

I hope that if your mother, or grandmother is robbed or beaten, that the citizens who witness it help to stop the attack, or help the police catch them, instead of running around telling all the other witnesses to call a lawyer if they are questioned.

Those who attack and beat anyone are wrong, and the only ones doing any attacking this night were protestors. But it is hard to call someone a protestor when they define by their own actions what they are protesting against. You want to be arrested and beaten so you can sue the city. When the cops responds peacefully, you decide to start beating on them. To bad they can't sue you for brutality.

It would be nice to see the family of the wounded police officer sue this web site for inciting violence against him that resulted in injury.

You love to sue, don't you? That't why you have lawyers on call.

There's a name for people who rely on the cops to protect them. They are called "victims."

The reason to have attorneys on board for any action (protest, civil disobedience, direct action, ect,) is because, historically, those in power--especially police--have abused that power. They need to be observed, actions need to be documented, ect,--and if anyone is arrested, they need to have a plan, preferably developed with legal observers and/or lawyers beforehand. History is the single greatest predictor of future human behavior--and history tells us, time and time again, that people in positions of power/authority are likely to abuse that power/authority--and that likelihood increases if vigilant citizens aren't watching, demanding transparency and holding those in power accountable. This applies to police forces, government, corporations, ect. By the way--the latest news is that they 'may' have arrested the wrong folks.

As somebody who considers himself closely allied with anarchist beliefs and is willing to take direct action when it is called for, I have to say that I am disgusted by not only what happened to this police officer, but also by the responses. The operative word that keeps being used over and over again is "machine". The war machine, the police machine, the prison machine. Of course these things exists, and should be fought against with every possible resource available. There is an enormous danger, however, when the machine is confused with the person. Of course there are police officers who are fucking assholes, but you know what, there are also anarchists who are fucking asshole. What should be recognized is that these police officers are tools of a corrupt and terrible system, and that they can be considered victims too. A lot of us have family or friends who became police officers, and you know what, they still are good *people*. Whoever has an immediate response when they see somebody that they have no idea of the history of bleeding on the street, wonder if they have children who might see that picture, if they have a partner, and the immediate response is "that fucking pig got what he deserved", you betray everything that you claim to believe in. If that were some coporate scum, or Dick fucking Cheney out there bleeding, I'd be throwing a fucking party, but by refusing to see the person, and just the uniform, you are committing the same act that the police are committing against us: refusing to address the humanity of the person that they are facing.

Anyways, if anybody has anything constructive or interesting to say, that'd be great. You certainly don't have to agree with me, but I'd appreciate a more thoughtful response than some vauge argument about how I'm a traitor to the cause.

Yep - reading the communique that AA left,.. I could describe it as poetic, but I'm worried about the tone, and slightly cultish quality. Remember that you want to be around next year for peak oil and the iranian bombings, or hopefully for the Karl Rove trial. Take a trip this summer, and have a goal to meet someone from a different culture each week.

This explains a lot of the questions about where the large group of police present at the early part suddenly went, and how the radio communications work. Regular patrol officers act in pairs or independently, while crowd control ones all have to work in a group, listening to a commander

AN FRANCISCO
Police chief's finding contradicts deputy's story on riot beating
No. 2 brass said no message was aired, but Fong says yes

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 13, 2005


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San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said Tuesday that her review of an anarchist demonstration that led to an officer's suffering a fractured skull found there had been no communications breakdown that could have left the officer to be overwhelmed by protesters.

Fong's finding contradicted an account offered by Deputy Chief Greg Suhr, who was in charge of the police response to Friday night's demonstration in the Mission District. He said Monday that 100 riot-helmeted officers under his command hadn't received a dispatch message about a splinter group of protesters who were breaking windows in the area and so had not gone to the scene.

Officer Peter Shields and his partner, patrolling the Mission in their police cruiser, heard the message over a Mission frequency and responded to the area of 23rd and Bartlett streets.

Shields, who had no helmet or other riot gear, and his partner encountered 30 protesters who had split away from a demonstration against the Group of Eight summit. One tossed a mattress under the patrol car and used a firework to try to set it ablaze, police said.

Shields chased after a protester and was soon surrounded by a crowd trying to wrest the protester away, police said. During the melee he was hit in the head and suffered a fractured skull.

Shields, 36, a five-year veteran of the department, is recovering at home. Three people were charged Tuesday in connection with the incident, but not with assaulting Shields.

Fong said Tuesday that Suhr's tactical squad had received the same message from dispatch as Shields and his partner. She said she had ordered an investigation into why Suhr's squad hadn't responded.

Suhr, 46, has overseen the department's patrol officers since 2002. He has been in charge of police response at every major demonstration and disturbance since then, including the 2003 protests that paralyzed much of downtown San Francisco after the United States invaded Iraq.

He declined to talk Tuesday about last week's protest. "Chief Fong wants to do all the commenting on this incident," he said.

The command staff's handling of the demonstration has provoked an uproar among the rank and file. Fong and Suhr both went early Tuesday to the Mission police station, where Shields is assigned. The chief said she wanted to talk to officers to assure them that the incident would be fully investigated.

At least one officer was circulating a petition expressing a lack of confidence in Fong, Suhr and other police officials. Fong said she was not concerned about it.

"I have a lot of work to do," Fong said. "My focus is to find out what happened in this case.

"The whole circumstances cause me very serious concern," the chief said. "We have a responsibility, not only to the public, but our own officers. Radio glitch or no radio glitch, we need to know what happened. That's the purpose of the review.''

On Monday, Suhr said the call that brought Shields and his partner, Officer Michael Wolf, to the scene had gone out over the Mission station's frequency but not the channel reserved for officers handling the protest.

Fong said her review showed that the call had indeed gone out to the riot squad officers. "I've not seen an indication of information not being reported on both channels,'' she said.

Fong said she was still investigating the incident and did not offer another explanation for why the riot officers had not responded either to the first call, or to two subsequent calls that Shields made -- the first at 9:57 p.m. reporting a major disturbance, and the second 15 seconds later requesting help.

Dispatch records reviewed by The Chronicle show that units from the neighboring Bayview district station responded to Shields' calls, as did other Mission units. Only one tactical officer announced on the air that he was responding.

Three minutes after the 9:57 call for help, Suhr came on the radio and told units en route to the scene not to go Code 3, which means with lights and sirens. Suhr has said the reason he called off the emergency response was that he was on scene, talking to the injured officer.

The incident has prompted a no-confidence petition drive by 25-year veteran Juanita Stockwell against Fong and Suhr.

The petition says the events surrounding the Friday night protest show that department officials consider officers' safety "secondary to the safety of the demonstrators who are intent on injuring us. ... Deputy Chief Suhr's lack of leadership and his failure to coordinate any organized plan of attack facilitated a serious injury to one of our officers.''

Stockwell said she had so far not gotten any responses from the petition, which asks that the command staff meet with rank-and-file officers. "I think the petition speaks for itself,'' she said.

On Tuesday, prosecutors lodged charges against three of the protesters, although none was accused of assaulting the officer.

Doritt Ernst, 26, of Berkeley, was charged with felony taking a baton from a police officer, as well as misdemeanor counts of rioting and resisting arrest. Gabriel Meyers, 28, whose residence is unknown, was charged with felony attempted lynching for allegedly trying to wrest away a prisoner from an officer, and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and rioting.

Cody Tarlow, 21, of Felton, was charged with three misdemeanors -- resisting arrest, wearing a mask and rioting.

First off, thanks for posting the piece, always interesting to read as many versions of something as possible.

As for your comment: "I could describe it as poetic, but I'm worried about the tone, and slightly cultish quality. Remember that you want to be around next year for peak oil and the iranian bombings, or hopefully for the Karl Rove trial. Take a trip this summer, and have a goal to meet someone from a different culture each week.
"

Um, yeah. I'm not a cult member, a poet, or a fanatic. I'm just somebody who tries to approach things from many points of view-and I don't believe that makes me weak or a traitor. Acknowledging humanity is vital to any fight. Isn't that the first rule of warfare? Duhumanize the enemy? Works in many different ways, and I prefer to at least acknowledge who I am fighting against. And yes, when Karl Rove gets hung up to dry, I'll see you at the party.

As for your slightly condescending suggestion, I actually just returned from living in another country for a year, and I'll be sure to try and attend those weekly "hey, I'm a white person who would love to have multicultural friends!" meetings that are apparently in existence.

I was referring to the 'communique'. That was posted in another area of the newswire. What you said is fine.

here is the communique
It's good writing, and isn't so different from other communiques, but it isn't addressing some things about the future. The image i'm picturing when reading that is of a pro-wrestling match where wrestlers from the two sides are taunting each other and displaying from the opposite sides of the ring, while the large audience is watching, but you know that in a few minutes some violence or fake violence is about to occur. http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/07/1752559.php

for culture, I don't mean there is a group of 'uneducated' people from a monoculture who need to learn a body of knowledge to become multicultural, whereas people from the Bronx or Oakland have this quality innately. Anyway, I think a lot of people in San Francisco's self-image of cultural awareness comes from eating out at restaurants - like they think they know thai culture and indian or ethiopian culture because they go to those restaurants and know all about the food, but they would feel like they don't know anything about Nigeria or american indian culture because of lack of restaurants. But actually people in an eastern Montana monoculture wouldn't have a lack of cultural understanding that californians would have, and AA has a number of races but they do have a common culture with a jargon, dress, customs. But what I mean is everyone wanting to eventually bring around the whole nation should peak in on all cultures - business republicans, evangelical people in exurbs, immigrants, democrats with subarus, floridians of various sorts etc.

Excellent and vicarious description. I could not make it out.

those fucking pigs beat me to a pulp and arrested me for doing nothing but being concerned with the welfare of their officer that was down. sheriff deputy lozano and officer lee started beating me as i was pushing my bike out of the way. i am 5'3 and fairly athletic and they needed 6 officers to hurt me before i was cuffed. they all perjured on the stand as well. fuck those violent criminals all to hell.