Leave aside whether pelting people with eggs and water balloons, pushing them around, taking their stuff, and beating up on them, as described in this Washington Post report:
SAN JOSE, Calif. —Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in downtown San Jose spun out of control Thursday night when some demonstrators attacked the candidate’s supporters.
Protesters jumped on cars, pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, snatched signs and stole “Make America Great†hats off supporters’ heads before burning the hats and snapping selfies with the charred remains.
Several people were caught on camera punching Trump supporters. At least one attacker was arrested, according to CNN, although police did not release much information.
is legitimate protest or rioting. Here’s my question: is it effective persuasion? I think if anything it will persuade people who are sitting on the fence to do exactly the opposite of what the “protesters” presumably want.
I also think that if the police don’t start being a bit more pro-active at these rallies things will get much, much uglier very quickly.
If you need to beat your opponent over the head, are you winning or losing?
I know. We are all racists, homophobes, misogynists, blah, blah, blah.
Actually, I think it’s related to the birth-death ratio post. Too many people with too much frustration and time weighing heavily on their hands.
As a persuasive tool, this riot fails since the cops didn’t hand out participation prizes by baton. However, folks need to ask if the 1968 Chicago Riot was a factor in Humphrey’s defeat (along with Wallace splitting the vote).
George Wallace doesn’t exist in this timeline, moffett. You’ve slipped into an alternate reality again. In this timeline, all racists have voted only for Republicans since 1968, when Nixon officially joined the Klan.
The best part of the coverage was seeing reporters ask people who had had their heads bashed in, “What did you do to provoke them?” This is all orchestrated violence from the Offal Office to the community organizers on one side, and down thru another avenue to the lick-spittle media on the other. “You make sure your people beat the shit out of anyone that doesn’t want to eat the shit out of the President’s ass, and you guys make sure the headbashers look like the people being oppressed. Got it? Do as you’re told, or I’ll drone strike your daughter’s wedding, bitch.”
The country is run no fucking differently than Venezuela at this point. Not a goddamned bit of difference in the leadership.
Not a goddamned thing about the riots on the CNN page at the moment. They failed so utterly in the spin they’ve disappeared it down the memory hole from last night to this afternoon.
I wouldn’t be going to the weddings of anyone related to CNN people you know….
Seriously, they’ve got at least two stories up about Prince, one about fucking shark attacks (party like it’s the summer of 2001 again), even stories about JFK’s love letters to one of his mistresses. But the worst domestic political violence we’ve had in decades? Not a goddamned peep. Fucking pathetic.
You’re far too concerned about bourgeois truth, the dry recitation of facts. What’s really important is Revolutionary Truth.
[content redacted]
Don’t usually read OTB but I decided to give it a check. Yep, they’re ignoring the political violence from last night so that they can get their panties in a twist over something hypothetical. At least they’re not justifying the violence like the Mayor of San Jose is, but I’m sure they’ll get around to it. After all, if they need to bash skulls and kill people to save democracy from free and fair elections, by God they will!
About the only worthwhile thing left in the comments portion of OTB, ice, is the opportunity to fly by, rattle a cage, and watch the monkeys go berserk. Akin to pulling the wings off flys, I admit……….
This won’t matter, except for the racially paranoid but they’re not exactly on the fence. For every video of a Trump supporter being sucker-punched there’s going to be a video of a Trump supporter doing essentially the same to a peaceful protester. Here’s a example showing a couple Trump supporters casually pepper-spraying some protesters. Clinton’s a terrible candidate, but except in the minds of the loons she’s not really involved with any of this violence. Trump is. That’s part of his appeal.
That’s distressing, MM. I condemn that as much as I do the violence by the “protesters”.
Akin to pulling the wings off flys, I admit……….
Well, that makes you less sadistic than the nominal Democrat.
Did the Trump supporters deploy the pepper spray before or after the Democratic rioters started rioting? Was that before or after the peaceful Dems stormed the police barricade? Before or after they started burning American flags? Before or after they started chanting “Make California Mexico again”?
I call bullshit. The Dems have been openly encouraging violence against Republicans for the last 16 years. They openly prayed for someone to assassinate Bush. (Reynolds did so several times before someone, probably his agent, told him to take that shit down. Oh how I wish I had made screen caps!) Today every Dem opinion outlet (Vox, Salon, The Atlantic, CNN, etc) has been claiming that violence is okay, just as long as you’re a Dem and you really REALLY hate the other guy – especially if the other guy is white and straight.
Nothing is inexcusable, nothing is too extreme, if it is done to ensure single party rule of Democrats.
The only good Democrats are dead.
lol…That’s really the way it is with Trump supporters isn’t it? You’re just expressing your opinions about how the Mexicans and the left deserved to be pepper sprayed and the only good democrats are dead democrats and the PC police come down on you because you’re a straight white male.
In the good old days, political supporters raised a pole to show their support. In 1844, in Springfield, Illinois, Democrats erected a 150 foot polls in support of James K. Polk made of hickory after Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory. The Whigs erected a 214 1/2 foot pole of ash, in honor of Henry Clay, whose estate was Ashland. The Whigs’ pole was supported by twelve feet of sunken stone and timber.
Unfortunately, the derrick used to raise the Whig pole malfunctioned, and when a mason climbed it to free the line, it collapsed, crushing and killing him, and permanently injuring another. What was my point? Oh yes, politics is a tribal sport played by glorified monkeys. They need some healthy outlet for their pretend-warfare that engages some level of risk, but falls short of outright violence. Going back to erecting giant phallic symbols is possibly the only respectable way forward.
My Mom gave me some pepper spray when I was in college to use defensively should such a need ever happen. It was never deployed.
However, after seeing the mayham from protesters (goons) in San Diego & San Jose it seemed that violent behavior initiated by protestors created a counter measure of “violence” from people attending the rally. Bashing & rocking cars is thuggary. Climbing on vehicles as they are leaving a venue must be terrifying for drivers and passengers alike. Spitting on people, throwing rocks and eggs, burning attendee’s hats, hurtling racist’s insults – physically being disruptive rather than displaying a peaceful opposition. IMO, using pepper spray is about the most non-violent way to proactively protect oneself from such an unhinged crowd!
@jan
A PR-24 does wonders to get somebody’s mind right, but you do need to be trained on how to use it. A 4 D-cell aluminum maglite does nicely. The biggest issue is maintaining control of your weapon. Few people ever consider that the other guy/gal might take it, and then, you have another set of problems.
Most people only watch the news and see what happened at the end. They don’t know what happened before. For some reason burning hats got a lot more coverage than people getting pepper sprayed, and it doesn’t sound like the spraying was necessarily done in self defense. From a photographer who was there.
http://gawker.com/photographs-show-trump-supporters-pepper-spraying-prote-1780399845
“A similar Trump event in San Jose last night has drawn national attention (and considerable worry from the typically anti-violence left) for violent behavior on the part of Trump’s opponents. But these photos show that both sides are resorting to increasingly brazen acts of violence. Giannatti described the scene to me over email:
What happened was ALL Trump protestors were forced across the street from the San Diego Convention Center and NO protestors were allowed near it. There was a HUGE police presence. This segregation of pro-Trumpers and anti-Trumpers continued all day until the Trump rally ended in the Convention Center – THEN a huge contingent of Trump supporters (mostly younger males) made their way unencumbered by the SDPD over across the train tracks and towards downtown and began harassing the anti-Trumpers who had been there peacefully all day – and I mean aggressively challenging them to fights, cursing, etc. All with the cops standing mere feet away from them with their backs turned.
In my photo you see the aftermath to where some extremely passionate hispanic anti-Trumpers were defending their choice to protest Trump to the hating pro-Trumpers and were met by a sneak attack, completely acting in concert, spraying of pepper spray by the two guys in the pic. The pepper spray went everywhere – you cans see it’s direction bending in the shot by the strong winds that day – Several people, including myself, experienced an instant burning in our lungs an extreme burning to our eyes.”
Steve