I'm afraid the violent black clad protesters are going to discourage peaceful leftist protesters

[pnwmom]

from attending rallies.

What happened in Berkeley today might be a sign of things to come -- the black clad people invading a peaceful demonstration and making it violent.

[Homeoutside]

1. I'm skeptical

Me thinks we need to find out who these people are. Weird that they wanted to gather journalists phones and cameras.

[jalan48]

2. Many of us from the 60's remember agent provocateurs causing violence at anti-war demonstrations.

The purpose was to discredit the marchers and their message in the eyes of the public.

[klook]

4. I've seen it up close

In an anti-Iraq invasion march a few years ago, some loudmouthed asshole kept yelling and acting bellogerent toward us, trying to get us to shove or hit him.

NOBODY engaged the agent provocateur. We all held ranks and just kept marching and chanting. The police did a good job of keeping things calm that day, too.

[L. Coyote]

7. Watch for the partner with the camera running during any provocations.

They are usually trying to get it on film. Take their photographs from various angles and up close, so they can be identified if needed.

[leftstreet]

9. +1

[VOX]

17. COINTELPRO is a real FBI thing.

It's not some paranoid idea. In fact, although the FBI "officially" closed the program in 1971, there's an understanding that many of COINTELPRO's infiltration techniques, etc., are now just effective tools used in the FBI's regular procedures.

COINTELPRO (a portmanteau derived from COunter INTELligence PROgram) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

[SweetieD]

3. Many of these alt-right types have said they would dress up as antifa and stir up violence.

I don't believe anything until I see an arrest and names.

[moondust]

5. Sometimes anarchists

join peaceful demonstrations and turn them ugly.

1999 Seattle WTO protests
.
.
.

May Day rallies turn violent as 'anarchists' in one city throw smoke bombs, police say

Police canceled the permit for the demonstration after "anarchists" began throwing projectiles and incendiary devices, and causing unsafe conditions for protesters, the police Twitter account said.

[L. Coyote]

6. That may be why the Republicans pay them to be violent.

[Not Ruth]

8. She talks about their goals

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9522750

[Lunabell]

10. Who are these people?

Are we sure they are lefties or right wingers trying to frame the left?

[Not Ruth]

11. Hard left, not hard liberal, against the American government

If you watch the video at the 27:30 mark, one talks about voting for Obama in 2008 but not 2012. They basically lump the establishment from both major parties together.

[Lunabell]

13. Ugh

Probably voted for stein in '16.

[grossproffit]

18. Bingo! Or they didn't vote at all.

[demosincebirth]

12. Those black clad protesters are anarchists. They'll always fuck up

a peaceful protest.

[pnwmom]

14. Or they're pretend anarchists. n/t

[Not Ruth]

15. An enthusiastic look back at the hard left of 1972

There are some that yearn for the days of revolution. Not everyone sees peace as good and violence as bad.

https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/

[JI7]

16. i think many of them purposely cause problems to hurt liberals

[obamanut2012]

19. Agent provocateurs -- and people fall for it every time

Including you.

They've done this same thing for decades and decades, and are notorious for doing it in SF and Seattle.

[pnwmom]

20. You misjudged me. Look at my post #14. n/t