Anti-WTO protest in Geneva turns violent

[47of74]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Violence erupted in the Swiss city of Geneva Saturday as a scheduled peaceful protest of a World Trade Organization conference turned violent and police had to use tear gas and rubber bullets.

Thirty-three arrests have been made and police were on the streets working to maintain order, authorities said. There was one minor injury reported: An 80-year-old woman in a walker suffered a head bruise when she fell during the tumult of the demonstrations.

The demonstration started around 2:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. ET) and about 3,000 people turned up in the central part of town, Geneva police spokesman Patrick Puhl told CNN. World Trade Organization ministers will hold a conference next week.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/28/switzerland.wto.violence/index.html

[bemildred]

1. Another police riot. nt

[Downwinder]

2. HAD to use tear gas and rubber bullets!! n/t

[boppers]

4. Torching cars is kind of uncool.

Doesn't exactly sound like orderly protest to me.

[bemildred]

6. That's it, swallow it whole.

Do the cops sound orderly, breaking heads and breaking up the peaceful protest? Would the cops lie? Would the News media repeat the lies? Oh heck no ...

[boppers]

7. Pictures.

http://www.examiner.com/x-23962-Staten-Island-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d28-WTO-Geneva-riot-photos

[boppers]

8. Video:

http://www.euronews.net/2009/11/28/geneva-ravaged-by-anti-capitalism-protestors/

[IsItJustMe]

10. You have to ignore the authoritarian types. They always swallow the BS.

[bemildred]

18. Well duh.

But hey, he's got pictures and video, must be true then. Could not possibly be agents provocateurs or police agents creating a pretext. All those protestors desperately want to get beaten up by the cops.

Anybody that remembers the protest movement from the sixties remembers the local FBI plants urging everybody else to go commit violent crimes.
:puke:

[boppers]

23. Switzerland: Not the US.

One take on it in the coverage I've seen was that the police intervened to protect the protest from black bloc who *wanted* chaos, but the police failed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_bloc

[bemildred]

35. I guess there is no fooling you, Switzerland is not the US.

The police intervened to protect the protesters from the evil "Black Bloc", but somehow they failed. One is just filled with sympathy for the incompetent police.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

27. Destroying property at demonstrations has a fairly long history in Europe

amongst anti-authoritarian groups. I realize a lot of people like to ignore that and blame everything on "agent provocateurs", but the idea that they're behind it all, or even most of the time is kind've ridiculous.

[bemildred]

34. Police riots and agents provocateurs also have a " fairly long history in Europe".

Even if there are a few assholes, it is up to the police to make proper distinctions.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

40. Black bloc is generally designed to manipulate the crowd and use them as cover for illegal acts.

Which is one of the reasons I quickly became disillusioned with it.

[bemildred]

41. Oh my goodness, you are disillusioned with "Black Bloc".

I gather they are evil people with nefarious intentions too.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

44. Using peaceful demonstrators as cover for violent acts thus putting them in a position to get beat

is pretty cowardly in my book.

[bemildred]

47. Yep. it sucks, the cops should not allow themselves to be used in that way. nt

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

50. Well, put yourself in their shoes. How do you prevent it?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

26. Okay, but there is typically a faction of anarchists hell bent on destroying property

at these events, and I see no reason to pretend otherwise.

[bemildred]

36. So what, political protest is still a legal and human right.

There is no government right to shut down or intimidate protests because of the misbehavior of some attention whores.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

38. Political protest is a legal and human right - within certain bounds.

[bemildred]

42. Everything has bounds, so what?

If some individual protestor remains within the "bounds" they should be left alone, right?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

45. Absolutely

which is the problem at these types of demonstrations. People who have no desire to remain within the prescribed bounds for social protest hide amongst those who do, and while they turn around and blame it all on the cops when things go sour, that's pretty disingenuous on their part, don't you think?

[bemildred]

48. Yep, bad people suck. nt

[notesdev]

12. When that happens

it's almost always the behavior of a planted agitator. Pay one guy, he gets away in the scuffle, cops get the green light to break some heads. This is a very old technique already.

[boppers]

13. 200+ disruptors reported out of 3-5,000 protestors..

I'm more likely to think it's just some assholes, not a plant, in the video I've seen so far there were a variety of folks caught vandalising on-camera, and any time you get together 3,000 people, you're going to have some who are way over the line.... looks like they arrested 14. More coverage here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/national_world&id=7143118

[notesdev]

15. I have a friend who was arrested in one of these

He had just been riding through on his bicycle, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and boom - bloody nose and a trip to jail (and who knows what happened to the bicycle, he never saw it again). It really doesn't take more than one person, unless the people at the protest are alert and prepared to deal with an agitator.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

29. 3-5,000 protestors? My God the attendance at these things has plummeted.

I really do think the violence that peaked at these demonstrations 8-10 years ago really ruined what could've been an amazing movement.

[boppers]

51. This was a pre-event protest.

Expect bigger crowds during the event.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

28. Disagree

While that has happened in some instances, the idea that it's "almost always" the case seems ridiculous. From my experiences, the main problem is people who are new to demonstrating and who have overly romanticized anarchist PR about "propaganda by deed".

[Blue_Tires]

11. at least they didn't use the high-tech toys

remember how giddy and orgasmic the police higher-ups were to see the Sound Cannon successfully tested against Americans in Pittsburgh?? it was sickening....

[demosincebirth]

3. I wonder if these guys ( peaceful protesters) take vacation or

sick leave every time the WTO meet?
:sarcasm:

[truedelphi]

5. Today the Powers that Be pound the protesters

And in the Tomorrow of the Future the only thing we'll have to eat is GMO crap.

[anonymous171]

9. The elites are scared, as usual.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

30. Not much to be scared of from 5,000 demonstrators. Anyone remember when this was a real movement?

[UndertheOcean]

14. Oh no , my friend is participating , hope she is ok. :(

[BlueMTexpat]

16. As someone who actually lives here, I can vouch that the Swiss police

generally behave circumspectly. When they do not, there are public inquiries and individuals are severely sanctioned if their behavior was unjustified. Having heard witness reports of this incident, while the agitators (paid or otherwise) were distinctly in the minority, their destructive behavior was WAY out of bounds. Whether the police reactions were overreactions or unjustified will be subject to an inquiry.
Unfortunately, innocent people do get caught in the middle. Also, unfortunately, WTO meetings are often the subjects of the most virulent protests, even when violence is expressly NOT the intention of the organizers of the demonstrations.

[Lagomorph]

17. Same thing happened in Seattle

There was a small group of Anarchists who wanted to do their thing. They set fires and looted. After the event, they posted pics on their websites and bragged about how they broke up the WTO talks. They were big on posing for the cameras with their masks and torches.

It's certainly deliberate and these guys are well traveled. It's their thing.

Aside from that, what I found interesting during Seattle was the fully restored, vintage VW micro-buses that showed up, driven by 60's hippie stereotypes. They were young people who had everything just right, the bumper stickers, the "right" clothes and the "right" hair. My impression was they were following a script. They went to the "right" events, dressed and acted the "right" way, said the "right" things and wore liberal amounts of Patchouli oil. They were too sharp, too perfect and too professional, with perfect hygiene, which set off all the usual alarms. Whatever they we're doing it wasn't spontaneous. It was like watching a live action Robert Crumb comic book.

[Kolesar]

19. Undercover police "joined" our antiwar groups in Ohio in 2003

Patchouli...lol
Thanks to you and BlueMTexPat for the information!

[bemildred]

20. Consider the possibility that the "anarchists" were fake, instigators doing a job. nt

[Lagomorph]

21. If they are, they're full time fakes

burning housing developments, cutting down radio antennas, sabotaging production facilities...

Trying say there is no organized, violent resistance to the Multinational Government and Corporate organizations is a pretty hard sell.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

31. Very unlikely in this instance

The small group of anarchists who got all the press had roots in Eugene, OR, were connected with other anarchist groups who believed them to be sincere (Crimethinc), and have been more than open about what they believe and what motivated them to destroy property. Crimethinc actually put out a documentary (or should I say propaganda film?) about them shortly afterwards. From all of the evidence, it doesn't look like they were paid or anything, they were just young, idealistic, and sought to bring tactics that were common in Europe at the time to the United States.

[bemildred]

37. You seem like a gullible fool to me.

But what could I know?

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

39. I guarentee I have a lot more experience with anarchism than you.

[bemildred]

43. Well it's true I'm no anarchist.

And I'm not here to defend anarchism.

On the other hand, I think the anarchism of some is no excuse for the abuse of anyone else.

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

46. I can definitely agree with that

[boppers]

22. I'd guess the perfect hippies were from Eugene, Oregon.

Oregon has some pockets where the 60's never left. It's kind of cool, actually.

[Ferret Annica]

25. Just don't go into North Eugene or the Bethel area

There are nasty conserva-nuties here as well, unfortunately.

Mike McCarthy, Oregon Peaceworks

[SeattleGirl]

49. Definitely. You ever go to the Saturday market during the summer?

Holy smokes, but it's like being time-warped back to the sixties. It's pretty entertaining.

[Overseas]

24. Even after the global meltdown, the WTO is still pushing countries to take on our Derivatives.

I didn't realize how important the WTO has been in pushing banking deregulation internationally. Even after the global financial meltdown, the WTO is still pushing countries to accept derivatives and other toxic assets.

Ecuador, for example, has been told that if it wants to export its bananas to the USA (its main customer) it will have to accept some of our Derivatives, or face tariffs on its bananas as a penalty for refusing to "liberalize" its financial system.

Lula's Brazil had the power to refuse to accept any of our toxic assets and their economy is doing much better than others.

Here are Mike Papantonio and Greg Palast discussing WTO 2009 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0z-RrG8xws&feature=related Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGTH-9yvb4E&feature=related Part 2

[mbperrin]

32. There was one minor injury reported: An 80-year-old woman in a walker suffered a head bruise

I guess she got out of control.

80 year old woman the only injury?

[Ter]

33. World Trade Organization is pure evil and want to rule the world

They should be protested.