This week:
1. Free the prisoners
2. Oscar Grant Riots
3. US military buildup in Latin America
4. The barefoot bandit is caught
5. Ode to Cha-Cha
6. Arresting video ninjas
It Takes a Village to Start a Riot
3 comments on this article so far ...
teafoe2 said on July 22nd, 2010 at 12:40pm #
As most realized back in the sixties, the main thing rioting, fires in ashcans, breaking windows etc achieves is to facilitate backlash.
What the people of Oakland need to do is take the Rosa Parks adjustment: organize a boycott of Bart until demands are met which will put an end to the arbitrary police violence.
First of course somebody has to organize massive community support for it, or it will fall flat.But once the Oakland Black public is solidly behind it, well organized orderly picket lines in front of all Bart stations would likely be respected by most members of all groups.
Nothing is guaranteed of course, but this approach has a lot more promise than fires in dumpsters.
subMedia said on July 22nd, 2010 at 12:43pm #
Heh! I’m not surprised that people keep spreading the misconception that Rosa Parks was a pacifist.
Check this:
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/01/23/03Most campaigns for change that work have both militant and above ground campaigns. This includes India’s independence and the civil rights struggle in the US.
teafoe2 said on July 22nd, 2010 at 1:41pm #
who said anything about Pacifism? As I have said before, Non-violence is a tactic; Armed Force is also a tactic; either may be appropriate to a particular situation or conjuncture. Consciously directed vandalism may also be an appropriate tactic in carefully selected situations, but more of the time, “spontaneous” vandalism is at best a waste of time & energy. Most of the time it plays right into the police state’s agenda.