Sunday, December 7, 2014

The Anarchists of Oakland

By Robert Wenzel


Pretty much everyday since the grand jury decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown, there have been protests in and around San Francisco, especially in the city of Oakland.

The turnout did dwindle, for awhile, from the size seen in the immediate nights surrounding the grand jury announcement, but it has intensified once again after an NYC grand jury failed to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner.

It is instructive to understand, who is taking part in these protests. The overwhelming majority are
generally outraged over the police killings. This group includes students from nearby colleges, aging hippies and assorted northern California lefties.

Protester arrested Saturday in San Francisco.

Student protesters in Berkeley, Saturday night.

However, there are two other groups that infiltrate these protests, who do not necessarily share the same outrage as the majority of protesters. One group can best be described as opportunists. They mix in with the crowd and appear to have identified in advance stores that they want to loot for the goods in them. They use the crowds as cover to get their dirty work done.

A recent target was a Smart & Final grocery store on Broadway in Oakland, where looters went for the large supply of liquor sold at the store.




Foot Locker, in Oakland, which has been a target in the past of these opportunists, was boarded up in advance of the protests and remains boarded up even during the day, with only the door cracked open during operating hours.


But in addition to these opportunists, there is another group that infiltrates the protests, anarchists.

These are not Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists, who see problems with governments, banksters and the ruling elite, but see no problem with corporations operating in the private sector (who are not part of the elite). These are full-fledged anarchists, who believe the entire structure of society must be torn down, including,corporations who operate in the private sector and have no strong ties to the government. 

A friend familiar with their thinking tells me that they believe that once the entire structure is torn down, out of the ashes, phoenix-like, a new wonderful society will emerge. Thus, they see their current role as being one of wreaking havoc to advance the collapse. And Oakland is a hotbed for these anarchists. Banks know they are a prime target for this group and prepare in advance.


The large healthcare operator Kaiser Permanente also knows it is a prime target and brings out the boards nightly:


Amazingly, The Oakland Tribune did not realize it was a target and has only now started to board up in haphazard fashion its broken windows :


Some stores and restaurants, having no strategic value to the opportunists or the anarchists, seem to stand alone unprotected and without fear:





Others try a tact different from boards:




But as long as the crowds come out to protest, the anarchists will continue to infiltrate and await opportunities to strike. They all carry masks and pull them on to their faces when they are ready to strike. They do their damage and then they slide back into the crowd.


Last night the action was in Berkeley instead of Oakland and the anarchists were there. CBS San Francisco reports:
Tear gas and smoke bombs scattered protesters during a march that started peacefully in Berkeley, Saturday night.
The skirmish with police began near Addison near Shattuck at about 6:30 p.m. as police and masked protesters faced off. the protesters broke windows along University Ave. near Martin Luther King Blvd., smashed bottles and spray painted graffiti. Others took hammers and smashed ATM machines, and overturned garbage dumpsters.
KCBS reporter Mark Seelig described it as a “mob scene.” He said employees at Trader Joes shut themselves inside the store in an effort to escape the violence... 
Once the violence broke out, the group splintered, and non-violent marchers retreated. Observing the damage, one protester told KCBS’s Seelig, “this is not what I signed up for.”... 
Vandals did shatter the windows at Radio Shack, Trader Joes, a wine shop and several other unlucky businesses along their path.
This was the fourth night of protests this week. Friday night, protesters blocked Interstate 880 in Oakland, disrupted BART service transit routes in San Francisco’s Castro District.
Similarly, those protests started out peaceful, but ended with several arrests after vandals and self-described anarchists began defacing property in downtown Oakland, later that night.


5 comments:

  1. Where's the Hells Angels security team when you need them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oathkeepers is providing security in Ferguson. The Feds decided to point sniper rifles at them while doing nothing to protect the businesses.

      http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2014/11/30/feds-enable-arsonists-target-oath-keepers-protecting-ferguson-businesses/

      Delete
  2. To have a successful revolution you usually need to kill lots of people and tell lots of lies. So liars and killers always end up running the revolution. And on we go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We should always be suspicious that some of these violence people are agent provocateurs.

    ReplyDelete