Paint them in a good light instead of a brush
Posted on 01/23/2021 12:19:17 PM PST by Uncle Miltie
SEATTLE — The original rallying point for a protest that began Wednesday night in Seattle's Occidental Park was to support calls to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, but it transformed into what participants describe as a direct action event.
The protest resulted in the arrests of three people, several buildings tagged with graffiti and multiple shattered windows.
Sheena was one of those marchers participating in the Wednesday night protest.
“Direction action is beyond the picket signs in the streets," she said. "It's taking that a step further (and) it's willing to be confrontational, if needed.”
Sheena's has been participating for months in the direct action marches, along with others who all dress from head to toe in black and wear helmets so they are ready for a confrontation with counter protesters or law enforcement officers.
The group marches in a tight pack with the intent of staying within an arm’s length of each other for tactical reasons and protection.
“The reason people dress in black bloc is not to be scary,” she said. “If we are all (dressed) similar, then we are safer together. And people have legitimately had death threats made against them and threats against their family.”
Sheena said she has marched and demonstrated without black bloc during rallies for Black Lives Matter and Defunding SPD. There are several reasons why the participants are protesting, including because they are anti-Capitalism, want to defund police, support the Black Lives Matter movement and want immigration reform.
“Capitalism is not working,” she said.
But the direct marchers have gotten a reputation for the constant confrontations they have had with police along with the vandalism that follows their protests.
During Wednesday’s demonstration, the windows of Starbuck stores, Amazon Go shops and the federal courthouse in Seattle were vandalized.
There is no organizational leader for the march, and participants do so as individuals but take collective action as a group to make their point, which critics say usually ends in violence.
Sheena said they are disruptors.
“Sometimes you have to be willing to be uncomfortable and make others uncomfortable because that's where growth happens,” she said. "I don’t think you can be violent against a window.”
She said there is a deep distrust of the media among the group.
“It doesn’t matter what we do, we are going to be shown in a bad light,” she said. “You can't paint all Republicans and Democrats with the same brush, so you can't paint all activists with the same brush."
Sheena rejects the statement that she is participating in domestic terrorism.
“If you say everybody who does something that is perceived to be bad or makes me uncomfortable is a terrorist, I think people need to really need to take stock of why they think that,” she said.
What marks direct action marchers is their willingness to take the extra step that invites confrontation with police but it’s also the belief that it’s a necessary step to get their message across.
“I’m prepared to put my life on the line for black and brown bodies," she said.
What would Marxist snowflakes buried in student loan debt know about capitalism?
These sniveling little anti-capitalists are in for some exceedingly unpleasant experiences. [Chortle]
“Capitalism is ALL ABOUT WORKING“. Therefore it is not implemented here.
Paint them in a good light instead of a brush
Why don’t these people emigrate to China?
Crush like a Coke can.
These are the same people who rail against the evil of corporations, while sipping their latte in Starbucks (a corporation) wearing their black Nikes and clothing (made by corporations) sending their FaceBook (a corporation) links from an Apple iPhone (a corporation) over a Verizon (a corporation) network using hardware from Cisco (a corporation) and software from Microsoft (a corporation)
But then again, these are the same people decrying conservatives with their “Science is Real” signs, but refusing to recognize that XX cannot be XY, and vice versa, so...it is unrealistic to expect any consistency or logic from them.
Scum. All Scum. Every blasted one of them.
If capitalism isn’t working for you, you aren’t working hard or smart enough.
Well...it DOES matter what you do.
OJ Simpson was shown in a bad light because he nearly cut a woman's head off with a pocket knife. If he hadn't, he might still be leaping over rental cars.
Likewise, if you simply don't set things on fire, break windows and loot buildings, block traffic, or assault people and simply carry signs instead, you won't be shown in a bad light.
Unless you are a conservative.
Then it doesn't matter what you do.
That young woman probably didn’t know that Chairman Mao had green teeth, nauseating breath, and frequently had sexual relations with pre-pubescent girls.
She would have said "Yeah, but I'm sure it was all done in a nice way. I think he's swell."
I wonder if old Mao is giving political tips to his pal and boss Satan in that blazing hot condo down there. "Exploit the weaknesses such and kindness, trust and compassion as an entry point to destroying them ruthlessly."
Grr. It is astonishing to me that there are well known Americans, even American politicians, who idolize that monster.
Well, that's one way to put it.
Capitalism works fine for most and not so fine for some. It’s always been that way and always will. The better the decisions you make with your life then the better capitalism will work for you. The worse your decisions are then capitalism will tend to work against you.
Well, this IS, after all, FR.
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