3 Bank of Americas Attacked in Santa Cruz

There are boards over the windows at the Bank of America in Santa Cruz on River and Water.

b of a tried really hard to fuck over the workers in chicago.

i read that the attack on a B of A in olympia was in solidarity with the workers.

Maybe these were too.

What with the tremendous actions taking across the... uh... mid-northish area of the county...

Oh well, time to invest in shatterproof glass, I guess...

Remember not to bring too large a group along to these events.

good point.people being injured and killed by cops is too easily shrugged off by american types.police should nev er harm anyone

Story and photo here: http://phillyimc.org/en/philadelphia-solidarity-republic-windows-workers-0

Alright, but let's consider this:

Vandalism, while a classic means for dissenters, hardly targets the source of the issues you're claiming to combat. What results from something like this is that some poor guy now has to go out and clean up while the bank itself receives sympathy from those who may disagree with their practices but who view this particular brand of activism as reactionary and juvenile. If this is the best you can come up with, what really takes a hit is my hope for change.

Besides, how is it not entirely hypocritical to respond to people being killed by cops by taking violent action? You are doing your own cause a disservice by sinking to the level of the same breed of smuck you claim to despise.

Now if there had been a strike among window replacement workers at the same time of the window smashing, there might have been a more effective result...

my perspective is more that I don't strongly care about individual vandalism acts (I've lived in places coated by graffiti, and police reports in many areas list dozens of incidents of random mischievous vandalism, domestic abuse, stolen cars/bikes, that you never hear about). However, there is a pattern of petty vandalism with political communiques in Santa Cruz for the McDonald's security cam and various chain stores connected with a global issue, or gluing the locks shut at the polling site on election day. Each time a new one comes up, my stomach sort of turns because I think of the risk, and how easy it could be for them to get caught. Each incident could be totally different people, but I keep expecting them to be reckless and get caught on the 20th time (say by standing in front of a security camera or bringing along 7 people, some of whom brag), and then they'll charge them for all prior vandalism. But, not one has gotten caught, and they are good at not getting caught. Television police shows have taught me that police always catch their person during foot chases or that a high fraction of burglars and thieves are caught, but maybe they show all the unsolved crimes.

Many in Greece are shaking their fingers at the "rioters". Others see the tumult as a rightful response to what even the government is acknowledging is probably police manslaughter if not murder. And a hopeful sign for overthrowing a corrupt government busily balancing its budget on the backs of the poor.

Of course in the U.S. we're much more civilized and have more respect for our banks and law enforcement authorities. We realize that a patient trust in President Obama will lead to a quick withdrawal from Iraq, peace in Afghanistan, an end to the U.S. military's collateral murder of civilians in Pakistan, and nuclear disarmnament.

And locally the Santa Cruz City Council under Mayor Mathews and Vice-Mayor Rotkin will return with meaningful cuts in the six-figure salaries of real powerbrokers in the city like City-Manager-for-Life Dick Wilson, an end to the intrusive and obvious overpolicing downtown, taxes on real estate speculation and other forms of predatory wealth, and a transparent responsive government at last open to all.

All kidding aside, those who rage at violence against property have a responsibility to provide alternatives to those who are losing their homes, their health, and their liberties.

The Greeks have begun to fight back against the rioters, because they are angry at all the property damage...

The store owners and car owners... Why did they deserve to have their property destroyed?

Greece, a country where the government debt is 93% of the GDP, and now instead of being able to spend money on services, they have to spend it on rebuilding and funding the police.

The fact remains that these acts of vandalism never further a cause. If violence is the only way you can articulate your argument, you'd be doing the cause a favor by doing nothing at all.

Same thing here, I (like most) don't care what BofA did wrong, I now support BofA simply because they are now the victim to some self-righteous "freedom fighter" who thinks they can dictate how other people act through violence (isn't that what people here accuse the government of?).

It's funny how some people will applaud militant action overseas, yet when it happens here: everyone wrings their hands and come up with all kinds of lame petty excuses to discredit it. This is just another example of liberal first world privilege at it's worst; supporting revolution when it's at a distance and condemning it when it tries to manifest itself next door. I applaud the individuals who engaged in this action and hope to see these sorts of actions reproduces and generalized a thousand times over!

You say that people being upset or offended when someone vandalizes a business is " just another example of liberal first world privilege at it's worst".

I would disagree with you on that statement. IMO, the example of liberal first world privelige is some middle class white punk (probably like yourself and certainly like the individual(s) who did this in Santa Cruz) thinking they are radicals and making any significant change in the system because they vandalize a building.

It's a joke. Getting your ya-ya's off breaking glass, but congratulating yourself and justifying it because its "in support of comrades".

Revolting with much fury...is breaking a window in the dark, running away, and then bragging about it on Indy Bay? Talk about liberal first world privilege. Living it 24/7/365....then pretending your a radical because you break a window.

They have a word for your type: poseur.

To: Off by a mile.

First of all you are making some pretty bold assumptions about the people who carried out this action. Do you know these people? If not then why are you accusing them of being "white middle class punks?" What about the people smashing bank windows in solidarity with the Greeks in Madrid, Prague, Moscow, Istanbul, Berlin, and London (to name just a few) are they all just a bunch of poseurs to? Or what about the Greeks smashing bank windows, are they just a bunch of middle class punks also? The uprising in Greece has been a huge inspiration to Anarchists and Anti-Capitalists around the world, that is why so many people are taking to the streets to show the Greeks we support them not only in our words, but in our actions to.

Secondly know one has ever claimed that breaking a few bank windows is going to end capitalism, property destruction is just one tactic (out of many) that can be used to bring about social change. This critique of property destruction is just another lame attempt to side track and misrepresent the issue. If you are so concerned about being productive it's ironic that you would choose posting divisive comments on indymedia about other activists. That is some backwards logic

Lastly getting "upset or offended" about a bank being vandalized -- A bank which is currently (or was) trying to screw factory workers in Chicago out of severance pay, as well as having a long history of funding ecocide and vivisection (seems pretty offensive to me) -- is a very liberal mentality. It's upholding the concept of private property, privilege, and capitalism as something sacred that must be protected.

Its a basic statistic probabiliy as to who the offenders were, based on the income level and ethnicity of the community. I'll bank on it.

And this statement by you simply reinforces my belief and point: "What about the people smashing bank windows in solidarity with the Greeks in Madrid, Prague, Moscow, Istanbul, Berlin, and London (to name just a few) are they all just a bunch of poseurs to?"

My point being:They aren't in Madrid, Moscow, or Berlin. They're in Santa Cruz, CA. A wealthy, white, upper middle class town. A wealthy town in a wealthy state in a wealthy nation. And these "activists" are living the good life, enjoying all of the benefits that the town offers. But every once in a while, they put on their little black hoodies and Che Guevara underoors, and they go break a window. Then they run home, pull out their $1,500 laptop, and brag about it to the only population that will applaud their action rather than scold or be disgusted: IndyBay.

Poseur. Revel in it.

I'm glad to see actions like this one. Apparently the Nonviolent Gandhi Police are back on patrol, supporting the banks because they are the "victims". I think the most humorous part is that those deriding the action are upset because of the "message" it sends. I don't think activists are trying to convince you, the reader, that you should join their cause. They're causing damage to an institution they are at war with. Continue to belittle them, but know that no one cares. You've clearly chosen a side. If we listened to your rhetoric, we'd be going every four years to vote and hope that the next capitalist administration becomes more humanistic, environmentalist, and peaceful. Yes, you've really chosen a great target. Those darned radical youth with their Che shirts, long hair, and punk music. Maybe we should hold a candle light vigil for the bank windows.

Our anarchists only want anarchy when they're on the offensive. Once retaliation or offensive assaults begin, then they throw off their facemasks and scream for their constitutional rights.

people do get beat up, jailed, and killed by cops... you act like that's a novel idea. i feel like you don't get out much. it seems like you are really backing the establishment. from what i can gather, it's wrong for dissidents to destroy the sanctity of property because it is violent, but it's right for the cops to shoot at them (not violent?). maybe you should check your priorities.

The problem with this type of action is that now others feel emboldened to take their own actions. Some of these people don't have the same standards for what is "non violent property damage" as the people who did the banks in Santa Cruz or who are rioting in Greece. Now two cops are dead, plus a police chief is critically injured and one bank employee was injured when a bomb went off at a bank 30 miles south of Portland, Oregon on Friday. It is probable that the cops were caught off guard as first one suspicious package was found to be not a threat and then the real bomb was found in the bushes by an alert bank employee. For some reason the bomb was transported by a cop back inside the bank building before it went off. And this story did make the NBC nightly news.

This double bomb threat reminds me of the tactics used by terrorists in the middle east who set off one bomb and then when help arrives they set off a second bomb. Sickening.

For more info and discussion, see:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2008/12/383529.shtml?discuss

I think someone with a law enforcement background did the Oregon bombing. Disgruntled cops and military are very dangerous with all the knowledge they have. There is already an odd 'by the book' commentor on the local news web site that claims to have a LE background in that arena. Knows quite a lot about procedure, rigid personality...

Or maybe it is another disturbed rich kid. They make great terrorists. (Or leaders of superpowers.)

http://www.old-picture.com/american-history-1900-1930s/Attack-Street-Wall-1920.htm

They blamed that one on anarchists at first, then when they found out it was some rich guy's angry kid, he got 'treatment.'

I've no sympathy with Bank of America. Like (almost) every other major commercial corporation, it is institutionally incapable of and indifferent to the societal impact of it's actions - a corporation is a form of collective mental illness. They thoroughly screwed my wife over in a relatively short period of time (hundreds of dollars in fees of one sort or another). I do all my "banking" through the Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, a non-profit institution organized around a mandate for social responsibility and respect for the people it serves. To my knowledge, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, etc. has had a minimal impact on credit unions as a whole.

That said, Bank of America has done far more damage to itself (and unfortunately, the larger society as a whole), than a thousand "protesters" tossing rocks through windows every weekend ever could... the scale of the numbers here is breathtaking.

Tossing rocks through windows (or shooting them out with a pellet gun - interesting that that instance generated no comment of substance... how about $4,000 apiece in taxpayer dollars for four courthouse windows?) is faux activism - there's no real risk to it: if someone is arrested, there'll be no way to connect the person being arrested to anything more than a single act of vandalism. Most likely, a misdemeanor, a few days in jail (at most), and a fine (cost of replacing windows plus a few hundred bucks).

It avoids the real work of activism and politics, which is making a case for why commercial corporations are dangerous institutions, why the commercial banking system needs to be more heavily regulated (if it is permitted to exist), etc. etc. etc. Standing up and making your case to your fellow citizens, and persuading them of the merits of your arguments.

I totally do not like bringing that Portland suburban bank bombing up here, nor do I like that someone went to portland indymedia and posted about the Santa Cruz BoA window vandalism in the bomb commentary thread over there.
Think about it. While it is clear that these banks are the devil's workshop (e.g. millions of people in the U.S. will be foreclosed in their house and lose their jobs and their children will suffer due to their activities), so it isn't that sad that their window was broken - it makes no sense to think that a political activist would have set a bomb at a bank branch. It was probably a super angry, deranged guy who was wronged by them. There would be zero political advantage in hurting bank branch staff, as tellers are typically paid slightly above minimum wage and are entirely separate from decisionmakers. It was probably someone who hated one of the workers or lost his house.
But any ATF investigators would love the opportunity to justify surveillance of the local hippies, if 'chatter' on the internet seemed to back up this decision.

Black Mirror - I think you might be right.
This sounded like a sophisticated device that was rigged to go off in someone's hand, like on the TV show 24. If you think about it, they sent 19 yr old Austin (forgot last name) in San Diego to jail merely for letting someone link to a bomb instruction on someone else's website via his RaisetheFist website. So, it would be fair to say that few civilians understand complex bomb making, and this would take a specialist. Even the type of thing that ELF does is supposed to be flammable gas plus a spark. They sent Rod Coronado to jail merely for speaking about such concepts in public. In other words, it's not easy to share information about this stuff. People out in the country like to mess around with guns and other things in open fields. If anyone knew how to make something like this Portland device which would not accidentally go off in their hands, they probably had prior knowledge from Iraq, and also time to practice out in a farming area.

I think we're supposed to be getting back to primitive or real communism at some point. I don't have any problem with bank windows being broken per se, but basically it a manula worker type like me that has to come and clean up the mess first thing in the morning when I should have more important things to do. The same for graffitti. They just send a very pissed off laborer to paint over it at 7am. I'm also concerned that you will get caught and get a heavy handed sentence and a criminal record.

But back to the point. We're supposed to also be working on trying to develop some social praxis for the return to communism, but since everyone has failed to do that actions like these are getting advanced in the place of having any real theory and practice to get to where we want to go. I don't see how an action like this one or what happened in Greece really leads us anywhere except back to where we started, or jail, or worse.

Violent actions like these are exactly why the Santa Cruz Police Department should be the top budget priority. It is very unfortunate that there is not enough money for other community services, but the need for a large and well funded police department is apparent- especially in the wake of these actions.

The actions in Greece, which are continuing, of course really are important. You'd have to be some kind of real collaborator not to support them, but here there just isn't the momentum to sustain these kinds of actions as there is in Greece or else where in Europe.

In Greece, newspapers are reporting that there is a 70% unemployment rate among 18-25 yr olds. Places like that, or east germany, and parts of west asia or the old Soviet bloc have had high unemployment and it sets the stage for anger. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/14/greece-riots-youth-poverty-comment
It's pretty clear that California will reach that soon for youth, as some counties have 10% official unemployment, which doesn't include under-employed people who can only get 20 hours. Teens and people in their early 20s are rarely counted as unemployed because they can say they're students. The other group that goes uncounted are all the immigrants who do so much of the unappreciated work in our society, and also never get to take advantage of benefits like unemployment and disability payments.

There really is a debate about whether good are poor conditions for the working class are more advantageous for change. People like Chomsky point out that real gains tend to only come during prosperous times, such as when the college students in the 60s didn't have to worry about jobs so they could think about politics and philosophy. Maoists would point out change and many revolutions which occurred under economic pressure. The down side is that under these conditions, things can get torn down, but the badly formed institutions (such as the USSR) move in to replace them.

Why? Because they don't want someone to light their car or their store on fire?

Read the news, the Greeks have started attacking the protesters in some cases because they're fed up with all the property damage.

No disrespect intended, but you're using a lot of prediction and subjective opinion when you say that "It's pretty clear that California will reach that soon for youth" in regards to unemployment.

Greece reports 70% right now. CA reports about 8%. Go ahead and double that to include part-timers and bad data; we'd still only be at 16%.

...how can you say it's pretty clear were going to increase 4.5 times and reach 70%?

To me, it sounds like your using projective math and predicting the future reality and mood to justify an action that happened in the present.

Blessings

These issues hit my heart deeply as i have known the realm of marginalized poverty for 34 years as a single mother who never married, has mixed race children and lived on the land growing food, chopping wood, hauling water. I spent 4 months in jail for a Gandhian action against Seabrook Nuke in '82 after Noguns, who did her work for homeless and legalization for decades in Santa Cruz, told me about it. It is an insult to compare Gandhi to any cowards. Ignorance is no excuse for inaccuracy. Get your facts straight or better yet, talk to those who really know the depth of courage required to stand behind one's beliefs willing to die for them unarmed.

I have spent many years supporting traditional Dine (Navajo) at Big Mountain/Black Mesa resisting Peabody Coal Corp and their destructive, genocidal greed. Noguns told me about Big Mountain while i was in jail. Pauline Whitesinger, who speaks only her Dineh Bizaad, has been my life's greatest teacher. It was not about breaking windows, for hogans have none. It has been about living frontline life with deep pride and commitment along with the children, the parents, the elders, the sheep, the corn, the water, the trees. It is about ceremony intertwined with land and life. It is about the well being of all living things and the courage to stand behind defense of sacred land. So the struggle continues and where are the window breakers, i ask? Certainly not hauling water nor chopping wood on the frontlines.

What bothers me about all of this is that where the energy is most needed in the f-ing usa is under addressed. The damned cops have been infiltrating the street thugs since day one. From the WTO to Prague to Genoa to Olympia, the instigators of violence are well funded and happy campers cause too many are addicted to immediate gratification. This way is also white male dominated in amerikkka's realm of so called anti capitalism. The followers of Zerzan and Churchill are blinded by the adrenaline of crashing glass. Stupid. Really, look where the suffering is the greatest in this country, talk to the sufferers and act accordingly. I am so tired of people who act, yet won't own their actions. Since the WTO, people in Oly have been so taken with diversity of tactics. Read violence Churchill-Zerzan style. Read hit and run. Read white guys and the gals who seek their admiration. Time to grow up and take in the whole picture. We need communities of resistance as the Zapatistas so eloquently have called for. That includes ALL living humans and not just the cool youth. Too many are damaged by dominant society concepts of what is "in". I personally respect Rod Coronado and Kaytay Kamansuriek because they have the courage to own their actions, to really be willing to sacrifice majorly to live their beliefs. Gandhi and Pauline Whitesinger are among these heroes and sheroes.

I am willing to give my life for the coming generations in whatever manner deemed necessary by Pauline Whitesinger , Dine resistance leader (sheepdognationrocks and www. blackmesais.org), Romona Morales (the mother of murdered, raped and mutilated Sylvia Elena Morales in Jaurez), by marilyn james (reburied over 70 Sinaixt people in Slocan Valley of BC declared extinct by Canadian Gov., she left Colville rez to reclaim land in BC), Noguns who confronted rednecks at Texas Rainbow in '88 then was run over by one in his 4 x 4 nearly killing her, declaring as she lay on the ground, "no charges, no vengeance, total forgiveness" passed on July 31, 2008), grandmothers who know the course to take but continue to be ignored. Time for the elder Mothers to be heard. TIME TO END RAPE, ABUSE AND UNITE BEYOND ANYTHING EVER SEEN IN USA, MOST PRIVILEGED, APATHETIC AND DESTRUCTIVE NATION ON EARTH. IT IS TIME TO TAKE ON THE STRUGGLE WITH HEART.

The actions of those in Greece is beyond the reality of us window breakers. 70% unemployment among Greek youth is not what we have yet approached here. If there was a sensible movement, we would be massive, but it is tired and worn out. Tired and worn out. Try including all elements of the oppressed. ALL. Seems that too many are seeking a CSI thrill rather than solution.

BoA could give a shit about some broken windows. Really. Break some sod and plant some food for those who are starving. Feed the frontliners.

To scoff nonviolence is to scoff birthing mothers, nursing mothers, those of us who have continued mothering on the frontlines of life with our nursing young. We are the ignored and we carry chunks of how to get out of this mess, but we are among those with credentials in the form of callouses upon our hands and hearts. It is our time to be heard and heeded.

Noguns was a pivotal influence introducing me to radical, frontline mothering, performance art, simple living, support of Indigenous Hopi and Dine and nonviolence in the most creative, resistant form possible. May her memory be treasured.

In peaceful struggle,
swaneagle

oh, I don't think that youth will be 70% unemployed, but I definitely think it will be pretty high. For many reasons, they tend to be last hired. In high school, I did notice that students from upper-class families (who didn't really need the money) could land positions as waiters in nice restaurants, while poorer students who really needed to work might be at McDonald's. In other categories of jobs, working class adults (over age 25) will be preferred for all the landscaping and retail stocking jobs that traditionally may have gone to teens because older people often are more serious and reliable and can work during the day. All through the mid 90s there were fairly poor options for teenagers, as a hangover from the last recession.

Last night rocks were thrown into the Pacific Ocean. We did this because bank clerks now have to work in the dark owing to intransparent wood panels that were mounted in lieu of windows - which cannot remain without a response.

We chose the Pacific Ocean because of its exemplary demonstration of the laws of physics, in particular wave motion. Light also travels as waves and we thus consider waves to be at least partially responsible for the fact that light does not penetrate wood panels. Rather than all of physics (which worships reality over wishful thinking), we chose to stick it to fluid mechanics (which worships reality over wishful thinking). After all, it's physics. But we'll be back.

Scientists

Swaneagle,

I really appreciate your comments and the spirit in which they were made. I'm personally thrilled about the riots in Greece, and I see actions like the one in Santa Cruz as important messages of support to our comrades over there. I think it's good for people to have opportunities to lash out at the institutions of capitalism without having to prove the effectiveness of their actions. Not everyone who does that is well-funded or a happy camper. But you're right that a lot of those people (myself included) come from some degree of privilege and take it for granted. You're right that we'll need a lot of humility to move past that attitude. I'm committed to trying, though, and reading your comments has renewed that commitment for me.

What I'm wondering is, do you think there's a way for kids like me or like the window-breakers to connect with the elders without denying what we're about? To meet the gaze of other people on other frontlines (the wood-chopping, water-carrying frontlines), and find ways that we can support each other? That's what real diversity of tactics would mean to me. There's always going to be kids who want to riot, as long as this capitalist machine-world exists and makes us miserable. Can you imagine a way for us to still respect each other as multiple, different communities of resistance?

In solidarity,
A

For you brave warriors, would be to start vandalizing in the afternoons, preferably during business hours...

Say, I'm against the riots, where is the Indymedia office so I can throw some rocks through the window? After all, violence is a perfectly acceptable method of voicing my beliefs, right?

To that end, I'll also need the address of Greenpeace and PETA along with a slingshot and the location of a quarry...

This could be fun, I'm sure to make a real tangible difference via property destruction now!

..."What I'm wondering is, do you think there's a way for kids like me or like the window-breakers to connect with the elders without denying what we're about"

Odds are, they aren't quite dumb enough to believe that riots and vandalism make a difference.

The only thing that's going to change in Greece is a country that's already way beyond being out of money now gets to spend money rebuilding, and paying medical bills for cops.

It won't change anything an election wouldn't have changed.

And for something a bit more domestic, I would refer you to L.A and Washington D.C, two places that never recovered from their riots, especially Washington D.C.

If you want to make a difference, you'll have to convince people with a decent argument, a rock threw a window is only going to piss people off.

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." The brave rock throwers of Santa Cruz are proving Asimov's quote to be very accurate.

... but it's a step in the right direction.

I can't stomach people who insist that opposition to the mass murderers who run this society must be non-violent. The shame of the movement in the U.S. against the U.S. War on Vietnam was that, while several million Vietnamese died in Vietnam, either resisting U.S. aggression or just being there, only a handful of U.S. war resisters and, to the best of my knowledge, not one war criminal, died in the U.S.. In other words, we never did bring the war home.*

My one problem with the people who posted this item is that they make the same mistake that the Weather Underground made: they come across as self-aggrandizing. This turns off people who might otherwise be encouraged to follow, and perhaps magnify, their example.

* I'm not arguing that the deaths of more U.S. war resisters would have been a good thing. But the fact that there were so few such deaths is a reflection of the fact that we let the Vietnamese do all the dying while we pretty much kept ourselves safe even when that meant being relatively ineffective in impeding the war.

"... For many reasons, they tend to be last hired. In high school, I did notice that students from upper-class families (who didn't really need the money) could land positions as waiters in nice restaurants, while poorer students who really needed to work might be at McDonald's. In other categories of jobs, working class adults (over age 25) will be preferred for all the landscaping and retail stocking jobs that traditionally may have gone to teens because older people often are more serious and reliable and can work during the day. All through the mid 90s there were fairly poor options for teenagers, as a hangover from the last recession."

The reason young people are the last hired is because, in general, they have no experience doing real work. Having interviewed many young people for entry level jobs, I've found those who've never worked a job just don't understand what it means to be employed. For example, teens and young adults are oblivious to how chatting on your phone with your friends while on the clock looks; Then you finish your conversation and demand a raise.

Teens that are part of a work-study program are often great hires despite the lack of experience. At least they've had some instruction on the most basic expectations of an employer. I encourage any young person having a hard time holding down a job to take part in your school's work-study program or contact CalJobs to find out what programs they offer.

Good luck- there's a lot more to life than breaking windows.

Blessings A

I think that being of service to frontline Indigenous elders is an education in itself. To participate in living with those who so cared for these lands til invaders came and ruined it all in a matter of a few hundred years is rare and approaching outright extinction. Many of those who have gone to be on the land supporters at Big Mountain/Black Mesa are anarchists with differing views. The question is how willing are you to take direction from those who live daily resistance to the corporate-military genocidal machine? You can be yourself, but the help needed may not match what anyone else thinks. I learned more about human rights, ancient land based ways and awe inspiring humor infused courage at Big Mountain than anywhere else i have struggled. It is fasting disappearing as so many of the resisters i have worked with have passed on. Precious and harsh experiences await those who dare. check out http://www.blackmesais.org

I just wonder how much more inspired the Greek resisters would be by LONG TERM, POWERFUL, NONSTOP RESISTANCE BY AMERICAN ACTIVISTS? Just isn't happening on the scale it needs to. I hope we do that and live frontline communities by camping in the streets by the millions til the mess is cleaned up all over the planet. Life as usual is gone. I would like to see my children inspired to act. They are worn out by my life of struggle and i am old.

I appreciate your perspective.

Peace, swaneagole

Before those 'dis-affected youth' were done, 3,000 cars had gone up in smoke. Those were the vehicles belonging to ordinary people, who needed those cars to pick their kids up from school and to go to their jobs. They were not props for a giant temper tantrum. This is the wrong thing to do. There is no excuse for it. It will not help your cause. It will not generate ANY good publicity. Unless and until you have exhausted every legal and civil means of affecting change---which in the case of the youth in Greece who was killed by police--meaning a forensic analysis of the incident, a wrongful death lawsuit, or launch an independent investigation, then vandalism as a form of civil disobedience is neither justified nor wise.

The fact that the police officer in question was quickly charged and jailed would indicate that the authorities were taking action to punish clearly negligent behavior (if indeed he fired the gun at the ground and not the kid).

I was just in Greece this summer, and I thought it odd the police only had a gun and a pair of handcuffs on their belt... Say what you want about American cops, but I'd much rather get shot by a taser than by a gun.

Ultimately, riots turn away otherwise sympathetic people. Greece is a democracy, just like America -- bad things happen not because the system is unjust, but because people are apathetic. If we wanted change, we could vote it in, but most people live comfortable lives and can't be bothered to know more than what they might accidentally see on the cover of Time magazine while waiting to check out.

Over 300 people have been killed in the US by police using tasers since 2001. I do not feel we live in a democracy. It is an illusion enjoyed by the most privileged. Killings of the marginalized run into the hundreds if not thousands every year and such murders are rarely solved as more and more people enter the ignored realm of the truly marginalized. Slow motion genocide is what it happening to the disposable people.

It is my wish to see a widespread general strike where such corps like BoA are boycotted out of existence. We need to take to the streets and NOT leave til justice is instituted. Obama is more of the same, Bush lite with darker skin, sad to say. He keeps appointing corporatists. Big surprise considering coal and nuclear industries put him in office in the first place.

I believe we must ACT powerfully and with the greatest integrity. Trouble with marauders is that they answer to no one and innocents too often are nabbed. Can mass integrity be utilized to stand with utter courage for what is right ever be enacted? I am not afraid to die, but i do not wish to act alone as i have for so many years. Can people come together for the sake of the future and leave a magic memory that actually accomplishes true justice? If humans can go to the moon, why can we not get out of this mess with full tilt soul force?