Olympic protesters smash department store windowsBy Anne M. PetersonPolice in riot gear confronted more than 200 masked protesters who hurled newspaper boxes through the display windows of a popular department store selling Olympic souvenirs.
Seven people were arrested after officers carrying clubs and shields quashed the downtown protest on the opening day of competition at the Vancouver Olympics. There were no immediate reports of injuries.And:
The protest was originally organized by the Olympic Resistance Network to "disturb 'business as usual'" in Vancouver. The ORN is an umbrella group for many causes surrounding the games, ranging from environmental to economic issues.
The most prominent involved native Indians who want to reclaim their property ("No Olympics on Stolen Ancient Land") and those angry over the amount of money spent on Olympics as opposed to public housing ("Homes Not Games").Comment: For more on the subject, see
Protesting Poverty at 2010 Olympics and
Olympics Organizers Diss Natives.
Shades of the Blackshirts. Reminds me of the "Battle in Seattle" when thugs opposed to people making their own economic decisions went on a violent rampage and also destroyed small businesses.
ReplyDeleteThe WTO, IMF and the World Bank directly prevent people from being able to make their own decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe city of Vancouver will be in debt for decades for hosting the Olympics. This will reduce social services for everyone.
The environment around Vancouver and Whistler has been damaged severely and in many cases irrevocably.
More than 80 of the 200 First Nations bands in BC *officially* oppose the Olympics in Vancouver. The opposition is *far* from being a fringe minority.
Vancouver has spent about 1 Billion dollars on militarizing and surveilling the city against its own residents. The surveillance systems will mostly stay in Vancouver after the Olympics, as will most of the "population control" toys they are leasing.
Transnational corporations are now far more powerful than governments and they are completely unaccountable to human beings. The modern Blackshirts wear corporate logos, not black bandanas.
"The WTO, IMF and the World Bank directly prevent people from being able to make their own decisions."
ReplyDeleteThe WTO specifically removes trade interference by governments, and leaves matters more up to those doing the trading.
"The city of Vancouver will be in debt for decades for hosting the Olympics. This will reduce social services for everyone."
And this problem is solved by destroying local business in an orgy of violence how?
"The modern Blackshirts wear corporate logos, not black bandanas."
I suppose, but the photos of the thugs in this news story don't show much detail.