MAY DAY RIOTS, 2012

Hmmm… With all the civil unrest on “May Day” – May 1, 2012, it’s a wonder that no innocent people were killed. Many people were seriously injured though, by rioters throwing rocks, bricks and pipes. It seems to me that if you are really, really, really, pissed about some real or imagined thing “society” has done to you, there might be better ways to deal with it other than trashing banks, smashing retail store windows and vandalizing vehicles parked at the curb. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, most police departments stand by, probably under orders not to do anything, unless they are getting attacked by the mob. In most cases, the so–called protestors outnumbered the police. However, the police did have batons, pepper spray, and they did have weapons. In the Seattle papers, and on various web news sources, there were photos of some of the rioters in San Francisco, and in downtown Seattle. Some of the photos showed four or five of the hooligans dressed in black, wearing masks, as they smashed windows. It is very important to note that the rioters in San Francisco wore similar clothing as that worn by the hooligans in Seattle. That is a hint of an organized event. They were “wearing their colors.” This was “organized crime” in the true sense of the term. One of the photo captions: "Protesters break windows on downtown businesses..." That prompted me to ask, shouldn’t that be “Black-clad looters and hooligans break windows on downtown businesses”...? Isn’t there a “looting law” in the states of Washington, or California? One that allows police or the National Guard to shoot looters? As a former retail store owner, I know that glass is VERY EXPENSIVE for commercial spaces. It irritates me that the looters and hooligans think that it is OK to smash windows on businesses and vehicles parked at the curb. It really irritates me to see that the S.F.P.D. and S.P.D. were virtually helpless and powerless to take any meaningful action. I do not mind people protesting something – peacefully – but not when it results in looting and hooliganism, resulting in smashed windows and valdalized vehicles... More likely than not, if this had happened in a major city in China, all of the window smashers would be dead, shot by the police. I can’t help but think that a .357 hollowpoint slug to the torso would have reduced the enthusiasm, just a tad, of each of the window smashing hooligans in San Francisco or Seattle.