About the recent Berkeley protest:

[garote]

Kerry and I watched a live broadcast of it from some reporters standing in the midst of the protesters. It was a legit news channel though I forget which one. We heard the helicopters circling overhead, as our little house is only about a mile away from the Berkeley campus.

Comments

[geezer_also]

You defended the campus cops for taking a "hands off" position, and probably rightly so; as apparently few if any people were damaged.

The thing that supports *oportet's* first statement is the (up til now) fact that no arrests were made. I'm sorry, but with 150 people,
clearly identified by their dress, destroying pubic property; how can no one be arrested? ... This is along the lines that your average
middle-class blue collar worker thinks; which is why someone like Trump got elected in the first place.

[garote]

Having the cops break ranks and go charging into a peaceful protest in order to apprehend a few bad actors, is a tactic almost tailor-made to turn a standoff between peaceful protestors and police into a violent brawl. Not a good idea.

Sorry if The Average Middle-Class Blue Collar Trump Guy doesn't make that connection - I know, it takes some nuance - but I honestly don't think the Berkeley police department is going to risk a full-scale beatdown of their own community - destroying their own already tenuous goodwill - just because it would play well over social media to a bunch of rubberneckers.

But you know what would happen if that beatdown did occur. They would applaud and praise Jesus for it, and take it as a sign that they were right all along.

We're just gonna have to accept that these groups don't see eye to eye.

[geezer_also]

Sorry, there is no nuance involved, you destroy public property, you should be arrested. You destroy my business, you should arrested, on my way home from the protest I break your windows, I should be arrested. If illegal actions do not have consequences, they escalate.

"Sorry if The Average Middle-Class Blue Collar Trump Guy doesn't make that connection - I know, it takes some nuance"

I am afraid it is you who missed the nuance, the average middle class blue collar worker was not a Trump guy a year ago.

Ya know by the time we on the right get our act together to organize for violence, I'm afraid the left will have already
burned down everything really worth the effort, ya know "in order to save the university we had to destroy the university" (tic)

[garote]

You jaywalk, you should be arrested. You run a red light, you should be arrested. You establish a fake university that exists to defraud students - you should be arrested. You grope a beauty pageant contestant without her consent in a dressing room, you should be arrested.

We can throw the word "should" around for hours if you like. But it ain't gonna help matters.

"The right" is already well organized for violence. We've been seeing it for years. Last week five people were gunned down - and 19 others injured - in a mosque by one self-proclaimed member of "the right". That's a pretty high horse you're riding there, pardner!

[geezer_also]

That you would equate jaywalking with the wanton destruction of public and private property indicates we are not only not on the same page, but not even in the same book.

More seriously, I'm not sure how a right wing Quebecian is your best example of violence from the right in this country, but I may be missing something from my high horse.

I abhor violence by either side. I grew up in the projects, spent time in a war zone, and participated in on-campus protests in the 60s. I confess when they took the protests off campus, looking for confrontation, I chickened out.