Germans angry over 'orgy of violence' at Merkel's pre-election G20

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters




WORLD NEWS | Sun Jul 9, 2017 | 9:56am EDT

By Madeline Chambers | BERLIN

Germans expressed anger on Sunday over violence that hit a G20 world leaders' summit in Hamburg, raising awkward questions for Chancellor Angela Merkel less than three months before an election.

About 20,000 police struggled to contain several hundred anti-capitalist militants who torched cars, looted shops and hurled Molotov cocktails and stones during the July 7-8 summit. Tens of thousands more people demonstrated peacefully.

Overall, 476 officers suffered injuries ranging from cuts and firework burns to eye damage from laser pointers. Police said on Sunday they had arrested 186 people and took 225 into custody.

German newspapers devoted far more space to pictures of police firing water cannon onto hooded anarchists and other protestors than they did to Merkel's diplomatic balancing act with fellow leaders of major world economies.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-merkel-idUSKBN19U0MW

[pangaia]

1. THE MONEY FACTS--

a few hundred did the damage

Tens of thousands more people demonstrated peacefully.

[Not Ruth]

3. The 1% always gets noticed

[Roy Rolling]

2. Who would have known?

Left-wing anarchists are opposed to right-wing anarchists destroying governments first. No surprise here, just the other side of the same coin.

[FairWinds]

4. The US media did a terrible job of covering the peaceful protesters, as usual . .

German English language TV (Deutsche Welle) went right into the protesters camps
and asked them why they were there and what they believed.

I saw nothing like that on MSNBC (Rachel) - just pictures of the violence
from a distance. MSNBC appeared to not even have a reporter on the scene.

Bottom line - Deutche Welle attempts to practice journalism,
US TV does not.

[SergeStorms]

6. Main stream media.....

doesn't spend money on journalism anymore, it's not cost effective. They spend their money on advertising and providing "entertainment" for those watching. Peaceful demonstrations don't provide enough of a "hook" to keep viewers interested. Now WATER CANNONS, that's a different story.

The "news" media is nothing more than a business now. If it doesn't show a profit........more water cannons, and "get a shot of that dying baby over there".

This is what our country has become. If they could somehow manage to squeeze news stories into episodes of "Duck Dynasty", and "Honey Boo-Boo" our country might become better informed.

[EL34x4]

8. Nobody cares about peaceful protesters when cars are on fire.

Peaceful protesters, not good for ratings. Smashed storefronts and flames, great for ratings!

[Not Ruth]

5. Black bloc is pivoting to the center, will they lead The Resistance?

Showed up on FB.....

"For decades, liberal and progressives have sought to be the managers of social struggle, setting both the terms and conditions for action and ideas. Thus, they tried to push people out of the streets and back into politics. They said that rioting and blockades ‘alienated the middle class,’ only to see those very tactics grow in size and popularity. Then, as Trump ascended to power, they attempted to portray themselves as #TheResistance while gaslighting anyone that attempted to do exactly fight back.

Yet ironically, who came to the aid of liberals and progressives last weekend as militia members, Alt-Right trolls, and ‘Based Stickmen’ attempted to attack them at impeachment marches across the US? It wasn’t the Democratic Party, it wasn’t the non-profits, the socialist vanguards, or the heads of unions – it was the black bloc.

It is time for liberals and progressives to lose their illusions about the anarchist movement and our tactics, because quite frankly, you have no one else willing to fight for you.

Confrontational and disruptive social movements have been the only thing which have helped defeat some of Trump’s proposed policies, such as the Muslim Ban 1.0, and it is only mass disruptive action which has the only hope of putting a wrench in the gears of everything from the deportation machine to the drive to war.

Furthermore, it was the intense resistance that anarchists and antifascists engaged in after the election, at the Inauguration, and against the far-Right which made it harder for the regime to roll out the totality of their agenda, for fear of full scale revolt. Is there any doubt that it is the threat of mass upheaval in the wake of the passing of the American Health Care Act in the House that is holding it up in the Senate? Of course not.

So far however, #TheResistance has amounted instead to liberals and progressives mocking Trump supporters and sharing clickbait about the latest and more egregious aspects of the Trump administration. What is needed now is not a Left version of Alt-Right meme culture, but a strong and robust movement that reaches out to all sections of the working and poor people, regardless of race, geography, gender, or sexuality."

[Fiendish Thingy]

7. Nonviolent civil disobedience of Ghandi and MLK has a better track record

Than the violent disruptions of the Antifa and blac bloc crowd, at least when it comes to producing lasting change.