Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler It's burning!!!

Ouch... that didn't go well.

I realize it's probably too late, but Craig I don't think Mojo wrote his initial post out of any feeling of superiority... we mostly avoid this kind of "piling on" by the professional protestors because we're too small and too cold to be interesting. On the rare occasion that something big happens here (eg the G-7 summit a few years ago) we have all the same problems.

TrevorM, my impression is that the protests themselves are regarded as reasonable and even necessary; the problem is that they get hijacked by smaller, more violent groups that are just looking for an excuse to riot and are happy to see the cities burn since they don't live there.

I don't believe the "80% of protestors are from out of state" stories but the arrest statistics (mostly white) suggest that the people starting fires and urging violence are not the same ones who initially gathered to protest.

Where it all gets blurry is that people who originally came out for a peaceful protest get caught up in the mob and become part of it even though that was the last thing they had in mind at the start. Mob psychology is pretty powerful, unfortunately.