Violence erupts in Georgetown
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Photo from Nikki Kahn and the Washington Post
The trendy Georgetown section of Washington, DC was rocked by vandals and Black Bloc thugs last night according to the Washington Post‘s “Violence Erupts at Protest in Georgetown”;
Wearing black shirts and covering their faces with bandannas, scores of sometimes unruly demonstrators marched through Georgetown last night to protest the international finance and development organizations meeting this weekend.
Despite the large contingent of officers on scooters and bicycles who flanked and followed the 200 to 300 protesters, violent incidents broke out. A woman bled after being struck in the face with what police said was a flying brick.
Trash cans were overturned in the rain-dampened streets, objects were thrown, and newspaper boxes were overturned. Two protesters were arrested in connection with an incident in which an officer was pushed from a scooter, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.
Many store windows were boarded up in anticipation of the demonstration, which targeted the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, but two unprotected windows were struck near Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. It was not clear whether they were broken.
In previous years, demonstrations had focused on the institutions’ headquarters just west of the White House. But Rusty Shakkleford, 18, said protesters went to Georgetown, in addition to the traditional sites, because it was where the delegates dined and stayed. “We’re just here to tell them the American people will not let them exploit the Third World community,” Shakkleford said.Â
Yeah, I’m pretty sure his name was Rusty Shakkleford – the nom de guerre of King of the Hill character Dale Gribble. And I guess by turning the DC neighborhood into a trash-strewn battle zone makes some kind of point. The working people who make Georgetown the attraction that it is are the ones who pay the price and do the cleaning. Who do these thugs think they’re hurting?Â
Washington Times’ Tom Knott did some background on their “philosophy” the other day;
Down with capitalism. Down with neoliberalism. Down with the wealthy exploiters of Georgetown and their sycophants who take from the poor and feast on the culinary delights of Nathan’s Restaurant.
The supporters of the so-called “October Rebellion,” designed to protest the actions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, convene at 9 tomorrow night at Washington Circle in Foggy Bottom before moving to the streets of Georgetown and letting the bourgeoisie pigs there know that the proletariat are wise to their human rights abuses.
If it were not for the greedy denizens of Georgetown, there would be no homeless people shuffling up and down Wisconsin Avenue. And these homeless people would not be talking to imaginary voices. Instead, these homeless people — at least a few of them anyway — would be living in the home of George Stephanopoulos and staging keg parties every weekend night.Â
I wonder how many of these peach-fuzzed children (who, by the way, aren’t brave enough to show their faces while they’re involved in criminal behavior) have even been to a third world coutry – or how many are willing to spend a few weeks in a third world country. Spoiled rich kids living in Mom’s basement. They use complicated problems as an excuse to destroy other people’s property like juvenile, immature little punk-ass sissies.
I’ve read stories in local news sources about Metro and transit cops chasing down thirteen-year-old girls and wrestling them to the ground and cuffing them for eating french fries on a subway platform – yet they can’t summon the courage to stop these little weasels? Believe me, no one is more pro-cop than me, but DC’s public safety administration officials are gutless, politically correct incompetents.
Since the Black Bloc punks got themselves all worked up, today’s protests at the World Bank building ought to be exciting today. I wonder how the new police chief will handle it.
If you thugs want to save third world countries, join the Army and join the fight for freedom. Or shut up.
This is what a struggle for freedom in a third world country looks like;
From the anti-Chavez demonstrations in Venezuela last Spring
Photo from Venezuela Llora
Where were you protesters when the chavistas were shooting down protesters in Caracas? Well, they don’t really care – these protests are just an excuse for the little punks to break stuff and assault working people.
The Sniper‘s Thus Spoke Ortner wrote about the impending protests on Thursday, and has the details of the “organization” of these punks and misfits. Michele Malkin has background on October Rebellion, the umbrella group for these retards and misfits. The local Fox 5 affiliate reports that one working woman was hit wth a brick last night.
Fox 5 reporter Roby Chavez is reporting that one woman who worked in a Georgetown-area store has been injured in the protests. A woman was hit in the head after a protester threw a brick through the window of an Abercrombie and Fitch store and a United Colors of Benetton store near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street.
 
Video of the Fox 5 report here. More video and dead-on commentary from The Jawa Report.
Griff Jenkins of Fox News Channel reports that they took his camera and smashed it. Sounds like it’s time to start policing these thugs ourselves since the cops can’t.Â
But hey, the little anarchists are “all about peace”. I bet their parents are so proud.
joining the army won’t do much for people in the third world, either — nor is that they only means by which we should allow protesters to speak up. even if all they have to offer is incoherent, or factually false, or idiotic anti-globalization mumbo-jumbo.
what would actually help people in the third world, however, would be if they understood and promoted free trade. unilateral, if need be.
Post Scriptum: “they” being our rich white, guilt-driven PC Georgetown kids, of course. Rebels without a cause – doing the wrong thing for the right reason. (Assuming the reason is ‘actually helping the 3rd World’ – which might be giving them too much credit, admittedly.)
I guess i am glad my mother and I left Thursday afternoon and missed all this “fun.”
Georgetown is an example of what can be done with neighborhoods. At one time, It had fallen into the dregs, and has since been lifted to its current kitschy status. yeah, you don’t NEED to go to Georgetown to shop and eat. But on a warm fall evening, you WANT to go there.
Too bad these brats spoiled some peoples fun for an obscure point that many of them I am sure have little to no understanding.
I don’t necessarily agree with all of the tactics of the BlackBlok, which are the individuals among the group of protesters who wear the black bandanas on their faces, but I don’t think it is helpful to take an equally immature stance by categorizing all of them as “spoiled rich kids living in mom’s basement.” Nor is it helpful, let alone, accurate, to call them “thugs.” Of course, as nearly everything in this world, there are exceptions. In other words, I’m sure some of them are spoiled rich kids who think it’s cool (or whatever their motivation is) to get involved with the excitement of a political demonstration. No doubt. That does not take away from their conviction that IMF/World Bank policies are adversely afffecting much of the developing World. Using that logic, I suppose anyone who is a spoiled rich kid is not allowed to have a political voice that disrupts the mainstream. That is ridiculous. As for the violence that occurred, it was a small group of the protesters who don’t realize that their petty destructive behavior doesn’t help their political position. In fact, their opponents and the fantastical media run wild with those kinds of isolated incidents and it works to discredit the larger message they were (are) attempting to convey to the public in the first place. The far majority of people in the worldwide movement against many IMF/Worldbank policies and exploitative corporatist development seek to create a real dialogue and draw attention to the well-documented, spread of economically inequitous, assymetrical relationships coordinated by the World Bank/IMF and many multi-national corporations. If you disagree with that notion, then, quite simply, you need to read more and educate yourself. As a DC resident, I am well aware that Georgetown is a very nice neighborhood. That is obvious. I wouldn’t say that it is the best planned neighborhood, given that they chose not to have a Metro stop during it’s major transformative years. That decison was unwise and makes the area an almost constant traffic disaster. It is a very expensive area. Only those with a very handsome… Read more »
To SW DC resident;
To your point that a minority “put an unfortunate veil of discredibility on the message they are trying to send” – the message they (and you) are trying to send gets lost in the mob. As far as educating myself; you might be somewhat aurprised. Just because I see value in the workings of the World Bank and the IMF, doesn’t mean I’m uneducated. It just means I’ve been around more than some. I haven’t always lived a comfortable, sheltered existence under my parent’s bank account like many. I’ve been to the third world (not just in books) and I’ve lived in the third world – in fact I’m going to a third world country in just a few weeks. It’s not the fault of the IMF and the World Bank that countries misuse the benfits of their services – no more than it’s my fault that Katrina victims misspent the government benefits they received after that tragedy.
Protest marches are useless exercises for the participants’ egos and nothing more. It’s what spoiled, rich kids to to convince themselves they’re making a difference, to assuage the guilt of being trust fund babies and never knowing a moment of real discomfort. To convince themselves and their peers they care.
Clogging the streets at M and Wisconsin only hurts the working people trying to earn a living working late on a Friday night. Who was the only person injured that night by the idiot with a brick? A working person.
I’m sure the organizers of the friday night march were happy to have the Black Bloc there to swell their puny ranks, but you’re judged by the company you keep – and if you keep company with thugs, you’re a thug, too.