Saturday, November 18, 2006
G20: BARRY INVOLVED
Fun times at yesterday’s Victorian leftist demento-fest:
Violent anti-G20 protesters unleashed mayhem in Melbourne yesterday, rioting in the streets and attacking police as pedestrians fled in fear.
A hardcore mob wrecked police vehicles, smashing windows and panels with rubbish bins, bottles, rocks and steel signposts.
Police are braced for more clashes as the economic summit ends today.
State police commissioner Christine Nixon blamed anarchists from Europe (peaceful, civilised Europe?) and interstate. One of them—ominously—calls himself Barry:
An Arterial Bloc spokesman, calling himself Barry, said: “We wanted to make it clear that the streets are our streets. We wanted to show the world, united as a bloc, that we oppose the G20 and to show police we are not scared."
Protester Sam Quilty, 13, said at the rear of the Hyatt: “It’s big business taking over small family businesses which I don’t think is fair."
Sam wanted to say more, but it was nap time:
The Age’s superbly named Chantal Rumble reports:
A splinter group of hardcore protesters, their faces masked and wearing white anti-chemical suits, fought an afternoon-long series of guerilla skirmishes with police during yesterday’s anti-G20 demonstration.
They called themselves Arterial Block and by some reports left 30 police battered and bruised, one with a broken wrist. They attacked a police truck near Flinders Lane, pulled down barricades, assaulted a television journalist and graffitied the ANZ bank.
Korgmeister, who posts an excellent picture essay, happened to witness the truck incident:
During the attack on the truck, a blonde woman from the peaceful part of the protest was having a heated argument with a couple of the anarchists. I could not hear what she was saying, only the anarchists responding by accusing her of being patronising and that if they respect her right to protest peacefully, she should respect their right to protest violently.
Click for video of the attack, which wasn’t condemned by protest organisers:
A spokeswoman for the protest, Nicole Peach, said the violence was not representative of the majority of the crowd. However, she did not condemn the actions of the minority, saying it was an individual choice for people as to how they demonstrated.
"People feel very strongly and very passionately about the way this group of people, the G20, dictate the way the rest of the community lives in an unsustainable way,” Ms Peach said.
Try living under a 24/7 reign of idiot anarchists; it wouldn’t exactly be sustainable, Nicole. Nor would life under half-ant, half-human global reclaimers:
Among other protesters:
You’ll always find such folk at an anti-capitatalism protest. One television report last night featured a youthful activist explaining his mask as something required during the current era of police oppression. In fact, the masked are simply concealing the fact that they’re pasty white private school boys named Jeremy and Tarquin. Note the Palestine supporter at left, gamely protesting capitatalism while simultaneously winning the 2006 Run Like a Girl championship:
What a chin he has! Mugley captured a whole gallery of these losers, including the mandatory Crazy Old Man:
Also a neatly-dressed Bob Ellis:
And a water-wasting hosewad:
Lefty blogger randombrainwave wasn’t amused:
What is it with hippie protesters giving the left a bad name? Do they really think that dressing up in costumes and storming buildings where ordinary people are trying to do their jobs is going to achieve anything? They aren’t in charge. They are average people trying to earn a living.
Average people are as nothing compared to the protestorial might of big giant puppets:
Leftwrites.net inactivist Jeff Sparrow attended the protest, but didn’t notice anything amiss:
The Age reports clashes with police. If they took place, they weren’t anywhere near me.
In comments, Jeff notes that the main story was avoided:
The ‘violence’ seems a bit of a beatup, though I haven’t really seen the news footage yet. The more intersting point seems to me that the demo was significantly larger than might have been predicted.
I think Korgmeister may have photographed Jeff here:
