On Saturday, about 50 assorted anarchists and others took their anti-cop message right to
the heart of conspicuous consumption in the Valley: Old Town Scottsdale. ----
http://vimeo.com/113246365 ---- Organized online by the group Wave of Action PHX, the
purpose of the demonstration was to express anger and outrage over the failure of a
Missouri grand jury to indict white Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson in the
shooting death of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown. ---- Dressed in black,
some wearing masks and waving red flags, the protesters startled oldsters and party
hard-iers alike with chants of "Fuck the Pigs," "Cops, pigs, murders" and "What do we
want? Darren Wilson. How do we want him? DEAD." ---- In response, as you will see in the
above video by Dennis Gilman, two morons emerged from the Wasted Grain bar near E. Stetson
Drive and Drinkwater Boulevard, after likely wasting some grain themselves, in order to do
battle with the demonstrators.
The ensuing melee ended with the two goofy white boys being collared for disorderly
conduct and assault by the Scottsdale cops, who rolled up en masse and read the crowd the
riot act. Literally.
The demonstrators then dispersed. The Scottsdale cops also arrested one protester, whom
they accuse of throwing the rock that busted a front window at the Trailside Galleries on
E. Scottsdale Mall.
Ironically, the guy arrested for allegedly breaking the window was the only
African-American present at the protest. Or so I'm told.
Local anarchist Beth Payne was at the demonstration on Saturday. She told me that she and
her colleagues were trying to shock the local citizenry out of its complacency and focus
concern on killings and brutality by Valley cops.
"There are protests going on all over the country because it's not just about Mike Brown,"
she told me during a phone interview. "It's not just about Darren Wilson. The problem is
pervasive everywhere and the outcome is always the same: The police officer is never held
accountable in the way that a citizen would be held accountable for the death of a person."
I asked her about the broken window. Did she think the destruction of property would be
held against those attending such demonstrations in the future?
"I personally never feel like I have the right to police someone's level of anger over the
death of other human beings," she explained. "People are going to act out that anger...and
I think there are very few things that justify more righteous anger than kids getting shot
down in the street."
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2014/12/michael_brown_darren_wilson_grand_jury.php
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