Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 16:02:01 -0400
Subject: Bob Welch: Anarchists' stance ironic


I hope that many of you write a note to this columnist and fill him in
on what anarchism really means. You might also want to mention that we
are thinking about getting a thousand anarchists to go to Eugene next
year.

<< Chuck0 >>

June 22, 2000
Bob Welch: Anarchists' stance ironic
bwelch-AT-guardnet.com
Columnist, The Register-Guard

LIKE JUST-RELEASED POWs, they took turns Tuesday in front of the Lane
County Jail to talk about police brutality, about "ruthless" tactics,
about being served peanut butter sandwiches in their cells.

Anarchists and onlookers, they came to share their tales of woe in the
aftermath of a weekend confrontation between police and protesters that
led to 67 arrests.

But as I listened to story after story, I couldn't help but note a
certain irony: What they were describing was, well, anarchy:

Cops breaking the rules. Cops wreaking disorder and violence. Cops
victimizing innocent people for the sins of the masses.

Sound familiar? It's the stuff anarchy is made of: a disregard for
rules, a bent toward violence and a justification for victimizing
innocent people (such as store owners) for the sins of the masses
(corporate greed).

"Cops," protester Clayton Beverly told me after the news conference,
"are incapable of nonviolence."

Hmmm. This from a guy who described last year's anarchist-inspired riot
- a riot in which windows were smashed, rocks were thrown at police
officers and a motorist had a knife brandished in her face as a handful
of protesters pounded her car - as "petty vandalism."

This is what confounds me about the anarchy movement in general and last
weekend's confrontation in particular: hypocrisy that justifies the
anarchists' anything-goes attitude but suggests that others, including
cops, should have to play by the rules.

Which is it going to be? Rules or no rules?

To its credit, the movement is asking good questions about a society
that's hell-bent on materialism. To its discredit, the movement shows
little of the respect for others that it demands for itself.

DID THE COPS go too far? At times, yes, judging from the nine-minute
video I saw and the testimonies I heard. But this wasn't Chicago in '68
or Kent State two years later. This was Riot Response Lite.

This was angry young people in black bandanas screaming obscenities at
cops. This was fearful cops using bicycles to herd people off streets
that, legally, those people had no right to be parading through. This
was beanbag ammunition. This was some innocent bystanders getting swept
up in the chaos. This was some officers pushing harder than they should
have pushed.

Should the city investigate the police response and learn from the
mistakes? Sure. But let's not be naive. If you wreak havoc on a
community, as protesters did in June 1999 and, a year later, drop hints
of a "historic re-enactment" and "chaos days," don't be shocked to find
the police showing up for the reunion in riot gear.

People bent on bullying the world into submission - "You have to break
laws to make changes," one of those arrested, Carrie Dougherty, told me
- shouldn't be surprised when they get bullied back.

And, really, wasn't that the whole idea of "chaos days" - to draw cops
into a confrontation that would paint protesters as victims? A segment
of protesters dared the cops to cross a line, then cried foul once they
did. It's the street version of sibling rivalry.

"People need to be shocked to be made uncomfortable," Dougherty said.
"It might take a little window breaking and sabotage to wake people out
of their trances."

Gallant statements these - and yet, true to this anarchistic irony,
coming from someone who, in the next breath, complained about having to
endure peanut butter sandwiches and Muzak in her holding cell.

It's all a giant conspiracy, we're told, the totalitarian corporate
state trying to destroy "the movement."

Suddenly, Rob Thaxton isn't just a guy who broke the law by hitting a
police officer with a 4-pound rock; he's a "comrade" who was imprisoned
"to avenge the uprising in the streets."

Suddenly, the police aren't the police but "the fascist underbelly of
capitalism," out to avenge the 1999 incident.

"It is the job of the police to uphold capitalism," anarchist leader
Robin Terranova says. "It is the job of the police to rule with an iron
fist, to silence the movement."

No, it's the police's job to help keep our community safe - for
everyone, anarchists included. And, frankly, most officers probably
would have preferred a quiet evening at home rather than trying to
"silence the movement."

Eugene is one retaliatory incident away from confrontations like last
weekend's turning deadly; it nearly happened a year ago when an attacked
motorist retaliated.

Nobody wants that. But preventing such a tragedy begins with the
realization that most rules exist not to oppress us, but to protect us.

Unfortunately, from each other.

Bob Welch can be reached by phone at 338-2354 or by e-mail at
bwelch-AT-guardnet.com