Inside the black bloc militant protest movement as it rises up against Trump

[brooklynite]

Los Angeles Times:

“I subscribe to self-defense in the very same sense that the Black Panther Party does and that Malcolm X does,” said a veteran Bay Area black bloc militant who spoke on the condition that he not be named because much of the group’s actions are illegal.

He described himself as an employed college graduate, the product of youth incarceration and a household where street respect — not pacifism — was preached.

“Which means for me to recognize one type of violence, which is people being beat up for having certain types of political views and being brazen about them, compared to the everyday violence ... like I go through the Bay Area and there are people sleeping in the doorways of million-dollar condos that are empty. ... Is that not violent?” he said. “That is the most cruel and violent thing I think I have ever seen.”

The UC Berkeley protest was a call to arms for him and others. For months, protesters on campuses across the country have sought to shut down Yiannopoulos’ provocative college shows, in which he ridicules transgender people, immigrants who are in the country illegally and others.

[TrekLuver]

1. The students should protest against the college for booking him in the first place.

[guillaumeb]

2. I am a pacifist, but state violence is a far bigger problem than

individual violence.

Recommended.

[yallerdawg]

3. There's a major difference in free speech and hate speech.

Some argue hate speech should have a right to speak its message, have a "bright light shining on it" so everyone is aware.

Sorry, but we are aware - hence, the protests!

[Mister Ed]

4. To hell with them. n/t

[jmg257]

5. I thought Reich said the 'black bloc' protesters at Berkely were secret Breitbart Right wingers?

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-guest-berkeley-rioters-were-actually-secret-right-wingers-affiliated-with-breitbart/

On CNN Thursday, UC Berkeley professor and former Democratic Secretary of Labor Robert Reich suggested the anti-Trump riots on campus were actually a right-wing plot to delegitimize liberals.

“I was there for part of last night, and I know what I saw and those people were not Berkeley students,” Reich said. “Those people were outside agitators. I have never seen them before.” “There’s rumors that they actually were right-wingers. They were a part of a kind of group that was organized and ready to create the kind of tumult and danger you saw that forced the police to cancel the event,” Reich insisted. “So Donald Trump, when he says Berkeley doesn’t respect free speech rights, that’s a complete distortion of the truth.”

“You think it’s a strategy by [Milo Yiannopoulos] or right-wingers?” asked host Don Lemon.

“I wouldn’t bet against it,” Reich said. “I saw these people. They all looked very– almost paramilitary. They were not from the campus. I don’t want to say factually, but I’ve heard there was some relationship here between these people and the right-wing movement that is affiliated with Breitbart News.”

[brooklynite]

6. "I wouldn't bet against it isn't certainty"

All he's saying is that they weren't Berkeley student.